Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	church_n	faith_n	fundamental_a	2,818	5	10.4654	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85036	Truth maintained, or Positions delivered in a sermon at the Savoy: since traduced for dangerous: now asserted for sound and safe. By Thomas Fuller, B.D. late of Sidney Colledge in Cambridge. The particulars are these. I That the doctrine of the impossibility of a churches perfection, in this world, being wel understood, begets not lazinesse but the more industry in wise reformers. II That the Church of England cannot justly be taxed with superstitious innovations. III How farre private Christians, ministers, and subordinate magistrates, are to concurre to the advancing of a publique reformation. IIII What parts therein are only to be acted by the Supreme power. V Of the progresse, and praise of passive obedience. VI That no extraordinary excitations, incitations, or inspirations are bestowed from God, on men in these dayes. VII That it is utterly unlawfull to give any just offence to the papist, or to any men whatsoever. VIII What advantage the Fathers had of us, in learning and religion, and what we have of them. IX That no new light, or new essentiall truths, are, or can be revealed in this age. X That the doctrine of the Churches imperfection, may safely be preached, and cannot honestly be concealed. With severall letters, to cleare the occasion of this book.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.; Saltmarsh, John, d. 1647. Examinations. Selections.; Fuller, Thomas, 1680-1661. Sermon of reformation. Selections.	1643 (1643)	Wing F2474; Thomason .36[9]; ESTC R23497	61,984	103

in that time to the darkening of the light of the truth let them know that such opposition only gave truth the opportunity to tryumph and the teeth of Error filled it the brighter Heresies In eodem seculo quo natae damnatae equos err●res patrum aetas tulit eos sustulit condemnig them in Synods and Councells And in this point to be an equall Empire betwixt the ancients and us we must consider that we live in the Later age and commonly bad humors which have visited the whole body do settle at last in the leggs and lowest parts with us Sects and Schismes do also abound and some Heresies first set a broach in the Primitive times now runne a Tilt with all their dredgs in our dayes Thus we see how the Fathers were both before and behind us for knowledge and wee therein both above and beneath them in severall respects See the wisdome and goodnesse of God how he hath sweely tempered things together So good that all have some so wise that none have all And how easie may this controvercy be accommodated whether ours or the Fathers light were the greatest where if the difference be but cleerly understood the parties are fully reconciled And now I conceive having answered you in grosse I need not apply my selfe to any perticulers of your examination EXAMINER The Gospel doth worke M and wind its beames into the world according to the propheticall seasons for Revelation many propheticall truthes were sealed up and those not unsealed but successively and as our Generations after may have a Starre rising to them which we have not so we may have Beames N and Radiations and shootings which our fathers had not The Apostles O had not all their truths and light revealed at once some early some late some not till the holy Ghost was bestowed Revelations are graduall and the vaile is not taken off at once nor in one age We honour the Fathers as men in their Generations famous their light was glorious in its degree and quality but they had not all the degrees attainable they had a light for their owne times and we for ours and who cannot thinke that we are rising into that Age P wherein God shall powre his Spirit upon all flesh and wherein the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne as the light of Seaven dayes TREATISE You hover in Generalls and seeme to me desirous that your Reader should understand more then you are willing to expresse my opinion breifly is this That no new Revelations or new infused light in essentiall points of Religion is bestowed on any now-adayes but that the same light hath in as plentifull a measure beene given to former ages especially to the age wherein the Apostles lived and when the faith was once delivered to the Saints and by them sett downe in the Scripture and that then so perfectly and compleatly that it needed not the accessions of any future Revelations I confesse that men by searching the Scripture that oyle will never leave increasing as long as more vessells be still brought and diligent prayer to God may and do arive daily at a clearer understanding of many places of Gods word which they had not before These words Thou art Peter and on this rock will I build my Church and that Place this is my body are now more truly and plainly understood then they were 200. yeares agoe when the Popes supremacy was as falsly founded on the former as transubstantiation was unjustly inferred from the latter However these were not Revelations of new truthes but reparations of ould For the prime primative Church received and embraced the same The Saints * in the time of Popery Sung as it were a new song a Song not new but renewed not new in it selfe but perchance to the hearers and such are many truthes which are preached in our age in the Protestant Church They that maintaine the contrary opinion of moderne revelations of new essentiall truths doe a three fold mischeife therein First they lay an aspertion of ignorance and imperfection of knowledge on the Apostles themselves and this is no lesse then Scandalum Magnatum Secondly they much unsettle men in matters of Religion and produce a constant inconstancy and scepticall hovering 〈◊〉 all oppinions and as the Athenians erected an Altar to the unknowne God so men must reserve a blancke in their soules therin to write truths as yet unknown when they shall be revealed Thus men will never know when their creede is ended and will daily waver in that truth which they have in possession whilst they waite for a clearer and firmer as yet in revertion Thirdly they fixe on the Scripture an imputation of imperfection and such as talke of new revelations of truth may well remember the passage in the Old Revelation * If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this booke And it seemes to mee all one in effect whether men peece the Scriptures with old Traditions or new Revelations and thus the Papist and Anabaptist are agreed like men in a circle going so farre from each other with their faces till their backes meete together And I professe I should sooner trust a tradition containing in it nothing crosse to the Scripture and comming to mee recommended from the primitive times and countenanced with the practise of the Church in all ages then a new upstart Revelation The best is wee have no neede to trust either whilst we have Gods word alone sufficient to relie on The result of all is this We have now a-dayes no new truths revealed but old ones either more fairely cleared or more firmely assented to no new Starres of Revelation arise in any hearts If any such doe burne and blaze there they are but commerts which will fade at last In a word this age is not happie with any new truths but guiltie of many old lyes Yea it rendereth it suspitious that some men are going about somewhat which they cannot justifie by the old knowne lawes of God because they beginne to broach preparative doctrines Introductorie of new revelations Distrusting as it seemes the Scripture the old Iudge as not for their turnes because they provide for an Appeale to an other Vmpirer and if those are justly accounted dangerous members in the Church who would bring in Innovations in Ceremonies then pretenders of new Revelations in Essentiall points of Doctrine are so much the greater offenders by how much Doctrine is more necessary and fundamentall in a Church then ceremonies But I will answer some passages in your Examination particularlie M. The Gospel doth worke and winde its beames into the world according to the propheticall seasons for Revelotions Distinguish we heare betwixt matters of fact and matters of faith Matters of fact being foretold in the Scripture are best understood when they are accomplished In which respect

As last comes the supreame Power who alone is to reforme by its own Authority though not by its owne advise alone For because it is rationally to be presumed that Divines have best skill in matters of Divinity they are to be consulted with and here comes in the necessity and use of Councels Convocations Synods and Assemblyes And because there is not onely a constant correspondency but also an unseperable complication betwixt the Church State States-men are therefore to be advised with in a Reformation so to settle it as may best comply with the Common-wealth For God in that generall warrant Let all things be done decently and in order p●ts as I may say the Cloath and Sheeres into the hands of the Church and Christian Princes to cut out and fashion each particular decency and order so as may shape and suit best with the present Time and Place wherein such a Reformation is to be made These parts therefore are to be acted in a Reformation by the supreame Power First he is either by his owne Motion or at the instance and intreaties of others to call and congregate such Assemblyes Secondly to give them leave and liberty to consult and debate of matters needing to be reformed Thirdly to accept the results of their consultations and to weigh them in the ballance of his Princely discretion Fourthly to confirme so much with his Royall Assent as his judgement shall resolve to be necessary or convenient Lastly to stamp the Character of Authority upon it that Recusants to obey it may be subject to civill punishments But now all the question will be what is to be done if the endeavours of Subjects be finally returned with deafnesse or deniall in the supreame Power In this case a pulike Reformation neither ought nor can be performed without the consent of the supreame Power It ought not First because God will not have a Church reformed by the deforming of his Commandement He hath said Honour thy Father and thy Mother and requireth that all Superiours should be respected in their places Secondly the Scripture rich in Presidents for our instruction in all cases of importance affords us not one single example wherein people attempted publiquely to reforme without or against the consent of the supreame Power and in this particular I conceive a negative Argument followeth undeniably wherefore seeing the Kings in Judah there the supreame Power were alwayes called upon to reforme commended for doing so much or condemned for doing no more and the people neither commanded to remove nor reproved for not removing publique Idolatry without the consent of the supreame Power it plainly appeareth that a publique Reformation belongeth to the supreame Power so that without it it ought not to be done As it ought not so it cannot be done without the consent thereof for admit that the highest subordinate Power should long debate and at last conclude the most wholsome Rules for Reformation yet as Plato said that amongst the many good Lawes that were made one still was wanting namely a Law to command and oblige men to the due observing of those Lawes which were made So when the best Resolutions are determined on by any inferiour Power there still remaines an absolute necessity that the supreame Power should bind and enforce to the observing thereof For instance Some Offenders are possessed with such uncleane Spirits of prophanenesse that none can bind them no not with Chaines of Ecclesiasticall Censures onely outward Mulcts in purse or person can hold and hamper them Scythian slaves must be ordered with whips and a present prison more affrights impudent persons then Hel-fire to come In the Writs De Excommunicato capiendo de Haeritico comburendo such as flout at the Excommunicato and the Haeretico are notwithstanding heartily afraid of the Capiendo and the Comburendo Wherefore in such cases the Church when it is most perfectly reformed is fame to crave the aid of the State by civill and secular penalties to reduce such as are Rebels to Church-Censures sometimes inflicting death it selfe on blasphemous Heretickes and this cannot be performed by any subordinate Power in the State but onely by the supreame Power Otherwise Offenders if pressed by any inferiour Power would have a free Appeale and no doubt find full redresse from the supreame Power without whose consent such penalties were imposed on them Now if it be demanded what at last remaines for any to doe in case the supreame Power finally refuseth to reforme Thus they are to imploy themselves First to comfort themselves in this that they have used the meanes though it was Gods pleasure to with-hold the blessing Secondly-they are to reflect on themselves and seriously to bemoane their own sinnes which have caused Gods justice to punish them in this kind If a●rhumaticke head sends downe a constant flux to the corroding of the lungs an ill affected stomacke first sent up the vapours which caused this distillation And pious Subjects conceive that if God suffer Princes to persist in dangerous errours this distemper of the head came originally from the stomack from the sinnes of the people who deserved this affliction Thirdly they are to reforme their selves and Families and if the supreame Power be offended thereat to prepare themselves patiently to suffer whatsoever it shall impose upon them having the same cause though not the same comfort to obey a bad Prince as a good one By the way a word in commendation of passive obedience When men who cannot be active without sinning are passive without murmuring First Christ set the principall copie thereof leading Captivity captive on the ●rosse and ever since he hath sanctified suffering with a secret soveraigne vertue even to conquer and subdue persecution Secondly it hath beene continued from the Primitive Church by the Albigences to the moderate Protestants unlesse some of late ashamed of this their Masters badge have pluckt their cognisance from their coats and set up for themselves Thirdly it is a Doctrine spirituall in it selfe It must needs be good it is so contrary to our bad natures and corrupt inclinations who will affirme any thing rather then we will deny our selves and our owne revengefull dispositions And surely the Martyrs were no lesse commendable for their willing submitting to then for their constant enduring of their persecutors cruelty And it was as much if not more for them to conquer their owne ●indicative spirits as to undergoe the heaviest tortures inflicted on them Fourthly it is a doctrine comfortable to the Practisers bitter but wholsome Yet it is sweetned with the inward consolation of a cleere conscience which is Food in Famine Freedome in Fetters Health in Sicknesse yea life in death Fifthly it is glorious in the eyes of the beholders who must needs like and love that Religion whose professors where they cannot lawfully dearly sell doe frankly give their lives in the defence thereof Lastly it is a Doctrine fortunate in successe

without or beside it And as hereby they are heightned to an Heroicall degree of Piety so though sometimes we may say of them in a Rhetoricall expression that they goe beyond themselves yet they never goe beyond their calling nor never goe beyond Gods Commandements Now if any shall pretend that they have an extraordinary excitation to make a publique Reformation without the consent of the supreame Power to whom by Gods law it belongs such an excitation cannot come from the holy Ghost For if the spirit of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets much more is it subject to the God of the Prophets and to the law of that God And truly Sir this passage of extraordinary incitations as it is by you rawly laid downe and so left containeth in it seed enough if well or rather ill husbanded to sow all the Kingdome with sedition especially in an age wherein the Anabaptist in their actions beaten out of the field by Gods Word doe daily slye to this their Fort of extraordinary excitations And you may observe when God gave extraordinary excitations quo ad regulam stirring up men to doe things contrary to the received rule of his Commandements then such excitations were alwayes attended with extraordinary operations Phinehas who killed Cosby and Zim●y could stay the plague with his prayer and Eliah who cursed the Captaines with their fifties could cause fire to come downe on them from Heaven It appeares this his curse was pronounced without malice because inflicted by a miracle It is lawfull for such to call for fire who can make fire come at their call and would nore would kindle discord on Earth till first they fetcht the sparks thereof from Heaven Neither doe we proudly tempt Gods providence but truly trye such mens pretended extraordinary incitations if when they wander from Gods Commandements in their Actions and plead inspirations we require of them to prove the truth of such inspirations by working a miracle Now Sir you being as it seemes an opposite to Prelacy would make strange worke to put downe one Ordinary in a Diocesse and set up many extraordinaries in every Parish And for ought I know if some pretend extraordinary excitations publikely to reforme against the will of the supreame Power such as side with the supreame Power may with as much probability alleadge extraordinary excitations to oppose and crosse the others Reformation and so betwixt them both our Church and State will be sufficiently miserable And now Sir remember what you said in the last Paragraffe To the law saith the Scripture and to the Testimony to such Judges we may safely appeale from all your speciall excitations extraordinary Incitations and christian Inspirations B In the building of the Temple you shall see in Ezra and Nehemiah such workings of God when the people were gathered together as one man they spake to Ezra the Scribe to bring the Booke of● the law of Moses The unanimous consent of so many we acknowledge to be Gods worke O that we might see the like agreement in England where the people are so farre from being gathered together as one man that almost every one man is distracted in his thoughts like the times and scattered from himselfe as if he were many people Well they spake to Ezra to bring the Booke of he law what of all this C Here the people put on even Ezra to his duty And little speaking would spurre on him who of himselfe was so ready to runne in his calling But I pray what was this Ezra who were these people Ezra was indeed a Priest a learned Scribe of the law who brought up a party out of Babylon to Jerusalem armed with a large patent and Commission from Artaxerxes The people here were the whole body of the Jewish Church and State together with Zerobabel the Prince and Jeshuah the high Priest who by leave from the Persian King had the chiefe managing of spirituall and temporall matters And judge how little this doth make for that purpose to which you alleadge it that from hence private persons may either make the supreame power to reforme or doe it without his consent Had you free leave of the whole Scripture to range in and could the fruit of your paines find out no fitter instance for your purposes EXAMINER And whereas you say Reformation is of those duties that are D impaled in for some particular persons I answer this were a grand designe if you could heighten E Reformation into such a holy prodigy as you would of late the Church into the Prelacy and F Clergy and excluded the Layty as a prophane G Crew and to be taught their distance Luther H will tell you this is one of the Roman engines to make such an holy businesse like the mountaine in the law not to be touc●t or approacht to but by Moses alone Thus you might take off many good Workemen and honest l Labourers in the Vineyard whom Christ hath hired and sent in and to whom he hath held out his Scepter as Ahasuerus to Ester TREATIS D And whereas you say Reformation is of those duties that are impaled in for some particular persons It appeares that publike Reformation is so impaled for whereas every man is commanded to observe the Sabbath honour his Parents and every man forbidden to have other Gods worship Images take Gods Name in vaine kill steale c. Yet the supreame Power alone in Scripture is called on for publike Reformation and no private person as Saint Austin hath very well observed E I answer this were a grand designe if you could heighten Reformation into such an holy Prodigy I need not heighten it which is so high a worke of it selfe that our longest armes cannot reach it though we stand on the tip-toes of our best desires and endeavours till God shall first be pleased to send us a peace A prodigy it is not not long since you tearmed it an extraordinary businesse yet if it be performed whilst warre lasteth it is a worke of the Lord and may justly seeme mervallous in our eyes F As you would of late the Church into the Prelacy and the Clergy When and where did I doe this I ever accounted that the Cetus fi●●l●um the Congregation of the faithfull was Gods Church on earth Yet I often find the Church represented in generall Counsels by the Prelacy and Clergy who are or should be the best wisest in the Church their decisions in matters of Religion interpreted and received as the resolutions of the Church in generall G And excluded the Layty as a prophane crew and to be taught their distance What honest man ever thought the Layty as Layty prophane I conceive our Kingdome would be very happy if none of the Clergy were worse then some of the Layty And I am sure that the godly Clergy are Gods Layty his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the godly Layty are Gods Clergy his {non-Roman} {non-Roman}