Traditions, which were certainly once in the Church, but now utterly loft. There is no queftion to be made, but the Apostles taught the first Chriftians the meaning of those hard places which we find in their and other holy Writings. But who can tell us where to find certainly so much as one of them? And therefore where is the fidelity of this Church, which boasts fo much to be the Keeper of facred Traditions? For nothing is more defirable than thofe Apoftolical Interpretations of Scripture; nothing could be more ufeful; and yet we have no hope to meet with them either there, or indeed any where elfe. Which is no reproach to other Churches, who do not pretend to more than is written; but reflects much upon them, and difcredits them, who challenge the power of the whole Church intirely, and would pafs not onely for the fole Keepers and Witneffes of Divine Truth; but for careful prefervers of it. For of what fhould they have been more careful than of these useful things, whereof they can tell us nothing? when of unprofitable Ceremonies they have moft devoutly kept, if we could believe them, a very great num

ber.

3. They tell us indeed of fome doctrinal Traditions alfo which they have religiously preferved; but mark I beseech you with what fincerity. For to juftifie thefe, they have forged great numbers of Writings and Books under the name of fuch Authors, as it is evident had no hand in them; which is another reafon why we cannot give credit to their reports, if we have no other authority. There are very few perfons now that are ignorant how many Decretal Epiftles of the ancient Bishops of Rome have been devised, to establish the Papal Empire; and how shamefully a Donation of Constantine hath been pretended, wherein he gave away the Roman Empire and all its Rights to the Pope. Which puts me in mind (as a notorious proof of this) of the Forgeries that are in the Breviary it felf, where we read of Conftantine's Leprofie, and the cure of it by Sylvester's baptizing him (which are egregious Fables) and of the Decrees of the fecond Roman Synod under that Pope Sylvefter; wherein the Breviary affirms Photinus was condemned: when all the world knows that Photinus his Herefie did not fpring up till divers years after the death of Sylvefter. And there are fo many other Arguments which prove the Decrees of that Synod to be a vile forgery, that we may fee, by the way, what reafon they have to keep their Liturgy in

an

an unknown Language; left the people perceiving what untruths they are taught, inftead of God's Word, fhould abhor that Divine Service, as juftly they might, which is ftuffed with fo many. Fables.

It would be endless to fhew how many paffages they have foifted into ancient Writers to countenance their Traditions, particularly about the Papal Supremacy; by which fo great a man as Thomas Aquinas was deceived: who frequently quotes Authorities which are mere Forgeries, though not invented by him, I verily think, but impofed upon him by the fraud which had been long practifed in that Church. For we find that the Canons of fo famous and univerfally known Council as that of the first at Nice, have been falfely alledged even by Popes themselves. Boniface for inftance, and Zofimus alledged a counterfeit Nicene Canon to the African Bishops in the fixth Council of Carthage; who to convince the false dealing of thefe Popes, fought out with great labour and diligence, the ancient and authentick Copies of the Nicene Canons and having obtained them both from Alexandria and from Conftantinople, they found them for number and for fence to be the very fame which themselves already had; but not one word in them of what the Popes pretended. The fame I might fay of Pope Innocent, and others, whom I purposely omit, because I ftudy brevity.

4. And have this farther to adde, that as they have pretended Tradition, where there is none; fo where there is, they have left that Tradition and therefore have no reason to expect that we fhould be governed by them in this matter, who take the liberty to neglect, as they please, better Tradition than they would impofe upon us. None are to be charged with this, if it be a guilt, more than themselves. For inftance, the three Immerfions; i. e. dipping the perfons three times in Baptifm, was certainly an ancient practice, and said, by many Authors, to be an Apoftolical Tradition; and to be ordained in fignification of the bleffed Trinity, into whose name they were baptized. And yet there is no fuch thing now in ufe in their Church, no more than in ours; who justifie our felves, as I fhewed above, by a true opinion, that Rites and Ceremonies are not unalterable: which it is impoffible for them to do, unless they will cease to prefs the neceffity of other Traditions upon us, which never were fo generally received, as this which is now abolished. To which may be added the D 2 custome

*

cuftome of giving the Eucharist to Infants, which prevailed for feveral Ages, and is called by St. Auftin, an Apoftolical Tradition; the custome of adminiftring Baptifm onely at Easter and Whitfontides with a great heap more, which it would be too long to enumerate. Nor is it neceffary I fhould trouble the Reader with them, thefe being fufficient to fhew the partiality of that Church in this matter; and that we have no reafon to be tied to that, merely upon their Authority, which they will not observe, though having a far greater. Nay, all difcreet perfons may eafily fee what a wide difference there is between them who have abrogated fuch Traditions as had long gone even in their Church, under the name of Apoftolical; and us who therefore do not follow pretended Traditions now, becaufe we believe them not to be Apoftolical, but merely Roman. He is ftrangely blind, who doth not fee how much more fincere this Church is than that, in this regard.

5. Befides this, we can demonftrate, that as in these things they have forfaken Traditions, fo in other cafes they have perverted and abused them, turning them i to quite another thing. As appears to all that underftand any thing of ancient Learning, in the bufinefs of Purgatory; which none of the moft ancient Writers fo much as dreamt to be fuch a place as they have now devised; but onely afferted a Purgatory-Fire, through which all, both good and bad, even the bleffed Virgin her self, must pass, at the great and dreadful day of Judgment. This was the old Tradition, as we may call it, which was among Chriftians; which they have changed into fuch a Tradition as was among the Pagans.

6. But it is time to have done with this; elfe I should have infifted upon this a while, which I touched before, and is of great moment: That the Tradition which now runs in that Church, is contrary to the certain Tradition of the Apostles and the univerfal Church; particularly in the Canon of Scripture. In which no more Books have been numbred by the Catholick Church in all Ages, fince the Apoftles time, than are in the VI Article of Religion in this Church of England; till the late Council of Trent took the boldness to thrust the Apocryphal Books into the holy Canon, as nothing inferiour to the acknowledged Divine Writings. This hath been fo evidently demonftrated by a late Reverend Prelate of our Church, in his Scholaftical History of the Canon of the Scri

ptures,

ptures, out of undoubted Records, that no fair Answer can be made to it.

But I must leave a little room for other things that ought to be noted.

III. And the next is a confequence from what hath been now faid. That there being fo little credit to be given to the Roman Church onely, we cannot receive thofe Doctrines of Truth which that Church now preffes upon our belief, upon the account of Tradition. For inftance, That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches: That the Pope of Rome is the Monarch or Head of the univerfal vifible Church: That all Scriptures must be expounded according to the sense of this Church: That there are truly and properly feven Sacraments, neither more nor leß, inftituted by our bleffed Lord himself in the New Testament: That there is a proper and propitiatory Sacrifice offered in the Maß. for the quick and dead, the fame that Chrift offered on the Croß. In fhort, the half Communion, and all the reft of the Articles of their New Faith, in the Greed published by Pope Pius IV. which are Traditions of the Roman Church alone, not of the Universal; and rely folely upon their own Authority. And therefore we refufe them; and in our Difputes about Traditions, we mean these things; which we reject, because they have no foundation, either in the holy Scripture, or in universal Tradition; but depend, as I faid, upon the fole Authority of that Church, which witneffes in its own behalf.

For whatsoever is pretended, to make the better fhew, all refolves at laft into that; as I intimated in the beginning of this Difcourfe. Scripture and Tradition can do nothing at all for them, without their Churches definition. Though their whole infallible Rule of Faith feem to be made up of those three, yet in truth, the last of these alone, the Churches definition, is the whole Rule, and the very bottom upon which their Faith ftands. For what is Tradition, is no more apparent, than what is Scripture, ac cording to their Principles, without the Authority of their Church, which pretends to an unlimited power to fupply the defect even of Tradition it self.

In short, as Tradition among them is taken in to fupply the defect of Scripture; fo the Authority of their Church is taken in to fupply the defect of Tradition: but this Authority undermines

them

them both, because neither Scripture nor Tradition fignifie any thing, without their Churches Authority. Which therefore is the Rule of their Faith; that is, they believe themselves.

To which abfurdity they are driven, because it is made evident by us, that there have been great diverfities of Traditions, and many changes and alterations made, even in things called Apoftolical, &c. and therefore they have no other way, but to fly to the judgment of the present Roman Church, to determine what are Traditions Apoftolical, and what are not: by which Judgment all mankind must be governed, that is, we must believe them, and they believe themselves: which they would have done well to have faid in one word, without putting us to the trouble of feeking for Traditions in Ecoks, and in other Churches. But they would willingly colour their pretences by as many fair words as is poffible, and fo make mention of Scri pture, Tradition, Antiquity; which when we have examined, they will not ftand to them, but take sanctuary in their own Authority; faying, They are the fole Judges what is Scripture, and what Tradition, and what Antiquity; nay, have a power to declare any new point of Faith, which the Church never heard of before. This is the Doctrine of Salmeron and others of his fellows: That the Doctrine of Faith admits of additions in effential things. For all things were not taught by the Apostles, but such as were then neceffary and fit for the Salvation of Believers.

By which means we can never know when the Chriftian Religion will be perfected; but their Church may bring in Traditions by its fole Authority, without end.

Nay, fome among them have been contented to refolve all their Faith into the fole Authority of the prefent Roman Bifhop; according to that famous saying of Cornelius Muffus (promoted by Paul the Third to a Bishoprick) upon the fourteenth Chapter to the Romans: To confeß the truth ingenuously, I would give greater credit to one Pope, in those things which touch the mysteries of Faith, than to a thousand Hierom's, Auftin's, Gregory's; to Say nothing of Richard's, Scotus's, &c. for I believe and know that the Pope cannot erre in matters of Faith. Which contemptuous Speech he would never have uttered, to the difcredit of those great men whom they pretend to reverence, if he had not known more certainly that the Tradition which runs among the ancient Fathers is against them, than he could know the Pope to be infal lible.

There