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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	necessary_a	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,814	5	9.5300	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70084	Truth maintained, or, Positions delivered in a sermon at the Savoy since traduced for dangerous, now asserted for sovnd and safe / by Thomas Fvller.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.; Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661. Sermon of reformation.	1643 (1643)	Wing F2475; ESTC R222778	73,801	126

cloud of Antichristianisme was thicke in their times and then the light could not be so glorious as now when those clouds grow thinner and more attenuated by the preaching of the Gospel TREATISE To cut off all occasion and pretence of caviling wee will shew God willing in what respect the Fathers for knowledge excelled and exceeded us and in what respect wee modernes goe beyond them They had a threefold advantage above us 1. Of sight 2. Of light 3. and of a nearer object First Of a better light Being men of eminent natural parts improved with excellent learning and to the Easterne fathers the Greeke tongue the language of the New Teastament was naturall so that it costeth us much paines and sweat but to come to the place whence they started Secondly Of a brighter light As their constancie in persecution was great so no doubt the heate of their zeale was attended with a proportionable light and heavenly illumination God doing much for them that suffer much for him Especially in those points wherein they encountred hereticks they were more then men and went beyond themselves as St. Athanasius against the Arians St. Augustine against the Pelagians and Donatists from whom our moderne Brownists differ no more then the same man differs from himselfe in new cloathes 3. Of a nearer Object They living closer to Christs times could therefore better understand the sence of the Church in the doctrine delivered to the Apostles Here we must know that Apostles and Apostolick men as they wrote Gods word in their Epistles and Gospels for the profit of all posterity so for the instruction of their present age they also * traditioned it in their Preaching by word of mouth to the people of those times not that they delivered any thing viva voce contrary or dissertent from what they wrote or that as the Papists stile for their traditions they supplyed and enjoyned any thing as necessary to salvation which otherwise was wanting in the Scripture but the selfe same things which they wrote in the New Testament they also delivered in their Sermons and in their Preaching delated upon them wherefore the prime primative age having as I may say two strings to their bow Scripture and Preaching must needes bee allowed to have had the clearest apprehention of the meaning of heavenly misteries and as the children * of Israell served the Lord all the dayes of Iehossuah and all the dayes of the Elders who outlived Iehossuah who had seene all the great workes of the Lord which he did for Israell in like manner wee may conclude that the greatest puritie and the clearest light of the Church lasted so long as any within sight hearing or memory of Christ or his Apostles preaching or miracles did survive Now to hold the scales even we in like manner have a three fold advantage over the Fathers First a degree of experimentall light more then they had or could have having seene the whole conduct Manuaging and Progresse of Religion since their times whereby with a litle helpe of history a Devine who is under sixtie in age may be a bove sixteene hundred in experience Secondly we have the benefits of the Fathers bookes a mightie advantage if we were as carefull to use it to Gods Glory as we are ready to bragg of it for our owne credit And here I must complaine of many mens lazinesse Indeed a learned man * compareth such as live in the latter times in respect of the Fathers to Dwarffes standing on Giants Shoulders But then if we will have profitt by the fathers learning we must take paines to mount to the tope of their Shoulders But if like idle Dwarfes we still do but stand on the ground our heads will not reach to their girdles it is not enough to through the bookes of the fathers togeather on an heape and then making their workes our footestoolle to stand on the outside and Covers of them as if it were no more but V P and RIDE boasting now far we behold beyond them No if we expect to gett advantage by their writings we must open their bookes read understand compare digest and meditate on them And I am affraid many that least looke into the Fathers boast most that they looke beyond them Thirdly Wee have the advantage of a darknesse removed by Gods goodnesse from our eyes which in some matters did dimme the sight of the Fathers Namely the mistery of Iniquity which wrought in their times now is taken away in the Protestant Church That Bramble of Rome soone will it prick which will be a thorne which afterwards Lorded it over the Vine Olive and figtree beganne very timely to play his parte And the Man of sin then but an infant and every thing is pretty when it is yonge was unawares dandled on the knees of many a devout Monke and rockt in the cell of many an holy hermit who litle suspected that then voluntary sequestring themselves to enjoy heavenly thoughts would by degrees degenerate to be in after ages the cover of Pride lust and lazinesse Now seing this man of sinne is dead already in the Protestant Church and hath a consumption attended with the Hecktick Fever in all other places the taking away of Popish superstition may justly be accounted the third advantage which our age hath By the way we must take heed of a fault whereof many are guilty For some are ready to challenge every thing in the practise of the Fathers which doth not please them presently to be Popish and pretend they tast superstition in whatsoever themselves distast O say they the Fathers lived when the mystery of iniquity did worke and hence they infer that it is evidence enough without further tryall to condemne any cerimonies used by them because they were used by them The way indeede to make Short Assises but Perjur'd Iudges whereas it is not enough to say but to shew that they are superstitious to anotomize and dissect the Popery conteined in them demonstrating where it crosseth the word of God wheras on the contrary all wise and charitable men ought to esteeme the practises of the primitive Church not only to be innocent but usefull and honourable till they be legally convicted to be otherwise If any object that the Fathers had another disadvantage that besides the spreading of Popery other Heresies did also spring and sprout apace 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 eodom seculo quo nat a damnat a equos errores patrum aetas tulit eos sustulis 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

better to beat the earth To fight as they did against dust and ashes bodies of men long before buried except they thought by this similitude of burning dead bodies to worke in silly people a beliefe of Purgatory fire tormenting soules deceased Now when it came into question whether the Ordinances and Decisions of those Reformers should be ingrossed in Parchment or in paper a Doctor Swinborne Master of Clare Hall gave his opinion that paper would doe the deed well enough as being likely to last longer then those decrees should stand in force as afterward it came to passe they being all rescinded in the next yeer being the first of Queene Elizabeth Two things more must here be well observed First that there is a grand difference betwixt founding of a new Church and reforming of an old For the former Saint Paul outstript all men in the World The Papists bragge much of King Edgar who is said to have founded as many Monasteries as there be weekes in the yeer Surely more Churches in Asia and Europe were built from the ground by Saint Paul who strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named lest he should build upon another mans foundation Romans 15. 20. But reforming of Churches is an easier work as not giving a Church the life but the lustre not the birth but the beauty either repairing what is defective or removing what is redundant Thus we acknowledge Solomon the sole founder of the Temple though Ioash repaired it amending the breaches thereof Iotham enlarged it adding the beautifull porch thereto and Ezechiah adorned it covering the pillars with silver therein However it is worth our observing that Reformers are sometimes ambitious to entitle themselves to be founders as being covetous of credit and counting it more honour to make a thing then to mend it Thus Nebuchadnezzar boasted Daniel 4. 30. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdome by the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty Whereas Babylon was built by Nimrod or as others say Semyramis many yeers before Nebuchadnezzars cradle was made Yet he no doubt did encrease strengthen and beautifie it on which title see how he engrosseth all the glory unto himselfe as first and sole founder Is not this great Babylon that I have built Let none in like manner brag that they are now the first Founders of a Church in England built long since therein time out of minde We deny and defile such Papists as say that Augustine the Monke was the first Apostle of this Island where the Gospel long before had been preached though not to the Saxons our Ancestors yet to the Britans our Predecessors Yea having cause to search who first brought Christianity over into Britanny my endeavours have been still at a losse and left at uncertainty Perchance as God Deuteronomie 34. 6. buried the body of Moses That no man knoweth the place of his Sepulchre unto this day to cut off from the Jewes all occasion of Idolatry So it seems his wisdom hath suffered the names of the first founders of Religion Here to be covered in obscurity to prevent posterity from being superstitious to their Memories However if justly we be angry with the Papists for making the Brittish Church a tall stripling grown to weare swadling cloathes againe more cause have we to distaffe the pens and preachings of such who make their addresses unto us as unto pure Pagans where the word is newly to be planted A b Moderne Author tels us a strange story how the servants of Duke D. Alva seeking for a Hawke they had lost found a new country in the Navell of Spaine not known before invironed with Mountaines and peopled with naked Salvages I should wonder if such a Terra incognita could be found in England which what betwixt the covetousnesse of Landlords and the carefulnesse of Tenants is almost measured to an Acre But if such a place were discovered I must allow that the Preachers there were the first planters of the Gospel which in all others places of the kingdom are but the Continuers thereof I hope Christ hath reaped much goodnesse long ago where these now new pretend to plant it And if England hath not had a true Church hitherto I feare it will not have a true Church hereafter The second thing I commend unto you is this That a perfect Reformation of any Church in this world may be desired but not hoped for Let Zenophons Cyrus be King in Plato's Common-wealth and Batchelors wives breed maides children in Mores Vtopia whilest Roses grow in their Gardens without prickles as Saint Basil held they did before the fall of Adam These phansies are pleasing and plausible but the performance thereof unfeisable and so is the perfect reformation of a Church in this world difficult to bee described and impossible to be practised For besides that Sathan will doe his best or rather his worst to undoe it Man in this life is not capable of such perfection Look not to finde that in man out of Paradise which was not found in man in Paradise continuance in an holy estate Martin Luther was wont to say he never knew good order in the Church last above fifteen yeares in the purity thereof yea the more perfect the Reformation is the lesse time it is likely to last Mans minde being in constant motion when it cannot ascend higher will not stand still but it must decline I speake not this to dis-hearten men from endeavouring a perfect Reformation but to keep them from being dis-heartned when they see the same cannot be exactly observed And yet there are some now adayes that talke of a great light manifested in this age more then ever before Indeed we Modernes have a mighty advantage of the Ancients whatsoever was theirs by Industry may be ours The Christian Philosophy of Iustin Martyr the constant Sanctity of Cyprian the Catholick faith of Athanasius the Orthodox judgement of Nazianzen the manifold Learning of Ierome the solid Comments of Chrysostome the subtill Controversies of Augustine the excellent Morals of Gregory the humble Devotions of Bernard All contribute themselves to the edification of us who live in this later Age But as for any transcendent extraordinary miraculous light peculiarly conferred on our Times the worst I wish the opinion is this that it were true Sure I am that this light must not crosse the Scripture but cleere the Scripture So that if it affirmeth any thing contrary to Gods written Word or enforceth any thing as necessary to salvation not exprest in Gods Word I dare boldly say That such a light is kindled from Hell As for the opinion of Christs corporall visible Kingdome to come within few yeares I will neither peremptorily reject it nor dare absolutely receive it Not reject it lest I come within the compasse of the Apostles reproofe 2 Peter 2. 12. Speaking evill of the things they understand not Confessing my selfe