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certainty of fenfe, does in fo doing overthrow the certainty of the Christian religion. And what can be more vain, than to pretend, that a man may be affured, that fuch a doctrine is revealed by God, and confequently true, which if it be true, a man can have no affurance at all of any divine revelation? Surely nothing is to be admitted by us as certain, which being admitted, we can be certain of nothing. It is a wonder, that any man who confiders the natural confequences of this doctrine, can be a Papift, unless he have attained to Mr Creffy's pitch of learning; who, fpeaking of the difficult arguments wherewith this doctrine was pressed, fays plainly, (Exomol. c. 73. § 7.), "I must answer freely "and ingenuously, that I have not learned to answer "fuch arguments, but to defpife them." And, if this be a good way, whenever we have a mind to believe any thing, to fcorn thofe objections against it which we cannot folve; then Chriftian religion hath no advantage above the vileft enthufiafms; and a Turk may maintain Mahomet and his Alcoran, in oppofition to Chrift and his doctrine, againft all that Grotius, or any other, hath faid, if he can but keep his countenance, and gravely fay, "I have not learned to answer "fuch arguments, but to defpife them.'

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10. I will add one instance more in another kind, to fhew the uncertainty of oral and practical traditions; and that fhall be the tradition concerning Pope Joan; than which fcarce any was ever more generally received in the hiftorical kind, Many and great authors affirm it, as teftifiers of the general fame. None ever denied it till the reformers had made use of it to the disadvantage of Popery. Since that time, not only Papifts deny it, but feveral of our own writers cease to behieve it. Phil. Bergomenfis tells the story thus: "Anno "858, John, the 7th Pope, &c. The tradition is, that "this perfon was a woman, &c. Here is an oral tradition. He concludes thus: "In deteftation of whofe "filthiness, and to perpetuate the memory of her name, "the Popes, even to this day, going on proceffion with "the people and clergy, when they come to the place "of her travail, &c. in token of abomination, they "turn from it, and go a by-way; and, being past that K k 2 "deteftable

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deteftable place, they return into the way, and finish "their proceffion." Here is one practical tradition. "And, for avoiding of the like mifcarriages, it was de"creed, that no one fhould thereafter be admitted into "St Peter's chair, priufquam per foratam fedem futuri "Pontificis genitalia ab ultimo Diacono Cardinale attrec"tarentur.' Here is another with a witnefs. Sabellicus relates the fame, (Ennead. 6. l. 1.), and moreover fays, that "this porphyry chair was, in his time, to be feen in the Pope's palace." He adds, indeed, that "Platina thinks, that this tradition of Pope Joan was "not faithfully delivered to pofterity. But, however, (fays he), fuch a tradition there is concerning the firft practical tradition." Platina fays, that "he may not deny it." For the fecond, he thinks "the chair "rather defigned for a ftool, for another ufe," &c. He concludes, "Thefe things which I have related are "commonly reported, yet from uncertain and obfcure "authors therefore I refolved (fays he) briefly, and

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nakedly to fet them down, left I fhould feem too ob

ftinately and pertinaciously to have omitted that which "almost all affirm." It is no wonder that he fays the authors of this report were uncertain and obfcure, fince fo very few writ any thing in that age. But, fuppose none had writ of it, fo long as he acknowledges it to have been a general oral tradition, attefted by a fo lemn and conftant practice, it has, according to Mr S.'s principles, greater certainty than if it had been brought down to us by a hundred books written in that very age. So that here is an oral and practical tradition, conti nued, we are fúre, for fome hundreds of years, preserved and propagated by a folemn practice of the Popes, clergy, and people of Rome, in their proceffions, and by a notorious cuftom at the election of every Pope; and in a matter of fo great importance to their religion, (the honour of the fee of Rome, and the uninterrupted fucceffion from St Peter, being fo nearly concerned in it), that, had it been falfe, they had been obliged, under pain of damnation, not only not to have promoted it, but to have used all means to have difcovered the falfity of it. Therefore Mr S. is bound, by his own principles, either to allow it for a truth, or else to give an

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account when and how it began; which may poffibly be made out by "we metaphyficians," (as he ftyles him felf and his scientifical brethren, p. 340.), but I affure him it is past the skill of note-book learning, p. 336.

SECT. X. The fourth answer to his fecond demonftra tion.

1. T is not the prefent perfuafion of the church of It not

fcended to them by oral tradition as the fole rule of it. And this being proved, the fuppofition upon which his demonftration is built, falls to the ground.

And for the proof of this I appeal to the decree of the council of Trent (Decret. primum quartæ feff.) in which they declare, that because the "Christian faith "and difcipline are contained in written books and "unwritten traditions, &c. therefore they do receive: "and honour the books of fcripture, and alfo tradi"tion, pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia, with equal pious "affection and reverence; " which I understand not how thofe do who fet afide the fcripture, and make tradition the fole rule of their faith. And confonantly to this decree, the general doctrine of the Romish church is, that fcripture and tradition make up the rule of faith. So the Roman catechifm (fet forth by order of the coun cil of Trent) fays (in præfat.) that "the fum of the "doctrine delivered to the faithful is contained in the "word of God, which is diftributed into fcripture and "tradition." Bellarmine (De verbo Dei, &c. 1. 4. c 12.) fpeaks to the fame purpose, that "the fcripture is a "rule of faith, not an entire, but partial one. The en"tire rule is the word of God, which is divided into two partial rules, fcripture and tradition." According to this the adequate rule of faith is the word of God,, which is contained partly in fcripture, and partly in the tradition of the church. And that fcripture is looked upon by them as the principal rule and primary foundation of their faith, and tradition as only fupplying the de fects of fcripture, as to fome doctrines and rites not contained in feripture, must be evident to any one that has been converfant in the chief of their controverfial di

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vines. Bellarmine, (De verbo Dei non fcripto. 1. 4, c. 9.). where he gives the marks of a divine tradition, fpeaks to this purpose, that that which they call a divine tradition is fuch a doctrine or rite as is not found in fcrip ture, but embraced by the whole church; and for that reafon believed to have defcended from the Apostles. And he tells us farther, (ibid. c. 11.) that the Apoftes committed all to writing which was commonly and publicly preached; and that all things are in fcripture which men are bound to know and believe explicitly: but then he says, that there were other things which the Apostles did not commonly and publicly teach; and thefe they did not commit to writing, but delivered them only by "word of mouth to the prelates and "priefts, and perfect men of the church." And these are the Apoftolical traditions he speaks of. Cardinal Perron fays (Reply, obfervat. 3. c. 4.) that " the fcrip

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ture is the foundation of the Christian doctrine, either "mediately or immediately. And that the authority of "unwritten tradition is founded in general on these fen"tences of the Apoftle, Hold the traditions, &c. 2 Theff. ii. 15. again, The things which thou haft heard of me among many witneffes, commit to faithful men, &c." 2 Tim. ii. 2. And that "the authority of the church to preferve, and efpecially to declare thefe, is founded "in this propofition, viz. That the church is the pillar "and ground of truth." 1 Tim. ii. 15. So that, according to him, the primary rule of faith is the fcripture "which the authority of tradition is founded." Knott (Charity maintained, c. 2. §1.) fays exprefsly, "We acknowledge the holy fcripture to be a moft per"fect 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 judge, to keep, to propofe, to interpret it," &c. So that, according to him, fcripture 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 fame doctrines which are contained in fcripture, but other doctrines not therein contained, is plain from what he fays elsewhere, (Reply to Mr Ghillingworth, c. 2. §170.), "We do not diftinguish tradi

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"tion 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 fcripture or Bible." Bellarmine (De verbo Dei, &c. l. 4. c. 2.) alfo fays the fame. And as for the interpreting of fcripture, he tells us, that this is not the office of a rule, but of a judge. "There is

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(fays he, Charity maintained, c. 2. $3.) a great and plain diftinction between a judge and a rule: for as "in a kingdom the judge hath his rule to follow, which the received laws and cuftoms; which are not "fit or able to declare, and be judges themselves, but "that office muft belong to a living judge fo the holy

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fcripture is and may be a rule, but cannot be a judge.' Here he makes the fcripture 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 chap ter 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 fole rule of faith) had been as abfurd as it would be to write a book, to prove that Turks are not the only Chriftians in the world. Mr. Creffy likewife (not very confiftently with himself), lays down this conclufion, (Exomolog. c. 20.), " The entire "rule of faith is contained not only in scripture, but "likewife in written tradition."

§ 2. Now, all this is as contrary as can be to Mr Rushworth's new rule of faith. Therefore Mr White fays, (Tabul. fuffrag. p. 96.), " They fpeak ill, who teach "that fome things are known in the church from scrip 66 ture, fome by tradition.” And Dr Holden (in oppofition to those who make fcripture any part of the rule of faith) advances one of the most wild and uncharitable positions that ever I yet met withal, viz. (Analyf. fid. 1. 1. c. 6.) That" if one fhould believe all the ar"ticles of the Catholic faith, &c. for this reafon, be"cause he thought they were all expressly revealed in "fcripture, or implicitly contained, fo as they might "be deduced from thence, and would not have belie"ved them, had he not judged that they might be e"vinced from fcripture: yet this man could be no true "Catholic; becaufe (as he tells us afterwards, c. 8.) we must receive the Chriftian doctrine as coming to

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