( 30) 'lame thing to them, how did they know it ? If bydare words, can you make your felf believe that bAre words, andMemory, will as furely convey down from Age to Age, the Myfferies of Faith, as written Records will do ? Do you not daily find, that ifMen aré but to repeat a Ser- mon, yea a few sentences, how apt they areto alter, or omit, or add fome words which alter the whole fenlè ? I feldom hear a Sermon reported, but fomewhat of it is mil-reported ! yea, we can fcarce have a matter ofFaa reported without great diverfity andmil-reports ; which makes the common reports of Perlons, and Things, in Cityand Country, tobe fo full of falfhood, and uncer- tainty.. Mens Memories are flippery, and the alteration of a word, may make the matter another thing. Send but your Servant to do a meffage, or bufnefs for you, by bare word and memory ; and at another time Write him down all that he shall fay, or do ; rind try which way will occafion more miftake ! Why do you keep your Bonds, Bills, Covenants, Leafes, Deeds, and Tefiaments in Writing elfe, and do not tru.fl: them to Mens Memories ? Why are our Laws Written, andCourt Records kept, if Memory will keep them better? Had we no Books, or Records, one Lawyer would fay one thong, andanother, another thing; and there would be,nothing but uncer- tainty and confufion. Why do fo many Preachers ufe Sermon Nötes ? Why do you caufe all your Mals, even the hoc efi Corpus meurn to be read out of aBook, and truft not your Mals-Priefts to repeat them by Memory ? Befides, that MenWritemore deliberately, and accurate- ly,than ufivally they fpeak; and their fenfe is eafilier tryed, and reviewed. Where Mens Lifeand Death lyeth onit, Phyficians will hardly truff their Memories with all their Remedies , nor fend one to the Apothecaries without a writ-
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