you by and by upon another occafion. By all these circumftances laid together, I do not fee how it can be difputed what good this emperor Conftantine wrought to the church, but rather whether ever any, though perhaps not wittingly, fet open a door to more mifchief in Chriftendom. There is juft caufe therefore, that when the prelates cry out, Let the church be reformed according to Conftantine, it fhould found to a judicious ear no otherwife, than if they should say, Make us rich, make us lofty, make us lawless; for if any under him were not fo, thanks to those ancient remains of integrity, which were not yet quite worn out, and not to his government.

Thus finally it appears, that those purer times were not fuch as they are cried up, and not to be followed without fufpicion, doubt, and danger. The laft point wherein the antiquary is to be dealt with at his own weapon, is, to make it manifeft that the ancienteft and beft of the fathers have disclaimed all fufficiency in themselves that men should rely on, and fent all comers to the scriptures, as allfufficient: that this is true, will not be unduly gathered, by fhowing what esteem they had of antiquity themselves, and what validity they thought in it to prove doctrine or difcipline. I muft of neceffity begin from the fecond rank of fathers, becaufe till then antiquity could have no plea. Cyprian in his 63d Epiftle: "If any," faith he," of our ancestors, either ignorantly, or out of fimplicity, hath not obferved that which the Lord taught us by his example," fpeaking of the Lord's fupper," his fimplicity God may pardon of his mercy; but we cannot be excufed for following him, being inftructed by the Lord." And have not we the fame instructions and will not this holy man, with all the whole confiftory of faints and martyrs that lived of old, rife up and stop our mouths in judgment, when we fhall go about to father our errours and opinions upon their authority? In the 73d Epift. he adds, "In vain do they oppofe cuftom to us, if they be overcome by reafon; as if cuftom were greater than truth, or that in fpiritual things that were not to be followed, which is revealed for the better by the Holy Ghoft." In the 74th," Neither ought cuftom to

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hinder that truth fhould not prevail; for custom without truth is but agedness of errour."

Next Lactantius, he that was preferred to have the bringing up of Conftantine's children, in his fecond book of Inftitutions, chap. 7 and 8, difputes against the vain truft in antiquity, as being the chiefeft argument of the Heathen against the Chriftians: "They do not confider," faith he, "what religion is, but they are confident it is true, because the ancients delivered it; they count it a trefpafs to examine it." And in the eighth: "Not because they went before us in time, therefore in wifdom; which being given alike to all ages, cannot be prepoffeffed by the ancients: wherefore, feeing that to seek the truth is inbred to all, they bereave themselves of wisdom, the gift of God, who without judgment follow the ancients, and are led by others like brute beafts." St. Austin writes to Fortunatian, that "he counts it lawful, in the books of whomfoever, to reject that which he finds otherwise than true; and fo he would have others deal by him." He neither accounted, as it seems, those fathers that went before, nor himself, nor others of his rank, for men of more than ordinary spirit, that might equally deceive, and be deceived: and ofttimes fetting our fervile humours afide, yea, God fo ordering, we may find truth with one man, as foon as in a council, as Cyprian agrees, 71ft Epift. "Many things," faith he," are better revealed to fingle perfons. At Nicza, in the firft and best-reputed council of all the world, there had gone out a canon to divorce married priefts, had not one old man, Paphnutius, ftood up, and reasoned against it.

Now remains it to fhow clearly that the fathers refer all decifion of controversy to the fcriptures, as allfufficient to direct, to refolve, and to determine. Ignatius, taking his laft leave of the Afian churches, as he went to martyrdom, exhorted them to adhere close to the written doctrine of the apoftles, neceffarily written for pofterity: fo far was he from unwritten traditions, as may be read in the 36th chap. of Eufebius, 3 b. In the 74th Epift. of Cyprian against Stefan, bishop of Rome, impofing upon him a tradition; "Whence," quoth he, "is this tradition? Is it fetched from

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the authority of Chrift in the gospel, or of the apostles in their epiftles? for God teftifies that thofe things are to be done which are written." And then thus, "What obstinacy, what prefumption is this, to prefer human tradition before divine ordinance?" And in the fame epift. if we shall return to the head, and beginning of divine tradition, (which we all know he means the Bible) human errour ceafes; and the reafon of heavenly myfteries unfolded, whatsoever was obfcure becomes clear." And in the 14th diftinct, of the fame epift. directly against our modern fantafies of a ftill visible church, he teaches, "that fucceffion of truth may fail; to renew which, we must have recourse to the fountains;" ufing this excellent fimilitude," if a channel, or conduitpipe which brought in water plentifully before, fuddenly fail, do we not go to the fountain to know the cause, whether the fpring affords no more, or whether the vein pe ftopped, or; turned afide in the midcourfe? Thus ought we to do, keeping God's precepts, that if in aught the truth fhall be changed, we may repair to the gofpel and to the apoftles, that thence may arife the reafon of our doings, from whence our order and beginning arofe." In the 75th he inveighs bitterly against pope Stephanus," for that he could boast his fucceffion from Peter, and yet foift in traditions that were not apoftolical.” And in his book of.. the unity of the church, he compares thofe that, neglecting God's word, follow the doctrines of men, to Corah, Dathan, and Abiram. The very first page of Athanafius against the gentiles, avers the feriptures to be fufficient of themfelves for the declaration of truth; and that if his friend Macarius read other religious writers, it was but Piλonáho; come un vertuofo, (as the Italians fay,) as a lover of elegance : and in his fecond tome, the 30th page, after he hath reckoned up the canonical books, " in thefe only," faith he, "is the doctrine of godlinefs taught; let no man add to these, or take from these." And in his Synopfis, having again fet down all the writers of the Old and New Teftament," thefe," faith he, "be the anchors and props of our faith." Befides thefe, millions of other books have been written by great and wife men according to rule, and agreement with thefe, of which I will not now speak,

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as being of infinite number, and mere dependance on the canonical books. Bafil, in his 2d tome, writing of true faith, tells his auditors, he is bound to teach them that which he hath learned out of the Bible: and in the fame treatise he faith, " that feeing the commandments of the Lord are faithful, and fure for ever, it is a plain falling from the faith, and a high pride, either to make void any thing therein, or to introduce any thing not there to be found:" and he gives the reafon, "for Chrift faith, My Theep hear my voice, they will not follow another, but fly from him, because they know not his voice." But not to be endlefs in quotations, it may chance to be objected, that there be many opinions in the fathers which have no ground in fcripture; fo much the lefs, may I say, fhould we follow them, for their own words fhall condemn them, and acquit us that lean not on them; otherwife these their words will acquit them, and condemn us. But it will be replied, the fcriptures are difficult to be understood, and therefore require the explanation of the fathers. It is true, there be fome books, and especially fome places in those books, that remain clouded; yet ever that which is moft neceffary to be known is most easy; and that which is moft difficult, fo far expounds itself ever, as to tell us how little it imports our faving knowledge. Hence, to infer a general obfcurity over all the text, is a mere fuggeftion of the devil to diffuade men from reading it, and cafts an afperfion of difhonour both upon the mercy, truth, and wifdom of God. We count it no gentleness, or fair dealing in a man of power amongst us, to require ftrict and punctual obedience, and yet give out all his commands ambiguous and obfcure, we should think he had a plot upon us; certainly fuch commands were no commands, but fnares. The very effence of truth is plainnefs and brightness, the darkness and crookedness is our own. The wifdom of God created understanding, fit and proportionable to truth, the object and end of it, as the eye to the thing visible. If our understanding have a film of ignorance over it, or be blear with gazing on other falfe glifterings, what is that to truth? If we will but purge with fovereign eyefalve that intellectual ray which God hath planted in us, then we

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would believe the fcriptures protefting their own plainnefs and perfpicuity, calling to them to be inftructed, not only the wife and learned, but the fimple, the poor, the babes, foretelling an extraordinary effufion of God's fpirit upon every age and fex, attributing to all men, and requiring from them the ability of searching, trying, examining all things, and by the fpirit difcerning that which is good; and as the fcriptures themselves pronounce their own plainness, so do the fathers teftify of them.

I will not run into a paroxyfm of citations again in this point, only inftance Athanafius in his forementioned first page: "The knowledge of truth," faith he, "wants no human lore, as being evident in itself, and by the preaching of Chrift now opens brighter than the fun." If these doctors, who had scarce half the light that we enjoy, who all, except two or three, were ignorant of the Hebrew tongue, and many of the Greek, blundering upon the dangerous and fufpectful tranflations of the apoftate Aquila, the heretical Theodotion, the judaized Symmachus, the erroneous Origen; if these could yet find the Bible fo eafy, why fhould we doubt,, that have all the helps of learning, and faithful induftry that man in this life can look for, and the affiftance of God as near now to us as ever? But let the fcriptures be hard; are they more hard, more crabbed, more abftrufe than the fathers? He that cannot understand the sober, plain, and unaffected ftyle of the fcriptures, will be ten times more puzzled with the knotty Africanifms, the pampered metaphors, the intricate and involved fentences of the fathers, befides the fantastic and declamatory flafhcs, the crossjingling periods which cannot but disturb, and come thwart a fettled devotion, worfe than the din of bells and rattles.

Now, fir, for the love of holy Reformation, what can be faid more against thefe importunate clients of antiquity than the herself their patronefs hath faid? Whether, think ye, would the approve ftill to doat upon immeasurable, innumerable, and therefore unneceffary and unmerciful volumes, choofing rather to err with the fpecious name of the fathers, or to take a found truth at the hand of a plain upright man, that all his days hath been diligently reading the holy fcriptures,