"The constant tradition of the Primitive Church": Bramhall echoing the East

Bramhall in An answer to Monsieur de la Militiere (1653) - a response to a Roman apologist who had had urged Charles II to convert to Roman Catholicism - echoing the East both in its rejection of papal claims and the affirmation of the apostolic tradition kept, treasured, and interpreted by the Church of the Fathers, "the constant tradition of the Primitive Church":

We receive not your upstart supposititious traditions, nor unwritten fundamentals: But we admit, genuine, Universal, Apostolical traditions, As the Apostles Creed, the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God, the Anniversary Festivals of the Church, the Lenten fast (yet we know that both the duration of it, and the manner of observing it, was very different in the Primitive times). We believe Episcopacy to an ingenuous person may be proved out of Scripture without the help of Tradition, but to such as are froward, the perpetual practise and tradition of the Church renders the interpretation of the Text more authentic, and the proof more convincing. What is this to us who admit the practise and tradition of the Church, as an excellent help of Exposition? Use is the best interpreter of Laws, and we are so far from believing that we cannot admit tradition without allowing the Papacy, that one of the principal motives why we rejected the Papacy, as it is now established with Universality of Jurisdiction, by the Institution of Christ, and superiority above Oecumenical Councils, and Infallibility of Judgement, was the constant tradition of the Primitive Church.

From The Works of The Most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall, Volume I.

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laudable Practice

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