CHAP. II.

APPEAL TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.--PREVIOUS REMARKS ON THE USE OF TERMS.PROOF FROM THE DECREES AND CANONS OF THIS COUNCIL, THAT THE CHURCH OF ROME AC KNOWLEDGES, IN SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION, TWO EQUAL AND INDEPENDENT, AUTHORITIES FOR DOCTRINES, OR RULES OF FAITH.-INFLUENCE OF TRADITION, AS A RULE OF FAITH, ON THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH OF ROME EXEMPLIFIED BY THOSE DECREES AND CANONS. -CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE COUNCIL ITSELF.

WE appeal to the Council of Trent, in con

firmation of the statements, which were made in the preceding Chapter, because the Decrees and Canons of that Council declare officially the Doctrines of the Church of Rome. But before we quote those Decrees and Canons, it may be proper to make some observations on the terms, which are there employed in reference to our present Inquiry. For a misapprehension of those terms, would not only create confusion, but might defeat the very object of the Appeal.

The subjects of our present Inquiry are Scripture, and Tradition-Scripture and Tradition, considered, as two Authorities for Doctrines, or two Rules of Faith. And the Design of this Chapter is to shew,

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that what Bellarmine and other Romish writers have said of Scripture and Tradition, in respect of their Equality and Independence as Rules of Faith', accords with the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent. Since then the Tradition, which is now the subject of Inquiry, is, equally with Scripture, a Rule of Faith, we must never forget, that all other kinds of Tradition, whether they relate to laws, or to customs, or to ceremonies, or to any thing whatever beside faith, are irrelevant, and foreign to that Inquiry. We are now concerned with that Tradition alone, from which, conjointly with Scripture the Church of Rome deduces its articles of faith, or doctrines. But even in this Inquiry, confined as it is to articles of faith, or doctrines, the term 'Tradition,' may still be taken in two different senses.

Sometimes, and indeed most times, the term 'Tradition,' denotes the Doctrine transmitted, the Doctrina tradita. At other times it denotes the vehicle, which conveys the Doctrine, or the way by which the Doctrine is transmitted (via qua transmittitur Doctrina.) But in general these two senses, though closely allied, and both of them relating to Doctrine, are easily distinguished. Thus, when Cardinal Bellarmine, in the passage last-quoted from his Treatise on the Word of God, speaks of a total Rule of Faith, comprehending two partial Rules of Faith, in Scripture and Tradition, it is manifest, that, as Scripture there denotes the written Doctrine, so Tradition there denotes the unwritten Doctrine. Indeed Bellarmine himself in the second Chapter of the same Book, has expressly called this very

See the quotations in Notes 12, 13. Chap. I.

Tradition, Doctrina non scripta. In like manner we find in the Treatise De Ecclesiâ Christi, that the very first Secton on the subject of Tradition is entitled, De Traditione, quatenus designat ipsam, quæ traditur, Doctrinam3.' Here then the distinction between the Doctrine, and the Vehicle of the Doctrine is clearly marked. But, at other times, when the term Tradition is left unexplained, we must judge of its meaning from the context, and we shall find that, in the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent, the term Tradition is generally left to explain itself. Its meaning however may be always ascertained with sufficient precision, except in some few cases, where ambiguity appears to have been designed.

Further, when we use the term Tradition' to denote, not the Doctrine itself, but the Vehicle of the Doctrine, we must inquire, what qualifying term should be joined with it, in order to describe the Vehicle. For the bare unqualified term Tradition,' may denote indeed conveyance; but it leaves us uninformed as to what conveyance. Now the Doctrina tradita, or the Doctrine left unwritten by the Apostles, is supposed to have been recorded by the Fathers of the Church, whose writings therefore are regarded as a Repository of the unwritten Doctrine. This Doctrina Tradita is further indeed supposed to have been transferred from the Works of the Fathers to the Decrees of General Councils,

Tametsi vero Traditionis nomen generale sit, tamen hoc ipsum nomen accommodatum est a theologis ad significandam tantum Doctrinam non scriptam. De Verbo Dei. Lib. IV. Cap. 2. 3 P. 398.

which are thence regarded, as another Repository. But since no General Council was holden before the fourth Century, the Works of the Fathers must always be regarded as the primary, if not the principal Repository. And that they are regarded even as the principal Repository, appears from the very appeal which is made to them in the Decrees of the Councils themselves, in the Decrees even of the Council of Trent. Hence Cardinal Baronius, who in the first Volume of his Ecclesiastical Annals has enumerated the early Fathers, whose Works he considers as forming the chief Repository, has concluded his catalogue with the observation, that the things decreed in the sacred Councils, were those very things which the Fathers themselves had received unwritten from their predecessors, and had committed to writing, that they might be inore accurately preserved". Now the qualifying term, which is joined with the term Tradition, when Tradition denotes the Vehicle of the Doctrina tradita, accords with the representation of Baronius. For Tradition is then called the ancient Tradition of the Fathers (antiqua Patrum traditio) and so it is called by the Council of Trent.

Another observation, relative to the use of terms, applies to Tradition, according as it is used, either in the singular, or in the plural. When we speak of the divine and apostolical traditions, which were explained in the preceding Chapter, and there shewn

4 Cæterum, quæ in sacris sunt Conciliis instituta, nec ipsa quidem recens fuerunt inventa, sed quæ et Patres ipsi a majoribus acceperunt sine scriptis, et, ut accuratius servarentur, scriptis consignarunt. Baronji Annales Ecclesiastici. Tom. I. p. 418. ed Antverpiæ, 1670. fol.

to constitute what is considered the unwritten Word of Gods, we evidently mean the unwritten divine and apostolical doctrines. Any one therefore of those unwritten doctrines is a tradition. But Tradition, without an article, denotes the sum total of them. Nor is this comprehensive use of the term at all inconsistent with the nature of the things comprehended. For since those divine and apostolical traditions are so many divine and apostolical doctrines, they very properly constitute Tradition as a Rule of Faith. Now in the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent, the Traditions of the Apostles (Traditiones Apostolorum) mean so many single Doctrines, whereas Tradition in the singular, denotes the whole unwritten Doctrine, (tota Doctrina non scripta.)

Lastly, in respect to the terms divine' and apostolical,' the former of which (as was shewn in the preceding Chapter) is applied to the Doctrines taught by Christ himself, while the latter is applied to Doctrines suggested to the Apostles by the Holy Spirit, it must be observed, that though the Council of Trent has clearly distinguished between these two kinds of Doctrine, especially in the Decree which will presently demand our attention, it has not marked the distinction by the use of the epithets,

5 See the quotation in Note 11. Chap. I. where Bellarmine speaking of the unwritten Word of God says, that is, the divine and apostolical traditions.'

"It has been already observed that Bellarmine's fourth Book, which wholly relates to Tradition, is entitled, Of the unwritten Word of God, (De Verbo Dei non scripto.) Indeed Tradition, as a Rule of Faith, must necessarily correspond to what is called the unwritten doctrine, or unwritten Word of God.