Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n
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A57394
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Rusticus ad clericum, or, The plow-man rebuking the priest in answer to Verus Patroclus : wherein the falsehoods, forgeries, lies, perversions and self-contradictions of William Jamison are detected / by John Robertson.
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Robertson, John.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing R1607; ESTC R34571
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147,597
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374
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Revelation except Prophets and Aposâ—les therefore among them the seventy Disciples and Luke who wrote two books of the New Testament and many others mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles But Thirdly The foundation of Faith as well as the Rule of Faith hath still been the same in all ages of the Church as he hath formerly confessed and therefore if immediaâ— objective Râ—vâ—lation was so to the Prophers and Apostles as he granteth it must also be the same to the present professors of Christianity and this shall suffice for his Membrum negatum In page 124. He falls upon the last argument he deals with calling it the chief of his Apostolik Arguments tho I find no such argument in all R B's apologie which he setteth down thus Enoch Noah Abraham and some others had Immediate objective Revelation therefore the whole Church had it He and his Brother John Brown deny the consequence but hath he not hereby cut his own throat by givving way to Tradition as the Rule of that Church saith for sure they had no Scripture and therefore had no other foundation for their Faith nor Rule for their life but Tradition And so having pleaded before that what was their Rule must be ours he must confess that in default of Scripture and Revelation there remains nothing for them but Tradition which must continue to be our Rule also For this the Papists owe him thanks A little after he confesses there was more of GOD in these dark times of the Old World then there is now Viz. In respect of Immediate Revelation But I would know the Reason of this Seeing the Promises are greater even to pour out his Spirit upon all flesh Is his hand shortned or his Ear heavie Or is he dead as our Author insinuats or hath he lest off to care for his Church No But our iniquities have separated him from us and our unbelief But to do his Business fully he adds How will the prove that ever Abel had Immediat Objective Revelations I Answer GOD hath alwayes communicated as much of himself to the Righteous as to the wicked but wicked Crin had Immediat Objective Revelations Ergo Righteous Abell had them Then he tells us that the third fourth and fifth Proposision of the second These falls to the ground But upon what ground he saith so let the candid Reader Judge He concluds this Chapter with a peece of his first Dream of the Trojan Warr and citing Virgil he tells us like the Irojan Warr its couplings being cut the whole Faorick of Quakerism tumbleth down about the Ears of its Authors and Builders It 's a pitty the poor man should have read this Poets and others on the History of Irov For the Reader may see how he extravages upon that Subject it hath quite spoiled him But he hath been a little mistaken here for Patroclus did not live to see the Trojan Tower fall And if he will stretch the Allegory a little further he may remember that the Posterity of the Trojans brought the Posterity of the Greeks under their subjection and made them Tributaries which may happen to be the face of this Author and his Brethren But sure I am this Language is more like a Gallant bowling over his Cups in a Tavern then a lober Christian writing for the satisfaction of a Dissenter Chapter III. Of Original Sin IN this Chapter he begins with his old clamour of Pelagianism But now deservedly we shall see anone And first I shall cite the Westminster Confession Chap 6. Numb 2 By this sin they fell from their Original Righteousness and Communion with GOD so became dead in sin wholly defilled in all the faculties parts of Soul and Body And Numb 4. From this original corruption whereby we are utterly indisposed disabled made opposite to all Good wholly inclined to all evil do proceed all actual Transgressions To both these willingly assent But how this agreeth with the dark Lantern doctrine of our Author who for twenty eight pages together in the foregoing Chapter hath laboured with all the force he hath to prove that fallen man retained such a pottion of the Image of GOD which he calleth Righteousness as there by to know one Infinite Omnipotent GOD who is to be Loved Feared and Adored and that men should Love their Neighbour as themselves which is no more then to do to others as they would be done by let the Reader Judge And expect his Brethren will take notice of him not only for calumniating us but for giving the Lie to the Westminster Confession And here I must take notice of a word he hath inserted into some of his Arguments maliciously insinuating That we said A wicked man could do no Action that was good upon the matter or as to the substance of that Action This is no word of ours but foisted in by him to render us the more odious For we know a wicked man may feed the hungry or cloath the naked And as I told him before The devil confessed Christ before Men to be the Holy One of GOD Which as to the substance of the Action was better then some of our Presbvterian Solemnities Whereof one was their solemn Fast and Humiliation for the Prevalency of EPISCOPACIE appointed for all the Ministers of the Nation immediatly after their late Re-Establishment By which act they resolved to murther the Consciences of their Brethren of the EPISCOPAL Perswasion who esteem EPISCOPACIE a Right and Lawful Church Government And after this for some other pretence to have turned them out of their Livings which is their Lives Many of them being so poor as they cannot subsist without them Which they had certainly done if their beloved Beformers the Babble had been as obedient in the North as they were in the West Now we read of a desperat Millanoise who having forced his Adversary for fear of his Life to blasphem and abjure GOD immediatly killed him calling it a noble revenge to murther both Soul and Body at once Let out Author make the Application and for bear his malicious Fastings and black mouth'd Calumnies for the future Moreover the gross Doctrines of Pelagius were First That man had no loss by Adam and so were as apt from their birth to serve GOD as Adam was before the Fall Secondly That men have no absolute need of Grace of Love and the Gift of the Holy Spirit Only it did facilitat or make the work the easier but Man by his nature could do good without Grace Thirdly He affirmed all the Grace was at best Objective such as the Outward Preaching of the Gospel c. But he denyed any Subjective Grace or any Grace that moved or enclined the Will immediatly unto GOD. All which we renounce And therefore let out Author and his Brethren be for ever hereafter silent of that false and unjust Calumny of Pelagianism Having thus cleared the Truth of the false Accusation of Pelagianism I find nothing more of
power As for his saying We charge all the Reformed Churches as Enemies to the Spirit of GOD because they try all Doctrines and Practises by the Scriptures This contains two Lyes First That we condemn all the Resormed Churches For R B hath cited severals of them who are of his Judgement and more may be cited in its place And Secondly The Reasou is a gross Lye For we alwayes owned That all Doctrines and Practises of Men were to be tryed by the Scriptures Next he saith Hence we find That the spirit of the Quakers is Diametrically opposite is the scriptures and therefore the spirit of lyes and delusion Whence I pray thee Patroelus Because we reject private Presbyterion Interpretations Which are but Mans wit and work This Consequence will be made out as thou sayest ad Kalendas Graecas When in a vapouring humour he giveth a Latine phrase and maketh us Ghosts and Hobgoblins But he hath not yet fallen upon the right spell to conjureus except it be his cutting our Juglar Veins which he yet wants power tho not will to do His next os any weight is That from our denying their Interpretations It follows That our Saviovr laboured invain when he proved the Resurrection of the Dead from the scriptures But he might have considered that he was GOD as well as Man who spoke there and that his Word was sufficient Secondly That this Scripture was an Argument ad bominem to the Sadducees who believed Moses Law better then Christ Thirdly The Consequence will be very gross That because Christ who had the Spirit above measure proved an Article of Faith by Scripture Therefore every Presbyterian Priest pedant may by his own natural and acquired parts without the Spirit interpret Scripture But there is at present too great contraversie which seems to bring a firie brand in the tail of it like to destroy all that is profitable or beautysul in the Nation as it hath once already done and to hazard the lives and estates of many well meaning men and good Patriots That is whether there be any difference betwixt the office of a Bishop and a Presbyter in the Church Now if our Author can decide this contraversie by Scripture to the silence of the Malignants as our Saviour did the Saddusees he will do better service to his Native Country then by all his weak and deceitful wranglings against the poor Quakers who are not compeating with him for the Chair But his next consequence is very odd Yea saith he if this Doctrine be true A man doth not sin if he worship the Grocodale lbis Dog or Cat with the old Aegyptians Yea a man may believe or do whatsoever cometh in his Brain c. First ' This Doctrine that the Spirit of GOD is the only true interpreter of Scripture can bring no such consequence along with it For GOD never taught a man to commit Idolatry and to say that a general prohibation is not binding upon a man because his name is not in it is rediculous and no man that I know ever thought it But Secondly If his consequence be true then no Idolater sinned before Moses Law was written Yea according to our Author the Aegyptians he speaks of did not sin For if they had no inward Law sure they had no outward Law And borresco referens the old World sinned not to deserve the Flood because they had no written Law nor any Presbyterian Priest to interperate scripture Next he sayes we deny all Commentaries and expofitions of scripture He should have added which are meerly mans work without the Spirit of Christ if he will not be accounted a liar Then he chargeth R B for laying that the Holy Ghost is not a distinct Person of the Trinity I shall set down R B's own words that the Reader may see how fairly he deals with R B Thus I desire to know of him in what Scripture he finds these words that the Spirit is a diltinct Person of the Trinity For I freely acknowledge according to the Scripture that the Spirit of GOD proceed eth from the Father and the Son and is GOD And then asketh him whether any hath reason to think he truely makes the Scripture the Rule of his Faith notwithstanding his pretence when he either will not or cannot find words in it to express the chief Articles of his Creed And now whether R B hath not fully confessed the the Mystrie and only denyed words of mans invention let the Reader judge Next he challengeth him for taking the words 1 John 2. 27. At the first sound and without any explication but he hath no leasure to give us any explication nor to disprove what he said from the words But concludes thus So that what ever they say or can say to liberate their doctrine from this most weighty but just charge they shall only twist contradictions the faster This is a great blow from a Graecian Gallant but hath not the weight of a Fear ther For we own the scripture for a Rule and the best outward Rule in the World and yet disown the Presbyterian expositions and Commentaries on them so long as they deny the assistance of the Holy Spirit in the work And whereas he challengeth us for not writing Commentaries The World is so overloaded with Commentaries of Mans making each almost contradicting another upon the same text that we think it best to let Patroclus abound in his own sense till GOD reveal that also unto him Phil. 3. 15. After this for about a page he doth nothing but rail and rove at randum as if Patroelus like he had the Trojans in chase and were upon execution And to sum up his Victory he concludes us Bapists because forsooth we deny the Scriptures to be the principal Rule of Faith and 〈◊〉 and the chief Judge of contraversies Answer First He hath need here of some of his Metaphisical formalities to distinguish betwixt the Rule or Law and the Judge But this we may expect next The Reason he giveth is because our Arguments as he alleageth conclude with theirs and instanceth that of Revel 22 18 compared with Deut 4 2 but hath brought nothing to disprove the inference Only telling us to this purpose may Bellarmine answer and the rest of the Jesuites But the difference lyeth here the Papists would thereby set up the Roman Church and unwritten Traditions to be the primary rule But we the Teachings of the Spirit of CHRIST so that according to patroclus own words in page 32 we differ as far as Heaven and Earth And he hath chosen a middle place for himself and his Brethren in which of the Limbos he may tell us next And let this suffice to answer all his Rovings to the end of the Chapter Chapter II. of Immediate Revelation HE begins this Chapter with an hâ—dgpodg of railing lyes nonsense and contradictions such as a man pretending to sense and Learning may be ashamed of if his desperate malice had