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traditions for instance, may conduce to the same design; but he forgets the latter part of the text, which shows that the man of God may be so effectually taught, etc., by the scriptures as to become perfect: and when they have accomplished this, there is nothing left for tradition to do. I have paid the more attention to this striking passage, because it seems clearly to be decisive of the controversy.

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The apostle John has borne the most ample testimony to the sufficiency and fulness of the sacred writings. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life: for the life was manifested: and we have seen, and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us: that which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you, that may rejoice, and your joy may be full." (1 John i. 1-4.) The words, these things, must include the things just before enumerated, which were, what he had seen, heard, and handled of the word of life; and must, therefore, comprehend all he taught and all he knew of christianity. And since he states that he wrote these things, he could not have any traditions in reserve, his whole stock of christian knowledge being communicated by the pen. The intentions with which he wrote lead us to the same conclusion. These were, that we might know Christ, the true eternal life, and have fellowship with the Father, and the Son, and the church; and that we might rejoice with a fulness of joy. Now if the written word be sufficient to give us all the knowledge of Christ which the apostles possessed; to bring us into union with God, the Redeemer, and the saints; and to fill us with the joy of salvation; - all which is plainly declared in this most striking passage;-then nothing more is necessary to

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our eternal happiness. The many folios of Romish traditions may, therefore, be very safely consigned to the moles and the bats; the curses they contain are more likely to light on their authors than their despisers.

Farther on in this epistle, (chapter v. 13,) the apostle says, "These things I write to you, that you may know that you have eternal life." But it would be utterly impossible to know from the holy writings that we have eternal life, if anything were necessary to salvation which they do not contain.

This same apostle in his gospel, (chap. xx. 31,) asserts the sufficiency of scripture to salvation, in the most unequivocal terms: "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God ; and that believing you may have life in his name." What was written was intended to beget faith; and such a faith as is connected with life. True religion contemplates nothing beyond this.

But we are told that scripture requires us to receive unwritten traditions; their rejection may therefore, in strict accordance with the Bible, endanger our salvation. The text upon which the chief stress is laid, in proof of this point, is 2 Thessalonians ii. 14: "Theretore brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle." The note upon this passage is delivered in a rather triumphant style: "See here that the unwritten traditions of the apostles are no less to be received than their epistles." Here observe, 1. One way of learning the apostolical traditions was, according to this verse, by perusing their epistles; from whence it is manifest that they committed their traditions to writing; and thus this passage is fatal to the notion so common among the Romanists, that the apostles delivered their traditions vivá voce alone, and not by the scriptures. 2. The apostle mentions two ways by which the traditions might be learned, by hearing and by reading. And if one class of traditions were intended to be conveyed by writing, and another by

speech only, the conjunction and, would have been used in the following words; and the passage would have read thus: "Hold the traditions which you have learned, both by word, and by our epistle." Instead of this, we have the disjunctive particle or: "Whether by word or by our epistle." The Thessalonians had learned the traditions; but whether by hearing or reading is left undetermined; and this is a proof that the same traditions were conveyed by both modes of teaching; for the disjunctive particle here can have no meaning, if the same traditions might not have been learned through either mode. The necessary conclusion is, that the apostolical traditions are all embodied in the sacred writings; and that to talk now about" the unwritten traditions of the apostles," is to talk nonsense, since there are no such things.

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If it be said that the words our epistle" have reference to the first epistle sent to this church, and that the whole of the traditions cannot be learned from it; I answer,-The apostle does not say, all the traditions, but merely, the traditions they had learned whether they were many or few. A single epistle may contain as much of christianity, as is to be found in several oral discourses; and we know not how many of these the Thessalonians had heard. The point of importance contained in this passage is, that the christian traditions which the apostles taught by preaching, they taught also by writing; from which we infer, that they left no unwritten traditions for the church to learn.

In the next chapter we have a tradition in writing which the apostle had delivered verbally to the Thessalonians when he laboured among them: "And we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us." (2 Thess. iii. 6.) The connexion shows clearly that the tradition here referred to is contained in the 10th verse: "For even when we were with you, this we commanded

you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." If the papists would keep this tradition, they would send their consecrated lazy beggers a packing; and vows of poverty would soon be out of fashion.

Jesus Christ did not himself commit his religion to writing, but taught it, partly by conversation and preaching, when he was on earth; and partly by inspiration, after his ascension into heaven. Those who were favoured with the special influence of the Holy Spirit for the purpose, gave a full account of the life and doctrines of Christ in writing; and in this form his religion has been transmitted to posterity, as a perfect rule of faith and manners. Thus we find the gospels are full of what Jesus said, and taught, and did, both in public and in private; and the acts and epistles furnish similar information in relation to the apostles.

That the gospel contains a full account of the doctrines delivered orally by our Lord, during his personal ministry upon earth, is plainly affirmed by St. Luke: "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration of the things that have been accomplished among us, according as they have delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having diligently attended to all things from the beginning, to write to thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mayest know the verity of those words in which thou hast been instructed." (Luke i. 1-4.) Here observe, St. Luke affirms that his gospel is made up from the narratives of those who from the commencement of christianity had been eye witnesses and ministers of the word; that he had by diligence acquired a perfect knowledge of all things relating to this new religion; and that his friend Theophilus might know from his book the verity of those words in which he had been instructed. if his gospel did not contain the whole christian religion, as far as it was then taught, Theophilus could not by reading it be confirmed in the truth of those things which had no place in it—in this case he might have

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been previously instructed in truths the verity of which he could not know from the work of this evangelist. We must conclude, therefore, that the whole system of christian doctrine which the Lord had taught, and which St. Luke states he had acquired, is comprised in this gospel.

If this conclusion needed additional confirmation, we have it in Acts i. 1, 2: "The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, of all things, which Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day on which, giving commandments by the Holy Ghost to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up." The former treatise here referred to, is allowed on all hands to be the gospel of St. Luke; and it is here asserted that this gospel contains all things which Jesus did and taught, up to the time of his ascension. There is a peculiarity in this phrase, "Began to do and to teach." To begin to do a thing is a common Greek idiom, for doing or undertaking a thing. So in Matthew xii. 1, we read, "His disciples being hungry, began to pluck the ears, and to eat. Luke relating the same circumstance says, chap. vi. 1 "His disciples plucked the ears," etc. In Mark vi. 2, it is said, "He began to teach in the synagogue." In Matthew xiii. 54, it is affirmed, "He taught them in the synagogues." The contexts show that both passages relate to the same time and place. See also Numbers xxv. 1; Judges xiii. 5; Luke iii. 8. On the authority of these texts it is evident that by all things which Jesus began to do and teach, is meant, all things which Jesus did and taught.

But it will, perhaps, be objected, that St. Luke's gospel does not, in fact, give an account of all the miracles and doctrines of Christ; for St. John relates some of his mighty works, (as the curing the blind man, chap. ix., and the raising of Lazarus, chap. xi.,) and some of his discourses, which St, Luke has omitted; and the same apostle concludes his gospel with saying, "There are also many other things which Jesus did; which if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be

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