Chapter II. Of Scripture and Tradition

What is pour belief concerning the Scripture?

That it is to be received by all Christians as the infallible word of God.

Do you look upon the Scripture to be clear and plain in dll points necessary; that is, in all such points wherein our salvation is so far concerned, that the misunderstanding and misinterpreting of it may endanger our eternal welfare?

No: because 8t Peter assures us, 2 Pet. iii. b 2

18 Of Scripture

16, that in St. Paul's Epistles “there are somg things hard to be understood, which they that ara unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction."

How then is this danger to be avoided?

By taking the meaning and interpretation of the scripture from the same hand from which we received the book itself, that is, from the Church.

Why may not every particular Christian have liberty to interpret the scripture according to his own private judgment, without regard to the interpretation of the Church?

1st. Because “no prophecy of the scripture is of private interpretation,” 2 Pet, i. 20. 2ndly. Because, as men's judgments are as different as their faces, such liberty as this must needs produce as many religions almost as men. 3rdly, Because Christ has left his church and her pastors and teachers to be our guides, in all controversies relating to religion, and consequently in the understanding of holy writ. Ephes. iv. 11, 12, &c. “ He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. That we may henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking th' and Tradition. 19

Ira tli in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” Hence St. John, in his first epistle, chap. iv. 6, gives ns this rule for the trying of spirits: “ He thalj knoweth God heareth us” (the pastors of the church), “ he that is not of God, heareth not us: by this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”

Why does the Church, in her profession of faith, oblige her children never to take or interpret the scripture otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the holy fathers?

To arm them against the danger of novelty and error; Prov. xxii. 28, “ Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.”

Sect. I. — Of Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions.

What do you mean by apostolical traditions?

All such points of faith or church discipline which were taught or established by the apostles, and have carefully been preserved in the church ever since.

What difference is there between apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions?

The difference is this, that apostolical traditions are those which had their origin or institution from the apostles; such as infant baptism, the Lord’s day, receiving the sacrament, fasting, &c. Ecclesiastical traditions are such as had their institution from the Church, as holidays and fasts ordained by the Church.

How are we to know what Traditions are truly apostolical, and what not f

20 Of the Ordinances and

In the same manner and by the same authority by which we know what scriptures are apostolical, and what are not: that is, by the authority of the apostolic church, guided by the unerring spirit of God.

But why should not the scripture alone be the rule of our faith, without haring recourse to apostolical tradition?

1. Because, without the help of apostolical tradition, we cannot so much as tell what is scripture, and what is not. 2. Because Infant Baptism and several other necessary articles are either not at all contained in scripture, or at least not plain in the scripture without the help of tradition.

What scripture can you bring in favour of tradition?

“ Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the tradition, which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle/' 2 These, ii. 15. “Ask thy father, and he will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee,” Deut. xxxii. 7. See Ps. xix. 5, 6, 7. 1 Cor. xi. 2. 2 Thess. iii. 6. 2

Tim. i. 13, chap. ii. 2, chap. iii. 14.

Sect, II. — Of the Ordinances and Constitutions of the Church.

Why do you make profession of admitting and embracing all the ordinances and constitutions of the Church?

Because Christ has so commanded. “ He that heareth you, heareth me: and he that despiseth you, despiseth me,” Luke x. 16. u As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you,” John xx. 24.

Constitutions of the Church. 2'*.

Hence St. Paul, Heb. xiii. 17, tells us, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.”

Why does the Church command so many holidays to be kept? Is it not enough to keep the Sunday holy?

God, in the old law, did not think it enough to appoint the weekly Sabbath, which was the Saturday; but also ordained other festivals, as that of the Passover, in memory of the delivery of his people from the Egyptian bondage; that of the Weeks or Pentecost; that of Tabernacles, &c., and the church has done the same in the new law, to celebrate the memory of the chief mysteries of our redemption, and to bless God in his saints. And in this Protestants seem to agree with us, by appointing almost all the same holidays in their Common Prayer Book.

Is it not said in the law, Exod. xx. 9, “ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, &c.”

Why then should the Church derogate from this part of the commandment?

This was to be understood in vase no holiday came in the week; otherwise the law would contradict itself, when in the 23rd chap, of Leviticus it appoints so many other holidays besides the Sabbath, with command to abstain from ail servile work on them.

As to fasting-days, do you look upon it as sinful to eat meat on those days without necessity?

Yes; because it is a sin to disobey the church: “ If he neglect to hear the church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican,” Matt. xiii. 17.

22 Of the Sacraments

Doth not Christ say, Matt. xv. 11, “That which goeth into the mouth doth not defile a man V*

True: it is not any unclean ness in the meat, as many ancient heretics imagined, or any dirt, or dust which may stick to it by eating it without first washing the hands (of which case our Lord speaks in the text here quoted) which can defile the soul; for every creature of God is good, and whatsoever corporal filth enters in at the mouth, is cast forth into the draught; but that which defiles the soul, when a person eats meat on a fasting- day, is the disobedience of heart, in transgressing the precept of the Church of God. In like manner, when Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, it was not the apple which entered in by the mouth, but the disobedience to the law of God, which defiled him.