Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	church_n	doctrine_n	unwritten_a	1,841	5	12.2029	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79832	Seventeen sermons preach'd upon several occasions By William Clagett, D.D. late preacher to the Honourable Society of Grays Inn, and one of His Majesty's chaplains in ordinary. With the summ of a conference, on February 21, 1686. between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden, about the point of transubstantiation. The third edition. Vol. I.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.; Gooden, Peter, d. 1695. aut; Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4398; ESTC R230511	209,157	515

the Persons the Time and the manner and the Degrees by which such Corruptions got into the Church yet it is very unreasonable to expect that every Christian should be able to answer these Questions punctually because it requires more labour and reading than generally they have either leisure or ability to go through with but withal it is very needless because there is a shorter and a surer way to determine this matter and that by comparing those Doctrines and Practises with the Scriptures For the Scriptures have a more certain Tradition than any of those Histories that give an account of the Revolutions of Church-Affairs since the beginning and now what matter is it if I am assured that such and such Corruptions were brought into the Church some time or other after the Apostles because they are contrary to what the Apostles taught and left in their Writings though I cannot tell just the Year when or the Person by whom they first crept into the Church I would very fain know of any Man that when our Saviour set himself to overthrow that wicked Tradition which we were speaking of before whether he could not if he had pleased have given an exact account of the Persons that began it in the Jewish Church and of the time when it began and of every circumstance that attended its entrance into the World and its growth and increase afterwards But did he go this way to work It is certain that the Pharisees pretended the Traditions which they taught the People were delivered from God to Moses and that through several Ages they were conveyed down to them successively by word of Mouth And I grant that if our Lord had with many words shewn them that there were such and such Men who first brought them in this had been a confutation of their pretence but for all that he was pleased to use a better and a shorter argument against them and told them what the Commandment was in the Law which their pretended Tradition made void and this was instead of a thousand Arguments that their Doctrine never came from Moses but was invented some time afterwards And I beseech you let none of us be ashamed to use that kind of argument which our Saviour thought fit to confute those People withal and which we have reason to think he used that he might shew us the best way to secure our selves from being imposed upon by unwritten Traditions and by a pretence of having received such Doctrines from the Apostles as they never delivered When therefore we are asked If Transubstantiation be an Error and not an Article of Faith when did it come in If Service in an unknown Tongue be an Innovation when did it come in If the Sacrifice of the Mass be a Corruption when did it come in Let us account it sufficient to answer for so our Saviour thought it in the like case That Transubstantiation makes void those places of Scripture which expresly affirm that by eating of Bread we shew forth the Death of Christ and are made partakers of his Body That Service in an unknown tongue makes void the Fourteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians And that the Sacrifice of the Mass makes void the Seventh and the Tenth Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews which expresly tell us that Christ can be offered no more and that there remains no more Sacrifice for sins and therefore we are very well assured that they did come in some time or other since the Apostles but whether they came in sooner or later is nothing to the purpose for certainly nothing ought ever to have come in that makes void any part of the Word of God but if any such thing hath got in there is all the reason in the World that it should be thrown out again They may well be ashamed that cannot bear this sort of arguing but most certainly we have no reason to be ashamed to use it since our Blessed Saviour hath used it before us for when he set himself to overthrow the credit of these Doctrines for which they pretended a constant Tradition in the Church he thought it sufficient for his purpose to shew that they voided the Commandments of God and made his word of none effect 2. If there be one Traditionary Doctrine that notoriously contradicts the written Word of God 't is enough to overthrow the whole Credit of that Tradition which pretends to bring down unwritten Doctrines that are necessary to be received For thus we find that our Saviour by the single instance of that Tradition which voided the Fifth Commandment overthrew the Objection of the Pharisees against his Disciples Why do thy Disciples transgress the tradition of the Elders i. e. their unwritten Traditions Which was as much as to say That they ought all of them to be Religiously observed because they had all the same Authority Our Saviour therefore produces an instance of their Traditions that takes away all Authority inasmuch as it was a plain contradiction to the Law of God if therefore amongst their unwritten Doctrines and Rules there were any that had some kind of goodness and usefulness they were to be regarded upon their own account and not upon the Authority of Tradition But when he had utterly overthrown all that pretended Authority by an undeniable Argument he then speaks to the case which themselves had propounded and lays down the truth concerning it They had a vast number of Superstitions for which they pretended Tradition and they tax our Saviour's Disciples for not observing one of them Now he with admirable Wisdom first breaks the Authority of their Tradition shewing that one of them was plainly against the Law of God and then he shews how Superstitious and foolish they were in the case which themselves chose to speak to In this also our Lord hath set us an example that if we are press'd by a pretence to Tradition in favour of unwritten Doctrines and Articles we should in the first place shew that one or more of these is contrary to the Word of God and therefore that there is no reason to pretend Tradition for any of them since they are all said to have come down together Which being done in the first place it will be then seasonable to shew what is to be thought of the rest if they are judged of by the general Rules of Reason and Scripture 3. The Universal consent of some one or two Ages that such and such Doctrines were delivered by word of mouth many Ages before is no Argument that they were so delivered The Pharisees did pretend that their Doctrines and Interpretations of the Law had been conveyed down from Moses by Oral Tradition to that Age in which they lived and there were several of these Traditions universally believed in that Age to have been so conveyed and the Practice of the People was universally governed by them For instance that of Religious Washing before meat and the washing

Law yet they were delivered to Moses by God himself to Joshua by Moses to the Prophets by Joshua to Esdras by the Prophets and thence to the Masters of the Schools of whom they were the Successors And they being the Guardians of these unwritten Traditions which were to be had in equal or rather superior regard to that which the Scriptures were to be held in claimed also an absolute Obedience from the People insomuch that it was a saying amongst them If the Scribes say that the right hand is the left or the left hand the right you are to believe them Now the Charge of the Pharisees upon our Saviour's Disciples was not that they had transgressed any Tradition that appeared to have a Divine Original by the Books of Moses and the Prophets but that they had transgressed the Tradition of the Elders as they used to call them such Traditions for which they had no other pretence than that they were conveyed down by word of mouth from Father to Son amongst the wise Men and the Masters and the Scribes The particular instance to explain the general Charge was this That the Disciples did not wash their hands before they eat bread For one of those many Traditionary Doctrines for which they were so zealous was this That if a Stranger or an uncircumcised Person should but touch a Jew the Jew was forthwith defiled or if he had but touched any thing that a Jew afterward touched he was unclean and if the Jew should in that state take any meat to eat that Meat was rendred unclean and would defile his Mind for the preventing of which danger it was a part of Religion to wash before eating and thus for an idle fancy they invented an idle relief and placed so much Religion in it that says one of them He that eats bread with unwashen hands sins as much as if he had lain with a Whore And says another It is the highest point of holiness for a man to separate himself from the vulgar and that he doth not touch them nor so much as eat or drink with them and the next to this is to wash away the impurity that is contracted thereby You may see a more particular account of this senseless Superstition of theirs in Mark 7. The Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands oft eat not holding the tradition of the Elders And when they come from the market except they wash they eat not And many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots brazen vessels and of tables that is they did not only wash their own hands lest they should have touched some stranger or one less pure than themselves but lest some stranger should have touched the Cup in which they drank or the Dish in which their Meat was or the Tables upon which the Cups were to stand these were washed with all care not for cleanliness for that would not serve the turn but for holiness sake as if their Minds were made pure by washing their Hands and Cups and all things of this sort This was one kind of their Traditionary Doctrines for transgressing of which the Disciples of Jesus were accused by the Pharisees II. We may observe these Two things implied in the Charge 1. The concern which the Scribes had for their Traditions And 2. The reverence in which the People held them 1. The concern of the Scribes and Pharisees to have them observed It was so great that a man might with less danger from them break a plain Law of God than transgress one of their Traditions and they would sooner call him to an account for this latter than for the former If they could have charged our Lord's Disciples with breaking the Fifth Commandment as Jesus charged them with it presently after of this they would have said nothing But they were not able to bear the neglect of the Disciples to wash before eating for Conscience-sake And when he had given the Multitude a plain account of this neglect neither could they bear that but were offended at him v. 12. Hence in their Talmud a Book that pretends to have gathered up their Oral Traditions it is said That there is more in the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Law And we are not to think that the written Law is the Foundation but the unwritten and the words of the Elders are of more Authority and weight than the words of the Prophets So blind was their Zeal for their Traditions that one of the Rabbies being once cast into Prison and Water being given him to wash and to drink and the greater part of it being spilt he rather chose to wash his hands than to drink saying 'T is better to die than to transgress the Tradition of the Elders And no wonder that they were thus concerned when it was by these Doctrines that they kept up an absolute Authority over the People for if the People would be made to believe that the unwritten Law was of greater consequence than the written and that the Scribes were the Guardians and Oracles of the unwritten Law nothing could be better contrived to keep them in an absolute dependance upon the Scribes 2. The Charge doth likewise imply an universal regard of these Traditions in the People Why do thy disciples transgress the traditions i. e. Why do they only do it And we heard from St. Mark that the Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands oft eat not Whatever became of the Commandments of God here was very good care taken that the Traditions of the Church should be kept Nay it was so fixed in the minds of our Lord's Disciples themselves that they were to be kept that it was not easy to set them right in these things presently for after our Saviour had told them Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man but that which cometh out of the mouth v. 11. Peter asked him v. 15. to declare the meaning of the Parable or as he thought it hard saying And Jesus said v. 16. Are ye also yet without understanding And so he goes on shewing that he spake of cleanness of mind which was defiled by evil thoughts murders adulteries c. They had not yet got rid of those Superstitious Fancies that reigned amongst the People and were so prejudiced by them that they could hardly understand the plain truth on the other side Nay when after this he had occasion to say to them as you find in the next Chapter ver 6. Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saduces How do we think they understood this saying And they reasoned among themselves saying It is because we have taken no bread Which shew'd they were not yet cured of this Pharisaical Superstition inasmuch as they understood our Saviour as if he had forbidden them to eat any bread which the Pharisees had touched as the

unclean or unlawful in its own nature to be used nor can any man's touch make it so nor can any of these things defile a man's Conscience but a man's Conscience is defiled by that which comes from his heart by evil Thoughts by evil Words and by Actions contrary to the Command of God such as murders and adulteries c. These are the things that defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man i. e. doth not by any means affect his Soul or his Conscience for in this respect he is neither better for washing nor worse for letting it alone and to think otherwise is a Superstition hurtful to your selves and dishonourable to God and of very bad consequence tho it be not so impudent and notorious an abuse as the making void of God's Law by the other lewd Tradition that I mentioned before It is to this purpose that we are to understand the method and design of our Saviour's Discourse in this place in answer to the Objection of the Pharisees brought against the Disciples From which Answer there are some things to be gathered well worth our observation 1. That it is sufficient to overthrow the Authority of a pretended Tradition that it is contrary to the Commandment of God 2. That if there be one Traditionary Doctrine that notoriously contradicts the Law of God that one instance is sufficient to overturn the credit of that Tradition which pretends to deliver unwritten Doctrines of equal Authority with those that are written 3. That the universal consent of some one Age or more That such and such Doctrines were delivered by word of mouth many Ages before is no Argument that they were so delivered 4. That we have great reason to stick to the Word of God delivered to us in the Scriptures and to examine all Doctrines and Rules which are said to be necessary to Salvation by that Rule and to reject the Authority of unwritten Traditions 1. That it is sufficient to overthrow the Authority of a pretended Tradition That it is contrary to the Commandment of God For if when Tradition is pretended for any Doctrine or Practice it be not enough to shew that the same Doctrine or Practice is inconsistent with what is plainly required in the Scriptures which are acknowledged by all to contain the Word of God I say if this be not enough then our Saviour used an insufficient Argument against the pretended Tradition of not suffering the Son that was under a Vow of the contrary to relieve his Father or Mother that it made void the commandment of God But doubtless our Saviour was so far from using a bad Argument that he used the best and most convincing of all And truly if we did not in this case consider our Saviour's Authority yet it must be a monstrous prejudice that keeps any man from discerning the strength of this Argument against the Authority of any unwritten Doctrine That it is contrary to what is written for nothing is more certain than that Contradictions cannot be true and yet they must be true if that Doctrine for which unwritten Tradition is pretended can be of God tho it contradicts the written Tradition which is by all acknowledged to be Divine But as plain as this Argument is yet it is very well for us that we find our blessed Saviour giving such Authority to it because there are Christians in the World bearing up themselves upon the Tradition of the Church that are loth to admit this Argument which we have no cause to be amazed at because it is an utter Confutation of all their pretences We charge them with having brought into the Church new Articles of Faith and new Doctrines of Worship which are not only very different from what was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles but some of them contrary thereunto as we can shew them out of the Scriptures But this way of proceeding doth by no means content them and they insist upon it that the Cause may be tried otherwise For say they You acknowledge that our Church was once a pure Church and taught the Gospel sincerely but if as you say she departed from the pure Faith and Worship which the Apostles left it is impossible but this must have been very notorious because it could not have been done without opposition and resistance from some that must needs observe it Tell us therefore When were these new and false Doctrines introduced Who were the men that brought them in Who were the first that made the discovery What Council condemned them after they were discovered For if none of these things can be shewn it is absurd to think that any such alteration should have been as you say Which reasoning amounts to thus much That it is impossible we can be sure that in the compass of a thousand Years there was a great alteration happened in the state of Religion unless withal we can tell how it came about and just when it came about the precise time and the punctual manner and circumstances thereof which is just as if a man almost desperately sick of a Disease that had been for some Years growing upon him should prove to his Friend that he is as well as ever he was in his Life for says he You know I was well once and if I am now so ill as you say pray shew me the time when this Disease first happened the manner how and what Physicians were called about me which kind of arguing would certainly prove no more than that the Disease had taken his head When the Servants came and told their Lord that the tares came up with the wheat it was excusable in them to say We sowed good seed whence hath it these tares But when their Master told them An enemy hath done this if they had disputed and told him It was impossible there should be any Tares at all because he could not tell punctually that very Night when they were sown and who the Persons were that took the malicious pains to sow them then they had been very inexcusable thus to renounce their own certain knowledge for the sake of a vain Speculation Now we are very sure that the Apostles did at first sow nothing in the Church but good and true Doctrine Our Fathers that lived about fourteen hundred Years after found quite another sort of Doctrine gotten into the Church and some of them contrary to what the Apostles taught as the Scriptures manifestly shew and yet there have been a long time and still there are certain Disputers that go about to stagger others with such like questions as we have been speaking of and teach them to defy all reasoning out of the Scriptures till these questions are satisfied What Age What Year of our Lord were these Errors brought into the Church Who were they that brought them in and who first complained of them Now although a very reasonable account both may be and hath been given of

Faith we argu'd it upon the same Principles and with the same Calmness that we did any other Subject whatsoever by Arguments drawn from the Authority of the Holy Scriptures or from the Testimonies of the ancient Fathers as the Nature of the thing required us to do If these did not Convince they never flew off to the Common-place Topicks of the Authority and Infallibility of the Church much less to that exploded refuge of Oral Tradition but the Controversie ended And when all was done they were content to hope well of those of our Church who being sincere in their Enquiries and willing to be led by Truth where-ever it was still continued to differ from them Instead of calling me a Heretick or Schismatick or thundring out Damnation against me as such a mutual Charity concluded the Discourse We hoped and prayed for the Conviction of the Erring Party which ever it was but made no question but that the same Heaven might receive us all tho' we should continue to disagree to the last But this was not the temper of Mr. Gooden and the rest of the little Herd of that Church who gave so much Trouble and Disturbance to their own and the Nations repose and have contributed what in them lies by their Heat and Folly to ruine both themselves and us As for the Occasion of the present Conference it was this A Gentlewoman of a good Estate and intimately acquainted with divers R. C's was by a frequent Conversation with them wrought up by degrees into an extraordinary Opinion of the advantages of a Recluse Life for the better performing the Exercises of Religion Insomuch that the desire she began to have for such a sort of retirement made her almost willing to leave our Church and go over to the Roman Communion but that she still look'd upon their Doctrine in those points wherein they differ from us to be false and dangerous and to one so persuaded as she was Destructive of Salvation Being thus prepared for their Seduction they let slip no Opportunity to finish their work and gain their Proselyte For which purpose care was taken first by one of her Acquaintance to represent to her all the popular Pretences of that Church by which many are prejudiced in favour of it and the Advantages it had in point of Antiquity Unity Universality Infallibility and what not beyond ours and then in the next place to get Father Gooden brought to her as one that would give her a fuller satisfaction in all these matters if she would but afford him the opportunity of discoursing with her And to the end his Arguments might make the deeper Impression upon her it was thought fit to set forth the Priest to her not in the glorious Idea of the great Master of Demonstration one who had devoured all Mr. I. S's Principles and was thereby become such a mighty Man of Controversie that none of our Divines durst cope with him He in whose Hands the Dean of Paul's himself was nothing who had a certain Paper that in a few Lines baffled all that could be said or written in favour of the Reformation which was a greater thing answering in a few Sheets all the Books and Sermons that had ever been published or preach'd against them but in the humble Character of a Country Priest a little inconsiderable Man amongst them and his Dress was accommodated to his Character that so under this disguise he might talk with the greater Advantage to her But Mr. Gooden forgetting the person he had put on presently fell into his usual strain He began to talk of nothing but Infallibility Antiquity Demonstration That all the Fathers and Councils were on their side That he had baffled our most considerable Divines and particularly the Dean of Pauls who had in truth all of them so little to say for themselves when he came amongst them that he desired nothing more to convince her of the Truth of their Doctrines than that she would pitch upon some Point and bring one of our Men to meet him and she should see what work he would make with him Such a noise as this from one of the little inconsiderable Priests of the Church of Rome amazed the poor Lady And had he Prudently contented himself with the Boast of the Victories he had already gained without aspiring after the Honour of adding one more for the increasing his Triumph he might possibly have saved himself from the shame of that discovery the following Conference made of his Abilities and have gain'd his Proselyte But as great Wits are too often a little inconsiderate and before they are aware run themselves into difficulties out of which they cannot tell afterwards how to extricate themselves so it fell out with Mr. Gooden on this Occasion For the Lady presently took hold on his Offer and applied her self to Dr. Clagett and the Time and Place and Subject being fix'd Mr. Gooden and the Doctor met accordingly at Gray's-Inn Feb. 21 1686. I shall say nothing of the Menage of the Conference it self but that it was with much Noise on Mr. Gooden's side who in Discourse let fall some very extraordinary things and which might have pas'd into the Abstract too had not another Person who was with him and seem'd much more modest and understanding than himself observed what pass'd and corrected his Blunders After the Dispute was ended which lasted about Four or Five Hours a new Discourse arose about the Paper which Mr. Gooden made such Boasts of about the Town and had so often represented to the Lady and others as unanswerable He was very unwilling a great while to let the Doctor have a Copy of it tho' he promised to give him an Answer to it till at last it was declared That if he refused to let him have it the Company would look upon it as an idle Paper that had nothing in it and that therefore he durst not trust him with it Vpon this he gave him a Copy of it and the Doctor in pursuance of his Promise the next day sent him the following Answer to it For what concerns the Sum of the Conference here published it was taken in Writing and signed by both Parties upon the place so that there can be no cause for any one to question the sincerity of it And tho' the Abstract be very short yet I am persuaded it is enough to satisfie every impartial Reader why Mr. Gooden did not care to make any boasts of it And those who were present at the meeting and heard all that pass'd between them as well as the Lady for whose sake they met were very well satisfied that he would not force them to publish the History of it But tho' the Doctor was willing to let this matter die and shew'd himself as careful of Mr. Gooden's Reputation after the Conference as he was of the Ladies Conviction in it yet being now by the Providence of God removed from us I thought it a just