thing ought to be confirmed, or ratified by the testimony of inspired Scripture. St. Austin, in the beginning of the Fifth Century, requires the Donatists to shew from the Canonical Books of the Holy Scriptures, whether they be right or not, in their pretensions, as when Christ rose from the dead, and shewed himself to his Disciples, lest they might think there was any deceit in it; "magis nos testimoniis leges & prophetarum & psalmorum, confirmandos esse judicavit:" he thought fit to confirm them by testimonies of the law, and prophets and psalms, shewing that those things were fulfilled in him, which had been so long before foretold. This is an eminent testimony from Christ's own judgment, that Scripture and not oral tradition was the surest and fittest way of concluding controversies relative to Faith. In like manner against the letters of Petilian+ "Whether I, or you, be schismatics, non ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut indicet Ecclesiam suam. Let Christ be asked, and neither I nor you, that he may shew, or point out his Church." In his 166th epistle, he says, "In Scripturis discimus ecclesiam, &c. The Scriptures which teach us Christ, are the means to teach us the church also: and again, in F'salm Ixix. "Lest any should tell thee, that is Christ, which is not Christ;""aut ecclesia est, quæ non est ecclesia, as that is the church, which is not the church; audi vocem pastoris, hear the voice of the shepherd, i. e. of Christ in the Scripture. "Puritas doctrinæ expendenda est, non secundum traditionem præsentis aut hujus, vel illius particularis ecclesæ, hujus vel illius interpretis, sed secundum traditionem ab initio, a temporibus Apostolorum concordi Patrum sententia, ad nos usque † L. 4, c. 85. deductam. The purity of doctrine is to be weighed, not according to the tradition of the present church, or of this, or that particular church, of this, or that interpreter, but according to tradition deduced from the beginning from the times of the Apostles, even to us, by a concordant opinion of the Fathers." About the middle of the Fifth Century, Salvian, Bishop of Marseilles, speaking of the Goths, who received the faith, but yet corrupted by the Arians, gives this account of them, that "though they have the Scriptures, yet for want of literature, they know nothing, but what they hear from their teachers, and what they hear, they follow." And again, "they that are ignorant of all literature, do know the sacred mystery of God's law, by teaching rather than reading, (a true picture of oral tradition,) do rather retain what they are taught, than the Law of God, and therefore the tradition of their masters, and inveterate teaching, is as it were law to them, who know that which they are taught; they are therefore, heretics, but know it not; heretics in our, but not in their own account; for they are so confident that they are Catholics, that they defame us for heretics. Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur. Change but the name, the Papist here is traced. Here we have the concurrent testimonies of the writers of the five first centuries of the church, ia support of Scripture being our only guide. Is not the imposition and innovation self-evident, when we see, as has been proved, that the system of oral tradition * Nihil omnino sciunt, nisi quod a doctoribus suis audiunt, quod audiunt hoc sequuntur 1. 5, p. 153, of the Oxford edition. Necesse est eos, qui totius literaturæ ac scientiæ ignari sacramentum, divinæ legis doctrina magis quam lectione cognoscunt, doctrinam potius retinere quam legem. Itaque eis traditio magistorum suorum & doctrinæ inveterata quasi lex est, qui hoc sciunt quod docentur, hæretici ergo sunt, sed non scientes; de nique apud nos sunt beretici apud se non sunt. Nam in tantum se Catholicos esse judicant, ut nos ipsos titulo hæretici appellationis infament. Ibid. was not known in those days? Hence, I deduce that the votaries of oral traditions, which are of human, not of Divine or apostolical institution, may be addressed in the same manner, which Christ did the Pharisees. "Thus have you made the commandments of God of none effect by your traditions." Matt. xv. 6. The oral traditions of the Jews in Christ's time, were styled by them, the Law by the mouth, in opposition to the Law in writing. They were, and are as profuse in the commendation of this Law of the mouth, as any Romanist can be of his oral tradition. Maimonides gives us the following account of them. "The foundations on which ye are founded, the roots, the customs, the decrees and constitutions which your great ones have constituted, from the day which the Lord commanded, and so on through all generations, like the Tower of David erected on your hill, in which are hanged a thousand helmets, with all warlike instruments of the choice ones, all the shields of the mighty." For the pretended divine original and unquestionable conveyance of them from God and Moses, he gives this account,-First, "that all the precepts of the Law that were sent down by God to Moses, were sent down to him, together with their interpretation, God delivering by word of mouth, first, the text, then the interpretation and explication of it, and [whatthe authentic text comprehended. Secondly, that Moses, having received both, coming to his tent, he sent for Aaron and declared to him the text, and taught him the interpretation; then Aaron, standing at his right hand, called unto him Eleasar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons, and did the like to them; then the seventy in like manner, Aaron's sons standing by; and then the promiscuous assembly of Israel, in the presence and audience of all the former. Thirdly, that Moses departing, Aaron who had now heard these things four times, repeated it out of his memory to all, and after him his sons in like manner, and so to the seventy also, and by this means, every one heard both text and interpretation four times, and so were enabled to instruct one another; the text being written in rolls or volumes, and the interpretation or tradition fixed in their memories. Fourthly, that Moses before he died, made proclamation, that if any had forgotten any tradition which he had received from him, he should come and ask, and he would declare it to him; and then writing thirteen copies of the law, one for every tribe, and one for the Levites, he died. Fifthly, that Joshua being furnished with these oral traditionary explications, judged the people according to them. Sixthly, that Joshua, before his death left all those traditions to the elders of the people, and the elders to the prophets; and thus continued without any dissension to the time of the men of the great Synagogue, Haggai, Zachary, Malachy, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zorobabel, &c. and so from hand to hand from Ezra to Simeon, from Simeon to Antigonus, from Antigonus to Joses, from Joses to Joshua son of Pharak, from Joshua to Judas, from Judas to Semajah, from Semajah to Hillel, from Hillel to Simeon, from Simeon to Gamaliel, from Gamaliel to Simeon the just, called Rabbenu Hakkadosh, the Phoenix of his age, and he collected all the oral traditions of Moses thus delivered down to him." In this account, if the Jews' own testimony may be taken, what can be more exact and circumstantial than the conveyance of these oral traditions from Moses and God himself? Could the Pope pretend this, for all the articles of his Romish oral traditions, what trophies would he erect? And yet after all this, we cannot disbelieve our Saviour, who assures us, that the doctrine of God was depraved, evacuated, and destroyed by their tra litions, pretended to be thus lineally deduced from Moses and God himself. These oral traditions were not the result of their literal collections, but pretended to be delivered from father to son, orally from Moses, as the nnwritten interpretation of the written text of the Jaw; they were as universally received by the most. learned Jews, in our Saviour's time, as the Pope believes and supports his oral traditions at present;Instance that of their washing up to the wrist before meat, Mark vii. 2. of which says the Evangelist, "the Pharisees, and all the Jews, if they do not so wash, do not eat, holding the tradition of the elders," and he adds," there be many other things which they have (traditionally) received to hold." The like follows, v. 9, &c. of saying Corban, to father and • The Hebrew word Corban, and the Greek Gazophylachion, signify both an offering and the vessel or chest that contained it. Josephus mentions in the plural Gazophylachia, which induced me to make a further enquiry, and discovered there were many of those chests. Two of those chests were for the half shekel that every Israelite was to pay for the redemption of his soul or lite, Exod. xxx. 13. one chest for the payment of the last year, if not discharged: and the other for the half shekel due for the present year. The collectors exacted a profit Kollubos, which exaction caused our Saviour to overthrow Trapesas Kollubistoon, the tables of those Collubists, John ii. 15, at the first Passover after his Baptism, and Matt. xxi. 12, at the last, Besides those two Treasure Chests that were used but for a certain time every year, there were eleven more that stood in the porticos all the year long, guarded by some Priests and Levites. 1. One for them who were to offer two turtle doves, or two young pigeons; the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin-offering. 2. A second was for them that were to offer a burnt offering of birds. 3. A third for whosoever offered money to buy wood for the Altar. 4. A fourth for whosoever would offer money to buy frankincense. 5. A fifth for whosoever would offer gold for the mercy-seat. 6. For the residue of a sin-offering, that is, if a man had set apart a sum of money for a sin-offering, and it purchased a sin-offering, and there was more than it cost. that which was to spare was put into this chest. 7. A seventh for the residue of a trespass-offering. 8. An eighth for a surplus of an offering of birds; of men and women who had issues; and of women after childbirth. 9. A ninth for the surplus of a Nazarite's offering. 10. A tenth for the surplus of a leper's trespass offering. 11. The eleventh for whosoever would willingly offer a sacrifice of the herd, the money wherewith to buy it, he cast into this chest. There were besides the Chamber or Treasury of the holy shekel Poll Money, two other chambers, in one of which was laid up what was offered towards the repair and service of the temple, and another in which were |