the monstrous and unwarrantable character of this decree, it is supplied by the direction that, on pain of anathema, the Latin Vulgate translation of the Scriptures, to the exclusion of the originals, should be esteemed the standard of faith; a translation, of which at the time the existing copies were so various and discordant, that the labours of three popes, Pius IV., Sixtus V., and Clement VIII., were afterwards employed in endeavours to procure a correct edition." And, notwithstanding their infallibility, they did not succeed after all, but each laid the other under the most dreadful curses if he should dare to alter his translation. Whereas, on the contrary, the Church of England expressly declares that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.” In his Dissuasive from Popery, Bishop Taylor defines tradition to be any way of delivering a thing or word to another, and so every doctrine of Christianity is by tradition. ” 3 Tradition therefore means the delivery of knowledge from one person to another, and also the matter which is delivered, and which may be done either by writing or by word of mouth. There are also true and false traditions. The Holy Scriptures are written traditions, and the spring and source of all legitimate antiquity. Common consent, however, has now generally confined the meaning of the word tradition to those doctrines or opinions which have been handed down orally, or which have been subsequently committed to writing by other parties than those who originally delivered them. Oral tradition, which passes by word of mouth from one generation to another, is the most uncertain and the most liable to alterations and additions of any; for it is a fact within every man's experience that a story loses nothing by repetition. We must judge of the credit due to any tradition by the respectability of the party who originally delivered it, as well as by the hands through which it has passed before it has reached us. "It is a calumny," says Bishop Patrick, "to affirm that the Church of England rejects all tradition." "But we think," says Bishop Stillingfleet, "that there is some difference to be made between what we certainly know the apostles delivered in writing, and what is now impossible for us to know, namely, what they delivered by word without writing." Whatever doctrine it can be proved that Christ or his apostles delivered, ought to be received as the very word of God, with the same reverence as the books of the Old or New Testament, which come to us with as full a testimony of their divine original as can be desired. None however of the peculiar doctrines or opinions which the Roman Church would force on us as "the unwritten word of God" possess any such authority; but are pure inventions of their own to prop up their corruptions. We may ask, with Tertullian, "If it be written, let us see it; if it be not, take heed how you add to the undoubted word of God." The Roman Church has not continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine, and in the tradition which St. Paul delivered to her when he rescued her from the bondage of sin, and enlisted her in the service of Christ. We do not receive 1 Perceval's Roman Schism, pp. 362, 363. 2 Article vi. 3 Part ii., lib. i., sec. 3. any tradition, not even the undoubtedly divine traditious, the written word of God, upon the authority of the church, but from the evidence of the whole Church, as the keeper of holy writ and the pillar and ground of the truth. Christ left the sacred deposit with the whole church to keep, to teach, and to hand down to posterity; but not with any particular branch of it as the sole depository with authority to declare what is and what is not scripture. Divine traditions are not at present, and never were at any time, solely and exclusively in the keeping of the Roman Church, or of any other particular church; and therefore we cannot receive the private traditions of any particular church as binding, but only the current sense of the whole church from the beginning, which is undoubtedly the best interpreter of the Holy Scriptures. St. Paul assures us that he left the same traditions everywhere, and in every church, and thanked God that the Church of Rome in his day had obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which had been delivered to them. He sent Timothy to bring the Corinthian Church to the remembrance of his ways or the traditions, which he had delivered not only in it, but " everywhere in every church;"2 therefore what has been held and constantly taught in all Christian churches, at all times, and in all places, the Church of England recognises and receives as the current sense of the whole church from the beginning. But the Church of Rome has long departed from those traditions which St. Paul delivered to her and to all other churches of his plantation, and now demands our assent to her own impostures as articles of the faith, supported only by her own sole authority. She likewise demands dominion over our faith, which even that apostle acknowledged that he himself did not possess; for the church "stands by faith," but Rome makes her members stand in her faith which her creatures declared at Trent, and not in the faith of Jesus Christ. It is blasphemy to say that the Holy Scriptures derive their authority from even the whole Church collectively, but more especially from one very unsound branch of it, as the Church of Rome maintains. The universal Church has delivered the Scriptures to us, because she is their keeper, and knew that they were the word of God, and derived their authority from Him alone. Christ and his apostles taught the Church by word of mouth, and there was a time when none of the New Testament scriptures were written, but God inspired the apostles to commit that form of doctrine which had been delivered to the different churches to writing, to be the ground and pillar of the faith. The sum and substance of the Christian religion, contained in the Scriptures, have been delivered down to us traditionally as delivered by the apostles, and practised by the whole church from their days. Some of these are the doctrine of the Trinitythe baptismal vow-the practice of infant baptism-the prayers and offices of the church, but especially in the eucharistical service-the change of the Jewish Sabbath to the Lord's Day or Sunday-the episcopal government of the body of Christ, which may be recognised by a visible succession throughout all the world, especially in Britain, where it has subsisted unbroken from the days of St. Paul-the three creeds and other things, which have providentially preserved throughout the 1 Rom. vi. 17. 21 Cor. iv. 17. 2 Cor. i. 24. 2 K VOL. II. 66 whole Church the twofold link of tradition and scripture. These traditions deliver nothing new, but only bring down to us that "form of doctrine " which had been delivered by the apostles to "faithful men," who again delivered them to other faithful men," that "obeyed them from the heart," and transmitted them to us, to be again transmitted by us to future generations. The rehearsal of the Apostles' Creed at baptism as the summary of our faith, the sincere profession of which entitles us to the grace conferred in that holy sacrament, warrants the article of the Church of England, that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." Ecclesiastical rites and indifferent ceremonies that are practised for edification in different churches, although they be not in all places one, and utterly like," yet which are not contrary to Scripture and Christian liberty, are modifications of the traditions, which were ordained in all churches. The Te Deum and the three creeds serve to transmit the faith traditionally, which was once delivered to the saints. The fathers who met at Nice brought together the traditions of their several churches, and embodied them in the symbol called the Nicene Creed. The Athanasian Creed is, likewise, the traditions of the universal Church collected about the year 430, although not by that eminent saint whose name it bears because he had been so great a champion of the true faith against the Arians, and was received into our church about a century and a half before it was received by the Church of Rome. The catholic doctrines contained in the creeds may all be gathered out of the unerring written rule of faith, "which containeth all things necessary to salvation." The collects and prayers likewise of the liturgy are mostly traditional; and in many places, the words are entirely scriptural, aud, "while Scripture is made the basis" of the whole, "the mould and form is still according to a traditionary and catholic system." 1 The Church of England does not receive any tradition or doctrine to supply the supposed defect of Scripture on necessary articles of faith; but the Church of Rome is obliged to resort to this discreditable subterfuge, in order to cover her corruptions with a decent veil. She pretends, that those lies which she speaks in hypocrisy are apostolical traditions, which have divine authority, and are therefore to be received with the same reverence and affection as the Holy Scriptures. She herself cannot tell where we may find her traditions, nor how we shall recognise the true from the false, nor give us any other evidence or assurance of their divine original than her own bare assertion. We are not bound to receive her traditions which rest on such a foundation, even although she were a much purer church than she is; but especially since the Holy Spirit has warned us against her "signs and lying wonders, and all deceiveableness of unrighteousness."-We do not receive the Scripture on her testimony alone, because she is but a part of the Church, and the most corrupted part in existence, which has not faithfully preserved even that which was committed to her own keeping by apostolic hands. The true traditions of the Church never were wholly confined to the keeping of the Roman Church, although she partook of them in 11 Cor. vii. 17. common with all other churches; but they have been kept and transmitted faithfully by the Church of England. The traditions which the Church of Rome has raised to an equality with the inspired writings, and on which she builds her faith, are not the apostolical traditions of the Church Catholic, but the private impostures of the smallest and most corrupted branch of it, and which are not only not kept, but are repudiated by all other churches. The Church of England takes the Holy Scriptures as her rule of faith, and which contains all things necessary to salvation. The writings of those who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (for prophecy never came by the will of man), are declared to be "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." "Certainly," says Bishop Jolly, "their best direction must be the Holy Scriptures; and when they see modern parties disagree abot the sense of any passage of Scripture, their safest way is to hold to that interpretation which is supported by the belief and practice of the first and purest ages of Christianity, handed down to us in the writings of the early fathers of the Church, who had far better opportunities of knowing the sense of the apostles than any can pretend to at this distance of time."1 This is the tradition to which the Church of England defers, and which she has set before us in her creeds, articles, and liturgy, and in which are embodied and preserved all the Christian verities once delivered to the saints. But credulity and ignorance being two of the chief pillars of Popery, the Church of Rome is obliged to resort to traditions of her own forging, to which she ascribes equal authority as to the Scriptures, to prop up her corrupt system. "Among the Romanists," "says Dean Waterland, "it is the present church that speaks-pretending scripture and the fathers; with us, Scripture and the fathers speak by the Church." Tradition is sometimes put for the whole Gospel, as when St. Paul exhorted the Church of Thessalonica to stand fast and hold the traditions which he had delivered to her, both by word of mouth and in writing;2 which were the doctrines that he had taught when there. He afterwards reduced those traditions to writing, to which he exhorted the Thessalonians to adhere steadfastly; for it is evident that they had forgotten, or at least mistaken, some of the doctrines which he had orally taught them. He had informed them by word of mouth of the cause which withheld the revelation of the Man of Sin, and in his epistle he appealed to that knowledge. He has not delivered in writing what that obstacle which letted was, although he may have orally informed the Thessalonians, and perhaps other churches also. It cannot therefore be said with certainty who he was that letted; but it has been generally supposed to have been the Roman Emperor, or the imperial government at Rome, before its removal to Constantinople. The dissolution of the secular Roman empire into ten smaller kingdoms or "horns," opened the door for the "little horn" of papal empire to exalt itself; 1 Plain Instructions concerning, &c., the Christian Church, by Dr. Jolly, Bishop of Moray. Republished by Parker, Oxford: price only sixpence. 1840. 22 Thess. ii., 15. and the Pope, and his tail collectively, are most eminently “that man of sin". "the man of rebellion, or the lawless man." "But most eminently such is that Christian church which takes upon her to excommunicate all Christian princes, and absolve their subjects from all allegiance to them that submit not to her arbitrary dictates and usurpations." Tradition is also used for certain common usages, which were either matters of indifference or had been surreptitiously introduced by unauthorized teachers; as the washing of hands before eating. It also meant the whole law of Moses and the ancient scriptures. To change the customs or traditions which Moses had delivered, was pronounced by the Sanhedrim to be blasphemy. St. Paul states, in writing to the Corinthians, what were the chief traditions which he had delivered orally to them, and which had been delivered to himself, which were the death and resurrection of Christ and the remission of sins; and this shows that he limited tradition to the written word of God. All true members of the Anglican Catholic Church, with God's help, believe with their hearts, confess with their mouths, and in all humility endeavour to practise, all the traditions which Christ and his holy apostles have delivered to us in the Scripture, and which have been handed down to us by the current sense of the whole Church from the beginning. What," says an eminent preacher of the present day, "indeed, are our creeds but the creeds unaltered of the Primitive Church? What are our articles and homilies but the mere application of ancient principles to modern controversies and practices, intended chiefly as a direction to those who want either means or ability to consult the original authorities? What is our Common Prayer Book itself but a digest of the prayers which have been used in the Church Universal from the remotest antiquity ?"5 But that system of tradition which the Church of Rome makes the the rule of her faith is another thing altogether, and to which the Church of England is decidedly opposed because it is "repugnant to Holy Scripture." Rome says that the Scriptures do not contain all things necessary to be believed and practised for salvation; but that many things necessarily to be believed, and practised as rules of godliness, are contained in unwritten traditions, over and above the Scriptures. The Synod of Trent, which is the spring and foundation of the modern Church of Rome, declares "that the unwritten traditions belonging as well to faith as manners, must be received with like and equal affection of godliness and reverence as the Holy Scripture itself." And that there may be no mistake in so momentous an affair, Petrus â Soto, one of their approved authors, states that "it is a rule infallible and catholic, that whatsoever things the Church of Rome believeth, holdeth, and keepeth, and are not delivered in the Scriptures, the same came by tradition from the apostles......All such observations or ceremonies, whose beginning, author, and original, are not known, or cannot be found, out of all doubt, they were delivered by the apostles." Then he reckons up all those superstitious observances which are the peculiar disgrace of Popery, and 1 Note to Pyle's Paraph. on 2 Thess. ii. 3. 'Acts, vi. 14. 2 Matt. xv. 2. Five Serm. by Rev. Dr. Hook, before the University of Oxford, p. 98. Sess. iv., dec.1. |
