Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,560	5	9.2943	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44239	The Holy fast of Lent defended against all its prophaners, or, A Discourse shewing that Lent-fast was first taught the world by the apostles, as Dr. Gunning, now Bishop of Ely learnedly proved in a sermon printed by him in the year 1662 by His Majesties special command together with a practical direction how to fast.	Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.	1677 (1677)	Wing H2525; ESTC R40999	45,046	54

of it profess from Generation to Generation to have observed it from the first planting of Christianity amongst them and wheresoever Lent is not observed its Non-observers do profess only from such a time to have not observed it and their Ancestors before that time for divers Generations ever since they cannot well tell when had blindly observed it whence it is manifest that the observation of Lent is the ancient Christian practice and its non-observance a Novelty And indeed had the keeping of Lent been a Novelty and not heard of in the Primitive times its observance being so burthensome and contrary to flesh and blood and besides as its Opposers say Superstitious also it s not possible it should be introduced not into one but into all the Christian Countrys of both the Eastern and Western Church in a short time and with a small industry of its Introducers and without great opposition both from good Men for its Superstition and from bad Men for its troublesomeness to Corrupt nature But no Ecclesiastical History though far lesser matters be Recorded makes mention of any such opposition made against Lent in its first bringing in or how or by whom it was brought in even into so much as one particular Diocess But all Records testifie that the prime Doctors both of the Greek and Latin Church in the fifth and sixth Century have been most Religious Observers and Zealous defenders of it which certainly they would never have been had Lent been a Superstitious Novelty and not heard of in the first 300. years And indeed whosoever maturely considers the genius and temper of the Christian Doctors and Bishops for the first five hundred years after our Saviour will find it impossible for all the power of Hell to impose a Novelty upon them For they were not like the seeming Zelots of our Age pretenders to new Lights but their Profession was not to correct Antiquity but faithfully to deliver to Posterity what they immemorially from the Apostles had received from their Ancestors and their great Answer to Introducers of new Doctrines or Practices was Nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est We must Innovate nothing but stick close to what has been delivered to us by our Fore-fathers Does a Montanus upon pretext of Divine Inspiration endeavor to impose upon Christians the observation of three Lents in the year the Church of Christ replys by one of her prime Doctors S. Hierom We Fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year according to the Tradition of the Apostles The Montanists keep three Lents in the year as if three Saviours had suffered For other Instances I refer my Reader to the Golden Treatise of S. Vincentius Lerinensis against Innovations As for Pretenders to discover new truths by reading of the Holy Scriptures it s easily conceivable how such persons may be imposed upon by subtil Sophisters and lead into Superstitious practices and made to believe Erroneous Doctrines to wit by bad and new Interpretations of good and antient Scriptures But on the other side how shall a Teacher of Novelties deceive a Country which is resolved to hold fast whatsoever Doctrin or Practice was taught them by their immediate Progenitors who received the same Doctrin or Practice by an uninterrupted delivery from Father to Son from the Apostles Let him pretend Scriptures and bring a thousand places out of the Law Psalms Prophets and Apostles what will the Reply be The Scriptures you alledge we Reverence and have ever been taught to Reverence them as Divine but we have been taught to interpret and understand them in another manner and sense then you alledge them Let him pretend Authority of Doctors as Learned as Origen or as Holy as Cyprian nay if he will a whole Provincial-Council as numerous as that in Africa which determin'd Re-baptization of Persons Baptized by Hereticks they reply We must not Innovate we must hold to what was taught us by our Ancestors What means then to make persons thus disposed to leave their antient faith and practice and admit of a Novelty you must prove to them that you and they and other Christians in several Countrys have been taught so to believe by your immediate Predecessors and uninterruptedly from Father to Son from the Apostles but then you cease to be a Preacher of Novelties contrary to the supposition Apply what has been said to our present Controversie Now that the study of the Christian Church in the fifth Century was not to deliver to Posterity Doctrins of her own devising but carefully to keep what she had received from her Fore-elders and faithfully to teach her Children what she had been taught by her Fathers is manifest out of S. Vincent cited above who lived in that Age and testifies that often asking of very many his Contemporaries famous for their Sanctity and Learning how he might be able to discern the truth of the Catholick Faith from the falsity of heretical pravity he always received this Answer in a manner from them all That if he desired to remain sound in his Faith he must fortifie it first with the Authority of the divine Law and then with the Tradition of the Catholick Church that is as he explicates himself afterwards He must examin what has always all over the Christian Church and by all Christian Doctors or in a manner by all been Believed and hold to that against all Novelties though defended by private Doctors never so Holy or never so Learned or producing never so many Scriptures for themselves if interpreted after a new manner But saies the same S. Vincent chap. 2. Here perhaps some body may ask seeing the Canon of the Scriptures is perfect and is it self sufficient and more than sufficient for all things what need is there to add to it the Authority of the Ecclesiastical or Churches understanding of it Because the holy Scripture by reason of its depth is not by all taken in one and the same sense for Photinus expounds it one way Sabellius another Donatus another Arrius another And chap. 41. He tells us how the third General Council held in his days at Ephesus proceeding according to this rule Condemned Nestorius For the Fathers of that Christian Synod in number about 200. having consulted the sentiment of their Predecessors the eminent Doctors of the Oriental and Western Church S. Peter of Alexandria S. Athanasius S. Theophilus S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Basil S. Gregory Nyssen S. Felix S. Iulius S. Cyprian S. Ambrose concerning their Controversie in debate they resolved to hold their Doctrin to follow their Counsel to believe their Testimony to obey their Judgment Quae tandem c. What were at length saies S. Vincent the Voyces and Votes of them all but that what was anciently delivered should be kept what was of late invented should be exploded After which we admired and proclaimed the great Humility and Sanctity of that Council In which so many Priests in a manner also the greater part

defend the Catholick Faith that they might break in pieces your Arguments Hitherto S. Augustin l. 1. 2. contra Iulianum I thought fit to adjoyn this Reflexion of S. Austen though superabundant to the force of my Argument it being sufficient for my purpose to prove that Lent-Fast was generally practised in the 4th and 5th Century both by the Eastern and Western Churches and so much evidently follows from the Authorities above cited For though some may be so self-conceited as to confess that S. Hierom S. Ambrose S. Basil S. Crysostom and the rest of the Holy Fathers Greek and Latin deemed the observation of Lent to be a pious Christian practice but they with humble submission judged it to be Superstition Will-worship and the Doctrin of Devils Yet few I think but have so much regard for these Primitive Doctors as to allow them so much judgment as to know what was the practice of their several Churches in their days and so much fidelity as to write the Truth as to that particular which is sufficient for the purport of my discourse unless you can think that these Holy Fathers were of one Faith their Flocks which Reverence them as Sts. of another For the 4th and 5th Age practising Fasting in Lent not as a piece of Piety begun by themselves but commended to them by Tradition from the Apostles it not only follows that it could not be first begun by their immediate Progenitos which had it been they could not possibly have been ignorant of it but also that it must necessarily have been first taught the world by the Apostles For if the first Converts of the Apostles all over the World had not only been taught no such observation but also had been positively instructed to look upon Abstinence from certain kind of Meats as Superstition and the Doctrin of Devils and with all had been charged not to receive any other Doctrin though Preached to them by an Angel sent from Heaven and they in like manner teaching their Children the same they had learnt as none can doubt but they did How is it possible that the Christians in the 4th Century should most tenaciously adhere to this principle of admitting no new Doctrin or Practice but to hold fast to what was delivered them by their Ancestors from the Apostles and yet should themselves Superstitiously Abstain from Meats and not pretend Scripture for it neither but Apostolical Tradition But had the Pastors of the 4th Century Abstained from certain Meats on pretext of Scripture in such a manner understood by them or upon account of some Decree of a General Council or Law of some Emperor made in the second or third Century or pretending to follow some person or persons raised up by God in the third Age to teach the Christian world a more strict observance it might well be conceiv'd how the 4th Age might abstain from Meats upon a Religious account though no such thing had been taught the world by the Apostles but the quite contrary And from what has been said all well put together I think it is efficaciously concluded against all Opposers of Lent-Fast that it was taught the world by the Apostles But it is not a Tippet or a Surplice I am Arguing for but a practice which if rightly observed is sufficient to make all the world Saints and therefore for the more abundant satisfaction of my Reader I shall now adjoyn positive Evidences out of the Writers of the first 300. years that the Holy Fast of Lent was practised in those most pure and Primitive Times S. Denys B. of Alexandria who lived in the middle of the third Age in his Epistle to Basilides the Bishop Records the Fast before Easter as Universal as the joy and Feast of Easter It will be confessed saies he of all agreeably that we ought to begin the Feast viz. of Easter and Ioy until that time humbling our souls in Fastings they truly which make too much hast and before well toward mid-night break their Fast we blame as regardless and not Masters of their Appetite giving over the Race a little before the Goal Such indeed as are much worn by the Fasts and toward the end as it were faint we easily pardon if they eat sooner And in the same Epistle he mentions in special manner the six days of Fasts to wit those of the last week not alike observ'd of all Origen in the beginning of the same Age. Hom. 10. In Leviticum Habemus Quadragesimae dies c. We have the days of Lent Consecrated to Fasting we have the fourth and sixth day of the week on which we solemnly Fast. And certainly a Christian has liberty to Fast at all times but not out of a Superstitious Observation but by the Vertue of Continency The first General Council of Nice held a little after the year 300. did not first ordain the keeping of Lent but in the sixth Canon makes mention of it as a time known to all the Christian world for in that Canon the Fathers ordain that two Provincial-Councils should be celebrated by the Bishops of every Province every year one of them ante dies Quadragesimae c. before the days of Lent to the end that all Contests if any such be being made up a pure and solemn gift may be offered to God Now how should Lent be observed all over the Christian world so early before any General Council What other Universal cause could there be of so Universal an Observation but the first teaching of the Apostles Or if such a practice had been Superstitious and the Doctrin of Devils how came so Venerable and holy a Councel not to take notice of it As if they could be ignorant of such Scriptures as falsly understood are alledged against it by Non-Conformists In the second Age Tertullian in his Book de Iejunio c. 1 2. tells us that it was not the Sentiment of some one particular Man but of all Catholick Christians who are by him contumeliously called Psychici that the Pascal Fast was Constituted by God and observed by the Apostles His words are Nam quod c. For as to what appertains to Fasts they oppose that there are certain days Constituted by God They surely think that in the Gospel those days are determined for Fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away and those days only are now the legitimate days of Christian Fasts c. And that thus the Apostles observed the rule of Fasting imposing no other Yoke of certain or Set-Fasts to be kept of all in common And c. 13. Ye prescribe against us that the solemn times for this matter are to be believed already constituted in the Scriptures or in the Tradition of our Elders and that no further observance is to be superadded for the unlawfulness of Innovation Maintain this your ground if you can for lo I convince you even your selves Fasting besides the Paschal Fast those days in which the Bridegroom was taken away

Fasting and whatsoever most severe Mortifications in exchange for its intolerable eternal torments And no less gladly and willingly ought we to do or suffer any thing never so troublesome to flesh and blood to prevent our falling into the same state of immutable unsufferable misery Often and seriously to think of this to wit that except we Repent with Fasting Weeping and Mourning we must Perish and that eternally would make the most rigorous severity seem gentle and easie Otherwhiles let us call to mind the eternal joyful Easter a Religious devout Lent-Fast will end in And this will make us cry out with the great S. Paul The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us Whatsoever we can suffer by Fasting or whatsoever other Christian severity in this our time upon this Earth is light easie if compared with the immense weight of eternal glory which expects us in the other Life Courage therefore O my soul. Sigh Pray and Fast Heaven will make amends for all Si credis omnia patere si non pateris non credis c. O Christian Man says the Divine S. Crysostom If thou believest be willing to suffer all things if thou art not willing to suffer thou doest not believe for such and so great things are promised us that rather than fall short of them we ought to suffer a thousand deaths undoubtedly a few Lent-Fasts Immortality Glory a Kingdom an eternal Kingdom is proposed unto us To which Kingdom He who to teach us the way to it Fasted 40. days and 40. nights bring all devout Imitators of his Quadragesimal Fast. Amen FINIS A Postscript IF any one be offended at the proving of Lent to be an Apostolical Institution by the unanimous Tradition of all Christian Countrys they are desired to Reflect First how they would Tryumph had they a like Tradition but even of one Country for a Non observance of Set-Fasts And Secondly how that all Christian Churches agree that a Sacred Reverence is to be given to whatsoever Doctrins or Pract●ces can be proved to be Apostolical by a truly universal unanimous Tradition But the dispute betwixt the Church of Rome and Church of England is whether certain Doctrins or Practices were indeed always every where by all or in a manner by all Christian Doctors acknowledged as Apostolical I say by all or in a manner by all for as Bishop Gunning well observes p. 132. he would in a dangerous degree disserve our common Christianity who would reject some Book of H. Scripture the Epistles for example of S. James and S. Jude or something for being a Tradition Apostolical for the positive possible Rejection of some one Socrates or other Ecclesiastical Writer or some one or a few Fathers against the known generality and consent of the rest of Antient Writers and immemorial witness or practice of whole Christian Countrys And the reason is manifest especially in our present particular matter of Practice Had the H. Apostles for example in the several Countrys they Converted to Christianity taught no such thing as Abstinence from certain Meats on Fasting-days nor no Set-Fasts on Friday or Lent but had positively taught that to observe Solemn Set-Fasts was Legal as the Heretick Aerius and that Abstinence from certain Meats was vain and unprofitable as the Heretick Jovinian according to S. Aug. l. de Ser. n. 35. 82. That some one or a few pretenders to Christianity should either be ignorant what was taught them by the Apostles or would wilfully teach otherwise than they had been taught is no wonder but that all the several Christian Countrys in the World should make a distinction of days and meats and this ever since they were Christians they positively unanimously attesting as much and all their most antient Records partly positively witnessing the same partly being silent as to any Innovation and yet no such thing should be taught them but rather the quite contrary by the first Planters of the Christian Faith amongst them this is impossible And whoever goes about to weaken the force of Vniversal Tradition rightly understood invalidates as much as in him lyes all revealed Religion It being impossible to know assuredly any Books as to all that 's contained in them to be Divine Revelations but by such a Tradition Concerning this see Bishop Gunning above Christo Jejunanti Gloria