Truth Maintained 2, Discourse · Second commentary 16 – First commentary 17
TREATISE.
To cut off all occaſion and pretence of caviling,8. What advantage the Fathers had of us in Learning, and Religion, and what wee heve of them. 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 threeſold advantage above us. 1. Of ſight. 2. Of light. 3. and of a nearer object.
Firſt, Of a better ſight. 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*foreign. 1 Cor. 11. 23. 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 differtent 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 *Iudg. 2. 7…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, Mannaging 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*Nos nani ſumus ſtantes ſuper humeros Gygantum. Hol. cott. 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 teach 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 VP and RIDE, boaſting how 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 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.