36 .4/ P E 1V D I X. Numb. II. no Salvation without the Church and Minìfiry, and -no Miniftry without Ordina- tion, andno Ordination without Irnpo{lion of Hands, and no Impofitionof Hands by any Scripture Command, fo -much as implicate. Yea, it feemsyoutake not up this Courte on any flrongly-apparent Neceffty, when filch Cafes as this will put you on it ; and you are fo willing to makethe Scripture filent, where itfpeaks plain- ly, that you may provea neceflity of another Word. I do conf;IS the nece(frty of Tradition to deliver us fate theScripture it felf, the Cabinet with the Treafure, and the certainty of Tradition inf tending Scripture byhanding down to as the Arti- cles of our Creed, and Subftanceof Chi iliianity, in and againit which, the Church cannot err in [refit campo/ito, bécaufe -fo erring unehurehech it: But this will not prove the nece(lìty of another Law betides the written Law, for it is opus fubordina- tum : It is not the part of a Law, nor belongs to it's (efficiency to publilh, pro- mulgate, or conferve it felf. But it belongs ro it's Sufficiency to contain eh the floodingmiter of Drity, ?in Specie, where the Species is permanently due, and in genre only with Diredìois for determining=of the Species, when the Paid Species is of uncertain, unconitant,. mutable D:.euo(s: He that faith a Duty of fo great and flooding necetTìty, is riot fo much as..implicitely commanded in Scripture, loth plainly fay, that betides the Scripture, which is infufficieny God hath either another more perfect ,Law for Supernatutals, or elfe, another part to add to the Scripture to make it perfeol. Your Addition,mollifieth the Matter in Tennis, but I doubt farce in Senle, for when you lay that (theTextswhere Impofitional-lands is fpoken of commented upon by the univerfal.l?raçtice of theChurch bona the firlt Age, till this wild exorbitant last Century, Items aclear Evidence what the Will of Chrilt is, &c.) I very ouch like the Words and Seule which they in propriety ex- prefs, viz. That in a Matter of Fad, where Scripture is oblcure, the Practice of the firft, fecond, or third Centuries may be an excellent Commentary; that is a help to enderftand them; much more the,Pra&ice of the univerfal Church in all Ages. But I mutt tell you, that it is not the Work of a Commentary on the Laws exprefly to add Such Ptecepcs, about matters of:fuch very great Concernment, as is the very being of the Repubiick, which are neither exprefly, or implicitly in the Law it Pelf, I mull judge therefore, that you make the Churches Practice a real Law, though you thought meet to giveit but theTitleof a Comment. And Ifcarc. approve of your comparative Ternis of the Centuries as bad as this is? What ! bath this Century, which bath been the only refs):m:ng Age, been .worfe than that before it, whofe Corrup,ions it reformed? and worfe than that of which Rellarmine faith, Hoc fecolo vellum extitit inelobliue vel ìnfoelicita quo gut Matbema- tica aut Fhslofephia operam ¿abat,.Llagrovulgo potabatur: and thet of which Ef. peneaus faith, that Grace nofce JJfrcturu forrit, Hebraicúm prop Hareticum? What worfe than the four or five foregoing Centuries, wherein Murderers, Traytors, common Whoremongers, Sodomites, Hefeticks were the pretended Heads of the Church, and gro(ly ignorant, fuperflirious and wicked ones were the confpicuous part of theBody. Will you appeal from this Century to thole? Did you not even now corfeb, that (it is admirably worth our Conlderation that when God flirted up the drowzy World to depot from Rome's Superfhtions antIdolatries, he bowed the Hearts of Come of the Church -Officers to go along with them) Rome then was idolancus. We departed from ir, .God flirted Mn up, and bowed their Hearts thereto: I confefs you may Hy as much for the proving of she Univerfal Churches Fradice, inthis Point, as in moll, it being of conflar,t and foiemn ufe, and none that I know of, that ever oppofed it. But if you hold this univerfal Fradice ro be the other part of God's Law, and do lay any thing much, on it in other Points, efpecially in Dodrinals, I would adyife you to get better Proof of the Univerfali- ty than others ufe to bring, who go' that way. As the Ronai(hChurch is not the the Univerfil, nor theRomtlh and Greek together, fo the Opinion of four or five, or more Fathers is no Evidence, of the Judgment of the univerfal Church : Till they are better agreed with themfelves and one another ; it is hard taking a viewof the Judgment of the Church univerfal in them, in controverted Points. Till Ori- gen, Tertullien, &a. ceafe to be accounted Hereticks i till Firteilianua, Cypnan, and the Council of Carthage be better agreed with Staplers hilltopof Rome, till Refnue ceafto be a l leretick ro Hierom, and many the like Difcords ; it's hard Peeing the Face of the Church univerfal in this Glaf: I was but even now reading in Hirrote, where he tells Auftin, that there were guaelam Haretica in his Writings againft him ; when yet to the impartial Reader, the angry Man, that morafre Senex, had theurïfnunder Caufe. As long as the Writings cf Clem. Alexanelr.Origen, 7ati- ono, pretended Dyovijur, LaLantiur, with fo many mare, do tot erroribas fcatere, ,as long as ;InlayCouncils have fo erred, and Council is agreat Council, and tom
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