4. That it is not the prefent perfuafion of the church of Rome, (whom he calls the traditionary Chriftians), nor ever was, that their faith hath defcended to them folely by oral tradition. If I can now make good thefe four things, I hope his demonstration is at an end.

SECT. VII. The first answer to his fecond demonftration. § 1. Hat these principles wholly rely upon the truth

1.T of the grounds of his demonftration à priori.

For if the doctrine of Chrift was either imperfectly taught in any age, or mistaken by the learners, or any part of it forgotten, (as it seems the whole Greek church have forgot that fundamental point of the proceffion of the Holy Ghoft, as the Roman church accounts it), or if the arguments of hope and fear be not neceffary causes of actual will to adhere to tradition, then there may have been changes and innovations in any age, and yet men may pretend to have followed tradition. But I have fhewn, that ignorance, and negligence, and mistake, and pride, and luft, and ambition, and any other vice or intereft, may hinder thofe caufes from being effectual to preferve tradition entire and uncorrupted. And when they do fo, it is not to be expected, that thofe perfons. who innovate and change the doctrine, fhould acknow ledge that their new doctrines are contrary to the doctrine of Chrift; but that they fhould at firft advance them as pious; and after they have prevailed, and gained general entertainment, then impudently affirm, that they were the very doctrines which Chrift delivered; which they may very fecurely do, when they have it in their power to burn all that fhall deny it.

§2. I will give a clear inftance of the poffibility of this in the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, by fhewing how this might eafily come in, in the ninth or tenth age after Chrift. We will fuppofe then, that about this time, when univerfal ignorance, and the genuine daughter of it, (call her devotion or fuperftition), had overfpread the world, and the generality of people were ftrongly inclined to believe ftrange things; and even the greatest contradictions were recommended to them under the notion of myfteries; being told by their priests

and

and guides, that the more contradictious any thing is to reafon, the greater merit there is in believing it: I fay, let us fuppofe, that, in this state of things, one or more of the most eminent then in the church, either out of defign, or out of fuperftitious ignorance and mistake of the fenfe of our Saviour's words used in the confecration of the facrament, fhould advance this new doctrine, that the words of confecration, This is my body, are not to be understood by any kind of trope, (as the like forms in fcripture are, as, I am the vine, I am the door, which are plain tropes), but being used about this great myftery of the facrament, ought in all reafon to be supposed to contain in them fome notable myftery; which they will do, if they be understood of a real change of the fubftance of bread and wine, made by virtue of these words, into the real body and blood of our Saviour. And in all this I fuppofe nothing, but what is fo far from being impoffible, that it is too afual for men, either out of ignorance, or intereft, to advance new opinions in religion. And fuch a doctrine as this was very likely to be advanced by the ambitious clergy of that time, as a probable means to draw in the people to a greater veneration of them; which advantage Mr Ruthworth feems to be very fenfible of, when he tells, (Dial. 1. §4.), that the power of the priest in this particular, is, "fuch a

privilege, as if all the learned clerks that ever li"ved fince the beginning of the world, fhould have stu"died to raise, advance, and magnify fome one state "of men to the highest pitch of reverence and eminency, they could never, without fpecial light from heaven, have thought of any thing comparable to this." I am of this mind, that it was a very notable device; but, I am apt to think, invented "without any special light from heaven." Nor was fuch a doctrine lefs likely to take and prevail among the people, in an age prodigiously ignorant, and ftrongly inclined to fuperstition, and thereby well prepared to receive the groffeft abfurdities under the notion of myfteries; efpecially if they were fuch as might feem to conciliate a greater honour and reverence to the facrament. Now, fuppofing fuch a doctrine as this, fo fitted to the humour and temper of the age, to be once afferted, either by chance, or

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out of defign, it would take like wild fire; efpecially if, by fome one or more who bore fway in the church, it were but recommended with convenient gravity and fo lemnity. And although Mr Rushworth fays (Dial. 3. $ 7.) "it is impoffible that the authority of one man fhould fway fo much in the world; becaufe (fays he) furely the devil himself would rather help the church, than permit fo little pride among men;" yet I am not fo thoroughly fatisfied with this cunning reafon: for though he delivers it confidently, and with a furely; yet I make fome doubt, whether the devil would be fo forward to help the church, nay, on the contrary, I am inclined to think, that he would rather chufe to con nive at this humble and obfequious temper in men, in order to the overthrow of religion, than crofs a defign fo Idear to him, by unfeasonable temptations to pride. So that, notwithstanding Mr Rufhworth's reafon, it seems very likely that fuch a doctrine, in fuch an age, might cafily be propagated by the influence and authority of one or a few great perfons in the church. For nothing can be more fuitable to the eafy and paffive temper of fuperftitious ignorance, than to entertain fuch a doctrine with all imaginable greedinefs, and to maintain it with a proportionable zeal. And if there be any wifer than the reft, who make objections against it, as if this doc trine were new, and full of contradictions, they may ea fily be borne down by the ftream, and by the eminency and authority, and pretended fanctity, of those who are the heads of this innovation. And when this doctrine is generally fwallowed, and all that oppofe it are looked upon and punished as heretics, then it is feasonable to maintain, that this doctrine was the doctrine of forefathers; to which end it will be fufficient to thofe who are willing to have it true, to bend two or three fayings. of the ancients to that purpofe. And as for the contra dictions contained in this doctrine, it was but telling the people then, as they do in effect now, that contradiction ought to be no fcruple in the way of faith; that the more impoffible any thing is, it is the fitter to be believed; that it is not praife-worthy to believe plain poffibilities; but this is the gallantry and heroical power of faith, this is the way to oblige God Almighty for ever to

us, to believe flat and downright contradictions: for "God requires at the people's hands (as Mr Rufl"worth tells us, Dial. 1. § 4.) a credulity of things a"above and beyond nature; nay, beyond all the fables, "be it fpoken with refpect, that ever man invented." After this doctrine hath proceeded thus far, and, by the moft inhuman severities and cruelties, fuppreffed diffenters, or in a good measure rooted them out; then, if they please, even this new word tranfubftantiation may pretend alfo to antiquity, and in time be confidently vouched for a word ufed by Chriftians in all ages, and transmitted down to them by thofe from whom they re ceived the doctrine of the facrament, as a term of art appendent to it. And when a fuperftitious church, and defigning governors, have once gained this poft, and by means of this enormous article of tranfubftantiation, have fufficiently debauched the minds of men, and made a breach in their understandings wide enough for the entertaining of any error, though ever fo grofs and fenfe lefs; then innovations come in amain, and by fhoals; and the more abfurd and unreasonable any thing is, it is for that very reafon the more proper matter for an ar ticle of faith. And if any of these innovations be ob jected again, as contrary to the former belief and practice, it is but putting forth a lufty act of faith, and believing another contradiction, that though they be contrary, yet they are the fame.

3. And there is nothing in all this but what is agree able both to history and experience. For that the ninth and tenth ages, and those which followed them till the reformation, were thus prodigiously ignorant and superftitious, is confirmed by the unanimous consent of all histories; and even by those writers, that have been the greatest pillars of their own religion. And experience tells us, that in what age foever there are a great com pany of fuperftitious people, there will never be wanting a few crafty fellows to make use of this eafy and pliable humour to their own ends. Now, that this was the ftate of thofe ages of the church, will be evident to any from thefe teftimonies. Platina (in vit. Romani, Papa 116. a. C. 900.) writes of Pope Romanus, that he nulled the ads of his predeceffor Stephanus: " for (fays he) thefe "Popes.

"Popes minded nothing elfe but how they might ex"tinguifh both the name and dignity of their predecef"fors." And if fo, who can doubt, but that thefe Popes who made it their bufinefs to deftroy the very memory of their ancestors, would be very little careful to preferve the doctrine of forefathers? But what the care of thofe times was in this particular, may be conjectured from what Onuphrius fays (in Platin.) by way of confutation of that paffage in Platina, concerning Pope Joan's reading publicly at Rome, at her firft coming thither. "This (lays he) is utterly falfe; for there was nothing that they were lefs folicitous about in thofe times, than to fur"nifh the city with any public teachers." And the time which Onuphrius fpeaks of, was much about the beginning of the tenth century. Phil. Burgomenfis fays (anno 906) "It happened in that age, through the flothfulness "of men, that there was a general decay of virtue both "in the head and members." Again (anno 908) "These "times, through the ambition and cruel tyranny of the "Popes, were extremely unhappy for the Popes fet"ting afide the fear of God, and his worship, fell into "fuch enmities among themselves as cruel tyrants ex"ercise towards one another." Sabellicus fays (Ennead. 1. 1. anno 900) It is wonderful to obferve what a ftrange forgetfulness of all arts did about this time "feize upon men; infomuch that neither the Popes, nor "other princes, feemed to have any fenfe or apprehen"fion of any thing that might be useful to human life. "There were no wholesome laws, no reparations of "churches, no purfuit of liberal arts; but a kind of "ftupidity and midnefs, and forgetfulness of manners, "had poffeffed the minds of men. And a little after: "I cannot (fays he) but much wonder from whence thefe tragical examples of Popes fhould fpring; and "how their minds fhould come to be fo devoid of all

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piety, as neither to regard the perfon which they fuf"tained, nor the place they were in." Sigonius (De regn. Ital. l. 6.) fpeaking of thefe times, about the beginning of the tenth century, calls them "the foulest

and blackeft, both in refpect of the wickedness of "princes, and the madness of the people, that are to be found in all antiquity." Genebrard (Chron. 1. 4.)

fpeaking