Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A40635
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Peace and holiness in three sermons upon several occasions / by Ignatius Fuller.
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Fuller, Ignatius, 1624 or 5-1711.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing F2390; Wing F2391; Wing F2392; ESTC R2184
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61,487
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158
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Prophet Micah reduce Religion to Righteousness Mercy and an humble Piety and Saint James places true and genuine Religion in Beneficence and Purity of life So that if Christians will contend as such there remains to them only a laudable Ambition to excel in Meekness and Humility in Mercy and Charity in Purity and Peaceableness and not in multiplying Articles of Faith and then like foolish Builders making all of them of the foundation whereof St. Hilary doth gravely complain to Constantius That after the Councel of Nice Christians did Conscii nobis invicem sumus post Niceni Conventus Synodum nibil aliud quam fidem scribi little else but write Creeds Nor in determining fruitless and indeterminable Questions which all Christendom may truly say is Fundus nostrae Calamitatis the Ground of all our Schisms and Divisions Had the Tridentine Fathers had a right notion of Christianity they would have spared their Anathemata and Geneva their Fires and Dort their Wagons had they considered that such and only such Articles are necessary without the explicit knowledge of which we could not perform the conditions of the new Covenant That is Believe in God and Christ and observe their Precepts this entitles us to the Promises They would rather have spent their Zeal in preaching The worthy Author of Causes of the decavs of Christian piety hath one chapter of the mischiefs arising from disputes St. Paul's Doctrine of Repentance from dead works and the exercise of Charity For I would the Proud Disputer and the whole Polemick Rabble should know that necessary Articles are neither many nor obscure Not many How succinct was that Creed upon which our Lord built his Church We believe and are sure that Matth. 16. 19. thou art the Son of the living God and this was Marthas Creed and Salvation John 11. 27. was particularly promised to it This was the end of writing St. John's Gospel that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that John 20. 31. believing we might have life through his name That Jesus Christ was the Son of Acts 8. 37. God was the Eunuchs Creed So St. Paul This is the word of Faith which we preach Rom. 10. 8 9. that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And this simplicity did the antient Church retain Irenaeus who when he had recited that Creed which then was not so long as now it is adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the most eloquent of all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deminorabit traditionem Iren. l. 1. 23. Prelats in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believes any more and the most simple Ideot believes no less the Faith being one and the same They who have the greatest plenty of words do not exceed it and they who have the fewest do not diminish it So Tertullian tells us the Rule of Faith is only one stable and unalterable Regula fidel una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis Arbitratur Rex rerum absolute necessariarum ad salutem non magnum esse numerum So that it is no wonder that excellent Prince in his Answer to Perrone thinks the number of things necessary to Salvation is not very great And further his Majesty thought there was no more expedite way to Peace than diligently to seperate Necessaries from Non-necessaries and that we might all agree in Necessaries in non necessariis Libertati Christianae locus detur in unnecessary Articles let Christian liberty take place The King further says That if we made Videsis responsionem ad Epist Card. Per. Londini 1612 use of this distinction for deciding of Controversies at this day there would be neither long nor fierce Contention amongst Pious and Modest men about Articles absolutely necessary Nam pauca illa sunt ferè ex aequo ab omnibus probantur i. e. That they are both few and upon the matter receiv'd by all who would be accounted Christians Nay that learned and pacifick King doth so much value this distinction for the lessening of Controversies which excercise Gods Church that he judges it the Duty of all that are studious of Peace diligentissimè hanc explicare urgere docere most diligently to explicate urge and teach it And this is but the breathing of that Spirit which influenced the first and best Ages of the Church How else shall we understand Justin Martyr who answering that objection of Trypho That Christ should be God before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 World was and be made man and be born and yet not be born according to the manner of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. saith Trypho it seems to me not only incredible but also foolish The holy man answers If I cannot demonstrate that he did pre-exist the Son of him that made the Vniverse and was a Man born of a Virgin herein only 't was fit to say I was mistaken but not to deny that he was the Christ if it should appear that he was a Man born according 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Videsis Just Mart. p. 63. Edit R. Steph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril p. 101. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the manner of men and be demonstrated that he was made the Christ by Election For there are some friends quoth he of our Profession who do confess him to be the Christ yet do affirm him to be a man born according to the manner of men So Cyril of Hierusalem That God hath a Son that you are to believe but be not so curious as to enquire into the Modus of that Filiation for if you seek it you shall not find it Do not flie too high lest you fall but attend to those things alone which he hath commanded you And a little after he tells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is sufficient to assist thy Piety to know that God has but one Son So Gregory Nazianzen speaking of the holy Spirit tells you There are that do depress him into the degree of a Creature they he says are injurious and bad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz Orat. 44. pag. 709. and the worst of servants There are that think him God and they are Divine Spirits and of clear and bright understandings There are that name him so if it be in presence of men of good judgement They are noble souls but if in presence of weak Christians they are not wise dispencers of the word 'T is all one as to cast a pearl into the dirt to object the voice of Thunder or the brightness of the Sun to So the Greeks if they believed the procession of the holy Ghost from the Son yet did not condemn those of Heresie who did not See the Judicious and Learned Doctor Stilling in his Rational Account pag. 10 11 12 13. a weak ear or
4. 7. of God You will further perceive that the scope of the Gospel was 1. To break down the Partition wall between Jew and Gentile 2. To scour up the Old Law and fill up its vacuities which the Scripture calls Self-denial Repentance Righteousness Charity Obedience mainly insisted on in the Sermon on the Mount And 3. To declare the remission of sins to penitents i. e. such as reform themselves according to the Law aforesaid which supports our hope in place of the Ceremonial expiatory Sacrifices The first of these was last insisted upon as well became the prudence of our Lord and was the occasion of that Councel Acts 15. at Jerusalem and of several discourses and of some Writings of St. Paul But the second and third were the first and common argument of the Baptist our Lord and his Apostles by commission from him Repentance having reference to the Moral Law and Remission of sins superseding the Mosaick expiations This being the main substance of that form of Prayer by which he assists us in our duty and summing up his design in coming into the World to his Disciples after his Resurrection tells them all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Luke 24. 44. me That it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day that by all those signs accomplished in him and by him he might give sufficient assurance that he was the Son of God and the Saviour of the World and that Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations St. Paul tells us indeed Faith 1 Cor. 13. 13. Hope and Charity remain but how as the Rock which followed Israel in its 4. 14. 13. effects so their works follow the dead These Vertues shall have their reward which the Lord the righteus Judge shall give at that day These are main Theological Vertues Faith is as the Eye of Reason to direct and Hope as the Food or the spirits to chear us in this spiritual life but the Way we are to walk and the main work we have to do is Charity and that answers to Repentance If we consider Christianity as a Plant Faith resembles the root Hope the stalk but the fruit which is principally designed is Charity A right faith is an excellent foundation and if it be operative it is all in all It guides and so raiseth our Hope and Charity for a firm Hope is an exalted degree of Faith in things of the same nature and a degree towards Charity And this is the reason why the Scripture supposing man as he ought to be to be consentaneous to himself doth impute that sometimes to Faith sometimes to Hope which is more peculiarly and ultimately proper to Charity or at least to one of these Vertues that which is but adequate to all But now if we compare these Vertues one with another and so set them at difference which men do too often and the Scripture for our information sometimes doth you will find Charity the more final and publick Good The two former viz. Faith and Hope being but means to this end They determine in our selves but this is extended beyond us even as far as to God to do him honour and to do our Neighbour good the greatest of these is Charity saith the Apostle not only for duration but for worth and dignity too fruition determines Hope and Faith is that which bears up and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 G. Nyssen p. 646. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supports under the uncertainty of things hoped But when they are obtained Charity remains not having any thing to succeed it Faith is so recommended and injoyned for the light it yields and for the fruit it bears for there is no walking without light nor no fruit without a root Wherefore our Obedience So long as the Church looked upon her Faith as the foundation of her Obedience she made good the Title Christ gives her Cant. 6. of his love his dove his undefiled Causes of decay of Christian Piety p. 247. is built upon our Creed and the dis-believing of some Articles like the failing of a foundation may bring down all the superstructure with it Such is the denyal of the Resurrection of the dead or all future rewards or the Allegorizing away the history of the Gospel or the making of it like an Aesopick Fable with a canting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an unintelligible Moral hidden under it For although St. Paul supposes it in that enumeration the meanest Vertue yet of very great use as the foundation of an house usually is the builder chiefly intending its strength for the whole Fabrick is raised upon it If we divide the Gospel into Laws and Miracles which are the most substantial parts of it you will find much of the history spent in proving the Divinity of Christ that he was the promised Messiah of the World the Prophecies of the Old Testament being fulfilled and the Types of the Mosaick Law having their complement and period in him and so warranting his Commission but all the signs accomplished in him and all the wonders wrought by him even his being raised from the dead by which the Gospel which was in a manner dead and buried with him reviv'd though evidence of his Authority and principal motives to believe on him yet are necessary to be known by us only in order to his Doctrine as they render his Precepts and his Promises the more remarkable as it is usual to satisfie our selves of the validity of a Commission before we yield obedience to it or take orders from it It is not God's work upon us by these signs and miracles so much as his works within us or by us which we shall be Nihil mihi oblicitur nisi quod dicor plusculum laudare bona opera saith Melancthon to Joachimus Camerarius Epist 193. pag. 742. Edit Lond. Hence the Christian Religion is called the profession of our hope Heb. 10. 23. 1 Pet. 3. 15. judged by which because his doctrin regulates and we cooperate in are therefore called our works Now the Doctrines of Christianity which concern us more nearly are of two sorts such as sustein our Hope or direct our Charity 1. Such as sustein our Hope of them we make daily profession in the Capitular called the Apostles Creed which particulars are not Articles of simple Belief so much as Objects to erect our Hope 2. Such as direct our Charity or obedience comprised in that Digest of the Law of Nature called the Ten Commandements together with some excellencies and perfections of Morality superadded by our Lord. So that you perceive Faith and Hope Fides multa promissa habet quia via est ad dilectionem Grot. how much soever is said in advancing them serve only in their places in order to our main work which is Charity or Obedience In