So that the tradition concerning the Scriptures being extrinsical to Scripture is also extrinsical to the question: this tradition cannot be an objection against the sufficiency of Scripture to salvation, but must go before this question. For no man inquires whether the Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation, unless he believe that there are Scriptures, that these are they, and that they are the word of God. All this comes to us by tradition, that is, by universal undeniable testimony. Very just, and yet this idle argument is the favourite, both shield and sword, of the Romanists: as if I should pretend to learn the Roman history from tradition, because by tradition I know such histories to have been written by Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus! Ib. p. 435. The more natural consequence is that their proposition is either mistaken or uncertain, or not an article of faith (which is rather to be hoped, lest we condemn all the Greek Churches as infidels or perverse heretics), or else that it can be derived from Scripture, which last is indeed the most probable, and pursuant to the doctrine of those wiser Latins who examined things by reason and not by prejudice. It is remarkable that both Stillingfleet and Taylor favoured the Greek opinion. But Bull's 'Defensio Fidei Nicænæ' was not yet published. It is to me evident that if the Holy Ghost does not proceed through and from the Son as well as from the Father, then the Son is not the adequate substantial idea of the Father. But according to St. Paul, he is--'ergo, &c'. N.B. These "'ergos, &c'." in legitimate syllogisms, where the 'major' and 'minor' have been conceded, are binding on all human beings, with the single anomaly of the Quakers. For with them nothing is more common than to admit both 'major' and 'minor', and, when you add the inevitable consequence, to say "Nay! I do not think so, Friend! Thou art worldly wise, Friend!" For example: 'major', it is agreed on both sides that we ought not to withhold from a man what he has a just right to: 'minor', property in land being the creature of law, a just right in respect of landed property is determined by the law of the land:--"agreed, such is the fact:" 'ergo:' the clergyman has a just right to the tithe. "Nay, nay; this is vanity, and tithes an abomination of Judaism!" Ib. s. v. p. 492. And since that villain of a man, Pope Hildebrand, as Cardinal Beno relates in his Life, could, by shaking of his sleeve make sparks of fire fly from it. If this was fact, was it an idiosyncrasy, as I have known those who by combing their hair can elicit sparks with a crackling as from a cat's back rubbed. It is very possible that the sleeve might be silk, tightened either on a very hairy arm, or else on woollen, and by shaking it might be meant stripping the silk suddenly off, which would doubtless produce flashes and sparks. Vol. XI. s. x. p. 1.