the least as to priviledge Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith For 1. Were their writings the Conservatories of Tradition written by persons mov'd by the Holy Ghost or not If not and I suppose our adversaries will not affirm they were then these writings have a great disadvantage of the Holy Scriptures which we profess to be the Canon of our Faith as great a disadvantage as must be between Books written by them who could not err and those written by them who might err from whence it would follow that what is contain'd in the one must be true that the Contents of the other may be true yet too they may be false there may be that reported in them as deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles which yet was not delivered by them But 2. Were there Ecclesiastical Monuments of unquestionable credit and which did from Christ and his Apostles through each age exacty and fully declare to us the consentient Doctrines and Practices of the universal Church it would be very material and we should much rejoice in it but the case is otherwise For some while there were very few if any writings save the Holy Scripture which come to our hands Justin Martyr is said to be the first Father About 150 years after Christ whose works have survived to this day There are some Books which pretend to an early date which yet are judg'd to be supposititious some of them judged to be so by the Romanists themselves others proved to be such by the (a) Cook in censu â quorundum Scriptorum D. James's Bastardie of false Fathers Daille Protestants For the first 300 years as there was no compleat Ecclesiastical History so the Fathers now extant were but few and their Works too being calculated for the times in which they lived reach not the controversies which for many years past and at this day exercise and trouble Christendom This paucity of the Records of the first ages (a) Id autem esse tempus quo quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica includantur a Constantino Imp. ad Marcianum Atque hoc vel propterea aequissimum esse quia primorum seculorum paucissima extant monumenta illius vero temporis quo Ecclesia praecipuè florebat longe plurima ut facile ex ejus aetatis Patribus eorum scriptis fides ac disciplina veteris Catholicoe possit agnosci Ita Perron Sequitur Responsio Regis Hoc postulatum parùm illis aequum videbitur c. Apud Is Casaubonum in Responsione ad Cardinalis Perronii Epistolam pag. 38 39 40 41 42. Card. Perron acknowledges and does imply their insufficiency for setling Catholick Faith when as he would have recourse made for this purpose unto the 4th and 5th Centuries because then there were most writers Tho against this the learned Is Casaubon excepts and justly forasmuch as it must be presum'd that the stream of Tradition ran purest nearest to its Fountain The Fathers after the first 300 years did often mix their own private sentiments with the Doctrines of the Church Nor do the Fathers express themselves so as that we may clearly distinguish when they writ as Doctors and when as Witnesses when they deliver their own private Sense and when the Sense of the Church and if of the Church whether it be of the Church universal or of some particular Church some who have diligently perus'd their Writings judge it not easy to find any such constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is confess'd by (a) Rushworth Dial 3d. Sect. 13. a Romanist that the Fathers speak sometimes as Witnesses of what the Church held in their days and sometimes as Doctors and so it is often hard to distinguish how they deliver their Opinions because sometimes they press Scripture or Reason as Doctors and sometimes to confirm a known Truth So that he who seeks Tradition in the Fathers and to convince it by their Testimony takes an hard task upon him if he go rigorously to work and have a cunning Critick to his Adversary So then Tradition must in a good measure be at a loss for succour from the Fathers Writings I conclude then that Books Writings have not given such advantages to Oral Tradition as to render it the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths but this Dignity and Trust is due to Holy Scriptures only which having been at the first penn'd by Persons assisted by the Divine infallible Spirit are stamp'd with an Authority transcendent to all humane Authority Oral or Written which have been witness'd to by the concurrent Testimony of the Church in each intermediate Age since the Primitive Times and which are at this day generally agreed upon as the true Word of God by Christians tho' in other things it may be some of their Heads may stand as oppositely as those of Sampson's Foxes SECT IV. There remains a Cavil or two rather than Objections which shall have a dispatch also 1. We are told that by desertion of Oral Tradition and adherence to Scripture we do cast our selves upon a remediless ignorance even of Scripture (a) Sure Footing P. 117. Tradition establish'd the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to interpret Scripture's Letter by so as to arrive certainly at Christ's Sense c. And e contrà (b) Ibid. p. 98. without Tradition both Letter and Sense of Scripture is uncertain and subject to dispute Again (c) Ibid. p. 38. As for the certainty of the Scriptures signisicancy nothing is more evident than that this is quite lost to all in the uncertainty of the Letter 2ly It is suggested that the course we take is an Enemy to the Churches Peace (d) Ibid. p. 40. The many Sects into which our miserable Country is distracted issue from this Principle viz. The making Scriptures Letter the Rule of our Faith By these passages it is evident that this Author will have it that Protestants have nothing but the Letter of Scriptures dead Characters to live upon and that upon this he charges their utter uncertainty in the interpretation of Scriptures and their distractions Answ But Protestants when they affirm That Scripture is the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths and that consequently it is the only Rule of Faith do mean Scriptures Letter and Sense both or the Sense notified by the Words and Letter And therefore the Author might have spar'd his Proof of this conclusion i. e. That Scriptures Letter wants all the properties belonging to a Rule of Faith It was needless I say to prove this to Protestants Well but let Protestants mean and affirm what they will have only the Letter of Scripture and not the Sense of it because they admit not of Oral Tradition to Sense it Scripture it seems is such a Riddle that there is no understanding it except we plough with their Heifer and likewise without Tradition's caement we shall always be a pieces and at variance amongst our selves But 1.
these passages so plainly proving their so superlative esteem of the Holy Scriptures do infer their most exact diligence and watchfulness for their conservation and safety And this is sufficient for my purpose in this Section But withal too I have gain'd an Argument for my main design viz. The Testimony of the Fathers forasmuch as between Holy Scriptures being the safest Conveyance of Divine Truths throughout all Ages and Scriptures being the sole Rule of Faith there is so necessary a Connexion And because the Romanists likewise allege the Fathers to give Countenance to Oral Tradition therefore the Testimony of the Fathers in our case shall be farther considered of And 1. I will appeal to any ingenious Reader of them whether the passages which the Romanists cite out of the Fathers on the behalf of Tradition and seemingly the most diminutive of Scripture do in any measure come near to such a course Character of it as that it is a Black Gospel an Ink Theology (a) Sure Footing p. 194. dead Characters Waxen-natur'd and pliable to the Daedalean Fancies of the ingenious Moulders of new Opinions If Mens thoughts may be judg'd of by their words sure the Fathers and Romanists Sentiments of the Scriptures were very divers 2ly Seeing there is a seeming contradiction of the Fathers to themselves because they are urg'd by both the disagreeing Parties it will be fitting to enquire whether there may not be a reconciliation of them to each other and of some of them to themselves For this end I suppose a good means would be 1. Seeing the Fathers sometimes speak of Scripture without mention of Tradion at other times speak of Tradition not mentioning Scripture to examine how they deliver their Sense when they express themselves of Scripture and Tradition jointly and comparatively of one with the other 2ly To see whether their appearingly most favourable expressions of Tradition may not be very well construed in a subordination of Tradition to Scripture very consistently with Scriptures Precedence to it 1. Of the Fathers speaking of Scripture and Tradition conjointly I will begin with St. Cyprian in his Epistle to Pompey Being prest with Tradition he answers Whence is this Tradition Descends it from our Lord's and his Gospel's Authority or comes it from the Commands of the Apostles and their Epistles God declares that those things should be done which are written saying to Joshua The Book of the Law shall not depart from thy Mouâ—h but thou shalt meditate in it day and night that thou mayest observe to do all things written in it Likewise our Lord sending his Apostles Commands all Nations to be Baptized and to be taught that they observe all things whatsoever he had Commanded What obstinacy what presumption is it to prefer humane Tradition to the Divine Dispose or Command and not to consider that God is angry and in wrath when humane Tradition disregards and dissolves Divine Commands As God warns and speaks by the Prophet Isaiah c. And toward the end of the Epistle And this it behoves God's Priests to do at this time keeping the Divine Commands that if Truth have declin'd and fail'd in any respect we go back to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition and let the manner of our Actings take their rise thence whence their Order and Origin rose The preference of Scripture to Tradition by this antient Father is so plain and undeniable that it is reply'd St. Cyprian's Testimony was writ by him to defend an Error and therefore no wonder if as Bellarmine says more errantium ratiocinetur he discours'd after the rate of those that err that is assumes false grounds to build his Error on Letter of Thanks p. 124. But this is a mean Evasion For tho' Cyprian was indeed in an Error and did mistake in his discourse yet it can't be affirm'd with probability or Charity to such a Saint and Martyr that to gratifie a private Opinion he would affront so Sacred and Catholick a Principle as the Rule of Christian Faith and degrade Tradition from being such if he had indeed believed it to be so Yet if this should be granted to our Adversaries the consequence would be their inconvenience For why might not more do the same which St. Cyprian did and if some Fathers might desert Tradition and flye to Scripture meerly to serve a Turn for defence of an Opinion which they could not maintain otherwise why may it not be as well said that other Fathers might baulk Scripture and advance Tradition and for the same end viz. to support some Doctrine or Doctrines which else must have fallen And upon this it would follow beside the imputation of inconstancy and shifting to the Fathers that we must be at much uncertainty what truly was the Judgment of the Fathers concerning the Rule of Faith and that therefore the quotations out of them must in a great part be insignificant for this purpose St. Basil in his Tract call'd Questions compendiously unfolded or answered says It is necessary and consonant to Reason that every Man learn that which is needful out of the Holy Scripture both for the fulness of godliness and lest they accustom themselves to humane Traditions 'T is acknowledged by (a) De amissi gratiae L. 1. C. 13. Bellarmine that this Author admits not Traditions unwritten but then he says it is not certainly manifest whether these Questions were the great Basil's or rather Eustathius's of Sebastia Yet the same (b) De Paenit L. 3. C. 8. Bellarmine confidently quotes them as St. Basils for Auricular Confession So that it may seem that the Questions were before scrupled at only because they spoke in behalf of Scripture against Tradition and against venial sins which is manifest Partiality But I shall bring a Testimony of St. Basil which Bellarmine himself would own to be St. Basils who in his Book of the true Faith thus Discourses If God be faithful in all his sayings his Words and Works they remaining for ever and being done in Truth and Equity it must be an evident signe of Infidelity and Pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written This is a manifest Prelation of what is written i. e. Holy Scriptures to what is unwritten i. e. Tradition which Bellarm. calls the unwritten word of God in the Title to his 4th Book De verbo Dei When St. (a) Quid inquam Omousion nisi Ego Pater unum sumus Sed nunc nec ego Nicaenam synodum tibi nec tu Arimineusem mihi debes tâ—nquam praejudicaturus cbiitere Scripturarum Authoritatibus res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concertet Contra Maxt Lib. 3. Cap. 14. August was willing to wave the Council of Nice to Maximinus and to retire to a Decision of the Catholick Cause by Scripture certainly that great Person judg'd Scripture without Tradion to be sufficient to prove an Article of Faith or
things of God would hugely hazard their proficiency in so large and clear a knowledge as might fit them to be Authentick Trustees in the Delivery of the Christian Faith from Generation to Generation What I have writ in this Section proceeds not in the least from an humour of reproaching any not from any contempt of the Laiety or as if I expected they should be Divines I pay Acknowledgment and Honour to many of the Laiety for their singular Accomplishments in Religious Knowledge and Virtue And it is out of question with me as much as with any that the rest of them may with their lesser measures of knowledge for they have not generally advantages for higher Attainments and the merciful God will not expect to Reap where he has not Sow'd live good Christians and be saved for ever My only aim and that in prosecution of my undertaking has been to shew how incompetent and very casual Traditioners the Laiety who are exceedingly the greater part of the Body of the Faithful generally are of Divine Truths in so full and distinct a manner as may be for their preservation and security against the emerging encroachments of the contrary Errors through all Ages So that by far the greatest weight and strength of Oral Tradition must lye upon the Clergy whose proper business Religion is whose Lips should preserve knowledge and the People should seek the Law at their Mouth Yet in that very place where it is thus said of the Priests it immediately follows But ye Priests are gone out of the way Mal. 2.7 8. ye have caused many to stumble at the Law c. Their performance had not answered their Duty But to say no more of that how little Clergy and Laiety both are to be relyed on as to an Oral indefectible Conveyance of Divine Truths shall be seen on a second account in the next Section SECT II. 2ly To an exact and constant steadiness of Tradition there is requisite an Integrity a clearness of Spirit an unencumbrance of Christians through all Ages with any thing which might sway them to a Belief or Profession contrary to that of the first Age. Now if we look abroad into the World we shall see that commonly Men take up this or that Profession side with this or that Party in Religion more upon the score of Education Example or Interest upon some extrinsick Motive or upon some short and confuse Apprehensions than upon an explicite knowledge or at the least a truly solid Conviction of those Tenents by which those Parties are distinguished But to proceed more particularly Among others there are four things which have an usual and powerful Operation upon Mens Belief and Profession to the changing or smothering their Persuasions and the corruption of their Practice 1. A wantonness of Reason is very incident to Mankind Man loves Variety and conversing here below with little but what is mutable in an unhappy kind of imitation learns to affect change and is apt to be cloy'd with old Truths as with a wontedness to all things else The hankering after some New things was not peculiar to the Athenians and Strangers among them but is an itch natural to all And to cherish this affection for Novelty there have not wanted Broachers of new Opinions in most Ages of the Church 2ly There 's an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinary enough a bending the stick too much the other way on pretence to make it streight a Recoile from one Extremity to another Out of keenness in contending for a Truth a Zeal for it it has not been unusual to over-do and to retreat from an Error too far on the contraty side Both (a) Illud interim cavenâ—um ne Erroris unius odio devolvamur in alium errorem Id si nullis fere veterum non accidit aliquâ ex parte equidem non deprecabor hominis ociosi notam qui haec admoneam Tertullianus dum nimis acriter pugnâ—t aaversus eos qui plus sat is tribuebant Matrimonio delatus est in alteram foveam Hieronymus tanto ardore pugnat adversus eos qui Matrimonium efferebant cum injuriâ Virginitatis ut ipse sub iniquo Judice vix possit suam tueri causam si reus fiat parum reverenter tractati Conjugis Digamiae Montanus dum ardentiùs oppugnat illâ—s qui passim dignis indignis aperiebant Ecclesiae fores plus satis taxatâ severitate disciplinae Ecclesiasticae in diversum incidit malum D. Augustinus advâ—â—sâ—s Pelagium toto studio dimicans aliâ—â—bi minus tribuit Libero arbitrio quà m tribuendum putant qui nunc in scholis regnant Theologicis Possem hujus generâ—s exempla permulta commemorare etiam ex recentioribus Sed praestat opinor in re odiosâ non esse admedum copiosum In Epistolâ praefatoriâ ad Opera Sti. Hilarti Erasmus and (b) Ardebant veteres Illi tanto sincerae pietatis Catholicae defensienis ardere ut dum unum errorem omnium virium conatu destruere annituntur saepe in alterum errorem oppositum deciderent vel quodammodo decidisse videantur Sic Dienysius Corinthiorum Antistes c. In Praefatione Lib. 5ti Bibliothecae Stae Sixtus Senensis have given us Instances of this in several of the Antients as may be seen in the Margent 3. It has not been uncommon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have Mens Persons in admiration and that not alone for Advantage but for their Learning and Piety so highly to revere them as before Christians were aware to become over-credulous and to follow their Conduct Some Hereticks have been of sufficient Learning and appearing Sanctity and have been adhered to in the Church by no small number of Proselytes The Reputation for Virtue which once Pelagius had with St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine his several Works who were his Followers what noise his Opinions made in the Christian World and how the Relicks of them were continued among the Massilians or Semipelagians may be seen at large in (a) Historia Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 3.4 5 6 7. Vossius 4ly What a strong influence have Hopes and Fears upon Men Hopes of Ease Profit Preferment by their pleasing Insinuations gain great command over the Soul and are apt to bribe the Judgment Fear of Evil of Confiscations Imprisonments Gibbets and Stakes tho' they are no proper Topiques to convince the Reason yet work hugely upon the Passions And Men are often frighted from those Opinions out of which they could not have been fairly and quietly disputed It is the Observation of a Learned and Honourable (b) The Lord â—f Falkland in his Reply p 122. Person That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign of many thousand Livings which are in England the Incumbents of not an hundred chose rather to lose their Benefices for Popish Opinions than to keep them by subscribing to the Tenents of the Reformed Church of England All who for the greater part must be
in all Writings in the Margent Points of Faith in the Oral Tradition of them must have as pass'd from one Country to another so been clothed in variety of Languages the divers Accents in the pronuntiation of the words passing thro' multitudes of mouths the divers turnings of the Speakers Head or Body this way or that way the allusion to some precedent discourse or the like may change the Sense of words when spoken by one from what they were when spoken by another as well as make them different in writing from what they were in speaking and Equivocation too is incident to words spoken as well as written So that if for these reasons the Conveyance of the Faith antiently spoken or preach'd by Scripture will be uncertain as is said for the same reasons if they are truly reasons the sense and meaning of the Divine Planters of the Faith will as uncertainly descend to us by an Oral Tradition All this while I have mentioned only casualties and the more innocent infirmities as shortness in understanding inheedfulness in Memory incident to Testifiers on the score of which there may be a misrepresentation of things tho' there be no Conspiracy to deceive But then if the question be concerning the Soberness and Integrity of all the Testifiers what assurance can be given of them There is a proneness in Men not alone out of inadvertency and precipitancy but also out of capriciousness and ambition to be an Author to substract to to add to to alter Stories which meeting with Credulity in others as it often happens the Stories and their Errata pass currant and uncorrected Besides if there be not such a disinteressedness of the Position or thing testified which frequently falls out then the Honesty and Fairness of the Testifiers in their Relation may be the more questionable and others may be the more suspending in their Belief I suppose what I have said is enough to shew the descent of Testifications from Age to Age to be liable to great failures especially if it be applied to Religion where the Articles of Faith the Sacred Practices and Senses of Scripture which concern all these are so many and withal there are so many and so tempting Diversions of Men as has been above proved But here it is replyed that Religion is rather a Remedy of the failures attending on the descent of Testimonies And to prove a far greater steadiness of Oral Tradition in Religion's Affairs than in any other there are (a) Sure Footing p. 224 225 226 227 228. alleg'd the great Divine Author of Religion the superlative Interest of Mankind in it the publick miraculous Confirmation of it the Preaching and Reception of it in all even the remotest parts of the World the entertainment of it among the first Christians when they were at Age to judge of the Miracles and Motives to Christian Religion and among the after Christians when they were yet scarce able to speak much less to judge and taught by Nature to believe their Parents And from hence are inferr'd an incomparable recommendableness in Religion and an Obligation to believe and to practise it and likewise a most forcible Obligation on Children to believe Parents attesting to it Answ I acknowledge that to be true which is alleg'd in the just commendation of Religion and that it does deserve and bind to a zeal diligence and sincerity in the Treatment of it far above what Men bestow on any worldly thing whatsoever I question not also but that the incomparable remarkableness of Religion did fix deep and indeleble Impressions on the Christians of the first Age and on all afterwards who have known how to value love and tender it answerably to its true worth But this is that at which I stop i. e. Whether Christians have in all Ages so cherish'd the even now named virtues for Religion as to send it down to us without any disguises and in its genuine and first Integrity and this by virtue of an Oral Tradition and of Fathers long continued testifying to their immediate Descendents whether they have not been too cold and careless for it or too whether their zeal for want of a governing Prudence has not sometimes transported them from one Error to an opposite one Whether they have been so single and upright in the Maintenance of the Truths of Religion as the Simplicity of it does require especially may we doubt of this Candor and Ingenuity in those who hold the Doctrine of Equivocation I think that he who has considered the Genius of Mankind will see it probable enough that Christians may have given worldly Interests and corrupt Passions too great a Preference in their dealing with Religion the particular Truths and Practices of it And that were it not for some Leading Men Persons of Parts and Spirit who sometimes sway the Age in which they live and yet these too may be overborn by a dissenting Multitude the most would be too prone to turn almost with every wind that should blow and to steer their Course thither whence they might look for the greatest Temporal ease and advantage And this Men might do and yet (a) Sure Footing p. 230. not as a pack of impudent Knaves that conspir'd to abuse their Posterity purposely to damn them For Men may act contrarily to their Duty and to the wrong of themselves and of theirs eventually nay too often do so and yet not out of a desperate and form'd purpose to destroy either From what has been discours'd it follows that the incomparable recommendableness of Religion and its obligingness to be believed do not conclude a continued and necessary obligation upon Children to believe their Parents through all Ages And yet suppose that there were such an Obligation upon Children to believe their Fathers unless Children did believe such an obligation incumbent on them Oral Tradition would be still failable For then Children Posterity would take the liberty to judge for themselves and to vary from the Fathers as they should see reason for it Or if they should believe as Fathers did it would be casual Therefore to make all sure 't is (a) Sure Footing p. 215 216. own'd and undertaken to be proved That every Age in the Church and all Persons in it look'd upon themselves as obliged not to vary in any thing from the Doctrine and Practice of the precedent Age. Yet I cannot discern in all the following Pages of that Author any proof of this but only an attempt to prove an Obligation on those in every Age to believe those of the precedent Age. But as this Obligation has been sufficiently disprov'd so yet if it were true could it infer that they in every Age look'd upon thought themselves obliged to believe those of the Ages foregoing for 't is notorious that Men do not always think themselves oblig'd to believe and to do that which yet they are really obliged to believe and to do But I can't discover any Indication
writing things especially Religious Doctrines and Practices should be preferr'd to the hazarding them under the Custody of Oral Tradition That rather than This being the surest means of their preservation For 1. It is much less difficult because there is much less requir'd to keep a Book safe and to hand it from one Generation to another than to preserve a great many of Opinions and Senses of that Book and to transmit them from Age to Age unalter'd To the former meer plain honesty and an easie care are sufficient Here 's no need of much Apprehension and Memory and of a constant Care and Diligence to teach Posterity here 's no necessity of Posterities scrupulous attention to teaching Fathers and of an happy docility or promptness to learn and all this through a long series of Ages But these Punctilios as has been shew'd before are necessary to a faithful and unerring communicating of Truths to after-Ages in the way of Oral Tradition therefore there is the more of difficulty and consequently the more likelihood of miscarriage 2ly Books if kept safe do faithfully preserve what is deposited with them Their Memory if I may so speak never fails them there 's no need of an operous care to teach them or rather to remember them what their Authors once told them committed to them They warp not with the Times in which they are extant tho' through several Generations They are not subject to levity and wantonness of Judgment nor to rebound from one extremity to another not to a sequaciousness after Men whose Parts render them remarkable They are not temptable by Hopes or Fears To be read and to be accepted of is their worst Avarice or Ambition Nor does the Paper or Parchment look the paler at a Rack or a Gibbet or the Characters fly thence upon Persecution A Prison can't scare them they are us'd to confinement to a Chain it may be in a Library Thus it is with Books But Oral Traditioners are expos'd to all those inconveniences as has been before manifested whence their Traditions are infected with an answerable craziness Therefore for this second together with the first reason Writings Books are the far less obnoxious the more safe Conveyance And what has been said of Writings in general is much more true particularly of the Sacred Scriptures Object Against what has been delivered there may lye some seeming prejudice It may be objected that Writings have their fates as well as their Authors They are not exempt from either a total perishing by the oscitancy and carelesness of the Owners or by violence from Enemies Or at least they are liable to corruption and that either wilful and out of design as speaking of Holy Scriptures by Hereticks or through the ignorance or negligence of Transcribers Whence it will follow that notwithstanding the comparative easiness of transmitting Writings and the Fidelity of them if preserv'd yet they may be ravish'd by violence from their Possessors how honest soever they be or they may be lost by them if they should prove careless or they may be adulterated upon one account or another And so Writings may not be preserv'd or not preserv'd sincere and entire Answ That losses and decays alterations and suppositiousness have been incident to Writings is confess'd Yet how many have escap'd injury through long tracts of time have arrived safe with us some plenty of them in Libraries does manifest for there have been more or less Lovers of Learning and Antiquity who have been Guardians to these Orphans And Learned Men have Methods as Trial by Chronology and the Customs and Modes of each Age insight into the Style and Genius of an Author Collation of Copies with others by which to distinguish the Spurious from the Genuine Works and to right the Genuine by requisite Emendations And of such kind of reliefs Scriptures are capable as well as other Writings But we shall see that they have a much greater advantage and are secur'd above all Writings else by peculiar Protections and have been blessed with a special safety SECT II. Sacred Scriptures may be suppos'd to have been in danger from 1. Malice and Design 2ly From Casualty and Neglect And to have been in danger 1. From Malice and Design of profest and publick Enemies 2ly Of pretended Friends I mean Heticks 1. The open and profess'd Enemies of the Holy Scripture design'd and labour'd for their extinction As no Professors of any Religion were ever so persecuted by the opposition and fury of the World as Jews first and then the Christians so the Scriptures in Sympathy with them have been expos'd to great hazards but yet have survived them When the Chaldeans had over-run Judea wasted and plunder'd the Towns ransack'd and destroy'd the Metropolis Jerusalem had rifled and ruined the Temple when they who had escap'd Slaughter were carried away Captive into a strange Land and the Captivity there lasted 70 years Whenas amidst all these hurries Vrim and Thummim the Ark the Pot of Manna the Rod of Aaron whenas these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and choice Rarities of that People and all their Glory sunk in the Deluge of an universal devastation Yet the Holy Scriptures which then were triumph'd over all these Calamities tho' the Copies were then but few in comparison of what they were afterwards For soon after the return from Captivity and reedification of the Temple (a) Nehem. 8.6 7 8. Ezra also Joshua and Bani caus'd the People to understand the Law and the People stood in their place So they read in the Book of the Law of God distinctly and. Some time after this under the Tyranny of Antiochus The (b) 1 Mac. 1.56 57 58. Books of the Law which were found were rent in pieces and burnt with fire And wheresoever was found with any the Book of the Testament or if any consented to the Law the King's Commandement was that they should put him to Death Notwithstanding this Persecution the Holy Book out-liv'd this Scrutiny and Cruelty In the Times of Christianity in the Reign of (c) Petav. Ration p. 241 242. Dioclesian there was an Imperial Edict that the Churches should be demolish'd and the Holy Scripture should be burn'd and tho' some were so base as to betray the Divine Books to the Enemy who thence were call'd Traditores yet they weathered out this Storm also Next to an invisible Divine Hand defending them so many were the Copies of the Sacred Books especially after the Jews return from Babylon and more after the Gospel had been Preached and entertain'd in the World and likewise so zealously did both Jews and Christians concern themselves in them that the Enemies might as soon have rooted out of the World the whole Generations of Jews and Christians as the Bibles 2ly For the same reasons that there should be a Depravation of of Holy Scripture by Additions Substractions or Alterations in any thing material as to Faith and Life that there should be any
design'd and successful Adulteration of them by Hereticks is not well conceivable For so many were the Scriptures in their Originals so very numerous were their (a) Qui Script in Graecam linguam verterunt numerari possunt Latini autem Interpretes nullo modo c. August De Doctrinâ Christianâ L. 2. C. 11.5 Translations diffus'd throughout the World where there were Christians that if Hereticks did raze out some passages or foist in others in any way corrupt the Text they could do so but in some Copies and in the Places where they came But that they should succeed in a corruption of all the Books or of the greater part of them is not imaginable Especially whenas the Scriptures were so continually and diligently read by all Christians So that such Impostures must needs have been soon discover'd and warning been giuen to Christians to beware of the Cozenage For this purpose we have the Suffrages of Card. Bellarmine and of Sixtus Senensis Although says the (a) Eisi multa depravare conati sunt haeretici tamen nunquam defuerunt Catholici qui eorum corruptelas deteâ—erint non permiserint Libros sacrâ—s corrumpi c. De verbo Dei Lib. 2. Cap. 75. Et verò Cardinal the Hereticks have endeavoured to deprave many things he means in the Scriptures yet there were never wanting Catholicks who detected those Adulterations and permitted not the Sacred Books to be corrupted (b) Quoniam ut Augst inquâ—t licèt omnes Fatres in hoc conspirâssent ut seipsos atque alios Scripturarum veritate privarent qâ—od imaginari non potest non tamen potuissent omnes undique codices falsare c. Biblioth Sanct. p. 727. And Sixtus Senensis quoting St. August tells us that though all Fathers had conspir'd to deprive themselves and others of the Truth of the Scriptures which none can imagine yet they could not have corrupted all the Books every where How hard it was to corrupt the Holy Scripture without detection and an Alarm to the Christian world perhaps some guess may be made by the unsuccessfulness of such an Attempt on Books much inferior to them For when the Papists had set a design on foot and proceeded some way in it of Purging the Writings of the antient Fathers and of some moderate Authors the Dishonesty soon appeared and was complain'd of SECT III. It can't be thought that through Casualty or supine negligence the Scriptures should expire should be suffered to be a Prey to Moths Mould and Worms to linger away in a Consumption or to be embezeled in Vulgar and Sordid uses such as (a) Ne thuris piperisve sis cucullus Lib. 3. Epig. 2. Martial warns his Book against For that which doth most envigor Mens Care and Industry for the preservation of a thing is their high value especially Religious Veneration for it and such Jews and Christians have had for the Scriptures because known by them to be Sacred to be the Divine Oracles and the Contents of them to be of Eternal Consequence to them The Jews to whom pertaineth the giving of the Law were most accurately diligent in keeping the Revelations given to them most entire (b) De verbo Dei L. 2. C. 2. Hi Sigitur omissis Card. Bellarmine quotes Philo affirming That for above 2000 years even to his Time not one word had been chang'd in the Law and that any Jew would dye an hundred times rather than consent to any such change He adds out of Johannes Isaac that the latter Jews adore the Law ut Numen as a Deity and if it chanc'd to fall on the ground bid a Fast for expiation of the mischance This Bellarm. relates and this is one of his five Arguments why it is not to be conceiv'd that ever the Jews should have corrupted the Old Testament out of Malice to the Christians as the mistake of some is The admirable and stupendious Care and Industry as Heinsius calls it of the Masorites is known who numbred every Verse Word and Letter In Proleg ad exercit in novum Testam And this they intended as Sepimentum Legis a Mound or Fence of the Law against Alterations The Jews had not a greater and more Sacred Estimation of the Law than the Christians had for both Law and Gospel particularly the Fathers 1. Their great laboriousness in the Study and Explication of the Sacred Writings in their many Comments and Homilies is an indication of their incomparable Honour for them In which work they did so abound that suppose the Bibles should be lost which is suppos'd only not granted far the greater part rather the whole might be recovered out of their Comments Homilies and occasional Citations in their other Writings As this is an Argument of their singular Honour for the Scriptures so it is a providential relief and supernumerary way of retrieve of them supposing the loss of them 2ly The Fathers high estimation and reverence for the Scriptures are legible in Expressions concerning them and Deferences to them Irenaeus thus begins his third Book We have not known the disposition of our Salvation by others than those by whom the Gospel came unto us which indeed they then preach'd but afterwards by the Will of God delivered it to us in the Scriptures as the future Foundation and Pillar of our Faith Afterwards in the end of the 66th Chap. of his 4th Book He bids all Hereticks and principally the Marcionitâ—â— and those who were like them saying That the Prophecies came from another God read diligently the Gospel which was delivered by the Apostles to us and read diligently the Prophets and you will find every Action every Doctrine and every Suffering of our Lord delivered in them Tertullian against Hermogenes C. 23. I adore the fulness of the Scripture Let Hermogenes and his shew that it is written If it be not written let him dread the Woe which pertains to them who add or detract Athanasius in his Oration against the Gentiles says That the Scriptures are enough for manifestation of the Truth St. Jerom. on Ps 98. Every thing that we assert we must shew from the Holy Scripture All things which concern Faith and Manners are found in the plain places of Scripture according to St. Augustine in the 9th Chap. of his 2d Book of Christian Doctrine These are some amongst others of the Father's reverential acknowledgments their full and clear depositions for Holy Scriptures sufficiency for and Prerogative of being the sole Rule of Faith and in this Point they speak like as very Protestants as those who form'd the (a) The words of the Article are these Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be prov'd therby is not to be requir'd of any Man that it should be believ'd as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Evangel nigrum Atram Theol. 6th Article of the Church of England And
must have been satisfied if such the pleasure of God had been with an Oral Tradition Hence (a) Quid antem si neque Apostolâ— quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat c. Adversus haer L. 3. C. 4. Irenaeus might say what if the Apostles had not indeed left the Scriptures to us would it not have behoov'd us to follow the Order of Tradition which they had delivered to them to whom they committed the Churches to which Ordination do assent many Nations of Barbarians which believe in Christ having Salvation written in their hearts without Characters or Ink by the Spirit and diligently keeping antient Tradition This I say Irenaeus might with reason write especially against those (b) Evenititaque neque Scripturis jam neque traditioni consentire eos Idem L. 3. C. 2. who consented neither to Scriptures nor Tradition i. e. such as descended from the Apostles But when as the whole Scriptures were long since written and plentifully Communicated to the Christian world the Case is quite alter'd Besides the nearer things are to their Origin they are the more genuine and sincere but at the farther remove they are from it the more they are in danger of changes and decays Tradition must be conceiv'd to have been much more pure at the distance of an hundred or an hundred and fifty or two or three hundred years from the Apostles and therefore then might be more rationally argued from in some cases than after 7 8 or 9 hundred years in which revolution of so many more Ages and after intercurrencies of many more accidents Tradition may be more suspected of that consumptiveness and of those changes which Time brings upon all things and therefore an Argument from it would be much more infirm Farther yet besides Oral the Fathers of the more Primitive Times might have written Traditions such Records to prove that such a Doctrine or Doctrines were profess'd by Apostolical Men by Holy Martyrs and Confessors successively to that present Age as were then extant but are perish'd since (a) Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotlo Salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur apud quas ipsae Authenticae eorum literae recitantur sonantes vocem repraesentantes faciem uniuscujusque Tertul. de Praescrip Tertullian speaks of the very Authentick Letters of the Apostles which were even then preserved in the Churches So that the Fathers might with the more safety trust and allege Tradition's suffrage than we can who live so incomparably farther off from the Apostles Days than they did it being very likely that in such a far longer space of time the more contingencies have interpos'd to disturb the clearness of Commerce between them and us 4ly Proofs may be brought in a divers manner and for different uses St. Paul quoted Heathenish Poets as well as the Law and the Prophets 'T is usual where the Subject is properly manageable upon the stock of Reason yet to argue likewise from Testimony to call in the concurring Judgment of others In Religion Protestants do not believe the Fathers to be infallible and yet it has been usual with them to cite them both in Homiletique Discourses and in Polemique Writings Testimony tho' it be not apodictical yet it is plausible Example in point of Opinion as well as of Practice is much gaining upon many is not alone commonly better understood but more prevalent too than Reason with many Capacities And when 't is the Testimony of many as Tradition is it causes those of an opposite Opinion to appear the more singular in their Persuasion and singularity is not of the best Credit So then the Fathers might on some occasions use Tradition's Authority the general consent of Christians in some Truth for one or more Ages yet not demonstratively but topically somewhat the more to repress or to disparage in other's Opinion the importunity of a petulant Adversary to shame a contumacious Heretick not as is said Sure Footing p. 140 to declare that the rejecting Tradition and adhering to Scripture made him an Heretick or they might urge it to the more tractable as a probable motive to assent tho' not as a Rule of Faith yet as such a persuasive as might be an occasion of Belief and the better dispose the Soul toward Faith and Assurance Yet still supposing Holy Scriptures to be the proper and ultimate basis of Christian Faith and that such Traditions were consonant to them and not over-ruling of them I believe that these considerations may be useful for the construction of the Fathers in such passages wherein they make the most honourable mention of Tradition and to shew that notwithstanding such a mention of Tradition yet they might yield to Scripture the Supremacy in the regulation of Christian Faith especially whenas they speak so reverently of Scripture in other places of their Works nay and give them the Precedence when they compare the one with the other And thus if after a digression yet I think not an impertinent one I have proved the Father's unquestionable Care and Diligence in preservation of the Holy Scriptures by their Religious and unparallell'd esteem and veneration for them SECT IV. 3ly The Holy Scriptures are secur'd by God's especial Protection of them Reason suggests that as there is a God a Supreme and first Cause who made the world and also provides for the welfare of his great Workmanship so that the Divine Providence does mainly watch over those Creatures on which God has imprinted the fairest Characters of his Power Wisdom and Goodness Such a Creature is Man And this Divine Providence is the Catholick Sanctuary of Mankind After all Mens own projectings and labours here is their last and surest repose They can't with a rational comfort Trade Travel Eat Sleep but with a sober hope of the Divine help and benediction For if Divine Providence smile not all Mens wisest Counsels and stoutest Endeavours will be successless They may go forth and never return home their Table may be a Snare and their Sleep Death more than in a Metaphor Next Religion tells us that God has designed and prepar'd for Man an everlasting Blessedness and determin'd of the due Qualifications of Man for that Blessedness and it is agreed that in the Sacred Scriptures God has revealed Himself concerning both These Scriptures are the lively Image of God the faire Copy of his Will a bright Express of his Truth and Holiness a Perspective into his Mind and into many of his secret Counsels authentick Records of the many and glorious manifestations of the Divine Wisdom Power Goodness Mercy and Justice in making governing all things and in the Salvation of Sinners From the dictates of Reason then and much more of Religion it is consequent that God has an especial Care that the Scriptures be safe on which he has impressed so much of himself which were
As to the certainty of Scripture's Sense is Scripture in earnest so utterly obscure Will their Author say so of the Histories of Livie or Tacitus or of the Philosophical Writings of Plato and Aristotle or of Euclid's Elements Could not God speak clearly and intelligibly to Men as Men have done and that in matters of the greatest consequence to them or would he not do so The Assertion of the one would impeach his Wisdom of the other his mercy and kindness to Souls And if Scriptures leave us so quite in the dark why do they call themselves a Light a Lamp say Ps 119 105.13â— Ps 19.7 8. that they enlighten the Eyes and make wise the simple Were the Books of the Old Testament the Gospels Acts and Epistles of the New Testament in the respective times in which they were writ in themselves unintelligible by them to whom and for whose Souls health they were writ If they were so then they were useless and vain And Oral Tradition could not expound them which was not in Being when those Books were first written for That deals with the Ages following the first conveys what was at the first delivered unto Posterity Did God then write only to amaze his Church 'T is acknowledged that there are several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things hard to be understood which it might please God should be partly to win the greater veneration to the Scriptures for what is obvious and presently seen through is in the more danger of contempt partly for the exercise of Christian's Industry Humility and Charity towards each other on occasion of dissent But howsoever the Scriptures are not so lock'd up but that a compâ—tent diligence and a Beraean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or readiness of mind may be a Key to them may open them in all Points necessary to Salvation And if in other things we remain ignorant or not so certain we may well bear with it while we are yet but in viâ and not comprehensores on our way unto but have not yet reach'd perfection That which makes the noise of Scriptur's obscurity the more loud is that Men are apt to look upon the many subtilties of the Schooles and Niceties of Polemick Writers as Articles of Faith and that men have more mind to fathom depths and to humour their curiosity for which end I believe the Scriptures were not intended and hence are ever racking the Scriptures and vexing the Sacred Text than to exercise themselves in a sober understanding of what is sufficiently plain and in a consciencious practise of the Holy Rules of Life which are evident enough If Christians would more seriously apply themselves to these two things they would find in the Scriptures employment enough and they would be more contented with their difficulties The Romanists have raised a cry of Scriptur's darkness upon another account and out of Policy For having embrac'd several Tenents and Practices which Scripture does condemn or not countenance either it is wholly silent of them or they are but meer appearances there which are snatch'd at and yet it is inconsistent with their grandeur or profit or the affected reputation of an infallibility to part with they are faine to press Tradition to serve in their Wars and for the defence of them Thus they have first made a necessity and then have invented a Remedy for it But when all is done the Remedy is more imaginary than real For how unsure a Conveyance and consequently how weak a Proof Oral Tradition is in matters of Christian Faith and Practice has been already evicted So that if we must be ignorant of Scriptures Sense unless Oral Tradition bless us with the Exposition of it and Scriptures no farther a Light than it is tinded at Tradition's Candle we must sit still in much ignorance or wander in great uncertainties for that cannot relieve us it is not that infallible Commentator it is pretended to be 2. To the upbraiding us with our Distractions I reply 1. Before the charge can be made good that the choice of Scripture for our Canon was the cause of our many Differences and that upon that pretence we should exchange Scripture for Oral Tradition it must be suppos'd that Oral Tradition is a sure and infallible clew to guide us out of the Labyrinth of Errors into the way of Truth and Peace the contrary to which has been sufficiently proved For otherwise to leave Scripture and to follow Tradition would be to relinquish a Guide or Rule which being indited by an unerring Spirit cannot mislead us and to chuse one which may and will carry us out of the way Nor will the pretence of Vnity make amends for this For true Christian Peace can't be otherwhere bottom'd than on Truth when and so far as it is a Cement of Men to the disservice of Truth it commences Faction Nor Reason nor Religion allow much less commend an Agreement of Persons to err together 2. They who have the most amorously espoused Tradition have also their many and great Differences as has been shew'd above only through Fear in some and Policy in the rest they are hush'd up more than amongst us and so do better escape the observation and talk of the World Nay that Church may be justly arraigned as the guilty cause of that which they call a great Schism viz. The Separation of so many Churches from them the Churches call'd Protestant by their imposition of unlawful and therefore impossible termes of Communion with them And (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nilus tells the World that their Imperiousness was the reason of the great Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 21. 22. Thus as the Church of Traditioners have no few Dissentions among themselves so they have given a beginning and continuance to the quarrels between them and a considerable part of Christendom 3. Ther 's no need of fetching our Distractions from the Rejection of Oral Tradition there are are other true manifest Causes of them assignable Our Church once flourish'd with Peace and that without the aid of an Oral Tradition whil'st the Reverend Bishops were suffered to govern it and the Royal was able to countenance the Ecclesiastical Authority But when the pious King and blessed Martyr was engag'd in and diverted by the turmoils of a Civil War when Episcopacy was chang'd for Anarchy when the Golden reins of Government in Church and State were broken then begun and increas'd our Divisions and Calamities Unto which it may be there were some assisting Causes from without some who helped to kindle and to blow our Fires And if the Roman Church should chance into the like afflicted State with ours it would be obnoxious to the like Confusions If the Mitre should be forsaken by the secular Crowned Heads and a mutinying multitude should pull their Holy Father out of his infallible Chair then 't is not altogether improbable but that Children would less heavken