120 The Life of Faiih. requireth no other kind of proof but hiftcr-y, part of the hi Rory ofit is in the Scripture, and the reti in the hiflory ofall following Ages. In the Scripture it felfit is evident, that the Churches and the ApcRlcs sired this day accordingly : And it hathmofi infallible hiRory (impoffible to be We) that the Churches have ufrd it ever to this day, as that which they found pra6bfcdin their times by their appointment : And this i; not a bare narrative, but an uninterrupted matter ofpublick La and prac`fice : So universal, that I remember not in all my reading, that ever one enemy quefiioned it, or ever one Chrillian, or Heretick deny ed, or once scrupled it. So that they who tell us that all this is yet but humane teflimony, do Chew their egregious inconfiderations, that know not that fuch humane teflimonyor history in a matter of publick con- fiant fad, may be mof certain, and all that the nature of the cafe will allow a lober perfon to require. And they might as well rejcia the Canon of theScriptures, 6ccaufe humane tefli- mony is it which in point of fad Both certifie us, that thefe are the very unaltered Canonical Books, which were deliver- cd at firi to the Churches: Yea they may rejeá} all the (lore of hitiorical tradition of Chriflianity it fell, which I am here reciting to the flìame oftheir undertiandings. And confider alto, that the Lords day was fettled, and con- Rantly ufed in solemn worthip by the Churches, many and many years before any part of the New Teflamentwas writ- ten ; and above threefcore years before it was finifhcd. And when the Churches had fo many years been in publick pofíef- fron of it, who would require that the Scriptures should af- ter all, make a Law to in(litute that which was inflituted fo long ago. If you fay, that it might have declared the infitution, I anfwer, fo it bath, as I have (hewed ; there needing no other declaration, but r. Chrifis commiffion to the Apollies to order the Church, and declare his commands. 2. And his promifecf infallible guidance therein. 3. And the hiRory of the Churches order andpredict; to thew de facto, what they did And that bitiory need not be written inScripture for the Churches that then were ; no more than we need a reve- lation from klcavtn to tell us than the Lords day is kept in England :
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