Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A50916
|
Of reformation touching chvrch-discipline in England, and the cavses that hitherto have hindred it two bookes, written to a freind [sic]
|
Milton, John, 1608-1674.
|
1641
(1641)
|
Wing M2134; ESTC R17896
|
44,575
|
96
|
preferre humane Tradition before divine ordinance And in the same Epist. If we shall return to the head and beginning of divine tradition which we all know he means the Bible humane error ceases and the reason of heavenly misteries unfolded whatsoever was obscure becomes leare And in the 14. Distinct of the same Epist directly against our modern fantasies of a still visible Church he teaches that succession of truth may fail to renew which we must have 〈◊〉 to the fonntaines using this excellent similitude if a Channel or Conduit pipe which brought in water plentifully before suddenly fail doe we not goe to the fountaine to know the cause whether the Spring affords no more or whether the vein be stopt or turn'd aside in the midcourse thus ought we to doe keeping Gods precepts that if in ought the truth shall be chang'd we may repaire to the Gospel and to the Apostles that thence may arise the reason of our doings from whence our order and beginning arose In the 75. he inveighs bitterly against Pope Stefanus for that he could boast his Succession from Peter and yet foist in Traditions that were not Apostolicall And in his Book of the unity of the Church he compares those that neglecting Gods Word follow the doctrines of men to Corch Dathan and Abiram The very first page of 〈◊〉 against the Gentiles averres the Scriptutes to be sufficient of themselves for the declaration of Truth and that if his friend Macarius read other Religious writers it was but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} come un virtuoso as the Italians say as a lover of elegance and in his 2d Tome the 39. pag after he hath rekon'd up the Canonicall Books In these only saith he is the doctrine of godlinesse 〈◊〉 let us man 〈◊〉 to these or take from these and in his 〈◊〉 having again set down all the Writers of the old new Testament these saith he be the anchors and props of our Faith besides these millions of other Books have bin written by great and wise men according to rule and agreement with these of which I will not now speak as being of infinite number and meer dependance on the canonical Books Basil in his 2d Tome writing of true Faith tells his auditors he is bound to teach them that which he hath learn't out of the Bible and in the same Treatise he saith That seeing the Commandments of the Lord are faithfull and sure for ever it is a plain falling from the Faith and a high pride either to make void any thing therin or â—…o introduce any thing not there to be found and he gives the reason for Christ saith My Sheep heare my voyce they will not follow another but fly from him because they know not his voyce But not to be endlesse in quotations it may chance to be objected that there be many opinions in the Fathers which have no ground in Scripture so much the lesse may I say should we follow them for their own words shall condemn them and acquit us that lean not on them otherwise these their words shall acquit them and condemn us But it will be reply'd the Scriptures are difficult to be understood and therfore require the explanation of the Fathers 't is true there be some Books and especially some places in those Books that remain clouded yet ever that which is most necessary to be known is most easie and that which is most difficult so farre expounds it selfe ever as to tell us how little it imports our saving knowledge Hence to inferre a generall obscurity over all the text is a meer suggestion of the Devil to disswade men from reading it and casts an aspersion of dishonour both upon the mercy truth and wisdome of God We count it no gentlenesse or fair dealing in a man of Power amongst us to require strict and punctual obedience and yet give out all his commands ambiguous and obscure we should think he had a plot upon us certainly such commands were no commands but â—…nares The very essence of Truth is plainnesse and brightnes the darknes and crookednesse is our own The wisdome of God created understanding fit and proportionable to Truth the object and end of it as the eye to the thing visible If our understanding have a film of ignorance over it or be blear with gazing on other false glisterings what is that to Truth If we will but purge with sovrain eyesalve that intellectual ray which God hath planted in us then we would beleeve the Scriptures protesting their own plainnes and perspicuity calling to them to be instructed not only the wise and learned but the simple the poor the babes foretelling an extraordinary effusion of Gods Spirit upon every age and sexe attributing to all men and requiring from them the ability of searching trying examining all things and by the Spirit discerning that which is good and as the Scriptures themselvs pronounce their own plainnes so doe the Fathers testifie of them I will not run into a paroxysm of citations again in this point only instance Athanasius in his fore-mention'd first page the knowledge of Truth saith he wants no humane lore as being evident in it selfe and by the preaching of Christ now opens brighter then the Sun If these Doctors who had scarse half the light that we enjoy who all except 2 or 3 were ignorant of the Hebrew tongue and many of the Greek blundring upon the dangerous and suspectfull translations of the Apostat Aquila the Heretical Theodotion the Judaiz'd Symmachus the erroneous Origen if these could yet find the Bible so easie why should we doubt that have all the helps of Learning and faithfull industry that man in this life can look for and the assistance of God as neer now to us as ever But let the Scriptures be hard are they more hard more crabbed more abstruse then the Fathers He that cannot understand the sober plain and unaffected stile of the Scriptures will be ten times more puzzl'd with the knotty Africanisms the pamper'd metafors the intricat and involv'd sentences of the Fathers besides the fantastick and declamatory flashes the crosse-jingling periods which cannot but disturb and come thwart a setl'd devotion worse then the din of bells and rattles Now Sir for the love of holy Reformation what can be said more against these importunat clients of Antiquity then she her selfe their patronesse hath said Whether think ye would she approve still to dote upon immeasurable innumerable and therfore unnecessary and unmercifull volumes choosing rather to erre with the specious name of the Fathers or to take a â—…ound Truth at the hand of a plain upright man that all his dayes hath bin diligently reading the holy Scriptures and therto imploring Gods grace while the admireâ—…s of Antiquity have bin beating their brains about their Ambones their Diptychs and Meniaia's Now he that cannot tell of Stations and Indictions nor has wasted his pretious howrs in the endles
Physick't And surely they were moderate Divines indeed neither hot nor cold 〈◊〉 Grindall the best of them afterwards Arch Bishop of Canterbury lost favour in the Court and I think was discharg'd the goverment of his See for favouring the Ministers though Camden seeme willing to finde another Cause therefore about her second Yeare in a Parliament of Men and Minds some scarce well grounded others belching the soure Crudities of yesterdayes Poperie those Constitutions of EDW. 6. which as you heard before no way satisfi'd the men that made them are now establish't for best and not to be mended From that time follow'd nothing but Imprisonments troubles disgraces on all those that found fault with the Decrees of the Convâ—…cation and strait were they branded with the Name of Puritans As for the Queene her selfe shee was made beleeve that by putting downe Bishops her Prerogative would be infring'd of which shall be spoken anon as the course of Method brings it in And why the Prelats labour'd it should be so thought ask not them but ask their Bellies They had found a good Tabernacle they sate under a spreading Vine their Lot was fallen in a faire Inheritance And these perhaps were the cheife impeachments of a more sound rectifying the Church in the Queens Time From this Period I count to begin our Times which because they concerne us more neerely and our owne eyes and eares can give us the ampler scope to judge will require a more exact search and to effect this the speedier I shall distinguish such as I esteeme to be the hinderers of Reformation into 3. sorts Antiquitarians for so I had rather call them then Antiquaries whose labours are usefull and laudable 2. Libertines 3. Polititians To the votarists of Antiquity I shall think to have fully answer'd if I shall be able to prove out of Antiquity First that if they will conform our Bishops to the purer times they must mew their feathers and their pounces and make but curttail'd Bishops of them and we know they hate to be dockt and clipt as much as to be put down outright Secondly that those purer times were corrupt and their Books corrupted soon after Thirdly that the best of those that then wrote disclaim that any man should repose on them and send all to the Scriptures First therfore if those that over-affect Antiquity will follow the square therof their Bishops must be elected by the hands of the whole Church The ancientest of the extant Fathers Ignatius writing to the Philadelphians saith that it belongs to them as to the Church of God to choose a Bishop Let no man cavill but take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members as S. Pauls Epistles expresse and this likewise being read over Besides this it is there to be mark'd that those Philadelphians are exhorted to choose a Bishop of Antioch Whence it seems by the way that there was not that wary limitation of Dioces in those times which is confirm'd even by a fast friend of Episcopacie Camden who cannot but love Bishops as well as old coins and his much lamented Monasteries for antiquities sake He writes in his description of Scotland that over all the world Bishops had no certaine Dioces till Pope Dionysius about the yeare 268. did cut them out and that the Bishops of Scotland executed their function in what place soever they came indifferently and without distinction till King Malcolm the third about the yeare 1070. whence may be guest what their function was was it to goe about circl'd with a band of rooking Officials with cloke bagges full of Citations and Processes to be serv'd by a corporalty of griffonlike Promooters and Apparitors Did he goe about to pitch down his Court as an Empirick does his banck to inveigle in all the mony of the ConÌ„trey no certainly it would not have bin permitted him to exercise any such function indifferently wherever he came And verily some such matter it was as want of a fat Dioces that kept our Britain Bishops so poore in the Primitive times that being call'd to the Councell of Ariminum in the yeare 359. they had not wherewithall to defray the charges of their journey but were fed and lodg'd upon the Emperors cost which must needs be no accidentall but usuall poverty in them for the author Sulp. Severus in his 2 Booke of Church History praises them and avouches it praise-worthy in a Bishop to be so poore as to have nothing of his own But to return to the ancient election of Bishops that it could not lawfully be without the consent of the people is so expresse in Cyprian and so often to be met with that to cite each place at large were to translate a good part of the volume therfore touching the chief passages I referre the rest to whom so list peruse the Author himselfe in the 24. Epist. If a Bishop saith he be once made and allow'd by the testimony and judgement of his collegues and the people no other can be made In the 55. When a Bishop is made by the suffrage of all the people in peace In the 68. marke but what he saies The people chiefly hath power either of choosing worthy ones or refusing unworthy this he there proves by authorities out of the old and new Testament and with solid reasons these were his antiquities This voyce of the people to be had ever in Episcopal elections was so well known before Cyprians time even to those that were without the Church that the Emperor Alexander Severus desir'd to have his governours of Provinces chosen in the same manner as 〈◊〉 can tell So little thought it he offensive to Monarchy and if single authorities perswade not hearken what the whole generall Councel of Nicaea the first and famousest of all the rest determines writing a Synodal Epist. to the African Churches to warn them of Arrianisme it exhorts them to choose orthodox Bishops in the place of the dead so they be worthy and the people choose them whereby they seem to make the peoples assent so necessary that merit without their free choyce were not sufficient to make a Bishop What would ye say now grave Fathers if you should wake and see unworthy Bishops or rather no Bishops but Egyptian task-masters of Ceremonies thrust purposely upon the groaning Church to the affliction and vexation of Gods people It was not of old that a Conspiracie of Bishops could frustrate and fob off the right of the people for we may read how S. Martin soon after Constantine was made Bishop of Turon in France by the peoples consent from all places thereabout mâ—…ugre all the opposition that the Bishops could make Thus went matters of the Church almost 400. yeare after Christ and very probably farre lower for Nicephorus Phocas the Greek Emperour whose reign fell neare the 1000. year of our Lord having done many things tyrannically is said by Cedrenus to have done nothing more grievous and