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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	catholic_n	church_n	particular_a	3,316	5	8.1839	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58738	Several weighty considerations humbly recommended to the serious perusal of all, but more especially to the Roman Catholicks of England to which is prefix'd, An epistle from one who was lately of that communion to Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls, declaring the occasion of the following discourse.	T. S. Epistle from a late Roman Catholick to the Very Reverend Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1679 (1679)	Wing S183; ESTC R16533	49,205	54

Scotland and Ireland Denmark Swedeland and the far greatest part of the United Netherlands Switzerland Germany and Hungaria are subject to Bishops and Church-Officers of their own without any dependance upon Him at Rome Even in Bohemia Poland France Transylvania some Countreys of Italy there are multitudes of Reformed Churches which have nothing to do with the Popes Jurisdiction And thus that Large Universality of Power that the Old Gentleman at Rome brags of is at last shrunk away into Spain part of France Italy and Poland some of the Cantons of Switzerland some of the Low Countreys and Germany And here you have a Map of the Papal Universality They boast indeed much of their New Acquisitions in the Indies but not to Examine by what Right they Invaded those Countreys after such a brutish manner were those Conversions made driving the poor Natives to Baptisme like Herds of Beasts to Watering that their own Writers blush at Recording it And when all comes to all it will appear that they Butcher'd more than they Baptiz'd Bartholomaeus Casa a Bishop that lived in those Countreys and Acosta the Jesuit are sufficient Witnesses in this matter And since We are entred upon this much cryed up Universality of the Roman Church it will not be amiss to glance a little at those other Claims and Pretensions whereby she would Impose her self on the World for the Onely Immaculate Spouse of our Blessed Saviour Antiquity is much talked of and it is a kind of Universality in regard of Time as that before mentioned was of Place and Persons But how groundlesly the Roman Church appropriates and ingrosses it to her self is too apparent from the Novel Tridentine Constitutions and Articles And besides it can be no Discriminating Note in as much as it is applicable to things prophane as well as Sacred even to Paganism it self and to Heresies many of which are as Antient as the first Century as well as to Orthodox Doctrine And if we come down to Practice we shall find it far more feasible to discover the True Church here or there at present than to discern where it was in the constant Series of many Ages History being one of the most obscure intricate tedious and fallacious Principles in this case whereon we can possibly proceed Nor could any particular Church or the Catholick Church it self at the Beginning lay any Claim to the Title of being ancient Besides the Characteristical of Truth is not so much to be Antiqua Old as Prima from the Beginning from Christ and his Apostles and such Antiquity the Church of England is very willing to be tryed by in every one of her Articles So that here are two Conditions deficient Soli Semper Antiquity belongs not only to the True Church nor is it alwayes competible to it To this is reducible their Duration or Continuance but this is rejected in the same manner as their Antiquity is to which it is so near allyed And here by the way we have a most Satisfactory Reply to that thred-bare Demand Where was your Religion before Luther I will not at present use his Answer though very good That it was in the Bible where their 's never was Nor will I demand where theirs was before the late Assembly at Trent some years after Luther But I say it was by wonderful Providence preserved all along down from the Apostles dayes to ours and so will be to the Consummation of the World So we need not turn over all the Immense Volumes of Antiquity to give in a Catalogue of visible Professors of the Reformation and yet this may and hath been sufficiently done but our only Task is to prove our Religion the same which was taught by the Blessed Jesus and his Apostles which can only be done by appealing to the Sacred Records of the Gospel and as for the Professors we have his Promise that he will preserve a Select Company though sometimes living in a corrupt visible Church as Wheat among Tares or the seven thousand in Elisha's time that had not bowed their Knees to Baal 1 Kings 19. 18. to his second Coming though he hath not told us where to find them in every year And therefore such as go about to demonstrate that such Professors were not in Being do but attempt to enervate our Saviours Promise and render themselves and Christianity equally ridiculous The Multitude Extent and Variety of their own Professors is indeed Matter of great Ostentation and it hath in part been adverted to in the Business of Universality But in Truth it is so far from being a certain Argument of the Truth of their Church that it rather concludes the Contrary Fear not little Flock sayes our Saviour and strive to enter in at the Straight Gate What shall we think of that time S. Jerome speaks of Cum ingemuit Orbis Mirabatur se factum Arianum when as Vincentius Lyrinensis speaks in a manner all the Latin Bishops partly by Force and partly by Fraud were deluded into Arianisme It is indeed a Note of Anti-Christ Revel 17. That the Whore shall sit upon many Waters which Waters are People and Nations and Tongues As for the Name Catholick so often objected we know that Names have little Weight with wise men that there were some Hereticks who called themselves Apostolical Men that S. John in his Apocalypse tells us there were such as had a Name to live but were dead and that Bellarmine himself acknowledges that if one only Province should retain the True Faith yet might it be called Catholick The Succession of Bishops from the Apostles times is another very plausible Topick on which they much Descant and I confess it bore great Sway with me for a long time especially as to the Validity of Holy Orders Yet upon Mature Deliberation I found more of Pomp than real Solidity in this Pageant though our Ears are continually filled with Clamour about it For neither doth it agree only with the true Church since themselves acknowledge it among the Greeks as in the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Alexandria the former whereof derives from S. Mark the other down successively from S. Andrew to this day nor if you will credit S. Ambrese de paenit l. 1. c. 6. is Succession of Persons so much to be heeded as Succession of Doctrin Non habent haereditatem Petri qui fidem Petri non habent Wherefore if the present Roman Church want the Life and Soul of True Apostolical Succession to wit Apostolical Doctrine a meer local and titular Succession is little worth But the Mischief is that the visible Succession of Bishops in that Sea is not so Glorious and Uninterrupted as is pretended And this is notorious in all Monuments of History and Antiquity that it hath been fouly stained by Simoniacal and Violent Entries upon the Popedom by Schismatical Intrusions and by a perfect Alteration of the very Form and Substance of Election appointed by the Apostles and practised in the primitive Church

Saints and Angels is here looked upon as at least very Dangerous and not having any President in the Old or New Testament S. Paul hath imparted his mind to us in this matter Coloss. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen The Doctrines of Merit Indulgences Purgatory c. are presumptuous at best and full of Abuses contrived more for the Priests profit than the Penitents comfort All which considered together with the small grounds for the belief of them they are worthily disowned by the Church of England Nor was Bellarmin when out of the heat of School Disputes of a Different Judgment l. 5. de Justif. c. 7. Propter incertitudinem c. By reason of the Uncertainty of our own Justice and the Danger of Vain Glory Tutissimum est c. It is the safest course to repose all our Confidence in the alone Mercy and Benignity of God In short you will find that the Church of England in her Reformation which was most Regular and by the Supreme Authority of the Whole Nation retains all the Essentials of Christianity and onely Rectified such things as She found and the whole World complained were some Ridiculous some Impious Others Sensual and Cruel Such are the Innumerable Crossings Repetitions of Names Kissings of the Pax and Images Offering up of Incense and Candles Impertinent Pilgrimages c. and a Thousand the like absurdities Such as teach men to put their Confidence in Bless'd Beads and Medals Counterfeit Relicks Confraternities Sodalities to trust to Mundayes Prayers for the Dead and our Ladie 's Litanies and Ascribe to pieces of Wax called Agnus Dei's Divine power and Efficacy even as much as is due only to the Pretious Blood of the Son of God Nor is this the belief and practice onely of a few Old Wives but the Authentick Book of the Sacred Ceremonies of the Roman Church tells us how Urban V. sent three Agnus Dei's to the Greek Emperor with most Blasphemous Rythmes annexed concerning their Virtue Amongst others this is Verbatim set down Peccatum frangit ut Christi sanguis et angit that it Destroys Sin as the Blood of Christ doth And this was not the Practice of one Phantastical Pope alone but according to the foresaid Book l. 1. Every Pope in blessing these Agnus Dei's uses this Prayer That it would please thee O God to bless these things which we purpose to pour into this Vessel of Water prepared for thy Name so as by the Worship and Honour of them we thy Servants may have our heinous offences done away the blemishes of our Sins wiped off and thereby we may obtain pardon c. No Meaner a Person than the Angelical Doctor S. Thomas Aquinas attributes the same Virtue of taking away Venial Sins to Holy Water And likewise 3. qu. 25. a. 3. in c. most Orthodoxly defends That Stocks and Stones I mean Images are to be worshipped with Latria the same Honour that is due to the Creator Suarez and Vasquez teach the same To Conclude this Discourse In the Church of England You will meet with all that is Good and Warrantable in the Church of Rome what ever is Necessary to Salvation and that by the Confession of the Learnedest Romans Let Bellarmin speak for all l. 4. de Verbo Dei c. 11. The Apostles themselves never used to Preach openly to the people much less propounded as Articles of Faith other things than the Articles of the Apostles Creed the Ten Commandments and some few of the Sacraments because saies he These are simply Necessary and Profitable for All Men the Rest besides are Such as that a Man may be Saved without them This made Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalatto even at his Return to Rome to acknowledg the English Church to be a True Apostolical Church And Father Fulgentio the Venetian Companion to Father Paul the Famous Compiler of the History of the Council of Trent had a most High value and Tender Respect for this Church as having in it all the Requisites for Faith Manners and Discipline And that Incomparable Man Hugo Grotius had so Venerable an Affection for her above all other Reformed Churches that he told our Embassador in France That he Intended after his Return from Swedland whither he was designed Embassador from the States General to transport himself with his whole Family hither on purpose to dye in the Bosome of the English Church In such Repute is She even with Foreigners And to speak one word to the Roman Catholicks of England even in their own Language By their own Concessions the Church of England is safer to Communicate with than that of Rome For To Believe onely what is in the Scripture is as much as is necessary as Bellarmin Confesses To worship God without an Image is acknowledged by all both safe and acceptable To pray immediately to God and use the Lord's Prayer without Repeating so many Ave Maria's to perform the best works we can and not stand on the point of Merit c. and so of the other matters in Controversie is by both Sides granted secure Whereas the other Things in debate are strongly disputed by very Learned and Pious Men. Now what would a Man require more than what all acknowledge to be in the Church of England viz. Means effectually conducing and sufficient to Believe Well to Pray Well to Live Well and to Dye Well It remains onely that the Truly Devout and Loyal Persons in our Nation that are of the Roman Persuasion will but vouchsafe to take the Courage and Pains following Our Blessed Saviour's Advice John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures and S. Paul's 1 Thess. 5. 21. Prove all things 2 Cor. 13. 5. And examine your selves whether you be in the Faith A POST-SCRIPT To the Roman Catholicks of my Acquaintance Ever Honoured and still Respected Friends HAving thus fairly and ingènuously unbosomed to you the very thoughts of my Heart I beseech You not to take with the Left Hand what I offer with the Right Many of You I know to be Truly Vertuous Noble and Loyal to Many I have most Endearing Obligations and I think none can contradict me if I affirm That my Converse among You was repay'd with Love and Esteem and I take Heaven and Earth to witness that I still value you as tenderly as I do my own Soul God onely knowes how many Throes and Struglings I had to part with those whom I so Earnestly affected But Truth at least as it seems to me is Great and will prevail My Request to You All is That You would not let us break in point of Charity though our Opinions are not altogether Coincident That You would for the removing any scruples that may arise believe me as I shall answer at the Last Tribunal That I was not onely Sincere but Zealous while I remained among You and that whatever I performed was with the perfect Intention of and Compliance with the Roman Church and as Validly done as any Actions of that nature are capable of admitting Lastly I desire for God's Religion's and Your own sake that we may refrain from All Contumelious Reflexions on one another In that Long Converse and Great Familiarity I had with you it is impossible but Failings and Imperfections must be discovered on both sides Let All be concealed Under the Mantle of that Charity which hides a multitude of Sins still think of me as you ever found One that sought not Yours but You an honest plain down-right meaning Person And as for my present Proceedings Leave me to stand or fall to that Great Judge to whose and his Churche's Censure I with the most profound Obedience Submit whatever I Write or Do. And Once more I recommend to your most impartial and serious Consideration this Important Quaery Whether it be not Sufficient Ground to withdraw from the Communion of a Church when She is convinced publickly to Teach Practise and Command Treason and Rebellion to its Members Sicut Reputari cupiunt Haberi Fideles as the Lateran Council Thunders it out as they desire to be Accounted and Treated as Christians As to the Traiterous and Monstrous Plot now in Question What Mr. Oats and Mr. Bedlow with the rest of the Informers Evidences are I know not nor am I much Inquisitive His Sacred Majesty and his Great Council are Judges of that But of this I am as sure as I can be of any humane Transaction That the Roman Church Teaches and Commands such Practices That they have been frequently put in Execution abroad and especially at Home And that consequece to such Doctrines Mr. Colem●● by his own Confession and Letters which he did not deny was very Busie in attempting to Dissolve the Parliament and in procuring Assistance from the French King by the interposition of Monsieur le Chese the Jesuit who was that King's Confessor to use his own words To Carry on the Mighty Work in their hands no less than the Conversion of Three Kingdoms and the Utter Subduing of a Pestilential Heresie which hath Domineer'd over a great part of this Northern World a long time and that there never was such hopes of success since the days of their Q. Mury as now in These days And I am sure that a most Worthy Justice of Peace was Barbarously Murder'd who took the Examinations upon that occasion and that many other Insolent Actions were committed by that Party Nor can it be any satisfaction to the Nation for well-minded Persons to say they Disclaim and Detest such Actions unless they Kenounce the Principles and Disown the Authority which have promoted and still are ready to prompt men to such Desperate Practices God Almighty grant Us All his Grace to Consider in This Our Day the Things that Belong to Our Peace before they be Hid from Our Eyes Amen FINIS

Several Weighty CONSIDERATIONS Humbly Recommended To the Serious Perusal of ALL but more especially To the Roman Catholicks OF ENGLAND To which is prefix'd An Epistle from one who was lately of that Communion to Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of St Pauls Declaring the Occasion of the following Discourse He is not joyned to the Church who is departed from the Gospel S. Cypr. de Lapsis Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth Galat. 4. 16. Yet I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved 2 Cor. 12. 15. LONDON Printed for and to be sold by John Holford in the Pall-Mall over against St. Albans-street and John Harding at the Bible and Anchor in St. Pauls Church-yard 1679. Mart. 12. 1678 9. IMPRIMATUR Guil. Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc. Lond. à Sacris Dom. TO THE Right Reverend and Honourable HENRY LORD BISHOP of LONDON Dean of His Majesties Chapel and one of his most Honourable Privy Council My Lord I Have some Years since met with a Prophecy and many talk of such things at this Time which may yield a little Comfort in this Day of our Visitation The Original it self I have not seen but it is taken out of Telesphorus de Tribulat and thus cited by Dr. John White Antichristus non poterit subjugare Venetias nec Parisios nec Civitatem Regalem Angliae The Memorable Baffle that the Venetians gave to Paul the Fifth the frequent Picqueering of the Sorbon with the same See may in part Justifie But the Wonderful Preservations both Antient and Modern of this Kingdom and Metropolis from the Restless Attempts of many of that Faction will I hope Evince its Probability How Instrumental your Lordship hath been towards that Security and Happiness we yet Enjoy how Indefatigable your Pains how Undaunted your Courage in the most Critical Conjunctures is with Gratitude and Applause proclaimed to the World not only by your own Large and Numerous Flock but by the Loud Acclamations of the Whole Nation And though I never was so fortunate as to be an Eye-witness of those Heroick Vertues which daily Influence Your Charge rendring You so Amiable to the Churches Friends and at the same time so Formidable to her Enemies yet that Universal Character which is every where given of You engages me to look on you as no less than a Person in whom Concentre those Requisites which some Criticks in Morality how justly I dispute not have exacted to make up a Compleat Christian. They are these The Orthodox Faith and Loyalty of a true English Protestant the Zeal and Good Works of a Roman-Catholick the Gratious Words and Painful Preaching of a Puritan And all these Inculcated by your Life as well as Injunctions on your most Learned and Religious Clergy But I must remember my self at the Judges Barr and not at the Heralds Office and that this Paper attends You as a Petition and not as a Panegyrick Your most Gracious Approbation of my Desires intimated to you by the Reverend Dean of St. Pauls Invites the one as Your undoubted Worth and Honour Extorts the other Vouchsafe then my Lord to Accept into the Arms of your Noble Charity what is penn'd purely with a Spirit of Charity They are such Reflexions as Reclaimed my self and may with Gods blessing contribute to the Reducing of some others as unwarily mis-led as I was To which purpose I endeavour Brevity and Perspicuity designing this Discourse for the Vulgar the Learned have richer Mines to recurr to and therefore waving that Accurateness of Method and Expression which Your Lordships Judicious Eye may expect but neither my Intent the present Affliction I lye under the unsettledness of my Affairs nor Absence from my Books all which afford not that Tranquillum Scribentis otia will admit However when all Athens was Busie and in Motion the Cynick for Company would needs rowl about his Tub. And if so obscure a Person as my self intrude into the Crowd of those Many Able Contenders for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which daily almost appear upon the Stage I have St. Augustines Advice for my Apology De Trinit l. 3. c. 3. In places infected with Heresie all men should write that have any faculty therein though it were the same thing in other words that all sorts of People among many Books might light upon some and the Enemy in all places might find one or other to encounter him Besides I thought this the best Expedient Publickly to testifie my Sincere Re-union to that Church in which I received my Baptism and Education and how faithfully I am and resolve by Gods Grace to continue My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant T. S. AN EPISTLE From a Late Roman Catholick To the Very Reverend Dr. EDWARD STILLINGFLEET Dean of St. Pauls c. Very Reverend and Honoured Sir THough I am not altogether Ignorant of your Person yet my chief Acquaintance is with those Learned Works of Yours the best Representative wherewith you have enriched this Age obliged the Church of England and I speak it experimentally given the greatest Satisfaction to ingenious Minds that sober and unaffected Reason I do not mean such stuff as Mr. White 's and Mr. Serjeant's Demonstrations can possibly perform And thus Sir I have been your most intimate Friend and Servant these seven or eight years All which space I have been a very attentive Spectator of your famous Encounters and to my Comfort seen single Truth and modest Reason combate with whole Troops of Old Subtle Confident Cholerick and I may add Malicious Adversaries And I hope I shall have Cause to bless God to all Eternity and thank you for so Glorious a Sight But before I return my full Acknowledgments to you I must crave Leave to give you a Short but True Narrative only be pleased not to believe it as you style Mr. Cressey's a Legend of my self I had my Education in one of the chiefest Free-Schooles in London under the Care of a very able Instructor and by him was sitted for the University But about a year before my advancing thither it happen'd that an ancient Gentleman came frequently to divert himself in a Walk that was near the School and so took Occasion to discourse with divers of the Lads I being the Head of the School at that time he pretended a particular Complacency though I know not why in my self He never conferred about any Point in Religion but still entertained me with speaking Latin which he did very fluently and politely and his constant Discourse was about the rare Method of Education used beyond Sea the great Number of their Students the Diligence of their Tutors the Exactness of their Discipline and much more to the like Effect What this Conversation would have produced at last I know not But the chief Master of the School perceiving me often with him at last forbad me his Company

having Fellowship with any of those horrid Works of Darkness whereof many of its Professors and the Religion it self are accused And this may serve for my old Friends Now as for your self and all other candid disinterested Persons I know it will be satisfactory to put you in mind that to impute my Proceedings to the frowning of the Times on that Party is Fallacia non Causae pro Causa a Mistake of the Adjunct or Circumstance of Time for the Principal Motive The Conversion of a Sinner is the Work of Omnipoteuce who as he is most free in all his Actions ad Extra so especially in the reclaiming of a strayed Sheep He is no wayes tied up to the Circumstances of Whom How Where or When. Nescit tarda Molimina Spiritûs Sancti Gratia sayes S. Bernard And if he were graciously pleased more effectually to touch my Heart now than at any other time and times of Affliction are his especial Seasons Afflictio dat Intellectum Cum Occideret eos c. I know no other Account can be given of it than that of our B. Saviour Even so Father for so it seemed Good in thy Sight Nay I have before demonstrated that these Thoughts have been long hovering in my Mind though perhaps they had not been altogether so suddenly declared but out of a deep Resentment of the Dangers of any further neglecting the Divine Call and a seasonable Desire to Testifie to the World my perfect Abhorrence of such desperate Practices and Principles which I am convinced are pernicious both to Publick Polity and Civil Society And I hope none can reasonably be angry that I have gained more Experience now I am thirty six years old than I had when I was but twenty These are the Principal Matters I thought worth your Knowledge at present wherein I protest before God and Man that I have no other Design but the Quiet of my Conscience and the Salvation of my Soul And when I have given a publick Tolerable Account of this Affair I will take my leave of this Noble Science of Controversie as Mr. Serjeant calls it having alwayes been more addicted to Ascetick Theology and sit down with Divine Anselm's Resolution Quid restat per Totam Vitam meam nisi ut Defleam Totam Vitam meam Crosses and Afflictions are no more than I except and deserve having hitherto been so little acquainted with them The Wise man hath read my Doom to me Fili accedens ad servitutem Dei praepara Animum tuum ad Tentationem As for the sincerity of my Resolutions I can but Appeal to that Great Searcher of Hearts and Tryer of Reins And though some Folk talk of Dispensations from Rome for the taking All Oaths and Complying with All Externals and no meaner a Person than the Author of the Difference between the Church and Court of Rome out of Arch-Bishop Spotswood's History mentions some such like thing practised in Scotland yet with submission to the Learned Author I conceive there is no such matter since the Pope himself could never be induced to Approve even the single Oath of Allegiance but expresly condemned it and severely prohibited the taking of it as containing saith he divers Points contrary to Salvation And moreover put case any thing of that nature were in Being I here solemnly Avow that I disown all such Pretended Authority One Circumstance not very Material I confess but I would not too much swerve from the Accurate Exactness of Writers of Epistles Apologetical though Mr. Cressey observe it in the Beginning and I in the Conclusion must not be forgotten and thus it is To you above all Persons living I have an Obligation to recurr in Spiritual Concerns for I am your Parishioner Holborn having been the place of my Nativity I have nothing more but with all Respect and Gratitude to assure you I am December 15. 1678. Reverend and Honoured Sir Your most obliged and Humble Servant T. S. Several Weighty CONSIDERATIONS Humbly Recommended To the Serious Perusal of ALL especially the Roman Catholicks of England IT is a very good Rule prescribed by some Spiritual Writers That in Converse we should rather discourse of Things than Persons And I intend as much as the Matter will permit to observe it in this subsequent Treatise carefully avoiding all personal Reflections especially upon such as are living and shall only bring some Doctrines and Practices to the Test which though they pass for currant with many will yet be found adulterate and contrary to Holy Scripture the best Genuine Antiquity and Right Reason highly scandalous to the Christian Religion in General destructive of Civil Government fatal to Humane Society and very pernicious both to the Spiritual and Temporal Concerns of the Practisers even in their private Capacity In short I shall very plainly and briefly endeavour to make good two Assertions 1. That there is no sufficient Ground for any one to forsake the Communion of the Church of England and incorporate with that of Rome 2. That there is all Reason imaginable both for such as have been educated in the Roman Communion to Reform and for such as have unwarily ingaged with her to Return This was the happy Result of these following Considerations upon my own Heart And it shall be my Prayer that they may have the same Blessed Effect in the impartial Perusers of them The sacred Oracles of the Holy Scriptures deservedly Command our first Inquiry We have Cardinal Bellarmine's own Concession that in the grand Question of the Church the Scripture is better known than the Church Consequently then not only her Authority but her very Being must be subordinate to it And therefore in the first place let us see what Sentiments the Church of England hath of these Heavenly Records and whether Hers or those of the Roman Church be more Consonant to Pure Antiquity Reason and Holy Writ it self All Protestants and particularly the Church of England Artic. 6. look upon the Holy Scriptures to contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatever is not read in them or cannot be proved from them is not to be Imposed on any to be received as an Article of Faith or a Necessary Requisite to Salvation Whence it appears that they take Them to be the Onely Complete and Adequate Rule both of Faith and Life sufficiently intelligible and easie in matters that concern what is simply necessary to make us Good and Happy They consequently hold that since Holy Scripture is the Rule of our Faith it must have an exact Proportion to that whereof it is a Rule So that Matters of Faith are not to be extended beyond this Rule nor can any unwritten Traditions any way be pretended to appertain to the Substance of Faith Moreover the Rule being the Idea Model and great Exemplar of what is regulated by it it is in order of Nature before the thing so regulated And if the word of God be antecedent to Faith it self it must likewise