Confutation of Unwritten Verities, Chapter 10
¶Doctors to the same purpose wyth theyr aunswers /
¶The .x. Chapter.
TErtullian of the croune of a soldier.Argumente. He reciting many tradicyons (as to reneūce the deuil / his pōpe and his Angels afore Baptisme / to dip the childrē thrise in the foūt / to geue it pappe of hony and milke first thing after baptime / and not to wa…e it in a whole weeke after / to offer both at the day of the buriall and birth / on the sō day neyther to fast neyther to praye knelyng / nor also frō Easter to whitsontide / crossinge of our foreheades / with diuerse suche lyke) saith: If thou require a law of these and other suche disciplines / there can be no pretence of a law for them out of the scriptures. But thou shalt either perceaue by thy selfe / or learne of some other / that perceaueth it: that custome being author / confirmer / conseruer and obseruer of fayth / shal maintaine and defende the cause of this tradicion and custome of fayth.
BY the scriptures before alledgedAns…ere it is euidentlye proued / that all thyngs / requisite for out saluacion / be set forth in the holye bokes of the bible / and that it is not lawful to put any thyng therto / vnderunder payne of euerlastying damnacyō. The same Tertulliā also / as it is afore rehersed / saith that there is nothyng els / that oughte to be beleued after Chrysts gospel ōce published.Vnderstande here as necessary to saluacion. Yea all the olde authors / a thousande yere after Christ / and lykewyse / almost / all the new / affyrme the same: and would not hauehave vsus credyte their sayīgs without the profe of gods worde.
Why shoulde we then beleue Tertullian agaynst so playne Scripturs / agaynst the old fathers of the church / and also contrarye to his owne sayinges? Yet here wyll I gentlye interprete hym / so as he maye bothe agree wyth the Scriptures / wyth the olde authors / and also wyth himselfe. Tertullyā speaketh here / not of doctrines of fayth / hope / and charyte: but of tradycions / outward gestures / rites & ceremonies / which he not necessary for our saluacyon: but be ordayned for a decente order / and conformite in the churche / as is playnly shewed in the answere to Saint Paul in the Epystle to the Thessaloniās. And that he speaketh of such rites and ceremonies it is euident. For all those that he rehearseth be mere ceremonies / and few of them kept at this day: which nomā myghte hauehave altered or abolyshed / if they had bene necessarilye to be kept / vnderunder payne of damnacion.
CIprian to Pompeius agaynste Steuēs Epistle.Argumente. It is of no lesse authorite that the Apostles delyuered by the instructyon of the holy gost / then that which Christe… himselfe delyuered.
CIprian speaketh not here of tradicions vnwritten / but of such thynges / as the Apostles delyuered in their writings:Answere as the gospels and Epistles / like as Paule sayeth: I deliuered you that I receiued of the Lorde… whiche thing he wrote to thē. But if thei wil nedes vnderstand him of thynges delyuered by the Apostles wythout wrytyng: then answere him as Tertullian.
ORigen.Argumente. In obseruaūces of the church / there be diuerse thīgs which al men must nedes do / and yet the reason of them is vnknowen to all men. And he reciteth in maner the obseruaūces that Tertullyan doeth / and after he concludeth: Who can certenly tell the cause of all these thinges?
THe answer / made to Tertullian / wyll serue Origen here.Answere
A Thanasius vponupon the .2. Epistle to the Thessa. Cap. 2. vponupon this place:Argumente. State et tenete. Hereby it is playne / that Paule delyuered many thynges wythoute the scripture / not written in his Epistles / but by worde of mouth only. And these are worthy no lesse faith / then the other. Therfore I doe iudge the tradycion of the churche to be a thyng / worthy to be credited: so that if any thyng be deliuered by it / make no farther searche….
CHrisostomꝰ in the .2. Epistle to the Thessa. Cap. 2.argumēt Stande fast brethren / and kepe the tradiciōs &c. Hereof (sayeth Chrysostome) it is playne / that Paule deliuered not all things in his Epistles / but also many thynges without writing: and as wel those / as these / ar worthi of like faith. Wherefore we iudge the tradicion of the churche worthye of credite: it is a tradicion / searche no farther.
EPiphaniꝰ against heresyes.…rgumēt li. 2 to mo .1. Agaynst those that call thēselfes Apostles .1. cor. 11. 14. 15 We must (saith he) vse tradicions: for all thynges can not bee perceyued by the holy scripture. Wherfore the holi Apostles hauehave set furth vntounto vsus some thynges by the worde of god / and sōe thynges by tradicions / as the Apostle sayth: as I hauehave deliuered vntounto you / thus I teache / and thus I hauehave deliuered in all churches / and thus you remēber by what meanes I hauehave preached vntounto you / except you hauehave beleued in vayne.
ANswere these .iii. authors lyke as Tertullyan is answered:Answere sauing that they alledge S. Paul for their purpose / but clearly wrested from his true meaning / as it shal easely appeare to eueryevery indifferēt reader / that is not blinded of malice to resyst the truth / as they may plaīly perceue by the answere made to S. Paule afore. And wheras they say / that thīgs / geuen by woorde of mouthe / are as well to bee beleued / as those / that bee wrytten: they meane that they are worthy of lyke credite wyth tradycyons written. For neyther of both ar of necessite to saluacion: but may be chaū ged / and taken awaye by common consent / as it is afore sayd.
BAsile of the holy goste. Cap. 27. Of those doctrines / that ar preached in the churche / we hauehave sōe deliuered vsus by writing / and agayne / some we hauehave receiued by the tradicions of the Apostles in mysteri that is in secret: both hauehave lyke strengthe to godlynes / nother doth any mā speake against these / whatsoeuer he be / that hath but meane experience what the authorite of the churche is. For if we (lyke fooles) goe about to reiecte the customes of the church / which ar not written / as thynges of small weyght: we shall condemne those thyngs / that be nedeful for our saluation in the gospell. Yea we shall rather cut short the true preachyng of fayth to bare name. and he rehearseth like tradicions / as Tertullian did.
IErome againste the Luciferians. Although there were no authorite of the scriptures at all / yet the consent of the whole worlde / in thys matter / shold hauehave the force of a law. For many other thynges / whiche are obserued in the Churche by tradiciō / hauehave obteyned the authorite of a law written: as to dyppe the head thrise in baptisme: and when they are chrystened / to geue them first pappe made of milke with hony / for a signification of their infancie: on the Sondaye / and all Whytsone weake / not to knele at their prayers.
AVgustine vponupon the wordes of Basile. Some of the ecclesiasticall institucions we hauehave receued by writinges: some through tradicions from the Apostles / approued by successiosn: and some vse hath alowed / being strengthned by custōe. VntoUnto all which lyke vsage and lyke affectyōs of godlines is due. of which who wil doubt / though he hauehave but small experiences in the scriptures? For if we set out mynd to regard light lycustomes of the churche / delyuered vsus from our elders without the scriptures: it shall easelye appeare to them that loke earnestly theron / how great losse Christen religion shall suffer. And he reciteth the same that Ierome doeth / wyth diuerse other.
THese .iii.Answere authors / and all that make for the same purpose / bee answered before in Tertullian. For not one of those thyngs / that they make mencion of / are necessary for our saluacion: and many of them are now taken away: and the reste / whiche yet remayne (as to dippe the childe thrise wholly in the water: to hallowe the water / oyle / and creame: or to crosse it in the forthead) are not of necessite to saluatiō. For Iohn Baptised in Iordā and the Chāberlaine of the Quene of Ethiopia was Christened in the commō streame / & chrildrē in daūger of life are Christened of the midwife / or sōe other womā / without any of these ceremonies: & yet thei wil not deni that al these baptismes be good / & alowed of god. In Spaine also thei dippe the child but once / as it was decreed in the coūcell of Tollet. And I am suer / they wil not say that al the Spaniardes / so many yeres / hauehave wanted a thing necessary to saluatiō in their baptisme. God also regardeth not our outward bodely gesture in oure praiers: but he beholdeth the fayth / & earnest desier of the hart of him that prayeth / wher soeuer he prayeth / & what soeuer hys outwarde bodely gesture be.
THe sāe agaīst Cresconi a gramariē li. 1. c. 33. to . 7.argumēt Although we hauehave no certaine exāple of thys matter in the Canonical scripture: yet neuertheles / the truth of the sāe scriptures in this matter is retained of vsus / whē we do that / that the hole church aloweth. Which churche the authorite of the scriptures commend. And for as muche / as the holy scripture cā deceiue no man: whoso feareth to be deceiued with any dark speaking of it / let him aske counsel at the church ther in / which withoute any doubt the holye scripture doeth shewe.
THe answere is easye.Answere. Austen was more circumspecte. thē to thīke that any doctryne might be proued by vse and custome without the scripture. For baptysme of infātes he bringeth in this text, except a man be borne agayne of water and the holy gost / he cannot be my disciple. And because the Donatists (like as the Anabaptistes do nowe) wrest this to them / that be of …eres of discretion: against thys exposiciō / he allegeth the maner of the churche in christenynge of Infantes.
By the which he proueth / that the churche hath all waye taken this sentence: except a man be borne againe / to be spoken also of infantes. What maner of argumente shoulde thys be of Austen… The exposition of the scrypture / and the vse of the Sacraments / may be iudged by the custome vsed in the holye churche alwaye: ergo the church may make a newe sacrament / and ordeine any newe Article of oure fayth without the scripture. By the sētences before cited of Austē himself / it may be easely iudged. I also graunt that eueryevery exposiciō of the scripture / wherein soeuer the olde / hole & true churche dyd agree is necessarye to be beleued. But oure controuersye here is / whether any thynge ought to be be leued of necessite / without the scripture.
THe same against the Epistle of Fundament Cap. 5. tomo. 6.argumēt I would not beleue the gospel / but that the authorite of the churche moueth me. Ergo (say they) what soeuer the church saith / we must nedes beleue them / as wel as the gospell. This argumente is naughte. For the testimonye of the churche is but as a publicke office of a record / as the exchequer / the court of the rolles / the office of a recorder / or a regester of all Christendome: in whiche office menne maye searche and hauehave / of the keepers of such offices / the true copies of such lands / or other moueables / as be due to them by the lawe. And yet may nether the Regesters / Recorders / Stcwardes of courtes / or towne clarkes put to / or take awaye any thing from the firste originall writinges / no nor the iudge himselfe.
But all thynges oughte to be iudged by those writings. So likewise we beleue the holy Canon of the byble / because that the Primitiue churche of the Apostles / and eldest wryters / & nexte to their time / approued them in their regester: that is / in their wrytinges / whyche partlye sawe them / & partlye hearde them of the Apostles. And more receue we not / because these olde fathers of the firste churche testifie in their bokes / that there was no more then these required to be beleued as the scripture of god. And yet were these wrytynges no lesse true / afore they were alowed by them / thē sence / Christe witnessing and saying: I seke no witnesse of man.
AVstine to Cassulane.argumēt In these thynges / wherein the scripture of god hath determined nothīg / the custome of the people / and our elders ordinaunces / oughte to be holden as a law: and the trāsgressors of the customes of the churche at like wyse to be punished / as the breakers of gods law.
Of which thinges if thou wylte dispute / and reproue one custome by another: there shal aryse an endlesse strife. He repeteth also this sentence manye tymes: that what so euer is vniuersally obserued & not writtē in the scripture / nor ordained by general coūcels: is a tradiciō come from the Apostles.
ANswere him as Tertullyan: & yet of all other authors he is most playne / that nothing is of necessite to saluacion / besydes the Scriptures of God.Answere But let vsus graunt for their pleasures / that those customes / whiche they speake of / bee tradiciōs Apostolyke: yet they bee no longer nor other waies to be obserued / then the tradiciōs Apostolike writtē. Which / as is before fully proued / mai (and are already) be both chaunged / & clearly taken awaye. And as concernyng custome it is playnlye proued / that it is not to be receaued agaynste the Scrypture / trueth / or reason.
THey sai moreouer that the perpetuall virginite of our Lady is to be beleued of necessite / as Ciprian / Chrisostome / Ierome / Ambrose / Austen / and all other speakyng therof say. But this is not founde in the scripture: ergo there is some thīg to be beleued that is not written in the Scripture.
THe minor / that is to say / that thys is not written in the scripture / is false.Answere For firste none of the old authours / that rehearce tradiciōs of the Apostles vnwrytten / make mencion of the perpetual virginite of our ladye / to be one of them: but they rehearce only diuerse cerimonies / or bodelye gestures / and suche rites vsed in Baptisme / prayers / holy dayes and fastynges / which (as I hauehave manyfestly declared) are not necessary to saluacyon. But the most part of them are cleane taken away / and the contrarye commaunded / and vsed by the vniuersall churche. Moreouer all the sayed authours proue her perpetuall virginite by thys texte of Scripture.
EZechiell. 44. Thys doore shalbe styll shutte / and not opened for any man to goe thorowe it: but only for the Lord god of Israel / yea he shall goe thorowe it / els shal it be shut still. For if these / and suche other fathers / had not iudged her perpetuall virginite to hauehave been wrytten in the scriptures: they woulde neuer hauehave iudged it to hauehave bene a thing to be beleued vnderunder payne of damnacyon.
Sainct Ierome also calleth Heluidiū a rashe / and an vngodly man: because that he taught / that our Ladye hadde other children by Ioseph after Christs birth / which doctrine he coulde not proue by the scriptures of god. In like maner we cal al them / that preache a ny doctrine in the church without the Authorite of gods worde / both vngodly / rashe and wicked members of Antichrist.
ARgument.argumēt Yet they bring forth to maintaine their errour the Baptisme of infantee / which (they say) is not contained in the scriptures: and yet this is to be obserued vpō paine of dānaciō / of the said childrē Ergo there is sōe thyng to be done of necessite to our saluacion / that is not contained in the scriptures.
ON what a gappe these men open both to the Donatistes & to the Anabaptists / that deny the baptising of infantes.Answere For if it were not writtē in the worde of god / no manne ought to beleue it or vse it. And so the Donatistes & Anabaptistes doctryne were true / & outs false. But in dede the baptisme of infaūtes is proued by the playne scriptures. Firste by the figure of the old law / which was circū cisiō. Infātes in the olde law were circūcised: Ergo in the newe lawe they ought to be baptised. Againe: Infātes pertaine to god / as it is said to Abrahā I wil be thy god / & the god of thy sede after thee.Gene. 17 Christ saith also: suffer children to come to me / for of such is the kingdome of heauen.Math. 19. And agayne: see that ye despice not one of these lytle ones:Luke. 19. for their Aūgels in heauen alwayes behold the face of my father / which is in heauē: for the sōne of māiscōe to saue that / that is lost. And agaīe Paule sayth / that youre children art holy nowe.1. Cor. 7. By these and many other playne wordes of Scripture it is euidente / that the Baptysme of infantes is grounded vponupon the holye scriptures.
FVrthermore the churche / saye they / hath chaunged the Sabboth daye into the Sondaye / whych Sabboth was commaunded by God / and neuer man found fault there at.argumēt Seeyng thē that the church hath authorite to chaunge Goddes lawes: muche more it hath authorite to make newe lawes necessarie to saluacion.
THere bee. 2. partes of the Sabboth day. One is the outward bodely reste from all maner of labour and worke: and this is were ceremoniall / and was taken awaye with other sacrifices and ceremonies by Christ at the preaching of the gospell. The other part of the Sabboth day is the inwarde rest or ceassing frō sinne / from our own wils and lusts / and to do only gods wil and commaū dementes.
Of this part speaketh the Prophet Esai.Esai. 56. He / that taketh hede that he vnhalow not the sabboth day / is he / that kepeth himselfe that he doe no euyl: and they that hold greatly of the thing that pleaseth me / and kepe my couenaūte / vntounto them wil I geue an euerlastyng name / that shall not peryuse. And moreouer the same Prophete sayeth.Esai. 58. If thou turne thy feete from the sabboth / so that thou doe not the thing / which pleaseth thy selfe / in my holy daye: Then shalte thou be called vntounto the pleasaunt / holy and gloryous sabboth of the Lorde / where thou shalte be in honor / so that thou do not after thine own imaginacions / nether seke thine own wil / nor speake thyne owne wordes. Then shalt thou hauehave thy pleasure in the Lord, whiche shall carry the hyghe aboue the earth / and fede thee with the heritage of Iacob thy father: for the Lords own mouth hath spoken it. This spirituall Sabboth / that is / to abstayne from synne and to doe good / are all men bounde to kepe all the dayes of their life / and not only on the sabboth day. And this spirituall sabboth may no man alter nor chaung / no not the whole church. That the vtter obseruinge of the sabboth is mere cerimonial / sainct Paul writeth plainly: as that the holy daies of the newe mone and of the sabboth daies are nothinge but shadowes of thinges to come.To lanuarye epist. 119. The bodely rest on the sabboth day is figuratiuely to be kepte.
And that the outwarde bodely rest is a mere cerimoniall precept S. Austine also affirmeth / saying that amōg all the ten commaundements / this only / that is spoken of the sabboth / is cō maūded figuratiuely: but al the other commaundements we must obserue playnly / as they be cōmaunded / with out any figuratyue speche.
IErome also to the Galathians. 4. accordyng to the same / sayeth: leste the congregaciō of the people / with out good order / shoulde dimmishe the faith in Christ: therfore certaine daies wer appointed / wherin we should cōe together / not that that daye is holyer / then the other / in whiche we come together: but that what soeuer day we assemble in / there might aryse greater ioye by the sight of one of vsus to another.To the perfite Ghristiā al dayes be lyke and eueri day is good friday, eueri day is Easter day, and we eat… hys fleshe alwayes.
But he / that wil answere wittelye to the question propoūded / affirmeth all the dayes to be lyke / and not that Christ is crucified only on good fridai and riseth only on the sōday: but that eueryevery daye is the daye of the Lordes resurrectiō / & we eate his flesh alwaies. But fastinges and comminges together / wer ordeined of wise men for thē that geue thēselfes rather to the world then to God: that cannot / yea for thē / that wil not come there at all / there to make their sacrifice of praiers to god / in the face of all the people.
Herby you may easely perceaue / that the church hath not chaunged the speciall part of the sabboth / whiche is to cease from vice and sinne: but the cerimoniall part of the Sabboth only / whiche was abrogate / and taken away / with other cerimonies of Moses law / by Chryst at the full preachīg of the gospell. In place whereof the churche hath ordayned the sonday for causes afore sayd.