but the naming of 'traditions' in some books of Scripture, and the recommending them in others, is no argument to us to inquire after them, or to rely upon them; unless that which was delivered by sermon was never to be delivered by writing, and that we knew it as certainly as that which is. And the same is to be said of the sayings of fathers who recommend traditions; for although the argument lessened every year, yet it was better then than it can be now; it could serve some uses then, it can serve none now; it might in some instances be certain, and safe in many; but now it cannot be either; neither certain, nor safe, nor necessary, nor of any use at all; which having been made to appear in the preceding numbers, it must follow that there can be no doctrinal traditions besides the matters. of Scripture; because there are none such recommended to the Church by the measures of Vincentius Lirinensis. There is no doctrine, no rule of faith or manners, which is not in the Holy Scriptures, and yet which was believed always, and in all Churches, and of all men in those Churches.' For although it is very probable that Vincentius, by this rule, intended to reprove the novelties and unusual doctrines which St. Austin, by his great wit and great reputation, had brought into the Church, contrary to the sentiments and doctrines of the fathers which were before him; yet it will perfectly serve to reprove all our late pretensions to traditions. For by this measure we find it not to be enough, that a doctrine hath been received for a thousand years together by the Catholic Church, reckoning from his period upwards; unless it were also received by the Apostolical ages and Churches throughout the world, it is nothing and if it were received by all the Apostolical Churches, and all good and wise men in those Churches, and so downwards; wherever any Church failed, it was to their own prejudice, not to the pre : though for a thousand judice of the doctrine: for that was apostolical, which was from the beginning; and whatsoever came after, could not change what was so before; and the interruption of an apostolical truth, years together, cannot annul the obligation, or introduce the contrary. So that if we begin to account by this rule of Vincentius and go backwards, it is nothing. unless we go back as far as to the Apostles inclusively : but if we begin there, and make that clear, it matters not how little a way it descends: and therefore although it is an excellent rule to reprove vain and novel pretensions, yet there is nothing to be proved by it practicably for we need not walk along the banks and intrigues of Volga, if we can can at first point to the fountain; it is that whither the long progression did intend to lead us. If any thing fails in the principle, it is good for nothing; but if the tradition derive from the fountain, and the head be visible, though afterward it run under ground, it is well enough. For if a doctrine might invade the whole Church which was not preached by the Apostles, or if the doctrine might to many good and wise persons seem to have possessed the whole Church, that is, to be believed by all those that he knows, or hears of, or converses with, and yet not have been the doctrine of the Apostles; it is certain that this universality, and any less than that which takes in the Apostles, can never be sufficient warranty for an article of faith or a rule of life, that is, the instance and obligation of a duty necessary to salvation. But how shall we know concerning any doctrine, whether it be a tradition apostolical? Here the rule of Vincentius comes in. If it can be made to appear, that all Churches and all men did, from the Apostles' time down to the time of enquiry, accept it as true, and report it from the Apostles, then it is so to be received and continued. Indeed a less series and succession will serve. For if we can be made sure that the age next to the Apostles did universally receive it as from the Apostles, then we may not reject it. But what can make faith in this ? certainly nothing; for there is no doctrine so delivered, but what is in Scripture. Indeed some practices and rituals are; because the public exercise and usages of the Church being united and notorious, public and acted, might make the rite evident as light; but in doctrines (besides Scriptures) we have not records enough to do it; and therefore this general rule of Vincentius not being practicable, and the other lesser rules or conjectures rather being incompetent, " μενωμεν ὥσπερ εσμέν, we must remain as we are," and give God thanks for the treasures of Holy Scripture, and rejoice and walk in the light of it. To pretend an apostolical tradition in matters of faith, now that the books of the fathers have been lost, and yet there are a very great many to be read for the proving of tradition, that is, that there are too many and too few; that in the loss of some of them possibly we have lost that light which could have confuted the present pretences of tradition, and the remaining part have passed through the limbecs and strainers of heretics, and monks, and ignorants, and interested persons, and have passed through the corrections and deturpations and mistakes of transcribers (a trade of men who wrote books that they might eat bread, not promote a truth), and that they have been disordered by zeal, and faction, and expurgatory indices, and that men have been diligent to make the fathers seem of their side; and that heretics have taken the fathers' names and published books under false titles, and therefore have stamped and stained the current: is just as if a Tartar should offer to prove himself to have descended from the family of King David, upon pretence that the Jews mingled with their nation, and that they did use to be great keepers of their genealogies. Rule of Conscience. It is greatly to be remarked, that there was then no heresy that pretended any foundation from Scripture; but from tradition many: for it was accounted so glorious a thing to have been taught by an apostle, that even good men were willing to believe any thing which these scholars pretended to have heard their masters preach; and too many were forward to say, they heard them teach what they never taught; and the pretence was very easy to be made by the contemporaries or immediate descendants after the apostles; and now that they were dead, it was so difficult to confute them, that the heretics found it an easy game to play, to say they heard it delivered by an apostle. Many did so, and some were at first believed and yet were afterwards discovered; some were cried down at first, and some expired of themselves, and some were violently thrust away. But how many of those who did descend and pass on to custom, were of a true and apostolical original, and how many were not so, it will be impossible to find now; only, because we are sure there was some false dealing in this matter, and we know there might be much more than we have discovered, we have no reason to rely upon any tradition for any part of our faith; any more than we could do upon Scripture, if one book or chapter of it should be detected to be imposture." Dissuasive. 23. REYNOLDS, BISHOP OF NORWICH. "The people are hereby taught, first, to examine the doctrines of men by the rule and standard of the Word; and to measure them there, that so they may not be seduced by the craftiness of deceivers, and may be the more confirmed and comforted by the doctrine of sincere teachers: for though the judgment of interpretation belong principally to the ministers of the Word, yet God hath given unto all believers a judgment of discretion, to try the Spirits and to search the Scriptures, whether the things which they hear, be so or no: for no man is to pin his own soul and salvation, by a blind obedience, upon the words of a man who may mislead him; nay, not upon the words of an angel, if it were possible for an angel to deceive; but only and immediately upon the Scripture; except when the blind lead the blind, the leader only should fall into the ditch, and the other go to heaven for his blind obedience in following his guides towards hell; whereas our Saviour tells us, that both shall fall, though but one be the leader." Sermon vii., on Hosea xiv. 24. PEARSON, BISHOP OF CHESTER. "When Christ was ascended up into heaven, and the Holy Ghost came down, when the words which Christ had taught the apostles were preached by them, and many thousand souls converted to the faith, they believed the writings of the prophets and the words of the apostles; and in these two was comprised the complete object of their faith. When the apostles themselves departed out of this life, and confirmed the truth of the Gospel preached by the last of sufferings, their death, they left the sum of what they received in writing, for the continuation of the faith in the churches which they had planted, and the propagation thereof in other places, by those that succeeded them in their ordinary functions, but were not to come near them in their extraordinary gifts. "These things were written" (saith St. John, the longest liver and the latest writer) "that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John xx. 31.) E |