So Chap,z5. AnExpojitionupon theBoo.lb,of J Q*B. -Verf,r8. of the wife men he underflands, not their immediate Fathers onely, but thofe who were more remote and further off,yea, ,. poffibly thole who were furtheft off, evenas far as. Adam. Hence Obferve : Firff, It is an ingenuity to achnowledg by whom weprofit, wife men have told me. this, I received it from others as well as colleE.fed it by my own experience. Secondly,Note TruthJhould be conveyeddown to our Pofterity Truth is a more precious inheritance than Land or Money ; if Parents are careful to fecure (asmuch as they can ) earthly things to their Children, how muchmore fhould they be careful to fecure heavenly ? In the tirfi ages of the World, till the Law was given on Mount Sinai , faithful men were in Read of Books, and Tradition fupplied the want of Scripture : But now, our recourfe muff be to what God hath commanded to be written , not to what men have faid. No Tradition is of any force, but as conlentient with Scripture, and noneof fo much force as Scripture. The Council of Trent, in the fifth Scffion,thunders out Anathemaes againft thofe whoreceive not Tradition with the fame Godlyañeflion , and devotion, with which they receive the Scripture it felt; Bellarmin in his con- troverfie about Tradition,entitles his Book thus , Ofthe Word ofGod not written ; as if the word of God were to be divided into thefe twoorders,The Wordwrittèn,and the Wordnot writ- ten : Tradition with him is the Vnwritten word, and mull be held of as much authority as the Word written ; This it (as Chrift taxeth the Pharifees) to make the wordof God of none efeti, through mans Tradition : It is Rill a wife mans duty to tell Pofterity what the Word and Truth of God is, but we mull not receive any thing, as a truthof God , upon the bare word of thewifell men, Wife men have told their Fathers. Andhave not hid it, There is a twfold hiding ; firff, a hiding , to keep a thing fife, that we loofe it not ; fecondly, a hiding, that wekeep it dole, and not communicate it : In the former fenfe j we mull hide the truth of God , but wemay not in the latter. WhenDavid faith, Ihave bid thyCommandments inmy heart : whenMary hidtbe fayings ofCbriff in her heart;and when the man that found the creature (Mat, z 3.44)Went awayandhid it,
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