CHARLES. what may be delivered to us by Oral Tradition or by Written Tradition, or by both the one and the other. The only controversy is how far unwritten tradition is to be received as evidence for the establishment of Doctrine. Again, Tradition may be either— 1. Historical, when it informs us of the rites, discipline, or customs of the Church; Or, 2. Exegetical, when it explains in what sense obscure and controverted portions of Scripture were generally received by the Primitive Church; Or, 3. Didactic, when it interweaves, so to speak, the interpretations of men with the undoubted text of sacred Scripture, to supply its deficiency in certain articles necessary to salvation. They are only the traditions foisted on us under this third character which we reject and withstand.'-Translated from Fasciculus Controversiarum. De Scriptura, pp. 49, 50. Edit. 1664. CHARLES, KING AND MARTYR. B. 1600. D. 1648. 73 ture should preted by sal consent If the practice of the Primitive Church, and the universal Holy Scripconsent of the Fathers, be not a convincing argument, when be interthe interpretation of Scripture is doubtful, I know nothing; the univerfor, if this be not, then of necessity the interpretation of of Fathers. private spirits must be admitted: the which contradicts St. Peter, (2 Pet. i. 20,) is the mother of all sects, and will (if not prevented) bring these kingdoms into confusion: and to say, that an argument is ill, because the Papists use it, or, that such a thing is good, because it is the custom of some of the Reformed Churches, cannot weigh with me, until you prove these to be infallible or that to contain no truth. -Second Paper to Mr. Henderson.-Reliquiæ sacræ Carolina. Hague. P. 323. 1 The above testimony is the more valuable from the circumstance that Prideaux has been sometimes represented as holding Anti-Catholic opinions with regard to Tradition. Holy Scripture should be inter preted by sal consent When you and I differ upon the interpretation of Scripture, and I appeal to the practice of the Primitive Church, the univer- and the universal consent of the Fathers, to be a judge of Fathers. between us, methinks you should either find a fitter, or submit to what I offer; neither of which (to my understanding) you have yet done; nor have you shown how, waiving those judges I appeal unto, the mischief of the interpretation of private spirits can be prevented.—Third Paper. Ibid. pp. 341, 342. Ibid. That the Anglican Church is Catholic in doctrine. My conclusion is, that albeit I never esteemed any authority equal to the Scriptures, yet I do think the unanimous consent of Fathers, and the universal practice of the Primitive Church, to be the best and most authentical interpreters of God's word, and consequently the fittest Judges between me and you, when we differ, until you shall find me a better.-Fifth Paper. Ibid. p. 355.1 HALL, BISHOP AND CONFessor. B. 1574. D. 1656. Let frantic error bawl what it list, we are Christians, we are Catholics, the undivided members of one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Let us meet at this bar if you please, let who will maintain the plea. What is it which maketh a Church? What is it which maketh that Church One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic ? Is it not one Holy, Catholic, Apostolical Faith? But what is that? Is it not the same which was delivered by CHRIST and the Apostles to the whole world, and was always and everywhere approved through all ages, even unto our own times? Wherefore are the Scriptures, wherefore are the Creeds, wherefore were the Primitive Councils, but that there might be certain marks whereby Catholics might be undoubtedly discerned from heretics? You know the epilogue of the Athanasian Creed, "This is the Catholic Faith." If we 1 No apology will be requisite to Churchmen, for the introduction of the testimony of Charles I. among those of the "Doctors and Masters" of the Anglican Church. It would be well if all parties were better acquainted with his writings. may believe Leo, the heads of all heresies are quite cut off with this one sword of the Creed, how much more then with that two-edged sword of the Scriptures, and that of the Fathers their interpreters? What then? Those that then were Catholics, can they in any age be condemned for heretics? No. Faith is always constant to itself, and so is the Church that is built upon that faith. Did we ever deny or make doubt of any article or clause of that ancient divinity? Either then CHRIST himself, the Apostles, Councils, Fathers erred from the Catholic faith, or we yet remain Catholics. Whatever other opinions we meet withal, concerning religion, neither make nor mar it. Say they be false, say they be vicious, they are but hay and stubble which nothing appertain to the foundation of this everlasting frame. The Church may be either more sound or more corrupt for them, it cannot be more or less a Church. The beauty or deformity of a Church may consist in them, the strength, the welfare of it doth not. Surely, whosoever willingly subscribes to the Word of GOD signed in the everlasting monuments of Scripture, to the ancient Creeds, to the four General Councils, to the common consent of the Fathers for six hundred years after CHRIST, which we of the Reformed Church religiously profess to do; if he may err in small points, yet he cannot be an heretic. Some particular Church may easily offend by imputing heresy to an undeserved opinion, whether perhaps true or lightly erroneous; but neither soul nor Church can greatly err while it treads in the steps of the most ancient and universal. -Sermon on 1 Cor. c. xii. v. 4.-Works, Fol. 1647. pp. 517, 518. BIRCKBECK, PRIEST. B. 1584. D. 1656. and Tra Vincentius Lirinensis saith that "the Canon or Rule of of Scripture faith is perfect; abundantly sufficient in itself for all things, dition. yea, more than sufficient." Neither is this a false supposal, as a Jesuit pretends it to be, but a grounded truth and the author's doctrine. Lirinensis, indeed, maketh first one general sufficient rule for all things-the Sacred Scriptures. Of the Creeds and Secondly, another, useful in some cases only, yet never to The first was used by the ancient Church from the worth MORTON, BISHOP. B. 1564. D. 1659. I do therefore here solemnly profess, in the presence of Almighty God, that by His grace preventing and assisting me, I have always lived, and purpose to die, in the true Catholic Faith wherein I was baptized; firmly believing all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and fully assenting to every article of all those three creeds, (commonly called the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed, and the Athanasian Creed,) which in the Ancient Church were accounted the adequate rules of faith, and have accordingly been received as such, by the Church of England. As for Councils, that are free and generally consisting of competent persons, lawfully summoned, and proceeding according to the Word of God, such as were the four first, viz. those of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, I do reverence them as the supreme tribunals of the Church of CHRIST upon earth, for judging heresies, and composing differences in the Church. And as I utterly condemn all heresies that have been condemned by any of them, so I heartily wish that all the present differences in the Church of God might be deter mined by such a free General Council, as any of those four were already mentioned.-Last Will.1 HAMMOND, DOCTOR AND CONFESSOR. B. 1605. D. 1660. § III. 1. This then being the adequate object of the Christian's faith, those verities which have been revealed to us by God to be thus believed to righteousness, called therefore vylaívovres λóyoɩ, words not only true but wholesome, the belief whereof is required in order to our souls' health; the next inquiry is, how we that live in the same distance from CHRIST and His Apostles in respect of time, that we are situate from heaven, which now contains CHRIST, in respect of place, may come within the reach of these revelations of CHRIST, or to any competent undoubted assurance, that those are such indeed, which are pretended to be so. ways of the faith 2. And to this also my concession shall be as liberal as The two any Romanist can wish, that there are two (Basil. de Spir. conveying Sanct. c. xxvii.) ways of conveying such revelations to us; to us. one in writing, the other by oral tradition; the former in the Gospels and other writings of the Apostles, &c. which makes up the Sacred Writ, or Canon of the New Testament; the latter in the Apostles' preaching to all the churches of their plantations, which are nowhere set down for us in the Sacred Writ, but conserved as Deposita (1 Tim. vi. 20; 2 Tim. i. 14,) by them to whom they were entrusted. 3. And although in sundry respects the former of these be much the more faithful, steady way of conveyance, and for want thereof many things may possibly have perished, or been changed by their passage through many hands, thus much being on these grounds confessed by Bellarmine himself, (de Verbo Dei, lib. i. c. 2,) that the Scripture is the most certain and safe rule of belief; yet there being no less veracity in the tongues than the hands, in the preachings than the writings of the Apostles; nay, "Prior sermo quam 1 See Catena Patrum. No. III. p. 12. |