fuch Bifhops one Article for Schifm, which their pretended Patron St. Jerome makes decreed by the Apostles for the Extirpation of the Seeds of Schifm all the World over.

Thus I have endeavour'd to make out the firft Thing propos'd, viz. That the most rational and Safeft Method to understand the holy Scripture, is to confult the general Sence of the Catholick Writers in the pureft Ages of the Church. And this I have done by fhewing the natural and moral Advantages of the Ancients above the Moderns, for the better understanding of the Minds of the Apoftles: And tho' perhaps I might justly have advanced their Authority higher in Matters of pure Reafoning, from the extraordinary Effufions of the Spirit, which were very plentiful in the firft Ages, yet I chofe chiefly to confider 'em as Witneffes of Fact only, because in this View our fineft Reasoners cannot queftion their Sufficiency, without calling in queftion at the fame time the Genuinefs of the Gospel. And to make this Matter yet more intelligible, I have taken for granted what I believe will be hardly contefted; namely, That the Sence or Meaning of any Law or Inftitution is beft understood by the general Practice, immediately enfuing thereupon; and this Rule I bave illuftrated by five Instances, which are not very easily made out from the bare Words of Scripture, but fully clear'd up by the Practice of the Ancients: And I have infifted the longer upon the Inftance of Epifcopacy, because that Eminence is the Mark of many an ill Eye, and the Ground of the greatest Heart-burnings and Divifions among ft us; and becaufe from the Foundations in the

2

Gospel,

Gofpel, and the Superftructure and Settlement of all Churches after the fame Form by the Apoftles, and their immediate Succeffors, we may as demonftrably conclude the Order of Bishops to be of Apoftolical, that is, of divine Appointment, as we can conclude any thing from Hiftory. And now upon the whole, I think I may with Reafon affirm the Primitive Chriftians to be not only the most faithful Guardians of the Canon, but of the Sence of Scripture alfo and therefore when I fee fome Men playing their whole Artillery against 'em, and running Riot upon the abfolute Perfection of Scripture, the better only to run down the Use of the Fathers, and by getting them out of the way to fall foul upon the unguarded Letter, and Murther it to their own purpose, it puts me in mind of the like Practices upon their Sovereign, as upon the Scripture: For just fuch hollow Panegyricks came whiffling from the fame Quarter, that a good King wou'd reign moft gloriously without his Guards, alone fecure in the Hearts and AffeEtions of his People, and when they had importun'd him out of his Forces, how they decided his Perfon I need not tell. And thus much concerning the Ufe and Service of the Fathers.

I come now in the second place to answer the moft material Objections against them.

The Defign of Criticifm at firft was to refoue injur'd Authors from the Depredations of Time and Moths, or much worfe Vermine, to enlighten and beautify their Sence, and reftore 'em to their original Perfection. But now 'tis the Art of finding Fault only, or rather of making Wounds for the Reputation of a Cure, and vending Wit at the

C 2

Price

f

Price of Honesty. And finding Fault being what
we are naturally difpos'd to, and Correction an
Act of Authority which we all admire; Criticks
have multiply'd in great Quantities from this Cor-
ruption. Happy the Man, who can but difcover
a Spot in the Sun, or in fome celebrated Writer
how noble the Discovery, and the feeming Blemish
to be illuftrated above all his other indifputable
Beauties? For instance, we ordinary Folks have
all this while taken Jofeph for a mighty honeft
upright Man; and for his Religion, the peculiar
Care of Providence, and for his Benefactions to
Egypt, the Darling of King and People; and af
terwards Idoliz'd under the Egyptian Apis. But
alas! no fuch matter, we have been miferably
mifled by Mofes, and quite out in our Mythology;
for the Modern Criticks have found out this fame
Jofeph to have been an arrant Minister of State,
a Promoter of arbitrary Principles, and a down-
right enflaver of the People, and that his Me-
mory was therefore odious, and confequently the
Story of his being worship'd under the Symbol of
Serapis, a filly groundless Story. Thus again,
from an iota or one Tittle, to Queftion whe-
ther Jefus Chrift was not a Cabalist, sounds lit-
tle better in my Ears than to question whether
he was not a Conjurer; however this is new,
and out of the way, and therefore wonderful.
In like manner to give broad Hints that after all
the Care and and Integrity of the Ancients, our

* See Bafnage's Supplement to Jofephus, cap. 19. 1. 3. Sect. 12.

p. 219.

† Ἰῶτα ἕν η μία κεραία 8 μὴ παρέλθη ἀπὸ * νόμο. Matth. cap. v. v. 18. Bafnage's Supplement to Jofeph. 1. 3. cap. 21. p. 229.

*

Bible is not yet as it fhould be; to make Sarah and Hagar, which St. Paul really thought to be Types of the Two Covenants, to be the Iffue only of St. Paul's Allegorizing Fancy, or which is much the fame, borrowed from fome vulgar Midrafch, that is, fome Jewish Whimfies. Thefe, I fay, are marvellous Discoveries, fresh and Sparkling, and Juch as never enter into the Head of an ordinary Chriftian. Whether the Learned Mr. Bafnage in his Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, as well as Le Clerc, have not run extravagant Lengths in this way of Criticifm, I fall leave to their Readers. But as the best Fruit is most fubject to Vermin, fo the Fathers have been eminently Pefter'd with this fort of Criticks: Every Mote in their Eye, by the Powers of the Critical Magick, thickens into a Beam; and the most puifny Objection against the first and faithfullest Servants of Christ is magnify'd to a Demonftration, not only against the Õpinions they held, but against their Authority even in Matters of Fact; the chiefest of which Objections I shall now particularly confider.

The first Objection is taken from the Difficulty of knowing what the true Sence of the ancienteft Fathers was, and to make out this, 'tis urged, that most of the Writings for the Three first Centuries are loft, in which 'tis poffible we might have met with very different Relations, from what we find in thofe now Extant.

Now this, to fay the best of it, is a very oddway of Arguing, weak in it Self, and worfe in its

* Mr. Clerc's Annotations on Galat. cap. 4. v. 21. See more to this purpose in Mr. Bafnage's Supplement. cap. 21. 1. 3. p. 230, 231.

Confequences. For the Queftion before us, is, concerning the True Senfe of the Fathers we have, and the Objection is grounded upon a Prefumptive one in thofe we have not; in this cafe then the lost Writings must be produced to juftifie this Prefumption, or the Objection is pure Dream and Imagination. And if fuch Surmizes may serve for Proofs, or the lofs of fome Writings invalidate the rest in Being, Hiftorical Certainty is quite at an End; and if a Man has a mind to gratify himfelf with Perhaps's and Poffibles, he may gainfay Matter of Fact in Hiftory; becaufe, had we all the Hiftories of thofe Times, 'tis poffible perhaps we might find it to be as he fancies; and the Confequence will be, that the Scriptures themfelves are Questionable, because the Teftimony of many of the Fathers are wanting, which might have contradicted thofe we have. Nay, Calvin

any

Peter Martyr, || Zanchy, ** Whitaker, and others, make no doubt but fome Canonical Scriptures are wanting, from whence Bellarmine argues against the Jufficiency of the Canon, which is the very Argument here turn'd against the Authority of the Ancients. But the Answer is foort, and will ferve for both, viz. That what is left is fufficient, or Providence would have left us more; and what we never had, we have nothing to Anfwer for, but not to believe upon a Competency, is to be fullen and ftarve because we have not All,

*Calvin in Epift. Judæ.

Pet. Mart. Loc. Com. Claff. 1. cap. 6. num. 27.
Zanch. in Hofeam fub init.

Whitak. de Scripturis, Quæft. 3. cap. 3.

Bellarm. de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 4.