2 ThES. II. 15.] WITHOUT UNWKITTEN TRADITIONS. 497
extraordinary ways ceased, and we are left to the ordinary rule stated by Christ.
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 new articles of faith, but do only build on the apostles' foundation, 1 Cor. iii, 10, or that divinely- inspii-ed doctrine which they delivered to the church. Yea, that doctrine cannot well be preserved from oblivion and corruption with- out writing, thei-efore God accounted this the safest way. Those things that are only delivered by word 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 affections which may easily induce him to extinguish or corrupt the truth, Avhich is contrary to them , you will see that it is necessary that there should be a sure authentic record, by which truth and error might be tried and distinguished. Yea, that the church, which is dispersed through- out the world, might 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 exer- cise himself therein day and night,' Ps. i. 2. In short, while the apostles 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 spoke of before were in use, and the church of the Old Testament was in a much quieter state than the church of the New, — I say, if some Avrit- ing were necessary then, it is more necessary now ; for the Christian church is more exposed to dreadful storms of persecution, the deceits of heretics 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 evange- lists, holy men moved by the Holy Ghost. The apostles did not lose their infallibility when they committed what they preached to writing: the same Spirit that assisted them in delivering the doctrine by word of mouth assisted them also when they delivered it by writing; and it is a full and sufficient nile, because it containeth all things which are necessary for men to believe and do in order to eternal life. Let them name what is necessary beyond what is recommended there, or may be deduced from thence. Yea, it doth contain not only all the essential but 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 to the testi- mony: if they speak not according to this Avord, it is because there is no light in them.' Everything was then tried by Moses and the pro- phets, and everything must be now tried by the prophets and apostles, which is our foundation of faith, worshi]), and obedience, Eph. ii. 20.
5. That which we blame in the Papists is, that they cry up a private, unproved, unwritten tradition of their own, as of equal authority with
VOL. V. 2 I
498 THE SCKIPTURE SUFEICIENT [2 ThES. II. 15.
this safe and full rule wliicli is contained in the 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, but essential points, necessary to faith and Christian practice ; and so though a Christian be never so thorough and sound in his 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. 16, '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 faction 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 any- thing which serveth their ends and interests, and for which no true historical evidence is produced. Now the unjust and fraudulent prac- tices which they have used to promote this usurpation over the churches of Christ rendered them of all men most unfit to be trusted in this kind. ■ Partly with respect to the manner ; they will have these things received pari reverentia et pietatis affectu — with the same reverence and pious afiection 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 show they value these things more than the scrip- tures, as superstition always al30undeth 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 ink- horn, or parchment divinity, a nose of wax, a dumb rule, an obscure and ambiguous doctrine ? These blasphemies they vent boldly against the scripture, but did they ever speak thus of tradition ? And again, their common people are a thousand times better instructed in tlieir traditions than in the doctrine of salvation ; they skill more of Lent, and ember-weeks, &c.,than they truly understand the doctrine of man's misery and remedy. And call you this equal reverence and pious affection to the scriptures and traditions ? Partly because they would never give us a perfect catalogue of unwritten traditions necessary to be observed 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 Chris- tian world.