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
A62285	A serious inquiry into the means of an happy union, or, What reformation is necessary to prevent popery and to avert God's judgments from the nation written upon the occasion of the fast, and humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament by William Saywell.	Saywell, William, 1643-1701.	1681 (1681)	Wing S805; ESTC R25119	28,144	52

in Christendom wherein I have not onely demonstrated that the Corruptions of the Church of Rome condemned in the Church of England have no foundation in the Law and Tradition of the Catholick Church and many of them are against both and answered the Objections made by the Author of The Guide in Controversie and other Papists against our Reformation but also proved that the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England as it is now established are according to the Laws and Tradition of the Ancient and Catholick Church and approved of by the greatest part of all Christian Churches in all Ages and even at this very day to which Treatise I refer the Reader for further satisfaction So that when we have a truly Orthodox Religion generally approved of in all Ages established amongst us and ten thousand Clergymen many of them men of as great Piety and Learning as ever were in any Age to propagate and uphold it if Conventicles which distract the Common People were effectually taken away the Body of the Nation would quickly embrace it and so we should see an Happy Union and that would procure the blessing of God and for ever keep out Popery from settling in our Nation And since Mr. Coleman and the Lord Stafford did both confess before their death that their Church did hope to bring in Popery by Toleration and keeping up Conventicles surely we ought in all reason to conclude the taking them away must be the readiest means to keep it out Thus as a Divine and hearty Welwisher to the peace and happiness of my Native Countrey I have endeavoured to lay open the Causes and Remedies of our Distractions though with the utmost peril of my Life or Welbeing whether I respect the Papists or other Dissenters Had I therefore either consulted my advantage or my safety I had better have spared my pains than thus to have provoked their hatred against me but I thank God I had other Motives to persuade me than any temporal Concerns of my own for the Honour of God the Peace of his Church and the present and eternal Welfare of so many thousand Souls do depend upon the right Settlement of Religion which is the thing I now propose not out of my own Fancy or upon any private models and conjectures but upon that sure immovable foundation of the Ancient and Catholick Church in all ages which will quiet the minds of all sober people take a way those heats and animosities that are stirred up amongst Christians and certainly secure our Nation from destruction I know this will be thought a vain Assertion by many but with all serious persons that mind Religion it is an undoubted truth that the onely way to obtain peace and quietness is by religious performing of our duty to God and since there are so many pretenders to Religion that go about to devour and destroy one another till there be found some way to undeceive these erroneous Pretenders not onely Gods commands but the peace of Christendom will be little regarded and consequently we must lie exposed to perpetual Wars and Massacres Now all these Divisions are kept up upon the opinion of the great Sanctity and Authority of their several Upholders unless therefore we can urge their Followers with a greater Authority and more undoubted Argument of Holiness than they lay claim to we can never hope to undeceive them And these will most certainly appear in that way which I defend the Church of England for what Authority can be greater than the Church of God in all ages in opposition to a particular Church or a few private persons Or who can give better evidence of their Holiness than the Holy Catholick Church FINIS ERRATA Pag. 10. l. 11. dele in p. 23. l. 14. r. c. 27. p. 25. l. 33. after figure adde as

themselves under the pretence of being Dissenters and the multitude of Divisions does make careless people believe there is no such thing as Religion at all which is too too evident by the prodigious growth of Atheism and Irreligion ever since these Divisions have been countenanced in 41 under the colour of being favourable to Tender Consciences and indulging to the weakness of Sober Protestants CHAP. III. HEresie and Schism being in themselves crying sins and the causes of Ignorance and Profaneness we must see in the next place upon whom the charge of these Crimes must be laid that so we may find out the true means to redress them And first because the word Protestant is so much used in the style of our times Anabaptists and Quakers Hereticks I will begin with the sense of the Protestant Churches abroad concerning some Heresies that are preached and openly maintained by many that are now called Sober Protestants And first I will begin with Baptism which is wholly laid aside by the Quakers and denied to all Infants as unnecessary by the Anabaptists contrary to the express Word of God John 3.5 that says Except any one be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God that is either re or voto when ordinary means are not to be had Hence the Augustan Confession of greatest account and most generally received in Protestant Churches beyond the Seas says cap. 9. Of Baptism they teach that it is necessary to Salvation as a Ceremony instituted by Christ and that the grace of God is offered by Baptism and that Infants are to be baptized and that Infants commended to God by Baptism are received into the favour of God and are made the Children of God as Christ does witness They do condemn the Anabaptists that reject Baptism of Infants and that do affirm that Infants may be saved without Baptism and out of the Church The French Confession Art 35. We acknowledge two Sacraments onely common to the whole Church of which the first is Baptism given us to testifie our Adoption because by it we are engrafted into the Body of Christ that being washed by his Bloud we may also be renewed unto holiness of life by his Spirit Besides though Baptism be a Sacrament of faith and repentance nevertheless since God does receive into his Church parents with their posterity we affirm that Infants that are born of holy parents are to be baptized by the authority of Christ Acts 22.16 Rom. 6.3 Matth. 3.11 Mark 16.16 Matth. 19. The Dutch Confession Art 34. We believe that every man that desires to attain eternal life ought to be baptized with the one Baptism that is once onely Neither doth this Baptism profit onely in that moment when the water remains upon us but throughout the whole time of our life Therefore we detest here the error of the Anabaptists who are not content with one onely Baptism once received but also condemn the Baptism of Infants that are born of faithful parents The Saxon Confession Art 14. The Son of God sitting at the right hand of his everlasting Father is so efficatious in him as S. Paul saith to the Galatians As many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ And he affirms the Holy Ghost is given in Baptism when he saith in Titus By the laver of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost And in John 't is said Except any one be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven We teach therefore that Baptism is necessary and we baptize none but once onely We retain the Baptism of Infants because it is certain the promise of grace does also pertain unto Infants and to them onely who are engrafted into the Church Now we have seen what is the sense of the Protestant Churches concerning these Anabaptists and Quakers that either wholly set aside Baptism as useless or not necessary or at all belonging to Infants let us inquire what was the Opinion of the Ancient and Catholick Church in this matter That the practice of baptizing Infants was universal throughout all Ages of the Church is clear from Tertullian S. Cyprian and Origen and all the Fathers in the following Ages And when Pelagius denied the Doctrine of Original Sin and the Necessity of Supernatural Grace in that sense which the Church had always received it he did also deny the Necessity of Baptism for Infants which opposition of his to the Catholick Truth caused several Councils to condemn his Heresies and was the occasion of S. Jeroms and S. Augustines and many other ancient Fathers Writings about this subject Hence we have the Decree of the Council Milevis confirmed in the 77th Canon of the African Codex It pleaseth us that whosoever he be that doth deny that little Children that are newly born from their Mothers womb ought to be baptized or saith that they are baptized for the remission of sins but that they derive nothing of original sin from Adam that ought to be cleansed by the laver of regeneration From whence it does follow That the Form of Baptism for the remission of sins is not understood to be true but false and feigned let him be an Anathema because that cannot be understood which was spoken by the Apostle By one man sin came into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all forasmuch as all have sinned unless in that manner that it has been understood by the Catholick Church every where spread abroad throughout the world And because of this rule of faith even Infants who could commit no sins in their own persons are truly baptized for the remission of sins Vide epist Celest ad Episc Gall. that that may be cleansed through regeneration which they derived from their first generation Afterwards the Acts that were past in condemnation of this Doctrine of Pelagius were sent to the third General Council held at Ephesus and there confirmed by the universal Church Act 5. Relatio Conc. Eph. gen 3. ad Celest act 5. The Commentaries of the things that were decreed and constituted by your Piety in the deposition of the wicked Pelagians and Celestians of Celestius Pelagius Julianus Persidius Florus Marcellinus Orentius and of those that are of the same opinion with them being read in the Synod we have also judged that they ought to remain firm and valid and we decree the same thing with you and account them deposed And that you may be more certain of this we have sent you the Commentaries and the Subscriptions of the Synod It were easie to prove the same more largly throughout the Christian Church in all Ages ever since so that the Quakers and Anabaptists being Hereticks by the Word of God as it has been generally understood by Protestant Churches and the Church Universal before their time if they be openly tolerated to profess and propagate their Heresie it must needs bring down Gods