capable of convincing Demonstrations Again Do but consider says he how unequal and unjust a condition it is that the claim of the present Church shall not be heard unless she can confute all the Peradventures that Wit may invent and solve all the Arguments which the infinite variety of time place and occasions may have given way unto and then you will see how unreasonable an Adversary he is who will not be content with any satisfaction but such as mans nature scarcely affords And is it not equally unjust in Mr. S. not to let Scripture's claim be heard unless we can confute every Peradventure and might it not be otherwise that Wit may invent See then how unreasonable an Adversary Mr. S. is who will not be content with any satisfaction but such as according to Mr. Rushworth mans nature scarcely affords Dr. Holden I confess states the matter somewhat cautiously when he tells us That it shall suffice for present to determine that the Wisdom of the Creator hath afforded us such an assurance especially of Truths necessary to Salvation as is sutable to our nature and best fitted for the safe conduct of our lives in Moral and Religious Affairs But if we interpret these general expressions by the passages I before cited out of Mr. Rushworth as in reason we may since the Doctor is beholding to him for the best part of his Book then nothing can make more against Mr. S's Principle § 5. Mr. Cressy in his Exomologesis says That such Teachers as approached nearest to the fountain of Truth Christ and his Apostles had means of informing themselves in Apostolical Tradition incomparably beyond us Mr. S. may do well to shew what those means were which are so incomparably beyond his Infallibility and Demonstration The same Author does very much applaud Stapleton's determination of the question concerning the Churches Infallibility which is as follows That the Church does not expect to be taught by God immediately by new Revelations but makes use of several means c. as being govern'd not by Apostles c. but by ordinary Pastors and Teachers That these Pastors in making use of these several means of Decision proceed not as the Apostles did with a peculiar infallible direction of the Holy Spirit but with a prudential collection not always necessary That to the Apostles who were the first Masters of Evangelical Faith and founders of the Church such an infallible certitude of means was necessary not so now to the Church c. If this be true That an infallible certitude of means is not now necessary to the Church and that her Pastors do now in deciding matters of Faith proceed only with a prudent collection not always necessary then it should seem that a searching Wit may maintain his ground of suspence even against their Church also with A Might it not be otherwise Again Mr. Cressy tells us That truth and our obligation to believe it is in an higher degree in Scripture than in the Decisions of the Church as Bellarmine acknowledges which is to say that we may have greater assurance of the truth of Doctrines contained in the Scriptures than we can have of any Doctrine from the determination of the Church But if we have the greatest assurance that can be of Truths deliver'd to us by the Church as Mr. S. affirms then I would fain learn of him what that greater degree of assurance is which Stapleton speaks of and whether it be greater than the greatest Not to insist upon that which yet I cannot but by the way take notice of that Mr. Cressy by his approbation of this determination of Bellarmine's doth advance the Scripture above the Church as to one of the most essential Properties of the Rule of Faith viz. the certainty of it But the most eminent Testimony to my purpose in Mr. Cressy is that famous passage which hath given so much offence to several of his own Church wherein he acknowledges the unfortunateness to him of the word Infallibility and tells us That he could find no such word in any Council That no necessity appear'd to him that either he or any other Protestant should ever have heard that word nam'd and much less press'd with so much earnestness as of late it has generally been in Disputations and Books of Controversie and that Mr. Chillingworth combats this word with too to great success insomuch that if this word were once forgotten or but laid by Mr. Chillingworth's Arguments would lose the greatest part of their strength and that if this word were confin'd to the Schools where it was bred there would be still no inconvenience And that since by manifest experience the English Protetestants think themselves so secure when they have leave to stand or fall by that word and in very deed have so much to say for themselves when they are pressed unnecessarily with it Since likewise it is a word capable of so high a sense that we cannot devise one more full and proper to attribute to God himself c. Since all this is so he thinks he cannot be blamed if such Reasons move him to wish that the Protestants may never be invited to combat the Authority of the Church under that Notion A very ingenuous acknowledgment and as cross to Mr. S's Principle as any thing can be But the word Infallibility was not so unfortunate to Mr. Cressy as is his untoward Explication of the fore-cited passage in his Appendix which he afterwards published chiefly by way of Vindication of himself against the Learned Author of the Preface to my Lord Falkland's Discourse of Infallibility There he tells us That there are several degrees of Infallibility And that we may know what degree of Infallibility he thinks necessary to be attributed to the Church this following passage will inform us Methinks says he if God have furnished his divine and supernatural Truth with evidence equal to this that the Sun will shine to morrow or that there will be a Spring and Harvest next year we are infinitely obliged to bless his Providence and justly condemned if we refuse to believe the least of such Truths as shewing less affection to save our souls than the dull Plow-men to sow their Corn who certainly have far less evidence for their Harvest than Catholiques for their Faith and yet they insist not peevishly upon every capricious Objection nor exact an infallible security of a plentiful reaping next Summer but notwithstanding all difficulties and contingencies proceed chearfully in their painful Husbandry So that according to this Discourse whatever degree of assurance the Church hath or can give to those who rely upon her it is plain that no further degree is necessary than what the Husbandman when he sows hath of a plentiful Harvest and that men are justly condemned if they refuse to believe the least truth upon such security which yet by his own acknowledgment is liable to Contingencies Nay further that men are
proof of this I appeal to that Decree of the Council of Trent in which they declare That because the Christian Faith and Discipline are contained in written Books and unwritten Traditions c. therefore they do receive and honour the Books of Scripture and also Traditions pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ with equal pious affection and reverence which I understand not how those do who set aside the Scripture and make Tradition the sole Rule of their Faith And consonantly to this Decree the general Doctrine of the Romish Church is that Scripture and Tradition make up the Rule of Faith So the Roman Catechism set forth by order of the Council of Trent says that the sum of the Doctrine delivered to the Faithful is contained in the Word of God which is distributed into Scripture and Tradition Bellarmine speaks to the same purpose That the Scripture is a Rule of Faith not an entire but partial one The entire Rule is the Word of God which is divided into two partial Rules Scripture and Tradition According to this the adequate Rule of Faith is the Word of God which is contained partly in Scripture and partly in the Tradition of the Church And that Scripture is look't upon by them as the principal Rule and primary foundation of their Faith and Tradition as only supplying the defects of Scripture as to some Doctrines and Rites not contained in Scripture must be evident to any one that hath been conversant in the chief of their controversial Divines Bellarmine where he gives the marks of a Divine Tradition speaks to this purpose That that which they call a Divine Tradition is such a Doctrine or Rite as is not found in Scripture but embraced by the whole Church and for that reason believed to have descended from the Apostles And he tells us further That the Apostles committed all to Writing which was commonly and publickly Preached and that all things are in Scripture which men are bound to know and believe explicitely But then he says that there were other things which the Apostles did not commonly and publickly teach and these they did not commit to Writing but delivered them only by word of mouth to the Prelates and Priests and perfect men of the Church And these are the Apostolical Traditions he speaks of Cardinal Perron says That the Scripture is the foundation of the Christian Doctrine either mediately or immediately And that the Authority of unwritten Tradition is founded in general on these sentences of the Apostle Hold the Traditions c. Again The things which thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit to faithful men c. And that the Authority of the Church to preserve and especially to declare these is founded in this Proposition viz. That the Church is the pillar and ground of Truth So that according to him the primary Rule of Faith is the Scripture in which the Authority of Tradition is founded Mr. Knott says expresly We acknowledg the H. Scripture to be a most perfect Rule for as much as a Writing can be a Rule we only deny that it excludes either Divine Tradition though it be unwritten or an external Judg to keep to propose to interpret it c. So that according to him Scripture is a perfect Rule only it does not exclude unwritten Tradition c. By which that he does not understand as Mr. S. does a concurrent Oral Tradition of all the same Doctrines which are contained in Scripture but other Doctrines not therein contained is plain from what he says elsewhere We do not distinguish Tradition from the written Word because Tradition is not written by any or in any Book or Writing but because it is not written in the Srripture or Bible Bellarmine also says the same And as for the interpreting of Scripture he tells us that this is not the office of a Rule but of a Judg. There is says he a great and plain distinction between a Judg and a Rule For as in a Kingdom the Judg hath his Rule to follow which are the received Laws and Customs which are not fit or able to declare and be Judges to themselves but that Office must belong to a living Judg So the Holy Scripture is and may be a Rule but cannot be a Judg. Here he makes the Scripture as much a Rule for matters of Faith as the Laws of the Land are for Civil matters And in his Reply to Mr. Chillingworth he hath a Chapter of above 150 Pages the Title whereof is Scripture is not the only Rule of Faith which had he with Mr. S. believed Oral Tradition to be the sole Rule of Faith had been as absurd as it would be to write a Book to prove that Turks are not the only Christians in the World Mr. Cressy likewise not very consistently to himself lays down this Conclusion The entire Rule of faith is contained not only in Scripture but likewise in unwritten Tradition § 2. Now all this is as contrary as can be to Mr. Rushworth's new Rule of Faith Therefore Mr. White says They speak ill who teach that some things are known in the Church from Scripture some by Tradition And Dr. Holden in opposition to those who make Scripture any part of the Rule of Faith advances one of the most wild and uncharitable Positions that ever I yet met withall viz. That if one should believe all the Articles of the Catholick Faith c. for this reason because he thought they were all expresly revealed in Scripture or implicitely contained so as they might be deduced from thence and would not have believed them had he not judged that they might be evinced from Scripture yet this man could be no true Catholick Because as he tells us afterwards we must receive the Christian Doctrine as coming to us by Tradition for only by this means excluding the Scriptures Christ hath appointed revealed Truths to be received and communicated In the mean time Cardinal Perron unless he altered his mind is in a sad case who believed the Authority of Tradition it self for this reason because it was founded in Scripture § 3. And this fundamental difference about the Rule of Faith between the generality of their Divines and Mr S's small party is fully acknowledged by the Traditionists themselves Dr. Holden says That their Divines who resolve Faith according to the common Opinion do inevitably fall into that shameful Circle of proving the Divine Authority of the Scripture by the Church and the Infallibility of the Church back again by the Scripture because they dare not build their Faith upon the natural evidence and certainty of Tradition So that Dr. Holden's way of resolving Faith is different from the common Opinion of their Divines which he says does not differ from the Opinion of those who resolve their Faith into the private Spirit and this according to Mr. White
Church and skipt into the Opinions of human Sects not of human Election as Mr. S. blindly following Mr. Wh. does most absurdly translate it but he that hath returned from his Errors and hearkned to the SCRIPTVRES and conformed his life to the Truth is as it were advanced from a Man to a God At the same rate he goes on for several Pages together taking the Scriptures for an indemonstrable Principle from which all Divine Doctrines are to be demonstrated and for the Criterion whereby they are to be tried and charges the Hereticks in such words as we cannot find fitter for our Adversaries As says he naughty Boys shut out their School-master so these drive the Prophecies out of the Church suspecting that they will chide and admonish them and they patch together abundance of falshoods and fictions that they may seem RATIONALLY not to admit the Scriptures Again speaking of these Hereticks affronting the Scriptures he tells us they oppose the Divine Tradition with human Doctrines by other Traditions delivered from hand to hand that they may establish a Sect or Heresie Again he says they adulterate the Truth and steal the Rule of Faith c. but for ORAL Frauds they shall have WRITTEN Punishments But enough of this whosoever desires to see more of it let him read on where these men to their shame have directed us and see whether any Protestant can speak more fully and plainly in this Controversy The whole trust of the Papists is upon the equivocal sense of the word Tradition Which word is commonly used by the Fathers to signify to us the Scriptures or Divine Tradition as Clement here calls it but the Papists understand it of their unwritten Tradition and to this they apply all those passages in the Fathers where Tradition is honourably mentioned So Mr. S. deals with us in the Testimonies I have already examined And there is nothing of argument in those few which remain but from the ambiguity of this Word which I need not shew of every one of them in particular for whosoever shall read them with this Key will find that they are of no force to conclude what he drives at § 5. As for his Citations out of the Council of Trent by which he would prove it to be the perswasion of their present Church that Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith I have already shewn that that Council hath declared otherwise and is otherwise understood by the chief of their own Writers And therefore he did prudently to conceal in an c. those choaking words in which the Council declares itself to receive and honour with equal pious affection and reverence the Books of Scripture and unwritten Traditions And after a great deal of shuffling what a pitiful Account is it that he at last gives of that Council's putting Scripture constantly before Tradition because Scripture being interpreted by Tradition is of the same Authority as if an Apostle or Evangelist were present and therefore no wonder they honour Scripture-Testimony so as to put it before Tradition which is to say that because Scripture is subordinate to Tradition and to be regulated by it therefore it deserves to be put before it Besides if Scripture and Tradition be but several wayes of conveying the Evangelical and Apostolical Doctrine why should he imagine an Evangelist or Apostle to be more present by the Scripture than by oral Tradition Especially if it be considered that he supposes Scripture to be an uncertain and Tradition an infallible way of conveying this Doctrine SECT II. § 1. ALL that now remains is to confirm the precedent Discourse by Testimonies of the most eminent Persons of the Church in several Ages in which I shall not need to be large being so happily prevented by that full Account which is given of the sense of the Ancients in this matter in the Answer to Labyrinthus Cantuariensis which Mr. S. may if he pleases consult for his further Conviction § 2 I begin with the Historical Account which Eusebius gives of committing the Gospel to writing which is to this purpose viz That the Romans were not content with the Doctrine Preached unless it were also committed to writing and therefore did earnestly beg of Mark Peter's Companion that he would leave them a Monument in writing of that Doctrine which had been deliver'd to them by word of mouth And this was the occasion of the writing of St. Mark 's Gospel And when Peter did understand that this Work was publish'd being suggested by the Divine Revelation of the Holy Spirit it is said he was very much pleased with the ready and earnest desire of those Persons and that by his Authority he confirmed this Writing to the end that it might be every where read in the Church As for St. Matthew and St. John he tells us That of all the Disciples they two only have left monuments in Writing of whom it is also reported that they betook themselves to write being drawn thereto by necessity Matthew after he had preached the Word of God to the Jews and was resolved to go to other Nations wrote his Gospel in the Language of his Countrey and thus by the diligence and pains of Writing did abundantly supply the the want of his presence to those whom he left And when Mark and Luke had published their Gospel it is reported that John who had always used to preach the Word without writing it being at length wrought upon by the same reason did betake himself to write From this account it is clear that the Apostles thought it necessary for the preservation and secure conveyance of the Christian Doctrine that it should be put into Writing and that they judged this a better way to supply the want of their presence than oral Tradition Therefore the same Author tells us That the Disciples who immediately succeeded the Apostles as they travelled to preach the Gospel to those who had not yet heard the Word of Faith did with great care also deliver to them the Writings of the Holy Evangelists Again That Ignatius as he travelled towards Rome where he was to suffer exhorted the Churches of every City to hold fast the Tradition of the Apostles which as also by Writing he testified for greater security he held necessary to be copied in Writing § 4. That the Hereticks of Old made the same pretence which the Papists make now of oral Tradition in opposition to Scripture the same Eusebius tells us and withal that Books are a sufficient confutation of this pretence Those says he who were of the Heresie of Artemon said that all their Fore-fathers and the Apostles themselves had received and taught the same things which they also did and had preserved the true Teaching unto the time of Victor Bishop of Rome whose Successor Zephyrinus corrupted it And this saith he would have great probability were it not first of all contradicted by the Scripture and next if there
he never hear of such a thing as the Scripture or is it so hard to find it But if he hath heard of it I intreat him to resolve me these Questions 1. Whether he doth not believe that the Books of the New Testament were written at such a time when the matters of fact therein recorded were capable of being throughly examined which he cannot deny upon his own principle for tradition being then infallible as to the doctrine of Christ the writers of these Books cannot be conceived to deliver it amiss unless they resolved to contradict the present tradition of the Church which if they had done those Books could never have found any reception among Christians If tradition then convey the doctrine of Christ infalilbly these Books must convey it infallibly because they contain in them the infallible tradition of the first age of the Christian Church and were written at the time when many persons living had been able to disprove any thing contained therein repugnant to truth And that these Books were written by those persons whose names they bear I appeal to Mr S's own rule Tradition for if that be infallible in any thing it must be in this and if one age could conspire to deceive another in a matter of such concernment what security can be had that it may not do so in all other things 2. Whether he believes that those whose intention was to write an account of the life actions and doctrine of Christ did leave any thing out of their Books which did relate to them as of concernment for us to believe For upon Mr. S's principles any one may easily know what the tradition of the Church is and especially such certainly who were either present themselves at the matters of fact or heard them from those who were and what satisfaction can any one desire greater than this But the question is whether this testimony were not more safely deposited in the Church to be conveyed by word of mouth than it could be by being committed to writing by such who were eye and ear witnesses of the actions and doctrine of Christ Upon which I advance some further Queries 3. If oral Tradition were the more certain way why was any thing written at all It may be Mr. S. will tell us for moral instructions and to give precepts of good life but then why may not these be as infallibly conveyed by tradition as doctrines of faith And why then were any matters of fact and points of faith inserted in the Books of the New Testament By which it certainly appears that the intention of writing them was to preserve them to posterity Let Mr. S. tell me whether it was consistent with the wisdom of men much less with the wisdom of an infinite Being to imploy men to do that which might be far better done another way and when it is done can give no satisfaction to the minds of men 4. Whether those things which are capable of being understood when they are spoken cease to be so when they are written For Mr. S. seems to understand those terms of a living voice and dead letters in a very strict and rigorous manner as though the sense were only quick when spoken and became buried in dead letters But Mr. S. seems with the sagacious Indian to admire how it is possible for dead letters and unsenc'd characters to express mens meanings as well as words I cannot enter into Mr. S's apprehension how 24 letters by their various disposition can express matters of faith And yet to increase the wonder he writes about matters of faith while he is proving that matters of faith cannot be conveyed by writing So that Mr. S's own writing is the best demonstration against himself and he confutes his own Sophistry with his fingers as Diogenes did Zeno's by his motion For doth Mr. S. hope to perswade men that tradition is a rule of faith by his Book or not if not to what purpose doth he write if he doth then it is to be hoped some matters of faith may be intelligibly conveyed by writing especially if Mr. S. doth it But by no means we are to believe that ever the Spirit of God can do it For whatever is written by men assisted by that is according to him but a heap of dead letters and insignificant characters when Mr. S. the mean while is full of sense and demonstration Happy man that can thus out-do infinite wisdom and write far beyond either Prophets or Apostles But if he will condescend so far as to allow that to inspired persons which he confidently believes of himself viz. that he can write a Book full of sense and that any ordinary capacity may apprehend the design of it our controversie is at an end for then matters of faith may be intelligibly and certainly conveyed to posterity by the Books of Scripture and if so there will be no need of any recourse to oral tradition 5. If the Books of Scripture did not certainly intelligibly convey all matters of faith what made them be received with so much veneration in the first ages of the Christian Church which were best able to judg of the truth of the matters contained in them and the usefulness of the Books themselves And therein we still find that appeals were made to them that they thought themselves concerned to vindicate them against all objections of Heathens and others and the resolution of faith was made into them and not tradition as I have already manifested and must not repeat 6. Whether it be in the least credible since the Books of Scripture were supposed to contain the doctrines of faith that every age of the Church should look on it self as obliged absolutely to believe the doctrine of the precedent by virtue of an oral-tradition For since they resolved their faith into the written Books how is it possible they should believe on the account of an oral tradition Although then the Apostles did deliver the doctrine of Christ to all their Disciples yet since the records of it were embraced in the Church men judged of the truth or falsehood of doctrines by the conveniency or repugnancy of them to what was contained in those Books By which we understand that the obligation to believe what was taught by the precedent age did not arise from the oral tradition of it but by the satisfaction of the present age that the doctrine delivered by it was the same with that contained in Scripture It is time now to return to Mr. S. who proceeds still to manifest this obligation in posterity to believe what was delivered as matter of faith by the precedent age of the Church but the force of all is the same still viz. that otherwise one age must conspire to deceive the next But the inconsequence of that I have fully shewed already unless he demonstrates it impossible for errors to come in any other way For if we reduce the substance of
Doctrine of Christ but what is descended to them by Tradition How shall this Principle secure the Church from Heresy any more than this viz. That nothing but Truth is to be assented to doth secure men from Error Or more than this viz. That no man is to do any thing but what is wise and vertuous does secure the generality of mankind from folly and vice SECT VIII § 1. SEcondly The Principles upon which this Demonstration relies are not sufficiently proved by him His first Principle is this That Age which holds her Faith delivered thus from the Apostles neither can it self have changed any thing in it nor know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles had changed or innovated any thing therein This Proposition he tells us needs no proof to evidence it but only an Explication For since no man can hold contrary to his knowledg or doubt of what he holds nor change or innovate in the case proposed without knowing he did so 't is a manifest impossibility a whole Age should fall into an absurdity so inconsistent with the nature of one single man But by his favour that which he says is no proof but only an Explication is a proof if it be any thing and the force of it this That which is inconsistent with the nature if one single man is manifestly impossible to a whole Age but it is inconsistent with the nature of any single man to hold contrary to his knowledg c. therefore impossible to a whole Age and consequently that Age which holds her Faith delivered thus from the Apostles neither can it self have changed any thing nor c. So that in order to the making good of this first Principle Mr. S. hath left nothing unproved but only this Proposition namely That it is impossible that any one single man that holds his Faith to have been delivered uninterruptedly from the Apostles should either himself have changed any thing in it or know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles hath changed or innovated any thing therein And to make out the truth of this Proposition there only remains this to be proved viz. That it is impossible for any single man to be mistaken For if that be possible then contrary to Mr. S. a man may hold that to have been delivered as a Doctrine of Faith from the Apostles which was not so delivered § 2. His second Principle is this That no Age could innovate any thing and withall deliver that very thing to posterity as received from Christ by continual Succession He proves it thus Since man is a rational Creature he must have some Reason or Motive good or bad which he proposeth to himself as an end to be achieved by his action And whatever his remote end is his immediate end in telling posterity a late invented thing was held immdiately before is to make them belive it Wherefore since a seen impossibility cannot be a Motive to one not frantick and since 't is evidently impossiible they should make posterity believe a thing so universally known to be false as this must needs be c. it is as impossiible this Principle should faulter as that the fore-going Age should conspire to act without a motive or that the succeeding Age should believe what they know to be otherwise that is should hold both sides of a Contradiction in a clear matter of Fact The force of which is this That it is impossible that any man not frantick should attempt to innovate in matter of Christian Doctrine because the immediate end of such an attempt must be to have his new Doctrine believed but it is impossible he should attain this end and impossible he should not see that it is impossible to attain it Now a seen impossibility is an end that cannot move any one that is not frantick therefore no man that is not frantick can attempt to innovate in matter of Christian Doctrine Thus he hath demonstrated it impossible that there should be any Hereticks if a Heretick be one that attempts to innovate in matter of Christian Doctrine For if there be any such attmpters they must be frantick and if they be frantick they can be no Hereticks for Heresie implies a Crime but God will not impute the actions of mad men to them as faults Again suppose he that attempts to innovate be mistaken and I hope Mr. S. will grant that a Heretick is fallible and think that which he delivers as Christs Doctrine to be really so though indeed it be not why should such a person think it impossible to make men believe that to be received from Christ which he really thinks was received and thinks he can makes it appear that it was so And if this be granted then it is not impossible that Man though he be a rational Creature may attempt to innovate And if so then his second Principle is not proved If Mr. S. had any regard to the noble Science of Controversie whereof he pretends to be so great a Master he would not bring such trifling Sophisms instead of demonstrative Proofs And nothing less than a demonstrative Proof will serve to establish any Principle upon which a Demonstration is to be built SECT IX § 1. DOctrines and Practises which must be acknowledged to have been innovated have made the same pretence to uninterrupted Tradition And of this I shall give several Instances one among the Jews the rest among Christians 1. I shall instance among the Traditionary Jews whose perswasion in our Saviours time was and still is that their Oral Doctrine which they call their Câ—bala hath descended to them from Moses uninterruptedly Now here is the existence of such a perswasion as Mr. S. affirms to be impossible without Traditions ever-indeficiency to beget it And this perswasion of theirs is most exactly parallel with the pretensions of the Romish Church according to Mr. S. For here 's a multitude of Traditionary Jews manifoldly greater in proportion to the Dissenters in that Church than the Romish Church is in comparison to those Christians that dissent from Her Josephus tells us That the richer sort were of the perswasion of the Sadduces but the multitude were on the Pharisees side So that the Pharisees had this mark of the true Church as Bellarmine calls it common to them with the Church of Rome that they were the greatest number and so they continue to this very day insomuch that although they do not call themselves the Catholicks yet I am sure they call all Jews that do dissent from them Schismaticks Now that the Sadduces were for the written Law against Oral Tradition is I confess no credit to us but that our Saviour reproved the Traditionary Doctrines and Practises of the Pharisees because by them they made void the written Law is much more to the discredit of the Assertors of Oral Tradition Both Romanists and Pharisees they own alike a written Doctrine but then they both pretend the true
all his Writings to say any thing to remove a present Objection though never so much to the prejudice of his main Hypothesis then which I do not know any quality in a Writer which doth more certainly betray the want either of judgment or of sincerity or of a good Cause § 7. And whereas he says That Irenaeus his testimony proves it to be no Tradition for he sets down the supposed words of our Saviour which plainly shews it is a story not a Tradition a Tradition being a sense delivered not in set words but setled in the Auditors hearts by hundreds of different expressions explicating the same meaning When I consider this passage of Mr. White I confess I cannot complement him and say as he makes his Nephew do in the Dialogue between them I cannot but applaud your Discourse it hath so pleasing and attractive a countenance And again I am not able to oppose what you say by any weighty Objection your Arguments being not only strong and nervous but of so comely and winning a complexion c. I cannot I say speak all this of his present Argument But I may deservedly apply to it the last part of his Nephew's Complement That it is an Argument so framed as if without any evidence of its consequence it would perswade men to believe it But to return an Answer to this passage It seems according to Mr. White that Irenaeus was mistaken in the very nature of Tradition and if so learned a Father was ignorant in the common Rule of Faith what can we to use Mr. S's words undertakingly promise to weaker heads Mr. S. instanceth in the Creed and Ten Commandments as the principal Traditions which Parents teach their Children but now Mr. White can shew plainly that these are no Traditions but Stories because Tradition is a sense delivered not in set words c. As if Christ and his Apostles could deliver no Doctrine unless they expressed the same thing an hundred several ways But suppose they did so which no man hath any reason to imagine because a thing may be expressed as plainly by one way as by an hundred can no man deliver this Tradition who speaks it in any one of those expressions If one should employ his Servant to carry a Message and because Mr. White thinks this necessary should settle the meaning of it in his heart by telling him the same thing in an hundred several expressions and the Servant should go and deliver this Message in one of those very expressions that his Master used to him and should say these were his Masters very words would not this be well enough No if he had come to such a Philosopher as Mr. White he would soon have given him to understand that he was not fit to bring a Message or to be credited in it who had so little wit as not to know that a Message is a thing not to be delivered in set-words And now I would entreat Mr. White to reconcile himself in this matter to his Friends Mr. Rushworth says 'T is impossible to put fully and beyond all quarrel the same sense in divers words Which if it be true I would fain know what certain course Mr. White can prescribe to explicate the same meaning by hundreds of different expressions and consequently how Tradition can be infallibly conveyed by setling the sense of it in the Auditors hearts by such variety of expressions Mr. Cressy likewise a zealous Assertor of Tradition does affirm That the Primitive Churches were even to excess scrupulous in maintaining the very phrases of Traditionary Doctrines which according to Mr. White plainly shews these Doctrines to be stories not Traditions because Tradition is a sense delivered not in set-words The same Author complains That few among their learnedst Masters of Controversie propose the Points to be disputed between them and the Protestants in the Language of the Church By which I suppose he does not mean that these Controvertists were to blame in that they did not settle the sense of these Points by hundreds of different expressions explicating the same meaning but that they did not keep to the words wherein the Church had in Councils or otherwise if there be any other way declared her sense of those Points Again he says That St. Paul referring to the Doctrine setled by Oral Instruction to shew the uniformity of it everywhere calls it a form of wholsom words From whence we may conclude either that St. Paul did not well to call the Traditionary Doctrine as Mr. Cressy says he does a form of words or else which is more probable that Mr. White is mistaken in saying That a Tradition is a sense not delivered in set-words Furthermore the same Mr. Cressy tells us That St. Augustine was careful not only to deliver Traditional Truths themselves but the terms also in which those Truths were conveyed to his Times But now Mr. White could have informed St. Augustin that this officious care of his was not only superfluous but pernicious to Tradition § 8. But to return to Justin's Testimony to which the summe of Mr. Whites answer is That Justin esteem'd it not as a point necessary to salvation but rather a piece of Learning higher than the common Since he both acknowledges other Catholicks held the contrary and entitles those of his perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right in all opinions that is wholly of his own mind It is not material to my purpose whether or no Justin look'd upon this as a point necessary to Salvation so long as it is evident that he looked upon it as a Divine Revelation and part of the Christian Doctrine And yet it seems he thought it a point of more than ordinary importance because he joins it with the Doctrine of the Resurrection and says that it was not disowned by any but those who also denied the Resurrection But whereas Mr. White says that Justin acknowledges other Catohlicks to have held the contrary I hope to make it evident from the scope and series of his Discourse that he acknowledges no such thing but that the plain design of his Discourse is to shew that this Doctrine was owned by all true Christians For when Trypho asks him Whether the Christians did indeed believe that Jerusalem should be re-built c. He returns him this answer I am not such a Wretch as to speak otherwise than I think I have told thee before that my self and many others as ye all know are of the mind that this will come to pass But that many indeed of those Christians who are not of the pure and pious perswasion do not own this I have intimated to thee That the negative particle though omitted in the Copy ought to be thus inserted will be clear to any one that considers what follows For after he had spoken of those who disown this Doctrine he immediately adds by way of further description of them that
the Faith by Scripture This says he is a great Triumph of our Faith to demonstrate our Opinions so strongly and to overthrow the contrary by Testimonies from Scripture And neither in this Epistle nor the other does he make any mention of Oral Tradition Next he cites that known place in Irenaeus But what if the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures ought we not to follow the Order of Tradition c. This makes clearly against him for it implies that now the Apostles have left us the Scriptures we ought to follow them The other passage he cites out of Irenaeus Lib. 1. c. 3. is a clear eviction that he did not consult the Book For he puts two sayings together which he had met with in Mr. White immediately one after the other and because Mr. White had cited Lib. 1. c. 3. for the first saying and brought in the other immediately upon it with an Et rursus Again c. Therefore Mr. S. who is of a right Traditionary temper which is to take things easily upon trust himself and require Demonstration from others concluded that these sayings were in the same place though in truth they are in several Books As for the Testimony it self there is nothing in it to Mr. S's purpose besides the word Tradition which Irenaeus does often apply to Scripture as well as Oral Tradition and there is nothing in this place to determine it to Oral Tradition His Testimonies out of Origen will do him less stead For every one that hath been conversant in the Writings of that Father knows what he means by the Churches Tradition preserved by order of Succession viz. The mystical Interpretations of Scripture which he says were delivered by the Apostles to the Governors of the Church and by them down from hand to hand If this be the Tradition Mr. S. contends for Origen is at his service if it be not I assure him he is not for his turn Next comes Tertullian concerning whom as also Origen the Papist upon occasion thinks it enough to reply in St. Hierom's words As for Tertullian I have nothing to say of him but that he is not a man of the Church Whatever he was these are his words If thou beest but a Christian believe what is traditum deliver'd And here 's nothing again but the word deliver'd which as I have said is indifferent to Written or Oral Tradition if the Circumstances do not determine it to one as here they do very unluckily for Mr. S. to the Scripture For he disputes here against Marcion who denied the Flesh of Christ and who to maintain that denied his Nativity and expunged the whole History of it out of the Gospel But saith Tertullian by what authority dost thou do this If thou be a Prophet foretell something If an Apostle preach publickly If Apostolical be of the Apostle's mind If no more but a Christian believe what is delivered And where delivered But in those Instruments or Books of the Gospel out of which as Tertullian immediately before tells us Marcion had made bold to expunge this Story As for his Testimonies out of Athanasius the two first of them prove nothing but that Faith comes down from our Ancestors or was by them delivered to us which no body denies Nor is there a word in either of them concerning oral in opposition to written Tradition The third Testimony is out of an Epistle to Epictetus to whom Athanasius writing concerning those who held Christ's Body to be Consubstantial with his Divinity tells him this was so gross a conceit that it needed no sollicitous confutation but that it would be a sufficient answer to say in general the Orthodox Church was not of that mind our Fathers did not think so From whence Mr. S. infers that Tradition is held by him a sole sufficient Rule of Faith and the only Answer to be given why we reject Points from Faith c. But if he had consulted the Book he would not have inferred that this was the only Answer to be given c. For it immediately follows But lest from our being wholly silent these Inventers of evil things should take occasion to be more impudent it will be good to recite a few passages out of Scripture c. And from thence he confutes them at large It was so gross an Error that he thought it might be sufficient without bringing particular arguments out of Scripture against it to say that it was contrary to the ancient Faith but yet lest they should if he had said no more have taken boldness from thence and thought that nothing more could be said against it therefore he confutes it from particular Texts of Scripture And what in his opinion was the sufficient Rule of Faith Mr. S. might have seen at the beginning of this Epistle from these words That Faith which was professed by the Fathers in that Council viz. the Nicene according to the Scriptures is to me sufficient c. It seems that Scripture was to him the Rule and Standard whereby to judg even the Creeds of General Councils Mr. S. says he will be shorter in the rest and so will I. For what is to be said to Testimonies brought at a venture when he that brings them had he read the Books themselves could not have had the face to have brought them Such is this out of Clem. Alezand As if one of a Man becomes a Beast like those infected with Circes poyson so he hath forfeited his being a Man of God and faithful to our Lord who spurns against Ecclesiastical Tradition and leaps into Opinions of human Election Mr. S. knows whose way of quoting this is to pick a bit out of the midst of a Text that sounds something towards his purpose and leave out the rest which would make it evident to be meant just contrary Yet I cannot charge this wholly upon Mr. S. whose implicit Faith were it not for his culpable Ignorance might excuse him But for his Seducer Mr. White how he can acquit himself of so foul an Imputation I leave it to any ingenuous Papist to judg when I have nakedly set the whole passage before him Clemens speaking of Hereticks who relinquish the Scripture or abuse it by wresting it to their lusts says Men who deal in matters of highest importance must needs commit great Errors if they do not take and hold the RVLE OF TRVTH from Truth it self For such men having once deviated from the right way do likewise err in most particulars probably because they have not the Faculty of distinguishing Truths and Falshoods perfectly exercised to choose what ought to be chosen For if they had this they would be ruled by the Divine SCRIPTVRES Therefore as if any of Mankind should become a Beast in such sort as those who were bewitched by Circe even so he hath lost his being a Man of God and abiding faithful to the Lord who hath spurned against the Tradition of the
sayes Neither ought I now to alledg the Nicene Council nor thou that of Arminium for neither am I bound to the Authority of the one nor thou of the other Let us both contest with the Authorities of Scripture which are Wtinesses common to us both And also against the Donatists in these words Let them if they can demonstrate their Church not by the Talk and Rumors or oral Tradition of the Africans not by the Councils of their own Bishops not by the Books of their Disputers not by deceitful Miracles c but by the prescript of the Law Prophets c. i. e. by all the Canonical Authorities of the Holy Books Hierom saith Of those things which without the Authorities and Testimonies of the Scripture men invent of their own heads as from Apostolical Tradition they are smitten with the Sword of God Theophilus Alexandr whom Hierom hath Translated calls Scripture more than once the Rule and the Testimonies of it the firm foundations of Doctrine And again saith It comes from a Demonical spirit that men follow the Sophisms of humane minds and think any thing Divine that wants the Authority of Scripture Theodoret charges all Heresies upon the not following of Scripture which he calls the inflexible Rule of Truth Again We have have learned the Rule of Opinions from the Divine Scripture After the Fathers I shall produce the Testimonies of two Eminent Persons of latter Times Gerson and Lyra. Gerson in his Book of the Tryal of Doctrines hath this remarkable passage In the Tryal of Doctrines that which is first and principally to be considered is Whether a Doctrine be conformable to the H. Scripture c. The reason of this is because the Scripture is deliver'd to us as a SVFFICIENT and INFALLIBLE RVLE for the Goverment of the whole Ecclesiastical Body and its Members to the end of the world So that it is such an Art such a Rule or Exemplar that any other Doctrine which is not conformable to it is to be renounc'd as Heretical or to be accounted suspicious or not at all appertaining to Religion Again It is evident how pernicious the rejection of the H. Scripture is and how certain a preparatory for the reception of Antichrist Once more What mischief what danger what confusion hath happen'd thorough contempt of the H. Scripture which sure is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ must have been an imperfect Law-giver let us ask Experience c. Lyra also writes thus As in Philosophy truth is discovered by reducing things to their first and self-evident Principles so in the Writings deliver'd by the H. Doctors Truth is discover'd as to matters of Faith by reducing them to the Canonical Scriptures Sir You know how easy it were to swell up a large Volume with Testimonies to this purpose especially if I should take the course that Mr. Wh. does to hale in quotations though never so impertinent or use the wretched importunity which Mr. S. does to perswade them to be pertinent But these Testimonies which I have nakedly set down leaving them to speak for themselves are enough to satisfie an unpassionate Reader such an one as dares trust himself with the use of his own eyes and reason As for that sort of men which chuses to follow noise rather than light we must be content to leave them to the blind conduct of those Guides who having no better means to keep their Followers to them go halloing in the dark and fill their ears with the insignificant sounds of Infallibility Indefectibility Self-evidence and Demonstration Concerning the Appendix wherein you are particularly challeng'd I hope for an Account very shortly and so take leave SIR Your Affectionate Friend JOHN TILLOTSON Lincolns-Inn Febr. 20. 1665. FINIS A REPLY TO M r. J. S. his 3 d APPENDIX Containing some Animadversions ON THE BOOK ENTITULED A RATIONAL ACCOUNT of the Grounds of Protestant Religion By Ed. Stillingfleet B. D. London Printed by H.C. for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard near the little North-door 1675. An Appendix to the Rule of Faith To his honoured Friend Mr. John Tillotson SIR AS soon as I understood your intentions to answer Mr. Serjeant I could not but rejoice on his behalf as well as on the truths and your own For I have that real kindness for him that I heartily wish him that reason and science he pretends to which I could not but despair of his attaining unless he were undeceived in that monstrous opinion he hath of himself and his undertakings And I knew no person more fit than you to let him understand the truth and himself together In which your performances have been so clear and satisfactory that I hope Mr. Sergeant in stead of another Letter of directions to his Answerer will write you one of thanks for the reason and kindness you have shewed him throughout your Book Unless it fares with you as it hath done with some other Adversaries of theirs that their civility hath been interpreted as an argument of their uncertainty and their own confidence cried up for a demonstration In which sense only I shall grant our Protestant Writers to build on uncertainties and Mr. White and Mr. Serjeant to be the great Demonstrators of this age If their own reason had been as severe as the censures at Rome against them they had saved us the labour of any answer and would have found out their own sophistry without a confutation But the least thing we can imagine by their excessive confidence is that they are deceived themselves and therefore it is a part of charity to them as well as justice to the truth to let the world see that big words are quite another thing from science and a strong presumption from a regular demonstration As to which no more need to have been said than what you have already done if Mr. Serjeant had not thought it an accession to the glory of his atchievements to lead two Pages of my Book in triumph after him I confess I was somewhat surprized to see a person who would be noted for his valour in assaulting Protestant Writers steal so behind the main bulk and design of my Book and when he had gotten two single Pages by themselves fall upon them with as much pomp and ostentation as if he had attack'd the whole And this must be noised abroad as an Answer to me by the same figure that his arguments are called demonstrations which is by an hyperbole unfit for any but such who never flag below the sphere of Science in their own judgments though they seem not to come near it in others Yet since Mr. Serjeant is not only pleased to concern himself so far as to answer that part of my Book relating to oral tradition but in most express terms to challenge me to reply to him he may now see assoon as I could get any
the help of tradition yet unless we be extreamly ungratful we cannot but acknowledg that God hath infinitely better provided for us in not leaving the grounds of our Religion to the meer breath of the people or the care of Mothers instructing their Children but hath given us the certain records of all the doctrines and motives of faith preserved inviolably from the first ages of the Church And when the Church saw with what care God had provided for the means of faith oral tradition was little minded thence the memory of those other things not recorded in Scripture is wholly lost all the care was imployed in searching preserving and delivering these sacred Books to posterity To these the primitive Church still appeals these they plead for against all adversaries defending their authority explaining their sense vindicating them from all corruptions Tradition they rely not on any further than as a testimony of the truth of these records or to clear the sense of them from the perverse interpretation of those Hereticks who pretended another kind of tradition than what was in Scripture And when these were silenced all the disputes that arose in the Church concerning matters of faith was about the sense of these Books as is evident by the proceedings in the case of Arius and Pelagius Wherein tradition was only used as a means to clear the sense of the Scriptures but not at all as that which the faith of all was to be resolved into But when any thing was pleaded from tradition for which there was no ground in Scripture it was rejected with the same ease it was offered and such persons were plainly told this was not the Churches way if they had plain Scripture with the concurrent sense of Antiquity they might produce it and rely upon it So that the whole use of tradition in the primitive Church besides attesting the Books was to shew the unreasonableness of imposing senses on Scripture against the universal sense of the Church from the Apostles times But as long as men were men it was not avoidable but they must fall into different apprehensions of the meaning of the Scripture according to their different judgments prejudices learning and education And since they had all this apprehension that the Scripture contained all doctrines of faith thence as men judged of the sense of it they differed in their apprehension concerning matters of faith And thence errors and mistakes might easily come into the Church without one age conspiring to deceive the next Nay if it be possible for men to rely on tradition without Scripture this may easily be done for by that means they make a new rule of faith not known to the primitive Church and consequently that very assertion is an error in which the former age did not conspire to deceive the next And if these things be possible M. S's demonstration fails him for hereby a reasonable account is given how errors may come into a Church without one age conspiring to deceive another Again let me enquire of Mr. S. whether men may not believe it in the power of the ruling part of the Church to oblige the whole to an assent to the definitions of it To speak plainer is it not possible for men to believe the Pope and Council infallible in their decrees And I hope the Jesuits as little as Mr. S. loves them or they him may be a sufficient evidence of more than the bare possibility of this If they may believe this doth it not necessarily follow that they are bound to believe whatever they declare to be matter of faith Supposing then that Transubstantiation Supremacy Invocation of Saints were but pâ—ivate opinions before but are now defined by Pope and Council these men cannot but look on themselves as much obliged to believe them as if they had been delivered as matters of faith in every age since the Apostles times Is it now repugnant to common sense that this opinion should be believed or entertained in the Church if not why may not this opinion be generally received if it be so doth it not unavoidably follow that the faith of men must alter according to the Churches definitions And thus private opinions may be believed as articles of faith and corrupt practices be established as laudable pieces of devotion and yet no one age of the Church conspire to deceive another Thus I hope Mr. S. may see how far it is from being a self-evident principle that no error can come into the Church unless one age conspire to deceive the next in a matter of fact evident in a manner to the whole world Which is so wild an apprehension that I believe the Jesuits cannot entertain themselves without smiles to see their domestick adversaries expose themselves to contempt with so much confidence Thus I come to the reason I gave why there is no reason to believe that this is the present sense of the Roman Church My words are For I see the Roman Church asserts that things may be de fide in one age which were not in another at least Popes and Councils challenge this and this is the common doctrine maintained there and others are looked on as no members of their Church who assert the contrary but as persons at least meritoriously if not actually excommunicate Where then shall I satisfie my self what the sense of your Church is as to this particular Must I believe a very few persons whom the rest disown as heretical and seditious or ought I not rather to take the judgment of the greatest and most approved persons of that Church And these disown any such doctrine but assert that the Church may determine things de fide which were not before In answer to this Mr. S. begs leave to distinguish the words de fide which may either mean Christian faith or points of faith taught by Christ and then he grants 't is non-sense to say they can be in one age and not in another Or de fide may mean obligatory to be believed In this latter sense none I think saith he denies things may be de fide in one age and not in another in the former sense none holds it Upon which very triumphantly he concludes What 's now become of your difficulty I believe you are in some wonderment and think I elude it rather then answer it I shall endeavour to unperplex you I must confess it a fault of humane nature to admire things which men understand not on which account I cannot free my self from some temptation to that he calls wonderment but I am presently cured of it when I endeavour to reduce his distinction to reason For instead of explaining his terms he should have shewed how any thing can be obligatory to be believed in any age of the Church which was no point of faith taught by Christ which notwithstanding his endeavour to unperplex me is a thing as yet I apprehend not because I understand no obligation
is the Measure according to which we judg whether a thing be true or false and this is either general or more particular Common notions and the acknowledged Principles of Reason are that general Rule according to which we judg whether a thing be true or false The particular Principles of every Science are the more particular Rules according to which we judg whether things in that Science be true or false So that the general notion of a Rule is that it is a measure by the agreement or disagreement to which we judg of all things of that kind to which it belongs § 4. Faith though both among sacred and prophane Writers it be used many times more generally for a perswasion or assent of the mind to any thing wrought in us by any kind of argument yet as it is a Term of Art used by Divines it signifies that particular kind of assent which is wrought in us by Testimony or Authority So that Divine Faith which we are now speaking of is an assent to a thing upon the testimony or authority of God or which is all one an assent to a truth upon Divine revelation § 5. A Rule of Faith is the Measure according to which we judg what matters we are to assent to as revealed to us by God and what not And more particularly the Rule of Christian faith is the Measure according to which we are to judg what we ought to assent to as the Doctrine revealed by Christ to the world and what not § 6. So that this Question What is the Rule of Christian faith supposeth a Doctrine revealed by Christ to the world and that that Doctrine was intelligibly and entirely delivered by Christ to his Apostles and sufficient confirmation given to it that this Doctrine was in the same manner published to the world by the Apostles who likewise gave sufficient evidence of the truth of it All this is necessarily supposed in the Question For it would be in vain to enquire whether this or that be the Rule of Christian Faith if such a thing as the Christian Faith were not first supposed When therefore we enquire what is the Rule of Christian Faith the meaning of that enquiry is by what way and means the knowledg of Christ's Doctrine is conveyed certainly down to us who live at the distance of so many Ages from the time of it's first delivery For this being known we have the Rule of Faith that is a measure by which we may judg what we are to assent to as the Doctrine of Christ and what not So that when any Question ariseth about any particular Proposition whether this be part of Christ's Doctrine we may be able by this Rule to resolve it SECT II. § 1. THe next thing to be considered is his resolution of this Question by which we shall know what his opinion is concerning the Rule of Faith for that being known the Controversie between us will easily be stated His opinion in general is that oral or practical Tradition in opposition to writing or any other way that can be assigned is the Rule of Faith By oral or practical Tradition he means a delivery down from hand to hand by words and a constant course of frequent and visible actions conformable to those words of the sense and faith of Forefathers § 2. Now that I may bring the Controversie between us to a clear state I am first to take a more particular view of his Opinion concerning the Rule of Faith that so I may the better understand how much he attributes to Oral Tradition and what to the Scriptures or written Tradition And then I am to lay down the Protestant Rule of Faith that so it may appear how far we agree and how far we differ The sum of what he attributes to Oral Tradition so far as can be collected out of so obscure and confused a Discourse may be reduced to these five Heads § 3. First That the Doctrine of Christian Religion was delivered by Christ to the Apostles and by them published to the World and that the Age which first received it from the Apostles delivered it as they received it without any change or corruption to their Children and they to theirs and so it went on solely by this way of Oral Tradition This is the sum of his Explication of Tradition Disc. 5 th § 4. Secondly That this way alone is not only sufficient to convey this Doctrine down to all Ages certainly and without any alteration but it is the only possible way that can be imagined of conveying down a Doctrine securely from one Age to another And this is the natural result of his Discourse about the Properties of a Rule of Faith For if the true Properties of a Rule of Faith do belong to Oral Tradition then it is a sufficient means and if those Properties do solely and essentially appertain to it and are incompatible to any thing else as he endeavours to prove then it is impossible there should be any other way § 5. Thirdly That it is impossible this means should fail or miss of its end that is the Doctrine of Christ being once put into this way of conveyance it can neither cease to descend nor be at any time corrupted or changed in its descent This is that which his Demonstrations pretend to prove § 6. Fourthly That the infallibility of Oral Tradition or the impossibility of its failing is a first and self evident principle This he frequently asserts throughout his Book § 7. Fifthly That this way of Oral Tradition hath de facto in all Ages been acknowledged by Christians as the only way and means whereby the Doctrine of Christianity hath been conveyed down to them And this is that which he attempts to prove from the Consent of Authority § 8. As for the Scriptures he grants them indeed to have been written by men divinely inspired and to contain a Divine Doctrine even the same which is delivered by Oral Tradition so he tells us 'T is certain the Apostles taught the same Doctrine they writ But then he denies it to be of any use without Oral Tradition because neither the letter nor sense of it can without that be ascertain'd so he saith in his Letter to Dr. Casaubon As for the Scriptures ascertaining their letter and sense which is done by Tradition 't is clear they are of incomparable value not only for the Divine Doctrine contained in them but also for many particular passages whose source or first attestation not being universal nor their nature much practical might possibly have been lost in their conveyance down by Tradition Where though he give the Scriptures very good words it is to be understood provided they will be subordinate and acknowledg that they owe their sense and their being intelligible and useful to Oral Tradition For if any man shall presume to say That this Book hath any certain sense without Oral Tradition or that God
enough for the perpetuating of Christian Religion in the world § 2. Secondly Nor do we say that that certainty and assurance which we have that these Books are the same that were written by the Apostles is a first and self-evident Principle but only that it is a truth capable of evidence sufficient and as much as we can have for a thing of that nature Mr. S. may if he please say that Traditions certainty is a first and self-evident Principle but then he that says this should take heed how he takes upon him to demonstrate it Aristole was so wise as never to demonstrate first Principles for which he gives this very good reason because they cannot be demonstrated And most prudent men are of opinion that a self-evident Principle of all things in the World should not be demonstrated because it needs not For to what purpose should a man write a Book to prove that which every man must assent to without any proof so soon as it is propounded to him I have always taken a self-evident Principle to be such a Proposition as having in it self sufficient evidence of its own truth and not needing to be made evident by any thing else If I be herein mistaken I desire Mr. S. to inform me better § 3. So that the true state of the Controversie between us is Whether Oral and Practical Tradition in opposition to Writing and Books be the only way and means whereby the Doctrine of Christ can with certainty and security be conveyed down to us who live at this distance from the age of Christ and his Apostles This He affirms and the Protestants deny not only that it is the sole means but that it is sufficient for the certain conveyance of this Doctrine and withall affirm that this Doctrine hath been conveyed down to us by the Books of holy Scripture as the proper measure and standard of our Religion But then they do not exclude Oral Tradition from being the means of conveying to us the certain knowledg of these Books Nor do they exclude the authentick Records of former Ages nor the constant teaching and practise of this Doctrine from being subordinate means and helps of conveying it from one age to another Nay so far are they from excluding these concurrent means that they suppose them always to have been used and to have been of great advantage for the propagating and explaining of this Doctrine so far as they have been truly subordinate to and regulated by these sacred Oracles the Holy Scriptures which they say do truly and fully contain that Doctrine which Christ delivered to his Apostles and they preached to the world To illustrate this by an instance suppose there were a Controversy now on foot how men might come to know what was the true Art of Logick which Aristotle taught his Scholars and some should be of opinion that the only way to know this would be by oral Tradition from his Scholars which we might easily understand by consulting those of the present age who learned it from those who received it from them who at last had it from Aristotle himself But others should think it the surest way to study his Organon a Book acknowledged by all his Scholars to have been written by himself and to contain that Doctrine which he taught them They who take this latter course suppose the authority of oral Tradition for the conveying to them the knowledg of this Book and do suppose this Doctrine to have been taught and practised in all Ages and a great many Books to have been written by way of Comment and explication of this Doctrine and that these have been good helps of promoting the knowledg of it And they may well enough suppose all this and yet be of opinion that the truest measure and standard of Aristotle's Doctrine is his own Book and that it would be a fond thing in any man by forcing an interpretation upon his Book either contrary to or very forreign and remote from the obvious sense of his words to go about to reconcile this Book with that method of disputing which is used by the professed Aristotelians of the present age and withal that scholastick Jargon which Mr. S. learn'd at Lisbon and has made him so great a man in the Science of Controversie as to enable him to demonstrate first and self-evident Principles a trick not to be learn'd out of Aristotle's Organon The Application is so easy that I need not make it THE RULE of FAITH PART II. Concerning the Properties of the Rule of Faith and whether they agree solely to Oral Tradition SECT I. § 1. HAving thus endeavoured to bring the Controversy between us to its clear and true state that so we might not quarrel in the dark and dispute about we know not what I come now to grapple more closely with his Book And the main foundations of his Discourse may be reduced to these three Heads First That the essential Properties of such a way and means as can with certainty and security convey down to us the Doctrine of Christ belong solely to Oral Tradition This he endeavors to prove in his five first Discourses Secondly That it is impossible that this way of Oral Tradition should fail And this he pretends to prove in his four last Discourses Thirdly That Oral Tradition hath been generallly reputed by Christians in all Ages the sole way and means of conveying down to them the Doctrine of Christ. And this he attempts to shew in his last Chapter which he calls The Consent of Authority to the substance of his foregoing Discourses If he make good these three things he hath acquitted himself well in his undertaking But whether he hath made them good or not is now to be examined § 2. First Whether the essential Properties of such a way and means as can with certainty and security convey down to us the knowledge of Christ's Doctrine belong solely to Oral Tradition The true way to measure the essential Properties of this or that means is by considering its sufficiency for its end For whatsoever is necessary to make any means sufficient for the obtaining of its end is to be reputed and essential Property of that Means and nothing else Now because the end we are speaking of is the conveyance of the knowledg of Christ's Doctrine to all those who are concerned to know it in such a manner as they may be sufficiently certain and secure that it hath received no change or corruption from what it was when it was first delivered From hence it appears that the means to this end must have these two Properties 1. It must be sufficiently plain and intelligible 2 ly It must be sufficiently certain to us that is such as we may be fully satisfied concerning it that it hath received no corruption or alteration If it have these two conditions it is sufficient for its end but if it want either of them it must necessarily fall short of
a guide appointed for any Christian which neither Christ nor his Apostles nor any of their Followers ever mentioned yea which formally destroys one of our twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed viz. I believe the Holy Catholick Church Thus he does by Reason clearly and infallibly evince that Reason cannot be otherwise than a most blind and fallible guide This it is to talk of things when a man looks only upon one side of them as if because Reason has a blind side and is uncertain in some things therefore we ought to conclude her universally blind and uncertain in every thing and as if because all men cannot think all things reasonable which any one man thinks to be so therefore it is to be doubted whether those common Principles of Reason be true which Mankind are generally agreed in And that Mr. Cressy speaks here of the use of our private Reason in the finding out of our Rule is clear from what he says in the next Section viz. That this hood-wink't guide enquiring into Scripture and searching after Tradition may possibly stumble upon the way to Vnity and Truth that is the true Catholick Church If this be true why does Mr. S. pretend that he can by Reason demonstrate the Infallibility of Tradition and by this hood-wink't guide lead men to the true Rule of Faith And what a pitiful encouragement would this be to an inquisitive Philosopher who knowing no other guide but his Reason whereby to find out whether Scripture or Tradition be the true Rule to tell him that by the help of this hood-wink't guide he might possibly stumble upon the right A man may justly stand amazed at the inconsistency of these mens Discourses and Principles In one mood they are all for Demonstration and for convincing men in the way of perfect Science which is the true Rule of Faith But then again when another fit takes them there 's no such thing as Science humane Reason grows all on the sudden dim-sighted and at the next word is struck stark blind and then the very utmost that it can do towards the bringing of an unprejudiced and inquisitive person to the true Rule of Faith is to leave him in a possibility of stumbling upon it but if he be a Heretick that makes use of private Reason for his guide then it is impossible but that he with his blind guide should fall into the Pit I cannot for my part imagine how they can reconcile the blindness of humane Reason with all that noise which they make about Science and Demonstration but this I must confess that these kind of Discourses which I meet with in Mr. S. and Mr. Cressy are very proper Arguments to perswade a man of the blindness of humane Reason And indeed there is one passage in Mr. Cressy which gives me very great satisfaction concerning these matters where he tells us That the Wit and Judgment of Catholicks is to renounce their own Judgment and depose their own Wit Now he that professes to have done this may write Contradictions and no body ought to challenge him for it However it is a very ingenuous acknowledgment that when he forsook our Church and turned Papist he laid aside his Judgment and Wit which is just such an heroick act of Judgment as if a man in a bravery to shew his liberty should sell himself for a slave I am glad to understand from an experienced Person what charges a man must be at when he turns Roman-Catholique namely that whoever will embrace that Religion must forfeit his Reason § 3. Secondly The way of Demonstration is according to Mr. S. no certain way to find out the Rule of Faith In his 4th Appendix against my Lord of Down one of the Eight Mines as he calls them which he lays to blow up my Lords Dissuasive against Popery is this That the method he takes in dissuading cannot be held in reason to have power to dissuade unless it be proper to that effect that is not common to that effect and a contrary one Now that being most evidently no method or way to such an effect which many follow and take yet arrive not at that effect 't is plain to common sense that my Lord of Down miscalls his Book A Dissuasive and that it can have in it no power of moving the understanding one way or other unless he can first vouch some particularity in the method he takes above what 's in others in which we experience miscarriage c. If this be true then his method of Demonstration is no way to make men certain of what he pretends to demonstrate because that is most evidently no way to an effect which many follow and take yet arrive not at that effect so that 't is plain to common sense that Mr. S's Demonstrations can have in them no power of moving the understanding one way or other unless he can vouch some particularity in the Demonstrations he pretends to bring above what is in other pretended Demonstrations in which we experience miscarriage Do not Thomas and Scotus as Mr. White tells us all along pretend to demonstrate and yet it is generally believed that at least where they contradict one another one of them failed in his Demonstrations Did not Mr. Charles Thynne pretend to have demonstrated that a man at one jump might leap from London to Rome and yet I do not think any one was ever satisfy'd with his Demonstration And Mr. S. knows one in the World whom I will not name because he hath since ingenuously acknowledged his Errour who thought he had demonstrated the Quadrature of the Circle and was so confident of it as to venture the reputation of his Demonstrations in Divinity upon it and some of those Divinity Demonstrations were the very same with Mr. S's Since therefore the World hath experienced so much miscarriage in the way of Demonstration before Mr. S's Demonstrations can be allowed to signifie any thing he must according to his own Law vouch some particularity in his way and method of Demonstration above what is in other mens He hath not any where that I remember told us what that particularity is wherein his way of Demonstration is above other mens Nor can I upon the most diligent search find any peculiar advantage that his Way has more than theirs above mentioned unless this be one that he pretends to demonstrate a self-evident Principle and herein I think he hath plainly the advantage of Mr. Charles Thynne and unless this may be counted another advantage that he has so extraordinary a confidence and conceit of his own Demonstrations and in this particular I must acknowledge that he clearly excels all that have gone before him In all other things his way of Demonstration is but like his neighbours SECT II. § 1. I Come now to examine his Demonstrations of this Self-evident Principle as he often calls it that Oral Tradition is a certain and infallible way of
reasonable to be supposed or no may easily be determined not only from every man 's own experience of the World but from a more advantagious Instance of the experience of the first Age of Christianity Was there ever a more knowing and diligent Teacher of this Doctrine than our Saviour and yet his Disciples fell into many mistakes concerning it So that in order to the certain propagating of it the wisdom of God thought it requisite to endue even those who had learned this Doctrine from himself with an infallible spirit by which they might be led into all Truth and secured from error and mistake which had been unnecessary had it been impossible for them to mistake this Doctrine The Apostles who taught the World by an infallible Spirit and with infinitely more advantage than ordinary Parents can teach their Children yet in all the Churches which they planted they found Christians very apt to mistake and pervert their Doctrine as appears by their frequent complaints in most of their Epistles Nay the Apostle chargeth the Generality of the Hebrews with such a degree of dulness and stupidity that after fitting time and means of instruction they were still ignorant of the very Principles of Christianity So he tells them That when for the time they ought to be Teachers of others they had need that one should teach them again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God And St. Hierom tells us That the Primitive Churches were tainted with many gross Errors whil'st the Apostles were alive and the blood of Christ yet warm in Judea But it may be there have been better Teachers since and Children are more apt to learn now than Men were then Who knows how the World may be changed § 2. Secondly This Demonstration supposeth the hopes and fears which Christian Religion applies to Mens minds to be certain and necessary causes of actual will in Men to adhere to the Doctrine of Christ and consequently that they must necessarily adhere to it That he supposeth them to be necessary I have his own word for it for he tells us That he hath endeavoured to demonstrate the indefectibleness of Tradition as the proper and necessary effect of those causes which preserve and continue Tradition on foot and what those causes are he told us before That they are Hopes and Fears strongly applied But I hope that the indefectibleness of Tradition cannot be a necessary effect of the strong application of those Hopes and Fears unless those Hopes and Fears be a necessary cause of that effect And indeed this is sufficiently implied in his saying that they are the causes of actual will in Christians to adhere to Tradition For if these causes of actual will be constant as he must suppose then they are certain and necessary and infallible causes of adhering to this Doctrine For whatever is in act is necessary while it is so and if it be constantly in act the effect is always necessary But what a wild Supposition is this That Moral Motives and Arguments working upon a free Principle the Will of Man do necessarily produce their Effect Is it necessary that the hopes of Heaven and the fears of Hell should keep Christians constant to the Doctrine of Christ and is it not as necessary that these arguments should prevail upon them to the practice of it It is in vain to go about to demonstrate that all men must be good who have sufficient arguments propounded to them when experience tells us the contrary Nay it is in reason impossible that Moral arguments should be of a necessary and infallible efficacy because they are always propounded to a free Agent who may choose whether he will yield to them or not Indeed it is always reasonable that men should yield to them and if they be reasonable they will but so long as they are free it can never be infallibly certain that they will And if men be not free it is no vertue at all in them to be wrought upon by these arguments For what vertue can it be in any man to entertain the Christian doctrine and adhere to it and live accordingly if he does all this necessarily that is whether he will or no and can no more choose whether he will do so or not than whether he will see the light when the Sun shines upon his open eyes or whether he will hear a sound when all the Bells in the Town are Ringing in his ears or to use Mr. S's own similitudes whether he will feel heat cold pain pleasure or any other material quality that affects his senses We see then how unreasonable his Suppositions are and yet without these Grounds his Demonstration falls For if it be possible that Christians may mistake or forget the Doctrine of Christ or any part of it or be defective in diligence to instruct others in it or if it be possible that the Will of man which is free may not be necessarily and infallibly swayed by the arguments of hope and fear then it is possible that Tradition may fail And is not this a good Demonstration which supports it self upon such Principles as do directly affront the constant experience and the clearest reason of Mankind § 3. And here I cannot but take notice how inconsistent he is to himself in laying the Grounds of Tradition's certainty In one Part of his Book he tells us That Tradition hath for its Basis the best Nature in the Vniverse that is Mans Not according to his Moral part defectible by reason of Original Corruption nor yet his Intellectuals darkly groping in the pursuit of Science c. But according to those Faculties in him perfectly and necessarily subject to the operations and strokes of Nature that is his Eyes Ears Handling and the direct impressions of knowledg as naturally and necessarily issuing from the affecting those senses as it is to feel heat cold pain pleasure or any other material quality So that according to this Discourse the Basis of Tradition is not Mans Nature considered as Moral and capable of Intellectual Reflection for in this consideration it is dark and defectible But Mans Nature considered only as capable of direct sensitive knowledg and as acting naturally and necessarily Which is to say That Tradition is foundded in the Nature of Man considered not as a Man but a Brute under which consideration I see no reason why he should call it the best Nature in the Vniverse But now how will he reconcile this Discourse with the Grounds of his Demonstration where he tells us That the stability of Tradition is founded in the Arguments of Hope and Fear the Objects of which being future and at a distance cannot work upon a man immediately by direct Impressions upon his senses but must work upon him by way of Intellectual Reflection and Consideration For I hope he will not deny but that the Arguments of Hope and Fear work upon man according to his
This I confess is not altogether without some shew of reason Mr. S. may do well to take the matter into his deeper consideration he hath in his time improved as weak probabilities as these into lusty Demonstrations And if he could but demonstrate this it would very much weaken the force of this Instance of the Greek Church otherwise for ought I see this Instance will hold good against him and whatever he can say for the impossibility of Tradition's failing in the Latin Church may all be said of the Greek Church if he will but grant that the Apostles preached the same Doctrine to them both that the arguments of hope and fear which this Doctrine contains in it were applied as strongly to the Greeks as the Latins And yet notwithstanding all this Tradition hath plainly failed in the Greek Church Let him now assign the Age wherein so vast a number of men conspired to leave out the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and shew how it was possible a whole Age could conspire together to damn their Posterity or how the Faith of immediate Fore-fathers might be altered without any such Conspiracy and we are ready to satisfie him how the Doctrine of the Latin Church might be corrupted and altered and to tell him punctually in what Age it was done And until he do this I would entreat him to trouble us no more with those canting questions wherein yet the whole force of his Demonstration lies How is it possible a whole Age should conspire to change the Doctrine of their Fore-fathers And in what Age was this done For if it be reasonable to demand of us in order to the overthrowing of his Demonstration to assign the particular Age wherein the Latin Church conspired to change the ancient Doctrine with the same reason we require of him in order to the maintaining of his Demonstration to name the particular Age wherein the Greek Church conspired to alter the Doctrine of Christ which was undoubtedly in the first Age truly delivered to them by the Apostles and also to shew from the rational force and strength of Tradition how it is more impossible for the whole Church to have failed in transmitting the Doctrine of Christ down to us or to have conspired to the altering of it than for such a multitude of Christians as is the vast body of the Greek Church If Mr. S. or Mr. White shew this they do something otherwise I must tell them that unless they can manage these pretty things they call Demonstrations better they must shortly either quit their Reason or their Religion or else return to the honest old Mumpsimus of the Infallibility of the Church from an extraordinary and immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost or to make the business short and stop all gaps with one Bush come over to the Jesuites and acknowledg the Popes Infallibility both in matters of Faith and Fact by which means they may reconcile themselves to him and prevent that direful stroke which threatens them from Rome and is ready to cut them off from the Body of the Traditionary Church And thus I have done with his First Demonstration and I take it for a good sign that the Popish Cause is at a very low ebb when such stuff as this must be called Demonstration SECT VI. § 1. I Come now to his Demonstration a Posteriori which although it fall of it self if the Demonstration a Priori fail yet because it hath some peculiar absurdities of its own I shall consider it by it self as well as with relation to the other § 2. Before he comes to lay it down with the Grounds of it according to his usual fashion he premiseth something as yielded by Protestants which in his sense no Protestant ever granted Just so he dealt with us before concerning the Scriptures saying That by them the Protestants must mean unsensed Letters and Characters But let us see what it is That this Demonstration a Posteriori seems a needless endeavour against the Protestants who yield that those Points in which we agree as the Trinity Incarnation c. came down by this way of Tradition And this he saith no Protestant ever denied And then he asks Whether the same vertue of Tradition would not have been as powerful to bring down other Points in which we do not agree had any such been Now if he speak any thing to his own purpose he must suppose Protestants to yield that all those Points wherein we are agreed were conveyed down to us solely by Oral Tradition without Writing But this all Protestants deny So that that only which would avail his Cause against us is to shew that those Points wherein we differ have not only come down to us by Oral Teaching but that they are likewise contained in Scripture without which we say we can have no sufficient certainty and assurance at this distance that they were the Doctrine of Christ and that they were not either totally innovated or else corrupted in the conveyance from what they were at first And if he can shew this concerning any Point in difference I promise to yield it to him § 3. I come now to his Demonstration which I shall set down in his own words with the Principles upon which it relies The effect then we will pitch upon and avow to be the proper one of such a cause is the present perswasion of Traditionary Christians or Catholicks that their Faith hath descended from Christ and his Apostles uninterruptedly which we find most firmly rooted in their heart and the existence of this perswasion we affirm to be impossible without the existence of Traditions ever indeficiency to beget it To prove this I lay this first Principle That Age which holds her Faith thus delivered from the Apostles neither can it self have changed any thing in it nor know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles had changed or innovated therein The second Principle shall be this No Age could innovate any thing and withall deliver that very thing to Posterity as received from Christ by continual Succession The Sum of which is this That because a present multitude of Christians viz. the Roman Church are perswaded that Christ's Doctrine hath descended to them solely by an uninterrupted Oral Tradition therefore this perswasion is an effect which cannot be attributed to any other cause but the indeficiency of Oral Tradition For if neither the present Age nor any Age before could make any change or innovation then the perswasion of the present Age is a plain Demonstration that this Doctrine was always the same and consequently that Tradition cannot fail § 4. In answer to this I shall endeavour to make good these four things First That these Principles wholly rely upon the Truth of the Grounds of his Demonstration a Priori Secondly That these Principles are not sufficiently proved by him Thirdly That Doctrines and Practises which must be acknowledged to have been
sense and explication thereof to have descended to them by Oral Tradition For just as the Traditionary Christians do now so Josephus tells us the Traditionary Jews of old the Pharisees did pretend by their Oral Tradition to interpret the Law more accurately and exactly than any other Sect. In like manner he tells us That all things that belonged to Prayer and Divine Worship were regulated and administred according to their interpretations of the Law And they both agree in this to make void the Word of God by their Tradition which the Pharisees did no otherwise than Mr. S. does by equalling Oral Tradition to Scripture nay preferring it above Scripture in making it the sole Rule of Faith and interpreting the Scripture according to it Hence are those common sayings in the Talmud and other Jewish Books Do not think that the written Law is the foundation but that the Law Orally delivered is the right foundation which is to say with Mr. S. that not the Scripture but Oral Tradition is the true Rule of Faith Again There is more in the words of the Scribes viz. the Testifiers of Tradition than in the words of the written Law Again The Oral Law excells the Written as much as the Soul doth the Body which accords very well with what Mr. S. frequently tells us That the Scripture without Tradition is but a dead Letter destitute of life and sense Hence also it is that they required the People as the Traditionary Church does now to yield up themselves to the dictates of Tradition even in the most absurd things as appears by that common saying among them If the Scribes say that the right hand is the left and the left the right that Bread is Flesh and Wine is Blood hearken to them that is make no scruple of whatsoever they deliver as Tradition though never so contrary to Reason or Sense And lastly The Doctrines of the Pharisees were many of them practical such were all those which concerned external rites and observances as washing of hands and cups c. So that these Pharisaical Traditions had also that unspeakable advantage which Mr. S. says renders their Traditions unmistakeable That they were daily practised and came down clad in such plain matters of Fact that the most stupid man living could not possibly be ignorant of them Therefore according to Mr. S's Principles it was impossible that any Age of the Jews should be perswaded that these things were commanded by Moses and ever since observed if they had not been so And yet our Saviour denies these Customs to have been of any such Authority as they pretended § 2. But I needed not to have taken all this pains to shew the agreement which is between the Traditionary Jews and Papists their own Writers so liberally acknowledging it Mr. White indeed says That the Faith of the Jews was not delivered to them Orally but by Writing than which nothing can be more inconsistent with his Hypothesis For if the Jewish Faith was conveyed to them not Orally but by Writing then either the Jewish Church had no sufficient Rule of Faith or else a Writing may be such a Rule But other of their Champions make great use of the Parallel between the Traditionary Jews and the Romish Church to confirm from thence their own Traditionary Doctrines Cardinal Perron hath a full passage to this purpose As this says he is to preserve a sound and entire respect to the Majesty of the ancient Mosaick Scripture to believe and observe not only all the things which are therein actually contained but also those things which are therein contained mediately and relatively as the Doctrines of Paradise c. which were not contained therein but mediately and by the authority which it gave to the deposition of the Patriarchal and Mosaick Tradition preserved by heart and in the Oral Doctrine of the Synagogue So this is to preserve a sound and entire respect to the Majesty of the Apostolical Scripture to believe and observe all the things which it contains not only immediately and by it self but mediately and by reference to the Apostolical Traditions to which in gross and generally it gives the Authority of Apostolical Doctrines and to the Church the Authority of Guardian and Depositary to preserve and attest them Voysin in his Observations upon Raymundus Martyn tells us That as in the Old Law the great Consistory at Jerusalem was the foundation of the true Tradition so says he the See of Rome is the foundation of our Traditions And as the continual succession of the High Priests and Fathers among the Jews was the great confirmation of the Truth of their Traditions so says he with us the Truth of our Catholick Doctrine is confirmed by a continual succession of Popes § 3. From all this it appears that the Pharisees among the Jews made the same pretence to Oral Tradition which the Papists do at this day according to Mr. S. And if so then Mr. S's Demonstration a Posteriori is every whit as strong for the Jews against our Saviour as it is for the Papists against the Protestants For we find that in our Saviour's time it was then the present perswasion of the Traditionary Jews that their Faith and their Rites and the true sense and interpretation of their written Law was descended from Moses and the Prophets to them uninterruptedly which we find was most firmly rooted in their hearts But the Jews had a constant Tradition among them that the Messiah was to be a great temporal Prince And though the Letters of the Prophesies concerning him might well enough have been accommodated to the low and suffering condition of our Saviour yet they did infallibly know that their Messiah was to be another kind of person from sense written in their hearts from the interpretation of those Prophesies Orally brought down to them from the Patriarchal and Mosaick Tradition preserved by heart and in the Oral Doctrine of the Synagogue and from the living voyce of their Church essential that is the universal consent of the then Traditionary Jews If it be said That the Jewish Tradition did indeed bring down several Doctrines not contained in Scripture of Paradise of Hell of the last Judgment of the Resurrection c. as Cardinal Perron affirms but it did not bring down this Point of the Messiah's being a Temporal Prince Then as Mr. S. asks us so the Jew does him By what vertue Tradition brought down those other Points and whether the same vertue were not powerful to bring down this as well as those Then he will ask him farther Is there not a necessary connexion and relation between a constant Cause and its formal Effect So that if its formal Effect be Points received as delivered ever the proper Cause must be an ever-delivery whence he will argue from such an Effect to its Cause for any particular Point and consequently for this Point that is in Controversie between Jews
Discourse in which he pretends to open the incomparable strength of the Churches humane Authority and the Advantages which accrue to it by the supernatural assistances of the Holy Ghost But that there is nothing material in it which hath not been answered already Only I desire him to explain how the supernatural Assistances of the Holy Ghost can according to his Principles add to our assurance of the certainty of Tradition Because we can have no greater certainty of the supernatural Assistance of the Holy Ghost than we have that there is an Holy Ghost and of this we can have no certainty according to Mr. S. but by Tradition which conveys this Doctrine to us And if Tradition of it self can infallibly assure us that there are supernatural Assistances of the Holy Ghost then a man must know that Tradition is infallible antecedently to his knowledg of any supernatural Assistance And if so what can any supernatural Assistance add to my assurance of the certainty of Tradition which I do suppose to be infallible before I can know of any supernatural Assistance Can any thing be more ludicrous than to build first all our certainty of the Assistance of the Holy Ghost upon the certainty of Tradition and then afterwards to make the certainty of Tradition to rely upon the Assistance of the Holy Ghost As if that could contribute to our assurance of the certainty of Tradition which unless Tradition be first supposed certain is it self wholly uncertain § 2. The Conclusion of this Ninth Discourse is somewhat Extatical possibly from a sudden disorder of his fancy upon the contemplation of his own performances to see what a Man he has made himself with the help of Rushworth's Dialogues or rather what his Party has made him by the Office they put upon him For it seems by his telling Mr. Cressy and the rest are ordained to cajoll the Fools leaving him the way of Reason and Principles and that himself is chosen out to Demonstrate to the Wise or those who judg of things per altissimas causas In the discharge of which glorious Office he declares that he intends no Confutation of those Authors which Mr. Cressy and others have medled with Yet if any will be so charitable as to judg he hath solidly confuted them because he hath radically and fundamentally overthrown all their Arguments c. he shall rejoyce and be thankful That the intelligent Reader for he writes to none but such may also rejoyce with him I shall recite the whole passage for it is thick of Demostration and as likely as any in his Book to have the altissimas causas contained in it § 3. It would require a large Volume to unfold particularly how each virtue contributes to shew the inerrable indeficiency of Tradition and how the Principles of almost each Science are concerned in demonstrating its Certainty Arithmetick lends her Numbring and Multiplying Faculty to scan the vast Number of Testifiers Geometry her Proportions to shew a kind of infinite strength of Certitude in Christian Tradition above those Atté stations which breed Certainty in humane Affairs Logick her skill to frame and make us see the connexions it has with the Principles of our Vnderstanding Nature her Laws of Motion and Action Morality her first Principle that nothing is done gratis by a cognoscitive Nature and that the Body of Traditionary Doctrine is most conformable to Practical Reason Historical Prudence clears the Impossibility of an undiscernable revolt from Points so descended and held so Sacred Politicks shew this to be the best way imaginable to convey down such a Law as it concerns every man to be skilful in Metaphysicks engages the Essences of Things and the very notion of Being which fixes every Truth so establishing the scientifical Knowledges which spring from each particular Nature by their first Causes or Reasons exempt from change or motion Divinity demonstrates it most worthy God and most conducive to bring Mankind to Bliss Lastly Controversie evidences the total uncertainty of any thing concerning Faith if this can be uncertain and makes use of all the rest to establish the Certainty of this First Principle A very fit conclusion for such Demonstrations as went before It is well Mr. S. writes to none but intelligent Readers for were it not a thousand pities that so manly and solid and convincing a discourse as this should be cast away upon fools SECT XII § 1. AS for his Corollaries supposing them to be rightly deduced from his former Discourses they must of necessity fall with them For they signifie nothing but upon this supposition that his fore-going Discourses are true And yet this being granted it were easie to shew that most of them are grosly faulty For First Several of them are plainly coincident The second viz. None can with right pretend to be a Church but the followers of Tradition is the very same in sense with the 11 th viz No company of men hang together like a Body of a Christian Commonwealth or Church but that which adheres to Tradition So likewise the 12 th and 14 th are contained in the 15 th The 16 th and 17 th in the 19 th The 16 th 17 18 th and 19 th in the 21 st And the 32 d and 34 th in the 31 st Secondly Divers of them are manifestly absurd as the 12 th 13 th 14 th 16 th 17 th 18 th 19 th the sum of which is That there is no arguing against Tradition from Scripture or the Authority of the Church or Fathers and Councils or from History and Testimonial Writings or from contrary Tradition or Reason or any Instances whatsoever which is as much as to say If this Proposition be true That Tradition is certain then it cannot by any kind of Argument be proved to be false But is this any peculiar Consectary from the truth of this Proposition Doth not the same follow from every Proposition That if it be true it cannot be proved to be false yet no man was ever yet so frivolous as to draw such a consequence from the supposed truth of any Proposition His 23 d also is singularly absurd That there is no possibility of arguing at all against Tradition rightly understood or the living voyce of the Catholick Church with any shew of Reason These are large words It might have contented a reasonable man to have said that no good Argument could be brought against it But he is jealous of his Hypothesis and can never think it safe till it be shot-free nor will that content him but it must be also impossible for any one to make a shew of shooting at it This were I confess a peculiar priviledg of Mr. S's Discourses above other mens if they were as he says by evidence of Demonstration so secured that not only no substantial Argument could be brought against them but that even the most subtile Schoolman of them all should not be able to come near
principle And he that can believe that I wonder he should scruple believing the Popes infallibility for certainly no principle of the Jesuits is more wild and absurd than this is Besides I admire how it came into Mr. S's head to think no error could come into history unless one age conspired to deceive another when we find no age agreed in the present matters of fact which are done in it as to the grounds and particulars of them to give Mr. S. an instance home to his purpose in the late Council of Trent we see already what different representations there are made of it in so little a time as hath already passed since the sitting of it One though he had all the advantages imaginable of knowing all proceedings in it living at the same time conversing with the persons present at it having the memoires and records of the Secretaries themselves yet his story is since endeavoured to be blasted by a great person of the Roman Church as fictitious and partial We see then it is at least supposed that interest and prejudice may have a great hand in abusing the world in matter of story though one age never agree to deceive another And instead of being perswaded by Mr. S's demonstrations I am still of the mind that we have no sufficient security of the truth of any story which was not written while those persons were in being who were able to contradict the errors of it However I deny not but some notorious matters of fact such as Alexanders bare conquests of Asia might by the visible effects of it be preserved both in Asia and Greece for a long time But if we come to enquire particularly whether this or that was done by him in his conquest which is alone pertinent to our purpose we have no security at all from tradition but only from the most authentick records of that story And by this I hope Mr. S. will have cause to thank me for unblundring his thoughts his own civil expressions and shewing him how errors may come into a story without one age conspiring to deceive the next and what a vast difference there is between preserving a bare matter af fact and all the particulars relating to it And hereby he may easily see how far the obligation extends in believing the report of former ages For there can be no obligation to believe any further than there is evidence of truth in the matter we are obliged to If then there be not only a possibility but a very great probability of mistakes and errors in matters of fact I pray what obligation doth there ly upon men absolutely to believe what is delivered by the preceding age But to put an issue to this controversie let Mr. S. examine himself and try if he can name one story that was never written which was ever certainly propagated from one age to another by meer oral tradition and if he cannot he may thereby see how little real force his argument hath in the world For all the force of tradition lies in an unquestionable conveyance of those Books which contain in them the true reports of the actions of the times they were written in But can Mr. S. think that if the Roman history had never been written it had been possible for us to have known what was done under the Kings and Consuls as now we do Yet if his principle holds this necessarily follows for those of that age could not but know them and no age since could conspire to deceive the next And from hence the most useful consequence of all is that Mr. S. might have writ a history from the beginning of the world to this day with a full relation of all particulars if there had never been any Book written in the world before And doth not Mr. S. deserve immortal credit for so rare an invention as this is and all built on nothing short of demonstrations But Mr. S. very prudently foresees what it is I must be forced to recur to viz. that being baffled with his former demonstration I have no other shift to betake my self to but to say the case is different between histories and points of faith And therefore to bring his business home he applies it at large to the delivery of the Christian faith which that he might do in more ample sort he very finely descants on the old Verse Quis quid ubi c. containing the circumstances of human actions and from every one of them derives arguments for the infallibility of oral tradition which briefly and in plain English may be summed up thus Since the author of this doctrine was the Son of God the doctrine it self so excellent and delivered in so publick a manner in the most convincing way by miracle and good living and for so good an end as to save mens souls and that by writing it in mens hearts and testified to others and all this at a time when men might judg of the miracles and motives for believing it therefore since in all these respects it was incomparably beyond the story of Alexanders conquests it follows that in a manner infinitely greater must the obligation be to believe Christs doctrine than Alexanders or William the Conqerours victories or any history of the like nature whatsoever All which I freely grant but cannot yet see how from thence it follows that oral tradition is the only rule of faith or the means whereby we are to judg what is the doctrine of Christ and what not Those arguments I confess prove that the Christians of the first age were highly concerned to enquire into the truth of these things and that they had the greatest reason imaginable to believe them and that it is not possible to conceive that they should not endeavour to propagate so excellent a doctrine and of so high concernment to the world But the question is whether abstractly from the Books written in the first age of the Christian Church there is so much infallibility in the oral tradition of every age that nothing could be embraced for Christs doctrine which was not and consequently whether every age were bound to believe absolutely what was delivered it by the precedent for the doctrine of Christ Mr. S. therefore puts himself to a needless task of proving that every age was bound to believe the doctrine of Christ which I never questioned but the dispute is whether every age be bound on the account of oral tradition to believe what is delivered by the precedent for Christs doctrine But it is to be observed all along how carefully Mr. S. avoids mentioning the written Books of the New Testament because he knew all his game about oral tradition would be quite spoiled by a true stating the matter of fact in the first ages of the Christian Church I hope he will not be angry with me for asking him that question about the Scripture which he asks me about the Council of Trent did
been and I should be somewhat ashamed of my Religion if I had no better But what our rule of faith is hath been amply discoursed already by you and that in Mr. S's clearing method that nothing is left for me to do but to touch at what remains and concludes this answer I had the better to illustrate the weakness of that argument from oral tradition brought an instance in that case parallel viz. that if one ages delivering to another would prove that the faith of Christ was in every age unalterable because no age did testifie any such alteration to be in it by the same argument the world might be proved eternal because no age did ever testifie to another that the world was ever otherwise than it is So that if oral tradition were only to be relied on there could be no evidence given of the worlds being ever otherwise than it is and consequently the world must be believed to have been always what we see it is This as far as I can apprehend is a clear and distinct ratiocination and purposely designed to prove that we must admit of other rules to judg of alterations in the Church by besides oral tradition But Mr. S. in his own expression strangely roving from the mark I aimed at professes there is not a tittle in it parallel to his medium nay that he never saw in his life more absurdities couched in fewer words But I must take all patiently from a man who still perches on the specifical nature of things and never flags below the sphere of science Yet by his good leave he either apprehends not or wilfully mistakes my meaning for my argument doth not proceed upon the belief of the worlds eternity which in his answer he runs wholly upon as far as eighthly and lastly but upon the evidence of oral traditias to no discernable alteration in any age of it For the Question between us is whether in matters of alteration in the faith or practice of the Church we are bound to rely only on the testimony of oral tradition so that if no age can be instanced in wherein any alteration was made and this delivered by that age then we are bound to believe there hath been no alteration since Christ and the Apostles times now I say if this hold good I will prove the world eternal by the same argument taking this for our principle that we are bound to rely only on oral tradition in the case originally derived from the matter of fact seen by those of the first age for that which never was otherwise then it is is eternal but we cannot know by oral tradition that the world ever was otherwise then it is for no age of the world can be instanced in wherein we have any testimony of any alteration that was in it Either then we must believe that the world ever was what it is i. e. eternal or else we must say that we are not to rely barely on oral tradition in this case but we must judg whether the world were made or no by other mediums of Scripture and reason And this was all which I aimed at viz. to shew that where there is no evidence from oral tradition yet if there be Scripture and reason there is sufficient ground for our faith to stand upon And so I apply it to the present case though we could not prove barely from the tradition of any one age that there had been any alteration in the faith or practice of the Church yet if I can prove that there hath been such from Scripture and reason this is sufficient for me to believe it And now I dare appeal to the indifferent Reader whether this be so full of absurdities or it be such a rambling Chimerical argument as he calls it no two pieces of which hang together with themselves or any thing else Which being expressions of as great modesty as science I am content Mr S. should bear away the hoour of them and his demonstrations together The last thing he quarrels with me for is that I say if we can evidently prove that there have been alterations in the Church then it is to no purpose to prove that impossible which we see actually done And this appears not only because the Scripture supposes a degeneracy in the Christian Church which could never be if every age of the Church did infallibly believe and practise as the precedent up to Christs time did but because we can produce clear evidence that some things are delivered by the present Church which must be brought in by some age since the time of Christ for which I refer the Reader to what I had said about communion in one kind invocation of Saints and worship of Images In all which I say I had proved evidently that they were not in use in some ages of the Christian Church and it is as evident that these are delivered by the present Church and therefore this principle must needs be false In answer to this Mr. S. wishes I would tell him first what evidence means whether a strong fancy or a demonstration I mean that which is enough to perswade a wise man who judges according to the clearest reason which I am sure is more than ever his demonstrations will do But it is a pleasant spectacle to see how Mr. S layes about him at my saying that the Scripture supposes a degeneracy in the Christian Church Incomparably argued saith he why see we not the place does it evidently speak of faith or manners the Vniversal Church or particular persons but be it in faith be it universal does it suppose this degeneracy already past which is only proper to your purpose or yet to come That is does it say there must be a total Apostacy in faith before the year 1664 Alas he had forgot this Most incomparably answered For if the degeneracy be in 1665. or any years after what becomes of M. S's demonstration then that no errors could come into the Church but it seems his demonstration holds but till 1664. and I easily believe another year will never believe the truth of it But if such a thing as a degeneracy be possible how then stands the infallibility of tradition when there can be no degeneracy without falling from the doctrine and practices of Christ and his Apostles But that such a degeneracy hath already been in that which calls it self the Catholick Church and that both in faith and manners I shall refer Mr. S to the learned Author of the late Idea of Antichristianism and Synopsis Prophetica where he may find enough to perswade him that his demonstration was far from holding so long as 1664. And now I leave the Reader to judg whether the foregoing evidences against the infallibility of oral tradition or Mr. S's demonstrations have the greater force of reason in them And if he will not stoop so far from the height of his perch as to
innovated have made the same pretence to uninterrupted Tradition Fourthly That it is not the present perswasion of the Church of Rome whom he calls the Traditionary Christians nor ever was that their Faith hath descended to them solely by Oral Tradition If I can now make good these four things I hope his Demonstration is at an end SECT VII § 1. THat these Principles wholly rely upon the truth of the Grounds of his Demonstration a Priori For if the Doctrine of Christ was either imperfectly taught in any Age or mistaken by the Learners or any part of it forgotten as it seems the whole Greek Church have forgot that fundamental Point of the Procession of the Holy Ghost as the Roman Church accounts it or if the Arguments of hope and fear be not necessary causes of actual will to adhere to Tradition then there may have been changes and innovations in any Age and yet men may pretend to have followed Tradition But I have shewn that Ignorance and Negligence and Mistake and Pride and Lust and Ambition and any other Vice or Interest may hinder those causes from being effectual to preserve Tradition entire and uncorrupted And when they do so it is not to be expected that those Persons who innovate and change the Doctrine should acknowledg that their new Doctrines are contrary to the Doctrine of Christ but that they should at first advance them as Pious and after they have prevailed and gained general entertainment then impudently affirm that they were the very Doctrines which Christ delivered which they may very securely do when they have it in their power to burn all that shall deny it § 2. I will give a clear Instance of the possibility of this in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation by shewing how this might easily come in in the Ninth or Tenth Age after Christ. We will suppose then that about this time when universal Ignorance and the genuine Daughter of it call her Devotion or Superstition had overspread the World and the generality of People were strongly enclined to believe strange things and even the greatest Contradictions were recommended to them under the notion of Mysteries being told by their Priests and Guides that the more contradictions any thing is to Reason the greater merit there is in believing it I say let us suppose that in this state of things one or more of the most eminent then in the Church either out of design or out of superstitious ignorance and mistake of the sense of our Saviour's words used in the Consecration of the Sacrament should advance this new Doctrine That the words of Consecration This is my Body are not to be understood by any kind of Trope as the like forms in Scripture are as I am the Vine I am the Door which are plain Tropes but being used about this great Mystery of the Sacrament ought in all reason to be supposed to contain in them some notable Mystery which they will do if they be understood of a real change of the substance of Bread and Wine made by vertue of these words into the real Body and Blood of our Saviour And in all this I suppose nothing but what is so far from being impossible that it is too usual for men either out of Ignorance or Interest to advance new Opinions in Religion And such a Doctrine as this was very likely to be advanced by the ambitious Clergy of that time as a probable means to draw in the People to a greater veneration of them which advantage Mr. Rushworth seems to be very sensible of when he tells us That the power of the Priest in this particular is such a priviledg as if all the learned Clerks that ever lived since the beginning of the World should have studied to raise advance and magnifie some one state of men to the highest pitch of Reverence and Eminency they could never without special light from Heaven have thought of any thing comparable to this I am of his mind that it was a very notable device but I am apt to think invented without any special light from Heaven Nor was such a Doctrine less likely to take and prevail among the People in an Age prodigiously ignorant and strongly enclined to Superstition and thereby well prepared to receive the grossest Absurdities under the notion of Mysteries especially if they were such as might seem to conciliate a greater honour and reverence to the Sacrament Now supposing such a Doctrine as this so fitted to the humor and temper of the Age to be once asserted either by chance or out of design it would take like wild-fire especially if by some one or more who bore sway in the Church it were but recommended with convenient gravity and solemnity And although Mr. Rushworth says It is impossible that the Authority of one man should sway so much in the World because sayes he surely the Devil himself would rather help the Church than permit so little pride among men yet I am not so thoroughly satisfied with this cunning reason For though he delivers it confidently and with a surely yet I make some doubt whether the Devil would be so forward to help the Church nay on the contrary I am enclined to think that he would rather choose to connive at this humble and obsequious temper in men in order to the overthrow of Religion than cross a design so dear to him by unseasonable temptations to pride So that notwithstanding Mr. Rushworth's reason it seems very likely that such a Doctrine in such an Age might easily be propagated by the influence and authority of one or a few great Persons in the Church For nothing can be more suitable to the easie and passive temper of superstitious Ignorance than to entertain such a Doctrine with all imaginable greediness and to maintain it with a proportionable zeal And if there be any wiser than the rest who make Objections against it as if this Doctrine were new and full of contradictions they may easily be born down by the stream and by the eminency and authority and pretended sanctity of those who are the heads of this Innovation And when this Doctrine is generally swallowed and all that oppose it are looked upon and punished as Hereticks then it is seasonable to maintain that this Doctrine was the doctrine of forefathers to which end it will be sufficient to those who are willing to have it true to bend two or three sayings of the Ancients to that purpose And as for the contradictions contained in this Doctrine it was but telling the People then as they do in effect now that contradictions ought to be no scruple in the way of Faith that the more impossible any thing is 't is the fitter to be believed that it is not praise-worthy to believe plain possibilities but that this is the gallantry and heroical power of Faith this is the way to oblige God Almighty for ever to us to believe flat and down-right
that can be imagined it might then have taken place for what Weeds would not have grown in so rank a Soyl Doth Mr. S. think it impossible that those that were born in the Church then should be ignorant of the Doctrine of Christ when scarce any one would take the pains to teach it them or that it could then have been altered when so few understood and fewer practised it When ptodigious Impiety and Wickedness did overspread the Church from the Pope down to the meanest of the Laity can any one believe that men generally made Conscience to instruct their Children in the true Faith of Christ Was it impossible there should be any neglect of this Duty when all others failed That there should be any mistake about the Doctrine of Christ when there was so much Ignorance unless he be of Mr. Rushworth's mind who reckons Ignorance among the Parents of Religion Where were then the Arguments of Hope and Fear Were they strongly applied or were they not Were they causes of actual will in Christians to believe well when they lived so ill Or is Christianity only fitted to form mens minds to a right belief but of no efficacy to govern their lives Hath Christ taken care to keep his Church from Error but not from Vice As the great Cardinal Perron stooping below his own Wit and Reason to serve a bad Cause tells us That the Church sings and will sing to the end of the World I am black but I am fair that is to say I am black in Manners but fair in Doctrine As if the meaning of the Prophesies and Promises of Scripture made to the Church were this that by the extraordinary care of Gods Providence and peculiar assistance of his Holy Spirit she should be wicked but Orthodox to the end of the World Where were then the vigorous causes imprinting Christ's Doctrine and continuing it more particularly at Rome than any where else and of securing that See and its supreme Pastor in the faith and practice of the Christian Doctrine above any other See or Pastor whatsoever Who is so little versed in History as not to understand the dismal state of Religion in the Romish Church in those times Who does not know what advantages the Bishops of Rome and their servile Clergy made of the ignorance and superstition of those and the succeeding Ages and by what Arts and steps they raised themselves to that power which they held in the Church for a long while after When they could tread upon the necks of Princes and make a great King walk bare-foot and yield himself to be scourged by a company of petulant Monks When they could send any man upon an Errand to visit the holy Sepulchre or the Shrine of such a Saint and command five or six Kings with great Armies upon a needless expedition into the Holy Land that so during their absence they might play their own Game the better When they could mint Miracles and impose upon the belief of the People without the authority of any ancient Books absurd and counterfeit Tales of ancient Saints and Martyrs as delivered down to them by Tradition and could bring that foppish Book the Legend almost into equal Authority and Veneration with the Bible and perswade the easy people that St. Denys carried his own head in his hand after it was cut off two miles and kiss'd it when he laid it down Any one that shall but reflect upon the monstrous practises of the Roman Bishops and Clergy in these Ages the strange Feats they played and what absurdities they imposed upon the superstitious credulity of Princes and People may readily imagine not only the possibility but the easiness of innovating new Doctrines as they pleased under the specious pretences of Antitiquity and constant and uninterrupted Tradition § 8. And this kind of Discourse concerning the possibility of Errors coming into the Church is not as Mr. White ridiculously compares it as if an Orator should go about to perswade people that George by the help of a long staff and a nimble cast of his body and such like advantages might leap over Paul 's Steeple never considering all the while the disproportion of all these advantages to the height of the Steeple so saith he he that discourseth at large how Errors use to slide into mans life without comparing the power of the causes of Error to the strength of resisting which consists in this Principle Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition c. says no more towards proving an Error 's over-running the Church than the Orator for George 's leaping over the Steeple How vain is this When it appears from this Instance that I have given of the state of the Roman Church in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries and afterwards that the causes of Error were infinitely stronger than the power of resistance The great causes of Error are Ignorance and Vice where Ignorance reigns there 's no Power where Vice no Will to resist it And how great the Ignorance and Viciousness of all orders of men in the Roman Church was is too too apparent from the Testimonies I have brought Where was the strength of resisting Error when for 150 years together the Popes were the vilest of men Bishops and Priests overwhelmed with Ignorance abandoned to all manner of vice and most supinely negligent in instructing the People In such a degenerate state of a Church what strength is there in this Principle Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition When those who ought to teach men what that Doctrine is which was derived to them by Tradition are generally careless of their Duty and ignorant themselves what that Doctrine is When they addict themselves wholly to the satisfying of their Ambition and other Lusts and carry on designs of Gain and getting Dominion over the People What can hinder men so disposed from corrupting the Doctrine of Christ and suiting it to their own Lusts and Interests And what shall hinder the People from embracing those Corruptions when by the negligence of their Pastors to instruct them and not only so but also by their being deprived of the Scriptures in a known Tongue they are become utterly incapable of knowing what the true Doctrine of Christ is So that in an Age of such profound Ignorance and Vice and general neglect of Instruction 't is so far from being impossible for Errors to over-run a Church that the contrary is morally impossible and George's long staff and advantagious cast of his Body are more powerful causes to enable him to leap over Paul's Steeple than this Principle That nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition is to keep Errors out of a Church in an ignorant and vicious Age when few or none are either able or willing to instruct men in the Truth For suppose this always to have been the Principle of Christians viz. That nothing is to be admitted as the
though they are called Christians yet in Truth they are not Christians in these words For of these viz. the Disowners of this Doctrine who are called indeed Christians but are atheistical and impious Hereticks I have shewed thee that they teach in all Points blasphemous atheistical and absurd things But that ye may know that I do not say this for you only I will according to my ability compile all these Discourses which have past between us into one piece in which I will by Writing make Profession of this very thing which I now declare to you For I do not choose to follow men or the Doctrines of men but God and such Doctrines as are from him And though ye may have conversed with some who are called Christians and yet do not acknowledg this but even dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob who also say that there is no Resurrection of the dead but that so soon as they dye their Souls are received into Heaven Do not count these men Christians no more than a man that considers things rightly would own the Sadduces and such like Sects to be Jews c. But I my self and as many Christians as are thoroughly of the right perswasion do both know that there shall be a Resurrection of the Flesh and a thousand years in Jerusalem which shall be built adorned and enlarged c. Can any thing be plainer than that Justin endeavours by this Discourse to satisfie Trypho that this Point they were speaking of was a Divine Doctrine and owned to be so by all Christians except such as did only bear the Name and Title of Christians but were indeed blasphemous Hereticks and deniers of the Resurrection By which Character that he intends to describe the impious Sects of the Gnosticks will appear by and by So that Mr. White must either allow the inserting of the negative Particle which Mr. Mede proves to have been omitted in the Copy or else acknowledg that those who are Christians only in Name but in Truth are impious blasphemous and absurd Hereticks may properly be said to be of the pure and pious Opinion of the Christians And if only these be the other Catholicks whom Mr. White says Justin acknowledges to have held contrary to the Millenaries I am contented he should make his best of them If Mr. White should blame the inserting of the negative particle not into Justin's Text as too great a boldness with the Fathers it were easily answered that the sense evidently requires it And in such a case it is no boldness but such a liberty as the most Learned of their own Interpreters and Commentators upon the Fathers do frequently take And for Mr. S. if he takes offence at this one may with reason since the exigency of the sense plainly requires the inserting of it demand of him what he unreasonably does of us in relation to all the affirmative Propositions of Scripture to demonstrate that the particle not was not left out of this Clause of Justin by those who Transcribed the Book But besides the exigency of the sense in this place that the negative ought to have been inserted will appear by the reference which Justin makes in this passage to something foregoing in the same Dialogue I have says he declared to thee before that my self and many others are of the mind that this will come to pass But that many indeed of those Christians who are not of the pure and pious perswasion do not own this I have intimated to thee For of these who are called indeed Christians but are Atheistical and Impious Hereticks I have shewed thee that they teach in all Points blasphemous atheistical and absurd things In these words he plainly refers to some precedent passage which if it can be found will be a certain Key to open to us the sense of this place I know that Mr. Mede perhaps not observing it thought that passage to have been fraudulently expunged by the Enemies of the Millenary Opinion But it seems to me to be still extant For I find towards the beginning of this Dialogue after that Justin had endeavoured to prove at large out of Scripture this glorious coming of Christ and to refute those who applied the Texts produced by him to that purpose to Hezekiah and to Solomon whose falling off to Idolatry he occasionally mentions whereupon Trypho objects to him that many who were called Christians did also communicate in the Idol-feasts To this I say I find Justin returning this answer First He denies not that there are such as these who own themselves Christians and confess the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ and yet teach not his Doctrines but the Doctrines of seducing spirits But says he We who are the Disciples of the true and pure Doctrine of Jesus Christ are from this very thing the more strengthned in our Faith and become more confirmed in the Hope which by him hath been declared to us For we now see those things visibly and effectually accomplish't which he before-hand told us would be done in his Name For he said Many shall come in my Name c. By which Hope any one that reads the Antecedents and Consequents will plainly see that Justin means the Hope of the Millennium which he had been speaking of before and consequently of the Resurrection which he looked upon as having a strict Connexion with the Doctrine of the Millennium because as he tells us afterwards this Doctrine was denied by none but such as also denied the Resurrection And of these men his description runs on in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Many saith he both are and have been that have come in the Name of Jesus and taught both to speak and do atheistical and blasphemous things and are by us denominated from those men from whom each of their Doctrines and Opinions had its rise namely as it follows Marcionites Valentinians c. and all these in their several ways teach men to blaspheme the Creator of the Vniverse and the Christ whose Coming was foretold by him and the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But we have no communion with them as knowing them to be atheistical and impious c. This passage in hand when I compare it with the Text before quoted and consider the words and characters of them both I cannot but believe it the very same that he refers to in those words I have declared to thee I have intimated to thee c. If so the matter in Controversie is clear that the Doctrine of the Millennium was universal If it be not the same I could wish to be shew'd some other place in this Dialogue where Justin makes any such Declaration or Intimation In the mean while by comparison of these places it is evident there are but two sorts of men that Justin speaks of First Who believe the Millennium We the Disciples