3. Being left to the ordinary rule, it was necessary it should be taught, not only by word of mouth, but committed to writing ; for Christ is ascended into heaven, and the apostles do not live for ever ; and we have no men now that are immediately and divinely inspired ; and ordinary pastors and teachers cannot make more articles of faith, but do only build on the apostles' foundation, 1 Cor. iii. 10, or that divinely-ins'pired doctrine which they delivered to the church. Yea, that doctrine cannot well be preserved from oblivion and corruption without writing. Therefore God accounted this the safest way : those things that are only delivered byword of mouth, or from hand to hand, may" easily be changed, corrupted, or utterly lost. Certainly, if you consider man's sloth, treachery, levity, and the many vile aftections which may easily induce him to extinguish or corrupt the truth, which is contrary to them, you will see that it is necessary there should be an authentic record by which truth and error might be tried and dis- tinguished ; yea, that the churcli, which is dispersed throughout the world, miglit have truth at hand, and particular believers have this doctrine ever by them for their comfort and use, it being the property of a blessed man to ' delight in the law of God,' and to ' exercise him- self therein day and night,' Ps. i. 2. In short, while the apo.stles were living, it was good to take the tradition from their mouth, but, now they are dead, we take it from their writings. Surely if God saw some writing necessary when those extraordinary ways we spake of before were in use, and the church of the Old Testament was in a much quieter estate than the church of the New, I say, if some writing weie necessary then, it is more necessary now, for the Christian church is more exposed to dreadful storms of persecution, the deceits of here- tics of all sorts, especially to the frauds of Antichrist, which we are forewarned of in this chapter, and are detected and discovered by their contrariety to the written word.
4. This truth being written, it is both a safe and a full rule for us to walk by. It is a safe rule, because it is written by the apostles and evangelists, holy men moved by the Holy Ghost. The apostles did not lose their infallibility when they committed whnt they preached to Avriting. The same Spirit that assisted them in delivering the doc- trin<! l)y word of mouth, assisted them also when they delivered it by writing. And it is a full and sufficient rule, because it containeth all things which are necessary for men to believe and do in order to eternnl life. Let them name what is necessary, beyond what is recom^ mended there or may be delivered from thence. Yea, it doth contain not only all the essential, l)ut also the integral parts of the Christian religion ; and therefore nothing can be any part of our religion which, is not there. The direction of old was, Isa. viii. 20, ' To the law and ta
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the testimony ; if they speak not accordinj^ to this word, it is because tlieie is no light in them.' Everytliing was then tried by Moses and the |)ro[)hets ; everything must be now tried by the prophets and apostles, which is our foundation of faith, worship, and obedience, Eph. ii. 20.
5. That which we blame in the papists is, that they cry up a pri- vate, unproved, unwritten tradition of their own, as of equal authority with this safe and full rule which is contained in this written word of God. Their crime and fault may be considered partly with respect to the object and matter — that these traditions are not indifferent customs, l)ut essential points necessary to faith and Christian practice. And so, though a Christian be never so thorough and sound in liis obedience to the word of God, and true to the baptismal covenant, yet, if he sub- mitteth not to these unwritten traditions, he wants some point neces- sary to faith and practice, and so to life eternal, which is contrary to Mark xvi. IG, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned ; ' and John xvii. 3, ' This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' Partly as to the subject, as they make their own fac- tion to be the only keepers of these things, and that nothing is to be owned as apostolical tradition but what is delivered as such by their authority ; which is to leave the church to the tyranny and usurpation of a corrupt faction, to declare for apostolical tradition anything which serveth their end and interest, and for which no true historical evi- dence is produced. Now the unjust and fraudulent practices whicli they have used to promote this usurpation over the churches of Christ render them false men, most unfit to be trusted in this kind. Partly with respect to the manner : they will have these things to be received 'pari reverent ia etpietafis offectu — with the same reverence and pious affection with which we receive the holy scriptures ; and so man's post is set by God's, and unproved traditions equalled with doctrines of faith. Their opinion is bad enough, but their practice is worse ; for there they sliow they value these things more than the scriptures ; as superstition always aboundeth in its own things. Did ever any of their doctors say the same things of traditions which they take the boldness to say of scripture ? Did they ever call them pen and inkhorn, or parchment divinity, a nose of wax, a dumb rule, an obscure and am- biguous doctrine ? These blasphemies they vent boldly against the scriptures ; but did they ever speak these of traditions ? And again, their common people are a thousand times better instructed in their traditions than in the doctrine of salvation. They skill more of Lent and Eiiiher-iveeks, &c., tiian they truly understand the doctrine of man's misery and remedy. And call you this reverence and pious affection to the scriptures and traditions ? Partly because they would never give us a catalogue of unwritten traditions necessary to be ob- served by all Christians. It may be lest they should amaze the people with the multitude of them, or else that the people may not know how many of their doctrines are destitute of scripture proof, and so they plainly be discovered to be imposers on the belief of the Christian world.