Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	rule_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	12,255	5	9.8749	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96073	A modest discourse, of the piety, charity & policy of elder times and Christians. Together with those their vertues paralleled by Christian members of the Church of England. / By Edward Waterhouse Esq;	Waterhouse, Edward, 1619-1670.	1655 (1655)	Wing W1049; Thomason E1502_2; ESTC R208656	120,565	278

Union is defeated My prayer to God is for Humility and Moderation I will not judge any thing rashly nor before the time since the Lord is at hand I wish the definitive sentence of this or that which is under a problem and disputable might be referred to the just Judg and that those that agree in the unity of faith may hold the bond of peace Novit Deus qui sunt ejus novit qui permaneant ad coronam qui permaneant ad flammam novit in arca sua triticum novit paleam novit segetem novit zizania caeteris autem est illud incognitum quae sunt columbae qui sunt corvi S t August in 11. Johan I account the Church a Vineyard wherein the grapes of Love faith patience selfdeniall are to be gathered to Christians comfort and refreshing rather then a threshing-floore on which the flayls of furious smitings and boisterous baitings and boylings of passion are frequent For my part as I have ever yet so I hope by the assistance of God I shall still offer my mite to the Churches Treasury and make my prayer an offering for her peace accounting it a greater honour to speak for her now she is like Rachel blubbered then if she had more outward lustre And I wonder Christians should be otherwayes minded who know Christ is in his Church and his Word and Sacraments in his Church nay Heaven in a kind in the tenure of the Church whose sinnes ye remit they are remitted the Church being the Tyring room in which we furnish our selves for Eternities Halelujahs To those that are of other judgement I shall say in Dyonisius his Laconick Cook his words when making by command of his Master a Laconian Bisque which Dyonisius disrellished as unsavoury replied I have not such ingredients here as the Laconians have O quoth Dyonisius Wee l have them sent for and I le see them prepared and compounded I but replied the Cook Sir you do not get a stomack by exercise nor do you bathe in the River Eurota as they do My meaning is The reason why the Church is no more their darling is because they are sick of sloth abounding with full humours and do not bathe themselves in those refreshing streams of pious counsel and comfort which the Church as the spouse of Christ le ts runne at wast to her children What then I have to write shall be short considering most readers impatience which loathes to view any thing that 's long cíto dicta Percipiunt dociles animi retinentque fideles For I have ever held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I propose Antiquity my Theme I mean not Antiquity in the latitude that is God himself He is the ancient of days He is from everlasting to everlastiug He is veritas entis radicis this would be emptying the Sea with a Cockle-shell t would be to attempt with Icarus his waxen wings to fly ore the Sea and deserved his misfortunes in those waters In this Who at any time hath known the mind of God or who hath been his Counsellour This is a Noli me tangere which I hope thy restraining grace O Lord will ever forbid me attempting That Antiquity and those Elder times I drive at is that which is opposed to yesterday or later times Antiquity not as before the Flood the prints of that are perished with the old world Antiquity not as amongst the Jews old things in that sense are past all things are become new but Antiquity since Apostolick times till these last and I pray God not worst times that is the Antiquity I recommend I must do as one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having but a ridg to walk safely on look least I tripp there are many detractors who like Kerns in woods are ready to snap yea often their malice breaks out and their trap falls while good meaning is but nibling at their baits and not caught by them in their ginn of surprise Since I would not pay the tribute of my Pen to any party but only to Truth they are not ingenuous who rather wish for then pardon my failings God forbid I should honour my Saviour more amongst the Doctors disputing in the Temple then in the manger or think him less the Sonne of God who inviteth little children to come to him and perfecteth praise out of their mouthes as well as greater Scholers gaining glory by their elaborate tongues and penns the pen that blemishes Christ in the least of his distributions ought for ever to be execrable Let O Lord that right hand ever forget its cuuning 't is a weapon formed against thee and must not prosper My drift is to shew to the praise of Antiquity not only what from the Apostles time hath been laudably practised in the great matters of moment to a Christians security and comfort but also in many advantageous and necessary things civil whose influence reacheth to those that were without in the conservation of things and persons in their respective nature and kind praiseworthy I know there are those that since they question every thing will not let my Card by which I must steer Church story pass their torture and exception they make Ecclesiasticall writers Judg and party therefore grumble they much for a good Enquest those that would have every thing new would have new stories made as well as a new Heaven and a new earth in which they would neither admit nor continue any thing that is old If these taskmasters deny me straw I can make no bricks if they will not be tried by Good men and true and hear those that are secondarily Apostolick I must be plain with them in those words S t Jerom used about Traditions Where they do not oppose truth they are to be embraced notwithstanding the endeavours of any to the contrary By their leave then I will use Church-stories and those as little suspected as may be for I love not Hagar while Sarah is in place nor need I court Zipporahs where so many daughters of ' beauty suffragat First I find Christian Antiquity vehemently contesting for the reverence of the holy Scripture as the perfect rule of faith neither adding to nor detracting from the Canon not only asserting it their tether and boundary but exalting it as a rampire against the invasions and intrusions of crafty men and craftier Satan who endeavoured to entice the Sonnes of God by the daughters of men and to make traditions the Copper of Demetrius pass for the currant Coyn of Jesus and this in them was not only zeal but holy policie the sacred Scriptures were the wells out of which they drew their comfort their armories whence they took forth their weapons of spiritual warfare lights for their direction and salt for their seasoning should these have been pudled and robbed from them how unprovided would the Church have been she might well have complained her veil was taken from her Had this

passes by chance and as a spy not by license S t Augustine tels us of Imperiall Laws made against both heathen worships hereticall writings and outrages And I reade of Marcianus his Edict against nice and uselesse disputations of divine Mysteries yea Honorius and Theodosius commanded the Books of prophane men written against the honour of Religion and in defiance of the Church to be burned In S t Jeroms time Origens Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was ill resented by the Orthodox Ruffinus and Pammachius carp at the father for translating it and charge the errors therein upon him as making them legible by his Edition of them which otherwise would not have been understood And S t Jerom is forced to answer it thus What I did I did to discover Truth Do you think me an Interpreter Proditor fui prodidi haereticum ut Ecclesiam ab haereticis vindicarem Ruffinus is charged by Pope Anast●sius to have affixed a Martyrs Name to an hereticall Book on purpose to have it take more and spread farther The Book of the Trinity charged on Tertullian was not his no nor S t Cyprians but a Novatians It hath been ever a course in the Church of God to censure and inhibit Books and Disputations which tend to destruction and not to edification and is so farre from being an entrenchment on Christian Liberty or a burthen to tender consciences that it argues a high and holy zeal well becoming Christian polities and governors 't was good counsel Maecenas gave Augustus Vt ipse Deos moribus patriae receptos colat ad eundem cultum alios compellat nec Deorum contemptorem qu●m permittat aut prestigiatorem tolerot haud dubium nihil magni futurum qui deos contempserit Having thus shortly given a touch upon some of the most remarkable Vertues of Antiquity and Elder Christians My conclusion aims to draw an humble parallell to these excellent presidents from the notable Christians and Christian practises of this once glorious Church the Church of England I know Comparisons are odious and it ill becomes us to vye with Fathers and Martyrs whose lives have been lights and deaths harvests to after-times yet in this case I conceive it pardonable to advance the mercy of God to us by this just and warrantable Vindication and the rather because our mothers miseries seem to be a most triumphant gratification to her enemies making them conclude her forsaken of God because smitten by men and advantageth the interest of the Papacy as Cardinall Sfondrato upon the like grounds in his Negotiations with Charles the fifth noted To give then this inflammation some lenitive and to return their insultation a gentle refutation I shall hope by Gods leave to present her as famous for order and enconragement of Learning and her professors as remarkable for their piety charity and policy as any Christians that preceded them and that not only before but also since the Reformation of this Church in the abjuration of Popery First then The Church of England since the Reformation hath had sundry pious Princes and Prelates who have with warm zeal maintained the honour of Scripture allowing it the only rule of faith both in the direct precepts and necessary divine consequences drawn from it forbidding all traditions in competition with it all adulteration in allay of it and commanding its translation purely out of not understood tongues into the mother Language that people might know and hear the will of God i● his Word declared to them and celebrating all Church-services so as people may be most edified by them This was no small advance from Popery that Religion grew English that care was taken that in the Lessons and Liturgies of our Service pure Scripture was read and if any of the Apocrypha which but rarely yet that only which was morally virtuous and least to be suspected or offensive In this Church not only Martyrs in the daies of Queen Mary died but also Bishops and Presbyters numberlesse ever since have preached and wrote for the honour of holy Scripture as that which contains all things necessary to salvation So declare the articles of our Church And though with grief I write it all of place and learning amongst us have not given Scripture that testimony in their lives but that a morall Epictetus or a Seneca might upbraid them yet the Church in her aggregate consideration and thousands eminent in her have personally attested their obedience to Scripture and brought all doctrines to the test of it according to that of the Prophet To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to that 't is because there is no light in them Therefore in the Stat. 1 Eliz. c. 1. Not the Pope not partiall and factious Conventions but the Scripture is the judge of heresies and Counsels rightly convened judging according to it This the Laity declared not but upon serious consultation with the Clergy in Convocation that so every sanction might have its due weight I know there have been those that contrary to Scripture have brought in though blessed be God they had no rooting dangerous doctrines and practises threatning overthrow to our well-ordered Discipline by their innovating pragmatiqueness but these were not owned by any publique Canons or State laws but upbraided as encroachments and openly disgraced as scarres to our Religion and some of those that furthered this have accounted to God and men and therefore are to be passed over without further censure The Church hath ever been stanch and her doctrine Apostolique barked at by many but overturned by none traduced for new and worthless but upon search found to be As the apple trees among the trees of the wood shady and fruitfull comfortable in life and pleasant at the hour of death This made the L. Cromwell in H. 8. time in his last speech neer his death call to the people to bear witness that he died in the Catholique faith not doubting in any article of his faith no nor doubting in any Sacrament of the Church And all this because the articles of faith were not founded upon S t Francs S t Dominick this Pope or that Councill but upon the Scriptures upon Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ being chief corner stone 2. This Church hath answered primitive times in care of Government Ecclesiastique No Nation in the world had a more thriving Church then we In none more purity state decency learning then we In no Church the Clergy more honestly priviledged and respected then in ours wherein Government was not at the Ordinaries pleasure but limited and confined by Laws and fettered to prevent impertinent domineering In this Government according to the pattern of elder times was avowed the Power of Rulers and Princes over all persons within and pretenders from without their Dominions though not their power in sacris yet circa sacros in sacros which every person in Orders was to subscribe

Ark been taken by the Philistims the glory had been departed from the Israel of Gods Church How much prophane mirth would the sonnes of Error have made with these Songs of Zion had God given them up into their power But blessed be God the Church hath ever had ane held the Scriptures in high value though not admitted all parts of it for Canon at one and the same time sometimes they found parts of it not in good hands as they thought other parts by Hereticks were corrupted and handed to them not as they were in the autographon but with emendations to which were added many spurious and rejectitious Gospels Prophecies and Epistles fitted to answer the lying divination Satan had no foot other parts of Scripture not primariò authenticae the ancients allowed to be read sub regulâ morum but not as a rule of faith but such only as were received from Prophets and allowed by Christ Jesus his Apostles and their Scribes and Schollers and their successors hath the Church owned and adhered to and those are the Books in the Canon of our holy Mother the Church of England not that all mouthes have been stopped or all Christians agreed in the harmony no all have not beleeeved Gods testimony in the Churches report and traditional fidelity S t Jerom tells us that it was usual with hereticks to corrupt Catholick Authors the Eunomians dealt thus with Clemens the elder and Ruffinus is not behind-hand for this trick while he prefixed the Name of a holy Martyr to a book of Arrianisme and Evagrius charges them of entitling their hereticall books with the Names of Holy Orthodox men such as Athanasius Gregorius Thaumaturgus and Julius in brief Theodoret is round with them telling us they cared not what Law they broke what boldness and freedom they took for maintenance of their wickedness nay oftentimes they made it the master-piece of their blasphemy to violate the holy Law of God As men in groves cut this stick and that wand they like and leave the rest so pick erroneous men this book and that passage here and there and leave the rest as useless Whatever is contrary to their device and casts dirt in their face they reject and disown their darkness and the light of Scripture agrees not Light is au ill guest to an ill conscience and because Scripture troubles their Owle eyes and dismantles their impostry they cannot away with it Tertullian perstringes the Valentinians for their clucking into corners and their sculking up and down and sayes Our Doves-coat hath no guile is open and visible to all comers who have liberty to see and hear what we do And 't is a Note unimprobated that patrons and professors of error and none but such have ever dishonoured Scripture or questioned its authority nor have ever any who had a grounded hope of Heaven by Gods mercy held themselves above Ordinances as the means of attaining it nor have they ever pick'd and choos'd cull'd and refus'd this and not that Ordinance but had respect to all Gods commands and equally adored all his dispensations Charge an holy soul with queaziness in this kind object to it that it loves not to be limited and enlarged by the word not to humble it self to God in prayer not to obey Authority for the Lord and for conscience sake and it answers in Hazael's word Am I a dog that I should do this No this spot is not the spot of Gods people 't would be a sully which mountains of niter could not cleanse 'T is true indeed in the interpretation of this or that particular Scripture there hath been yet is and ever will be to the end of the world different opinions and many passions have lathered so high that charity hath often layen in the suds as is the Proverb even amongst men otherwayes without exception as between S t Augustine and S t Jerom in the Exposition on the second Chap. of the Galatians yea and in many things and under many temptations some of you have lived and spoken somewhat against the majesty and authority of the holy Scripture as Origen by Name who therefore confessed his errors and publikely retracted them as appears in his Epistle to Fabian and as S t Jerom testifies in his Epistle to Pammachius and Oceanus And therefore Legends Canons and Traditions brought into some Churches as grounds of belief and made obligatory to the conscience as onely the holy Scriptures ought to be held are but of late date in the Christian Church for S t Jerom or Epiphanius in him writes thus to Theophilus That thou mindest us of Church-Canons we thank thee but know this that nothing is so antique as the Laws and rights of Christ And Father Marinarus in the Counsel of Trent denied that the Fathers made Traditions to stand in competition with Scripture but good man he was born down with the many voices that decried his sound assertion as that which better beseemed a Colloquie in Germany then a Counsel of the universal Church but what he said was nevertheless true because disliked by those vipers for as they then so their predecessors long before cried up Traditions and perhaps they had it from the Jews or rather from the devil the author of it both in Jews and others Our Lord Jesus arraigns the Jews for making void the Commandements of God by mens traditions and transgressing the Commandements of God by traditions yea of rejecting the Commandements of God to fulfill them and the Apostle S t Paul reproves this and cautions against it Beware saith he least any man spoyl you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Where the Apostle doth not simply dehort from traditions in affirmance of Scripture or civil custom but from such use of traditions as tends to the eclipse of the testimony of truth in the word written which is transcendently above the witness of man and therefore I cry out to all those New-lights as S t Jerom did Spare your pains hug not the cloud of your conceits instead of the Juno truth Why do you bring that to sale which the primitive Church for four hundred years never heard of Why take you upon your shoulders that task which Peter and Paul never taught nor were they now alive would own untill this day the Christian world hath been without this Doctrine and I in mine old age will profess that faith in which I was born and into which baptized Would S t Jerom have been stanch had he lived to these times wherein old and sound Religion is like wormeaten lumber cast into the outhouses or like unfashionable furniture turned out of the chambers of note to adorn the Nursery or the Chaplains lodgings I trow he would and had he he must have reproached many professors who now would pull