The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…

2. Suspect not all Church-history or Tradition, in an extreme opposition to the Papists, who cry up a private unproved Tradition of their own. They tell us of Apostolical Traditions, which their own faction only are the keepers of; and of which no true historical evidence is produced: And this they call the Tradition of the Church: But we have another sort of Tradition, which must not be neglected or rejected, unless we will deny humanity, and reject Christianity. Our Traditio tradens, or active Tradition, is primarily nothing but the certain history or usage of the universal ⟨p. 94⟩Christian Church; as Baptism, the Lords day, the Ministry, the Church Assemblies, and the daily Church exercises; which are certain proofs what Religion was then received by them. And 2. The Scriptures themselves. Our Traditio tradita is nothing else but these two conjunctly: 1. The Christian Religion, even the Faith then professed, and the Worship and Obedience then exercised. 2. The Books themselves, of the holy Scriptures, which contain all this, with much more. But we are so far from thinking that Apostolical Oral Tradition, is a supplement to the Scriptures, as being larger than them, that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than such Tradition; and that we have no certainty by any other than Scriptural Tradition, of any more than the common matters of Christianity, which all the Churches are agreed in. But he that will not believe the most universal practice and history of the Church or world in a matter of fact, must in reason much less believe his eye-sight.

2. Suspect not all Church-history or Tradition, in an extreme opposition to the Papists, who cry up a private unproved Tradition of their own. They tell us of Apostolical Traditions, which their own faction only are the keep•rs of; and of which no true historical evidence is produced: And this they call the Tradition of the Church: But we have another sort of Tradition, which must not be neglected or rejected, unless we will deny humanity, and reject Christianity. Our Traditio tradens, or active Tradition, is primarily nothing but the certain history or usage of the universal ⟨p. 94⟩Christian Church; as Baptism, the Lords day, the Ministry, the Church Assemblies, and the daily Church exercises; which are certain proofs what Religion was then received by them. And 2. The Scriptures themselves. Our Traditio tradita is nothing else but these two conjunctly: 1. The Christian Religion, even the Faith then professed, and the Worship and Obedience then exercised. 2. The Books themselves, of the holy Scriptures, which contain all this, with much more. But we are so far from thinking that Apostolical Oral Tradition, is a supplement to the Scriptures, as being larger than them, that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than such Tradition; and that we have no certainty by any other than Scriptural Tradition, of any more than the common matters of Christianity, which all the Churches are agreed in. But he that will not believe the most universal practice and history of the Church or world in a matter of fact, must in reason much less believe his eye-sight.