Authority of them equal with that of the Bible For as the Canonical Scriptures were dictated by Divine Inspiration so these Laws they hold were from God Himself and are of the same Authority with those Scriptures They make no difference between the Inspired Writings of the Old Testament and the Books of Mishnaioth or the Talmuds which are in truth an Amassment only of the Traditions of the Jews and of the Diverse Decisions of the Schools of Hillel and Shammai of the Different Determinations of R. Akiba and R. Eliezer of R. Simeon and R. Ioshua c. bandying against one another or rather if we speak plainer they are a Rhapsody of Idle Dreams Groundless Fables Cursed Errors Superstitious Rites and Practices yea if we should instance in the Babylonick Talmud of Horrid Blasphemies against Christ of Obloquies against the Mosaick Law it self and of Contradictions even to the Law of Nature These are part of the Books so highly prized by the Jewish Masters these go along with their Oral Law which was first given by God himself and consequently is of the same Original with the Canon of Scripture But they go yet higher for they do not only equalize these Traditions with Scripture but they prefer them before it They do not only say in a Proverbial Manner that they cannot stand upon the Foundation of the Written Law without the Help of the Vnwritten one i. e. the Oral Law which they talk of and that the Words of the Law as they are found in the Text are poor and wanting but as they are expounded by the Doctors have great Riches and abundance in them And again that very Great and Weighty Matters depend upon these Little Traditions which they contend for but they are so bold and presumptuous as to proceed further and give a far Greater Deference to these Traditions and Doctrines of their Wise Men as they call them than to the Holy Scriptures themselves For they tell us that their Doctors have done more good viz. as to strengthning and confirming of Religion by their own Sayings than by the Words of this Holy Book it self And accordingly their Advice is My Son attend more to what the Scribes say than to what is said by the Law though I know this may admit of another Sense viz. that we ought to look more to the Sense of the Law than the bare Letter of it But that in the Talmud is plain and can have no other Meaning To read the Holy Scripture and to be studious in searching out the Sense of it is good and not good i. e. it is not of any considerable Advantage but to turn over the Mishnah Night and Day is a Vertue which will have a great Reward hereafter and to learn the Gemara is an incomparable Vertue Yea the Jews blasphemously say that God himself studies in the Talmud every Day Here you see they prefer their Delivered Law before the Written one they make the Infallible Scriptures truckle to the Fabulous Traditions of the Mishnah To this purpose it is a Noted Saying of the Hebrew Rabbies that the Text of the Bible is like Water the Mishnah like Wine and the Six Books of the Talmud are like the Sweetest Honey'd Wine Thus to magnify the Traditions of their Fathers they vilify the Scriptures They are not content with the Rites and Injunctions written in the Law which in way of Contempt they call the Precepts of the Law but they admire those most which are taken from their Wise Men which they call the Precepts of the Rabbins and which are summarily contain'd in the Talmud these they hold to be of greater Value than the other The Persons that are skill'd in these are sliled by them Tannaim Profound Masters and Doctors but they that study the Scriptures only are but Karaim Poor Readers and Men of the Letter All this shews how these Men depretiate the Written Word of God and exalt above it their Oral Law which is a mere Fiction and Forgery as to the pretence of its being given to Moses by God and therefore is not owned by the Karaint among them who stick close to the Text nor by some of their Perushim their sobrest sort of Expositors who think those Traditions are derogatory to the Holy Scriptures Secondly Papists as well as Ieâ—s disparage the Holy Scriptures and deny its Perfection Nor by the way is this the only thing wherein they agree with the Jews a great Part of their Religion being no other than Jewish Rites and Ceremonies These Modern Talmudists will not own the Sufficiency of the Sacred Writings they have their Cabala the Doctrine Received from their Ancestors they are for their Oral Law delivered from one to another they supply the defect of Scripture so they are wont to speak with their Traditions They are of the same Mind with the Jews that there must be a Fence made about the Law that it must be hedged in with Traditions The Scripture is not a Perfect Rule of Faith and Manners say they but the things which are necessary to Salvation are partly contained in the Scripture and partly in unwritten Traditions A very absurd and wild Doctrine because they have no way to prove any thing to be necessary to Salvation but by proving it to be found in the Scripture Whatever was or is necessary for the Universal Church is revealed in these Writings and no New Doctrine necessary to Salvation is delivered since to the Church or any particular Person But notwithstanding the Absurdity of this Tenent they hold it fast and make it a Great Article of their Belief For they are taught by an Oecumenical Council as they repute it that Unwritten Traditions are of equal Authority with the Scriptures that they are to be received with the same pious Affection and Reverence those are the words wherewith the Infallible Writings of the Prophets and Apostles are to be entertained and consequently they are to be made a Rule of Faith equal with the Scriptures But they rest not here they not only equal Humane and Ecclesiastical Traditions with the Written Word of God but following the Steps of the Old Talmudists they proceed yet further preferring Traditions before Scripture Thus a Renowned Divine in their Church tells us plainly that Traditions are exceeding necessary for the welfare of the Church yea that they are more requisite than the Scripture it self and this he endeavours to make good With him concur several others of their Writers whom we find extolling Traditions but at the same time speaking very meanly and slightly of the Holy Writ Hence they blasphemously call it a Nose of Wax and a Leaden Rule and many such vilifying Terms are used by Pighius and Melchior Canus and other Great Doctors of that Church We deny not the Usefulness nay even the Necessity nay the Perpetuity of Tradition viz. That Tradition whereby the Doctrines which were entrusted in the
Books with us We need not stay to attend here to what a late Learned Writer before named hath with much Confidence but slender Reason suggested viz. that the Bible of the Old Testament is an Abbreviated Collection from Antient Records which were much more large He confesseth that the Canon of Scripture is taken out of Authentick Registeries but the Authors who collected it added and diminished as they pleased especially he asserts this concerning the Historical Books that they are Abridgments of larger Records and Summaries of other larger Acts kept in the Jewish Archives and these publick Scribes who writ them out took the liberty to alter Words as they saw occasion So that in short according to this Critick here are only some broken Pieces and Scraps taken out of the first Authentick Writings A bold and daring Assertion and founded on no other Bottom than F. Simon 's Brain Who would expect this from one that is a Man of great Sense and Reason one that is a great Master of Critical Learning and hath presented the World with very choice Remarks on the History of the Bible for truly I am not of his Opinion who saith he sees not any thing in this Author's Writings buâ— what is common It is to be lamented that a Person otherwise so Judicious and Observing hath given himself up here to his own Fancy and Conceit He invents a new Office of publick Registers that were Divinely inspired he makes Notaries and Prophets the same He gives no Proof and Demonstration of that Adding and Diminishing which the Scribes he talks of made he hatâ— not one tolerable Argument to evince any of thâ— Books of Scripture to be Fragments of greater ones Indeed I should mightily have wondred that so Ingenious so Sagacious so Learned a Man haâ— broach'd such groundless Notions if I did noâ— consider that this subtile Romanist designs hereâ—â— as most of that Church generally do to depreciaâ—â—â— the Bible and to represent it as a Book of Fragments and Shreds that so when our Esteem 〈◊〉 the Authority of Scripture is weakned yea taken away we may wholly rest upon Tradition anâ— found our Religion as well as the Scriptures 〈◊〉 that alone This is that which he drives at in 〈◊〉 Critical History both of the Old and New Testamenâ— But all sober and considerate Persons will bewarâ— of him when they discover this Design Theâ— will easily see through his plausible Stories foâ—â— Surmises bold Conjectures and seeming Argâ—mentations and they will have the greater Reverence for the Bible because he and others havâ— attacked it with so much Contempt and Rudenesâ— and purposely bring its Authority into question that they may set up something else above 〈◊〉 Notwithstanding then the Cavils and Objection of designing Men we have reason to believe anâ— avouch the Authority of the Old Testament and to be thorowly perswaded that the Books are entirely transmitted to us without any Corruption and are the same that ever they were without and Diminution or Addition We have them as they were written by the first Authors we have them entire and perfect and not as some fondly suggest contracted abbreviated curtail'd Unto the Iews the antient People of God were committed his Oracles as the Apostle speaks and they shewed themselves conscientious and diligent Conservators of them The Jewish Nation saith St. Augustin have been as 't were the Chest-keepers for the Christians they have faithfully preserv'd that Sacred Depositum for them they have safely kept that Ark wherein the Law and the Prophets were Lock'd up God would have the Jews to be Librarii Christianorum saith Drusius Keepers of those Sacred Volumes for us Christians and it is certain they kept them with great Care the like whereof is not to be found to have been taken in preserving any other sort of Writings under Heaven And seeing they have so carefully handed the Old Testament down to us we are concern'd to receive it with a proportionable Thankfulness and to reckon this their Delivering of those Writings down to us as no mean Argument of their Truth and Certainty Secondly The Authority of the New Testament is confirmed by External Testimony or Tradition no less than that of the Old Testament We have the Authentick Suffrage of the Primitive Church the Unanimous Consent of the Christians of the first Ages that this Book is of Divine Inspiration and that it is Pure and Uncorrupted Some of the Fathers and first Writers give us a Catalogue of the Books of the New Testament and they are the very same with those which we have at this day Athanasius particularly enumerating those Books sets down all those which we now embrace as Canonical and no others And many of the Fathers of the first Ages after Christ as Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Tertullian c. quote the Places in the New Testament as they are now If it be objected that in the Fathers sometimes the Text of Scripture is not exactly what we find it and read it at this day This must be remembred that they sometimes quoted the Meaning not the very Words At other times their Memories fail'd them as to the Words and thence they chang'd them into others and instead of those in the Text used some that were like them So when they were in haste and not at leisure to consult the Text they made use of such Words and Expressions as they thought came nearest to it Heinsius shews this in a vast many places Sometimes they contract the Word of the Text and give only the brief Sense of it at other times they enlarge it and present us with a Comment upon it yea sometimes as they see occasion and as their Matter leads them to it they invert the Words and misplace the Parts of the Text. But no Man ought hence to infer that the Scriptures of the New Testament then and now are not the same And as for the Number of the Sacred Writers and their Books it hatâ— been always the same i. e. the same Catalogue and Canon have been generally acknowledged and received by the Christian Church It is true some Particular Books have been questioned but by a few only and for a time but the Church was at last fully satisfied about them the Generality oâ— Christians agreed to own all those Books which are now owned by us All the Eastern Churches held the Epistle to the Hebrews to be Canonical though the Latins it is granted were not so unanimous This Epistle and that of St. Iames the second Epistle of St. Peter the second and third of St. Iohn and the Epistle of St. Iude and the Apocalypse were questioned in the first Century saith Eusebius but he acquaints us withal that they were afterwards by general Consent received into the Canon of Holy Scripture for the Doubts were resolved upon mature Deliberation So that the questioning of those Books is now a Conâ—â—rmation of the Truth and Authority of
Church's Hands by the Prophets and Apostles shall by her be deliver'd over to her Children to the World's End which way of Transmission is the great Prop of our Religion Besides the Apostle enjoins the Thessalonians to hold fast the Traditions which they had been taught whether by Word or his Epistle for he had used two ways of delivering the Truth to them namely Preaching and Writing and other Apostles committed the chief and necessary Heads of their Doctrine to Writing So that the Traditions meant here are the Revealed Truths of the Gospel delivered by the Apostles and Evangelists and are no other than what Christ deliver'd to them according to that of St. Paul I delivered to you that which also I received whence they have the Name of Traditions i. e. they are Evangelical Doctrines delivered to us from those that were taught them by Christ. And whether they were imparted by Word or by Epistle by Preaching or Writing they are the same the same as to substance the otherwise there may be some difference But that which we condemn and that most justly the Papists for is this that they magnify and rely upon Traditions which have no affinity with the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles yea which contradict it in many things and yet they equalize these with the Word of God and sometimes prefer them and the Authority of the Church before that of the Sacred Writings of the Old and New Testament Thus One saith The Church sometimes doth things contrary to the Scriptures sometimes besides them therefore the Church is the Rule and Standard of the things that are delivered in the Scriptures and therefore we believe the Church though she acts counter to the formal Decisions of the Scriptures And an other Famous Doctor gives it for good Divinity that the Decrees and Determinations of a Council are binding though they be not confirmed by any probable Testimony of Scripture nay though they be beyond and above the Determination of Scripture Thus the Holy Writings of the Bible are most impiously disparaged and vilisied by the Pontificians Whereas there is nothing defective or redundant nothing wanting or superfluous in these Writings they assert in the open face of the World that they are short and imperfect and therefore have need of being supplied by Traditions which in some things are of greater Value and Authority than they Again that the Church of Rome oppugneth or rather denieth the Perfection of the Scriptures might be evinced from their constant care and endeavour to keep them in an Vnknown Tongue It is true they have translated them But 1. There was a kind of necessity of doing it the Protestants having turned them into so many Tongues By this means they were compelled as it werâ— to let some of their people see what the Bible was in their own Language But 2. It is so corruptly translated that it is made to patronize several of their Superstitious Follies and Errors And yet 3. They dare not commit these Translations to common View Although in all Countries where People were converted to Christianity in elder times the Scripture was turned into their Language and every one was permitted yea exhorted to read it as is proved by many Writers the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet particularly yet the Church of Rome denieth the common People the Use of it as a thing hurtful and pernicious The Bible as some Bad Book is tolerated to be read with great Caution and Restriction in some Countries only and by some Persons It is like the Sibyls Prophecies of old among the Romans not to be look'd into without the permission and Authority of the Senate none can read it without a Licence from their Superiours so dangerous a thing is the Bible From this Practice the People generally imbibe a strong Prejudice against the Scriptures and believe they cannot be good for them because the Pope and their Pastors tell them they are not Wherefore as one who was once of the Communion of the Church of â—ome hath well observed As soon as ever any Man imbraces Popery he presently throws the Bible out of his Hands as altogether useless to say no worse Which unreasonable and wicked Behaviour of theirs was one great Reason or Motive as he professeth of his returning to the Church of England again For what Considerate Man can think That to be a True Church which teacheth its Members to slight and reject the Word of God which is the Source of all Divine Truth and without which we can neither believe nor practise aright we can neither have Comfort here nor arrive to Happiness hereafter This indeed is not only to null â—â—e Perfection of Scripture but to abolish the whole Body of Scripture it self A third sort of Persons that are Opposers of the Perfection of Scripture are Enthusiasts and such who act out of a truly Fanatick Principle Such were the Familists heretofore whose Pretences to the Spirit were so high that they excluded and renounced the Letter of Scripture which according to their Stile was a dark Lanthorn a liveless Carcass a Book shut up and seal'd with seven Seals the Scabbard not the Sword of the Spirit or if it be a Sword it is the Sword of Antichrist wherewith he kills Christ. This was the impious Jargon of these High-flown Men who made no other Use of the Bible than to Allegorize it and to turn it all into Mystery These have been followed by Others of a like Fanatick Spirit who have made it a great part of their Religion to despise and reproach the Sacred Writ A late Enthusiast or rather one that pretends to be such but designs the Overthrow of all Religion tells the World that the Bible is founded in Imagination that God's Revelations in Scripture are ever according to the Fancy of the Prophets or other Persons he spoke to and that all the Phrases and Speeches all the Discoveries and Manifestations yea all the Historical Passages in the Old and New Testament are adapted to these The Quaker comes next and refuseth to own the Scripture to be the Word of God and the Perfect Rule by which we are to direct our Lives It is a great Error and Falsity saith one of the most considerable Persons of that Perswasion that the Scriptures are a filled up Canon and the only Rule of Faith and Obedience in all things and that no more Scriptures are to be writ or given forth from the Spirit of the Lord. With whom agrees another of as great Repute among that Tribe I see no Necessity saith he of believing that the Canon of Scripture is filled up And again The Scriptures saith he are not to be esteemed the Principal Ground of all Truth and Knowledg nor yet the Adequate Primary Rule of Faith and Manners but they are only a Secondary Rule subordinate to the Spirit And accordingly he adds That the inward Inspirations and Revelations which Men