A51839:619
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing…
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostasy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostacy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...
London: printed by J.D. for J. Robinson, 1679
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
5. That which we blame in the Papists, is, ⟨p. 340⟩That they cry up a private, unproved, unwritten Tradition of their own, as of equal authority with this safe and full Rule, which is contained in this written Word of God. Their Crime and Fault may be considered, partly with respect to the Object and Matter; that these Traditions are not indifferent Customs, but essential Points necessary to Faith and Christian practice: And so though a Christian be never so thorough and sound in his obedience to the Word of God, and true to the Baptismal Covenant, yet if he submitteth not to these unwritten Traditions, he wants some Point necessary to Faith and Practice, and so to Life eternal: which is contrary to Mark 16.16. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned. And John 17.3. This is Life Eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Partly as to the Subject, as they make their own Faction to be the only keepers of these things; and that nothing is to be owned as Apostolical Tradition, but what is delivered as such by their Authority; which is to leave the Church to the tyranny and usurpation of a corrupt Faction; to declare for Apostolical Tradition any thing which serveth their end and Interest, and for which no true historical Evidence is produced. Now the unjust and fraudulent practices which they have used, to ⟨p. 341⟩promote this usurpation over the Churches of Christ, render them false Men, most unfit to be trusted in this kind. Partly with respect to the Manner, they will have these things to be received, pari reverentia & pietatis affectu, with the same reverence and pious affection with which we receive the Holy Scriptures; and so Man's Post is set by God's and unproved Traditions equalled with Doctrines of Faith. Their Opinion is bad enough; but their Practice is worse; for there they show they value these things more than the Scriptures. As Superstition always aboundeth in its own things. Did ever any of their Doctors say the same things of Traditions, which they take the boldness to say of Scripture? Did they ever call them Pen and Inkhorn, or Parchment Divinity, a nose of Wax, a dumb Rule, an obscure and ambiguous Doctrine? These Blasphemies they vent boldly against the Scriptures: but did they ever spake these of Traditions?