Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	age_n	church_n	tradition_n	3,033	5	9.4226	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38061	A preservative against Socinianism. The first part shewing the direct and plain opposition between it, and the religion revealed by God in the Holy Scriptures / by Jonath. Edwards.	Edwards, Jonathan, 1629-1712.	1693 (1693)	Wing E217; ESTC R24310	65,484	89

have a good opinion of themselves in that they make not only their reason to be the adequate Judge of his revelations but even their own passions and weakness the rule by which they measure at least make an estimate of his infinite nature and most adorable perfections an attempt besides the impiety of it more ridiculous then if a man should endeavour to take the dimensions of the Heavens with a single span or to fathome the depth and reach the bottome of the Ocean with his little finger In the next place we must consider God Relatively in the great mystery of the Trinity And that which the Scriptures teach us to believe of this matter is briefly summed up in the first Article of our Religion established in this Church concerning faith in the Holy Trinity in these words In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance Power and Eternity Father Son and Holy Ghost Or as it is with some alteration of words but to the same purpose expressed in the Doxology to be repeated upon Trinity Sunday wherein we are taught to make this acknowledgement of Almighty God That he is one God one Lord not one only person but three persons in one substance for that which we believe of the Glory of the Father the same we believe of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any difference or inequality A brief but comprehensive Epitome of what is more largely declared and explained in the Creed which the Socinians and Remonstrants have so great a spight against commonly called the Athanasian Creed This is the Faith of all the Reformed Churches being herein Agreeable to the doctrine held by the Church of God in all Ages ever since the first planting of Christianity in the world what we and they believe of this matter being conformable to the plain and express declarations of Scripture and especially of what Christ and his Apostles have delivered to us concerning this matter in the writings of the New Testament For this you may consult the Harmony of their Confessions both Lutheran and Calvinist all exactly agreeing in this doctrine without any the least difference or variety where you may likewise see the consent of the Catholick Church from the first Ages next to that of the Apostles from whose inspired writings the Fathers received this Doctrine which by an uninterrupted Tradition thro all the successive Ages of the Church hath bin delivered and brought down to the times we live in In this Faith we have all bin baptized being at our first admission into the Christian Church solemnly consecrated to the worship and service of those three ever blessed and glorious persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28. These being the three that bear witness in Heaven and these three are one 1 Jo. 5. 7. For that Text we shall not easily part with notwithstanding the Cavils of the Socinians and the over officious endeavours of some others whether Papists or Protestants who would weaken the Authority of that Testimony and thereby rob us of the advantage of it For tho some Greek MSS. want it yet there are others more approved and of greater antiquity in which you may meet with it Besides it is to be found in the writings of the Ancients Tertull. Cypr. Athanasius and Jerome who quote these very words and if you have a mind to know more of this matter without going any further you may peruse what Mr. Poole in his Synopsis hath quoted out of Gerhard Dr. Hamond and other Writers in vindication of this Text. From which I think it will appear that the Authority of this place remains clear and in full force notwithstanding the attempts that have bin made to overthrow it Tho if we gave up this Text yet we should not the holy Doctrine contained in it which is so plainly delivered in other places of Scripture and shines there with so bright a lustre that a man had need wink hard who would avoid the conviction or else must have so great a confidence in his Eyes that he may hope in time to stare the Sun it self out of countenance For as in some places of Scripture he will find the unity of the Godhead asserted so in others he will find the name and not only so but to avoid any Cavils and exceptions that may be made about the ambiguous signification of that word he will find the same divine Attributes and Operations on all hands acknowledged to belong to God the Father ascribed likewise to the Son and the Holy Ghost who yet are allwaies mentioned as distinct from one another from whence by an easie and a necessary deduction it must unavoidably follow that since they are really distinguished from each other and yet agree in the same common nature as the same properties and the same operations irrefragably evince they must be what we have bin taught hitherto to believe and profess of them in the Language of the Church three Persons and one God And as we pretend to agree in the same doctrine with the Ancient Church so I think it is highly fitting and for many just reasons in a manner necessary to preserve the same words in which it hath bin delivered down to us in opposition to any new modes of speaking For the Ancient words by prescription and long use have obtained both a just Authority among Christians and a setled and determinate signification whereas new phrases may be liable to great exceptions and introductive at long run of new and unwarrantable opinions about these mysteries beyond the intention of them who first made use of them Now against all this the Socinians will tell you that this doctrine concerning the Trinity is so far from being a fundamental truth that it is indeed the foundation of all the errors that have crept into the Christian Church as being opposite to the Scriptures and plainly repugnant to reason it is a Popish doctrine so saith Socinus Lib. quod Regm Polon c. cap. 4. so Welsing Lib. de O●●ic Hominis Christiani and by so saying they do exceedingly advance the Reputation of Popery by making it of so great and venerable antiquity embraced by all sound Christians ever since the Apostles days It is a Paganish opinion Ethnicismum sapit so saith Smalcius Exam. Cent. Err. So opposite to reason that it is a wonder how any man in his wits could ever have thought of it So saith Ostorod he cannot imagine quomodo homini ulli ratione praedito in mentem venire posset Inst Rel. Christianae Cap. 4. that is sure it could never have entred into any mans head that ever had any brains there Nay it is not only a very foolish but a very dangerous error that puts a stumbling block and rub in mens way to Heaven Strange that that doctrine should be thought an hindrance to mens happiness the belief of which by all good Christians hath hitherto bin thought necessary to salvation but so it is if you

advantage of the ambition and curiosity the discontent and revenge and other disorderly passions of Arius Photinus Nestorius Eutyches and others he soon prevail'd with them to assist him in the project which he had laid for corrupting the doctrine and thereby disturbing the peace of the Church For they presently broached many dangerous opinions whereby they did either plainly deny or some other way pervert the doctrines then generally entertained by the whole Church concerning the natures and the person of the Son of God But these errors having long since bin buried in the Western Church and lay forgotten in a manner with their Authors were again unhappily revived at the beginning of the Reformation by the endeavours chiefly of some Polanders and Italians in the last age and among them principally of Faustus Socinus who having gathered up the dangerous errors of Paulus Samosatenus and Photinus chiefly against the divinity of Christ he put them together in one body together with those of Pelagius in the point of original sin and those other doctrines which are supposed to have a necessary dependance upon it And herein Socinus seems chiefly to have chosen Pelagius for his pattern For the other Hereticks I mean Arius Photinus and Macedonius being content with the denyal of those fundamental doctrines concerning the divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost or with their particular Errors about the natures and person of Christ as Nestorius and Eutyches they did not attend to or at least did not draw out those doctrines into all their pernicious consequences which might when clearly understood overthrow all the other parts of the Christian doctrine But Pelagius gave us a systeme of his Divinity and drew out his Errors into a greater length in opposition to several important parts and branches of our Religion chiefly that which concerned the doctrine of Original sin which naturally lead him into those other dangerous mistakes which did by consequence overthrow the necessity of the satisfaction made by Christ and the redemption of the world by the merit of his death and sufferings as the Fathers and particularly St. Austin directly charge him For he was master of reason enough to consider where it was that his first error would naturally lead him and he was content to follow it and thereby fell into that Labyrinth of errors from which with all his skill and sophistry he could not disentangle himself for when pressed with the arguments of his adversaries and the authority and tradition of the Catholick Church tho he could and did find as many shifts and tricks as any other to escape the force and conviction of truth yet his former and fundamental error in denying the imputation of Adam's sin and the original guilt and stain of our natures contracted thereby hung like a dead weight about him and sunk him down into those impious opinions which he broached concerning the grace of God and the liberty and freedom of mans will in religious matters in opposition to that Grace concerning the nature and efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism the merit of good works and the justification of a sinner the nature of Gods law and the possibility of raising to a state of perfection in this life by yielding a perfect obedience to it c. all which having been picked up by Socinus together with what was deliver'd by the other Hereticks against the divinity of the Son of God and the Holy Ghost he hath at length given us the most perfect systeme of Heresies in opposition to the doctrine of the Gospel in almost all the parts and branches of it that ever was ushered into the world And indeed to give him his due tho in point of time and standing he was inferior yet in point of skill and management that is in the art of Heresie he was superior to all that went before him most of whom were but fools and ●unglers in comparison For many of the ancient Hereticks had several extravagant and incoherent notions which had no more connexion between one another then the parts of a rope of sand so that like a company of mad and hair-brained people they attacked the Christian Religion with great fury but it was at randome and without skill flinging about their mad opinions like wild-fire with which indeed they did a great deal of mischief but it was at all adventures without order and as one would imagine without any certain aim But Socinus comes more gravely and leasurely to work and what M. Cato said in another case of Julius Caesar 2 may be applyed to him Sobrius accessit ad perdendam religionem LIke a man that had his wits tho as many think not the fear of God about him he comes more soberly and with greater deliberation to destroy the Christian Religion he puts his opinions into better order his errors are better united and have as far as the nature of error would allow for the most part a good correspondence between one another like a wary and well disciplined Captain he puts his arguments into good array levels his Batteries against the great mysteries of our Religion and chiefly against the eternal Divinity of the Son of God as well knowing that if he can succeed in his attempt upon that he may promise himself an easy and cheap victory over all the rest of our Religion and therefore having as he thinks effectually overthrown that main and fundamental Article of it concerning the ever blessed Trinity he is resolved to follow his blow and to pursue his imaginary conquest in that point to the overthrow of all the other parts of the Christian doctrine He saw where Arius Photinus Nestorius c. were wanting who having as was said before contented themselves with their particular errors concerning the natures and person of Christ as persons who thought they had done mischief enough they seemed content with what they had done and went no farther But Socinus in imitation of his beloved loved Pelagius enlarged our prospect into his Religion and from the principles which he laid down he drew out his conclusions to a greater length for having denyed the Trinity and particularly the eternal divinity of our Saviour with it he could not avoid denying his satisfaction and the redemption of the world by the merit of his death and sufferings having disowned the personality of the Holy Ghost the necessity of his grace and the efficacy of his operations upon the minds of men must at the same time fall to the ground Together with these he hath published many dangerous errors concerning the nature and attributes of God concerning his prescience and providence in the government of the world concerning the creation of man and the fall of Adam and that corruption of our natures which is the consequence of it concerning justification and faith which is the means of obtaining it concerning the Church its nature and the notes whereby it may be distinguished from all other societies concerning