Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	unwritten_a	word_n	write_a	2,864	5	10.7236	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04166	Christs ansvver vnto Iohns question: or, An introduction to the knowledge of Iesus Christ, and him crucified Deliuered in certaine sermons in the famous towne of New-castle vpon Tine. By Thomas Iackson, Dr. of Diuinitie, vicar of Saint Nicolas Church there, and fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford.	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.	1625 (1625)	STC 14306; ESTC S107447	127,240	218

Christs messenger or preparing his wayes more then 600. yeeres before either of them was borne would suggest or imply a great deale more then it could do vnto any other man not so well qualified or instructed as Iohn was and not so well acquainted with the particular passages of Scripture whereon Iohns faith was grounded nor with the signes of the time by which his faith in the Messias was confirmed Now for your better edification in this poynt giue mee leaue to breake this portion of the Bread of life which I haue in hand into three parts The first The generall meanes by which euery mans faith or beliefe in Christ is wrought or grounded or by which it is or may be confirmed The second shall be the vnfolding of those particular places of Scripture on which Iohns beliefe was grounded as also the signes of the time by which his faith before his imprisonment or before the framing of this question was ratified and confirmed The third What correspondency concord or consonancy the particulars heere mentioned and those places of Scripture whereunto our Sauiour in this answer referres Iohn or the signes of this very time wherein this answere was made haue vnto the other parts of Scripture or signes of the time by which Iohns former faith had beene established and confirmed Of these three in their order by Gods assistance 25. Concerning the first poynt we all beleeueand know that Gods Word is the only rule on which our faith must be grounded by which wee must be builded vp as the house by line or leuell In this generall we and the Church of Rome agree The first breach or poynt of difference betwixt vs and them is Whether this Word of God by which the Temple of God must be raysed be partly written and partly vnwritten Wee say that the whole rule or Canon of Faith is written or contayned fully in the Bookes of the Old and New Testament They grant these Bookes to contayne part of the rule but the other part which in effect they make the principall is as they say contayned in vnwritten traditions of whose truth or true meaning the visible Church for the time being is the sole Iudge This indeed is the roofe or couering of their Edifice which as elsewhere we haue shewed and by Gods assistance shall more fully shew hereafter doth vtterly raze or ouerthrow the foundation it selfe whereon they would seeme to put it to wit the written Word of God and the truthes concerning Christ contayned in it But our purpose is not at this time to shew you in what manner they ouerthrow the foundation of Faith or Word of God but rather the manner how our faith is grounded on it 26. Now though it be true which we lately said that faith must bee grounded onely on the written Word this saying notwithstanding must be restrayned vnto the time since GODS Word vnto his Church or people by his appoyntment was committed vnto writing Wherefore you must remember or take notice that there was a time wherein no part of Gods Word was written for Moses was the first that committed Gods Words to writing the first that made a Register or Record of what God had spoken vnto the Patriarkes Now the beliefe of the Patriarkes was grounded on Gods Word though then vnwritten after the same manner as ours is on the written Word For as you will easily conceiue it is not the writing of Gods Word which makes it to be the ground or rule of faith Yet heere happely you will demand To what other end then was it written To this we answer That the writing of it by such speciall Registers as God had appoynted for that purpose and the strange preseruation of the Records written by them is to vs an infallible argument that what they haue written is the Words of God not the words of men And this to know that the words which wee beleeue or giue credence vnto in matters concerning our happinesse or saluation are the words not of any mortall man but of the immortall God is the first ground of faith 27. Vnto the right grounding of our faith in this first po●nt two things were euer required The first prediction or fore-telling things to come The second was the euent or experiment answering to the prediction Yet is it not the prediction of any euent that shall fall out though for a long time after that can argue the prediction it selfe to haue beene Gods words or the fore-teller of such euents to bee a Prophet For the Astronomers can fore-tell you the Eclipses of the Sunne or Moone for many yeeres before they fall out or happen yet no man takes their skill as an argument that they are true Prophets or that they are enlightned by the Spirit of God by which the Scriptures were written or the mysteries contayned in them were fore-told But if an Astronomer could as distinctly fore-tell what kinde of weather euery moneth or euery day for two or three yeeres following should bring with it as hee can fore-tell what day or houre the Sunne or Moone shall be eclipsed or in what degree or measure eyther of their bodies should be obscured or hid from our sight you would conceiue of him as a man more than ordinary and that he could not know this by ordinary skill or art no not by the blacke art it selfe or by dealing with the Deuill He that could certainely fore-tell all the particular changes of weather or the alteration of States and Kingdomes or the seuerall Eclipses or illuminations of Gods true visible Church heere on earth for the next Generations that are to come might iustly challenge the reputation of a Prophet or Messenger sent from God at the hands of all such as had heard or read his predictions before the truth of them was sealed by their manifest vndoubted euents What then is the reason why the certaine and known prediction of some euents whose truth afterwards becometh visible and manifest vnto the world as the Eclipses of the Sunne and Moone or the coniunction of Planets which shall fall out some forty yeeres hence or more should not as infallibly argue the assistance of the diuine Spirit or reuelations immediately made from God as the fore-telling of all change of weather or matters of greater consequences doe as matters of States or Kingdomes or Gods visible Church The reason is because God by his euerlasting Decree hath appoynted the Sunne and Moone their constant and certaine course and priuiledged them from all impossibility of impediment or disturbance in their seuerall courses which eyther man or infernall spirits can attempt against them whereas by the same euerlasting Decree Hee hath ordayned such variety or inconstancy in the ayre or other inferiour Elements as no wit of Man or Deuill can comprehend all the possible changes of weather which may happen within some few yeeres following For though Satan and his angels be enstyled Prince of the Ayre

vnwritten traditions of the Ancients onely or whether it were grounded vpon the expresse testimony of Scripture or the written Word of God The second 2. Whether Iohn Baptists firme beliefe of Christs baptizing with the holy Ghost and his owne baptizing with water were grounded onely vpon the internall reuelations made to him in priuate by him that sent him to baptize with water or whether they were grounded likewise vpon expresse testimonies of the written Word interpreted and made knowne vnto him by the same spirit by which the Word was written To both these Questions the answere must be affirmatiue as well the ones prenotion as the others distinct beliefe were both grounded vpon the expresse testimonies of the written Word The onely search or inquiry then to be made is vpon what expresse testimony the one or other was grounded and how our beliefe may be grounded vpon the same testimonies 42. I must request you to remember that God in the Old Testament did fore-shew things to come two wayes eyther by expresse testimony or prediction or by matter of fact or reall representation One and the same future euent is oft times declared or fore-signified both wayes Now predictions merely propheticall are of two sorts Sometimes the Prophets fore-tell things to come in proper and literall termes so as euery man at the first hearing may vnderstand their meaning As the Prophet spake to Ahab 1. Kings chap. 20. vers 42. Because thou hast let goe out of thy hand a man whom I appoynted to vtter destruction therefore thy life shall goe for his life and thy people for his people Sometimes they fore-tell future euents of greater consequence as truely as certainely but by way of parable embleme or allegory Now this kind of prediction and the types or figures of the Law or reall euents haue the same proportion as Poetry and painting It was wittily said Poema est pictura loquens pictura est Poema silens Euery Poem is a kind of speaking picture and euery artificiall picture a kinde of mute and silent Poem And so likewise euery type or ceremony of the Law euery historicall euent portending mysteries Euangelicall is a tacit and silent prophesie and euery propheticall parable was a kind of speaking type or picture of the like euents The euents fore-told or represented by Gods Prophets are alwayes reall and substantiall more than morall more than naturall mysteries truely celestiall and supernaturall Howbeit the representation of such euents or mysteries is oft times merely literall or verball but conceyued in such termes as suppose a feigned metamorp●osis in the workes of nature to make the picture more fresh and liuely And this kinde of propheticall expression of things to come we call the emblematicall sence or literall Allegory so that although euery Poet bee not a Prophet yet euery Prophet of the Lord was a true Poet not in faigning euents which neuer were nor neuer should be but in framing pictures of future euents in themselues contingent as exact and fresh as any Painter can make of the man whom hee seeth with his eyes or whose picture hath beene drawne to his hand Now if a Painter could make exact pictures of Children which shall not bee brought forth till the next yeere following we would say he wrought by inspiratiō of his spirit in whose bookes all their members are written or that his pencill was guided by his hand who found out the birth of man 43. The Prophesies in speciall concerning the manifestation of the Messias and Iohns office or attendance are for the most part conceiued in termes not proper but parabolical or Emblematical that is consisting of literall or verball Allegories Howbeit some of these Prophesies perhaps some passages in all of them point out future euents in literall proper and historicall termes And of euents thus literally and punctually fore-shewed some came not to passe vntill the Messias was reuealed Others were historically verefied long before yet so as the euents which then hapned were by Gods institution true types or shaddowes of mysteries reuealed in the Gospell or to bee reuealed during the time of grace So that one and the same Prophesie is sometimes or in respect of some part of its totall obiect fulfilled according to the plaine literall sense sometimes or in respect of other parts of its obiect it is fulfilled according to the literall Allegory sometimes or in some respect it is fulfilled according to the mystical sense or reall Allegory Amongst other sacred passages which by the confession of the Ancient and moderne malignant Iew haue speciall reference to the dayes of their Messias his reuelation these following are more remarkable Isay cap. 35. cap. 40. of which hereafter And againe I will open riuers in high places and fountaines in the middest of the valleys I will make the wildernesse a poole of water and the drie land springs of water I wil plant in the wildernesse the Cedar the Shittah tree and the Myrtle and the Oyle tree I will set in the desart the Firre tree and the Pine and Boxe tree together That they may see and know and consider and vnderstand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy one of Israel hath created it Isaiah 41. vers 18 19 20. Remember yee not the former things neither consider the things of old Behold I will doe a new thing now it shall spring forth shall yee not know it I will euen make a way in the wildernesse and riuers in the desart The beast of the Field shall honour mee the dragons and the owles because I giue waters in the wildernesse and riuers in the Desart to giue drinke to my people my chosen This people the seede of Abraham according to promise haue I formed for my selfe they shall shew foorth my praise But thou hast not called vpon mee O Iacob but thou hast beene weary of mee O Israel That is the seed of Abraham according to the flesh or such as gloried in their carnall prerogatiues of their birth or progeny Isaiah 43 vers 18 19 20 21 22. Goe ye forth of Babylon flee yee from the Caldeans with a voyce of singing declare ye tell this vtter it euen to the end of the earth say ye The Lord hath redeemed his seruant Iacob And they thirsted not when he led them through the desarts he caused the waters to flow out of the rocke for them he claue the Rocke also and the waters gushed out Isaiah 48. vers 20 21. For yee shall goe out with ioy and be led forth with peace the mountaines and the hills shall breake forth before you into singing and all the trees of the Field shall clap their hands Instead of the thorne shall come vp the Firre tree and instead of the bryer shall come vp the Myrtle tree and it shall be to the Lord for a name for an euerlasting signe that shall not be cut off Isaiah 55. ver