Wesley Corpus

26.) REPLY. On the contrary, St. Augustine writes, “If any one concerning Christ and his Church, or concerning any other things which belong to faith or life, I will not say if we, but (which St. Paul hath added) if an angel from heaven, preach unto you besides what ye have received in the Law and Evangelical Writings, let him be accursed.” (Contr. Petil, l. 3, c. 6.) For as all faith is founded upon divine authority, so there is now no divine authority but the Scriptures; and, therefore, no one can make that to be of divine authority which is not contained in them. And if transubstantiation and purgatory, &c., are not delivered in Scripture, they cannot be doctrines of faith. Q. 7. What doth the Church of Rome propound to herself as an entire rule of faith? A. Scripture with tradition; and she requires that the traditions be received and reverenced with the like pious regard and veneration as the Scriptures; and whosoever knowingly contemns them, is declared by her to be accursed. (Concil. Trid. Sess. 4; Decret. de Can. Script.) REPLY. “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men;” (Matt. xv. 9;) forbidding that as unlawful which God hath not forbidden, and requiring that as necessary duty which God hath not required. So St. Hierom: “The sword of God,” his word, “doth smite those other things, which they find and hold of their own accord, as by apostolical tradition, without the authority and testimony of Scripture.” (In Cap. 1, Aggaei.) Q. 8. What do they understand by traditions? A. Such things belonging to faith and manners as were dictated by Christ, or the Holy Ghost in the Apostles, and have been preserved by a continual succession in the Catholic Church, from hand to hand, without writing. (Concil. Trid. ibid.) REPLY. But St. Cyril affirms, “It behoveth us not to deliver, no, not so much as the least thing of the holy mysteries of faith, without the holy Scripture. That is the security of our faith, not which is from our own inventions, but from the demonstration of the holy Scriptures.” (Catechis. 5.) Q. 9. What are those traditions which they profess to have received from Christ and his Apostles? A. The offering the sacrifice of the mass for the souls in purgatory, (Conc. Trid. Sess. 22, c.