Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/113

 Cav..11I.] TaADmOX. 105 all contradicting one another; for there is no authentic eaudard to which an appeal can be made. But the CatAol/c CrcA, i.e., the priests, are not only the propoundors, they are also the ezpla/rs of beth the written and unwritten word; and neither Scripture nor tradition is to be considered  rule of faith otherwise than as propounded and 'p/a/ned by them. Let the articles of tradition be ever so contradictory, e explanation of a priest can reconcile them with the utmost facility. After all, if' there be any doctrines of faith or morals which are not contained in Scripture, and yet were preached by the apostles, let that be proved, let the traditions be produced, and records std]iciendy cre- dible and authentic, and we will receive them. It will be said by the advocates for oral tradition, that*it is preserved incorrupt by the church, which is superintended and aided for this put* pose by the Holy Spirit. Bu[ if' we can show that many of the popish traditions are false and apocryphal, that others of them are contradictory to each other and to Scripture, that many ancient ones have been dis- used, and many new ones invented, it will afford us sufficient reason to reject them. And all this we can do. 3. Some of the moat ancient traditions, claiming to be apostolical too, are manifestly false, and others are apocryphal, i.e., of uncertain origin and of doubtful authority. Some usages or traditions that are truly apostolical are difficult and indeed impossible to be distinguished from those which are apocryphal. From the first rise of Christianity heretics would say, as may be seen in Ireneeu8, "that what they had were the sacred mysteries which the aposdes taught, not to all in common, but to the perfect in parti- cular."* Papias himself, as Eusebius testifies, had made "a collection of fables and new doctrines under the title of tinrarities trad'ttio, which he had learned from the mouths of those who had seen the apostle8 and had conversed familiafly with them."t Many traditions were evidently false. St. Ireneeus speRks of a cer- tain tradition which had passed current in his time in Asia, as imme- diately coming from the apostle John, viz., that Christ taught after his fortieth year, which is now held to be false by all chronologers. Pa- pin, bishop of ]-Iierapolis, in the beginning of the second century, de- livered the doctrine of the millenium, or that our Saviour was to live a thousand years on the earth, for an undoubted truth. Irenmus, who received this doctrine rom Papias, undertook to give the very words of Christ as a proof of it. All the orthodox fathers, as Justin Martyr declares, embraced it. Many more instances might be adduced, were it necessary. 4. Some ancient traditions are contradictory to each other and to Scripture. The churches of Asia, who have the feast of Easter cele- brated precisely on the fourteenth day of the moon's age after the vernal �Ires., h. iii, c. 2, 3. $ Eus., lib. iii, c. 39.

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