Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	apostle_n	church_n	primitive_a	4,139	5	9.1134	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86113	The right of dominion, and property of liberty, whether natural, civil, or religious. Wherein are comprised the begining and continuance of dominion by armes; the excellency of monarchy, and the necessity of taxes, with their moderation. As also the necessity of his Highness acceptation of the empire, averred and approved by presidents of præterit ages, with the firm settlement of the same against all forces whatsoever. / By M.H. Master in Arts, and of the Middle Temple.	Hawke, Michael.	1655 (1655)	Wing H1172; Thomason E1636_1; ESTC R202383	79,995	208

means to draw their affections to their Constitutions Bod. ib. for which reason some of the Christians are succoured by the Turks charitable largitions Also that they pray heartily every day in their temples In his admonition to the Alcoran that the Christians may embrace their Alcoran and becom their Proselites as M. Ross relateth But here is another objection to be refelled Tholos Jur. univ f. 368. which is strongly pressed That liberty of Religion among infidells might with lesse perill be permitted because their religions were erroneous saepe errores plures se compatiuntur and often many errors do beare one with another but truth cannot stand with error which experience convinceth of falshood For among the Romans the Religion of the Jewes was permitted which then was the true Religion and afterward there were many Christians in Rome of whom Paul was one which then was the true Religion who were so far from opposition that they professed themselves subject to that power and made prayers and supplications for it So are there among the Turks many Christians who are true professors of the Gospel and live peaceably without any reluctancy And wheras it is averred that truth cannot stand with error the opposite is manifest for among the Jewes there were divers Sects Scribes Pharises Essaes and Sadduces of which that of the Sadduces was notoriously erroneous denying the resurrection of the dead yet lived they under one Government and were admitted to one Temple Among the Christians also there always were some errors Peter denied the calling of the Gentiles which Paul preached Gal. 2.11 yet were they both Apostles and Coadjutors in the Church And in the Church of Corinth there were divers errors concerning the Doctrine of Baptism 1 Cor. 1.13 yet were they of one Congregation The selected Apostle determineth this doubt who upon such differences resolveth the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.19 that there must be heresies which from the plantation of the Church have been and so shall continue unto the harvest the envious man alwayes sowing tares among the wheat which by our Saviours rule are not to be plucked up lest you root up the wheat also CAP. III. That religious liberty was practised in the Primitive times among Christians and in after-ages permitted by many Christian Princes AS liberty of Religion was permitted by the greatest Heathen Emperors so was it allowed by the most prudent Christian Princes Bodin de Repub. l. 4. c. 7. For if we survey the state of the Church as it was in its minority before the constitution of Christian Princes it will appear that in Tertullians time there were one hundred and twenty severall sects in the Christian Church and every one permitted the exercise of their severall professions without any disturbance or discord And afterwards whenas under Theodosius raign there chiefly flourished in the Church two sects Nihil est periculofius quam in dusas sententias s●indi civitatem Bodin de rep f. 743. Catholikes and Arrians which number by the judgement of Bodin is more obnoxious to civill dissentions then that of many for one by nature is contrary to one and not many to one so as when many differ among themselves certain means are interjected between the extreme contraries which makes them less perilous and more peaceable yet did the prudence of Theodosius so moderate and temper them that they by his Edicts were induced quietly to practise their severall Religions and though all the Provinces were full of Arrians Perpiu ut nullus fuit angulus orbis terrae ubi non fuerint Arriani de bacchati that there was no corner of the earth where there were not raving Arrians yet did the moderate Emperour abstain from coercive violence and used only pious and gentle means to reclaim them and especially by maintaining the Councell of Nice and educating and instructing his issue and Alliance in the Catholique Religion having therein good hope that they in time might be drawn to follow his Royall and pious example by which mild and godly means he by degrees did attenuate and enervate the vigour of that numerous and furious Sect and prevailed more with his goodness and clemency then all the Arrian Princes did with their severity or cruelty for which Athanasius who by them was thrust into exile inveigheth against them for that they used the judicial power against those contradicted them whom they could not perswade by argument they laboured by stripes and imprisonment to hale unto them Grot. de J. B. P. f. 78. Atque ita inquit seipsam quàm sit pia Dei cultrix ostendit And therein saith he their religion manifesteth it self how pious and godly it is alluding to that place of the Apostle Galat. as Grotius conceiveth where it is said But as then he that is born of the flesh persecuted him that is born of the spirit even so is it now Theodoric a prudent and valiant Prince though otherwise censured for his cruelty extended his goodnesse and indulgence to the divided Christians then differing in opinions and gave them free licence to professe their severall religions without any interdiction which liberty of religion is at this day allowed in Transilvania Valachia and the remains of Hungary with Poland of which it is said If any one hath lost his religion let him seek it in Poland and there he shall be sure to find it Europ spec f. 159 And it was a worthy saying of Stephen King of Poland That God had reserved two things unto himself in which he cannot have his equall Ex nihilo aliquid facere dominari conscientiis To make something of nothing and command consciences So Maximilian that famous Emperour maintained this Doctrine that it was an intolerable tyranny to domineer over mens consciences and it was his advice to Henry the third King of France that there was no sin so great as to force mens consciences And Charles the fifth his Successor though of a contrary opinion yet permitted he the Religion of the Augustane Confession in all Countryes Cities Sleyden and places of the Empire and commanded that all the associates of that Religion should peaceably use and freely enjoy their estates possessions requisites and priviledges and afterwards by advice of his Theologues imployed those of that Religion in his military affaires whom he called his black Bands And Henry the third King of France after many civill wars and bloody massacres occasioned by the enthralling of devout consciences in which were forty thousand Hugonets miserably slaughtered observing Jeam de Seris that notwithstanding their holy leagues and dubious battells the Hugonets still prevailed learned this lesson Que le bras le chaire ne peuvent forrer les ames Que les maux spirituelles requirent remedes spirituelles que la foy ne se plante point avec violence aux caeurs des homes That the arme and flesh cannot force minds

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 execrable and unsociable as one unworthy the society of good men and according to the Greek Original signifieth Deo dicatum dedicated to God and so separated from the Communion of men for his impiety that he is onely left to Gods judgement All which onely sets forth unto us a separation from the Communion of the good the dereliction of them so separated to the judgement of the Lord Tac. An. 1. l. 1. Deorum enim injurias Diis curae esse for offences against God are by him to be censured Upon which ground Tiberius dismissed one to the sentence of Jupiter who was accused for a contempt against Jupiter and all heretical opinions are properly offences against God and therefore to be referred to his judgement as the Civilians in the like case Satis deum ultorem habent have God a sufficient revenger and how such errors shall be punished at the day of of Judgement Grotius de Jur. b. et p. nemo potest scire nisi Judex saith Salvianus no man can know but the Judge And therefore doth Christ Mar. 6.12 referr the judgement of such as refuse his Doctrine until the day of Judgement and whosoever as Mr. Ashkam shall think himselfe competent to judge of it here is nimis Curiosus in aliena republica Excommunication was rarely executed in the Primitive Church of which we have but two examples in the Gospel the one against the Incestuous one whom Paul commanded to be delivered to Satan 1 Cor. 5. a sin abhorred of the Heathens and severely punished by them The other against blasphemers 1 Tim. 1.20 Hymeneus and Alexander whom Paul also delivered to Satan An offence mortal under the Law Levit. 24. and dangerous under the Gospel if not repented of Math. 12.31 And of all offences the highest because it is an impiety against God himselfe whereas other offences are transgressions against the Law Tholos Synt. Jur. Vniv l. 33. c. 12. contra ipsa deitatem impie agis And this was Pauls rod of Correction which he rarely used so rare a censure was Excommunication in the purest times For the excesse of which St. John condemneth Diotrephes in casting his Brethren out of the Church But how Excommunication the last and greivous punishment of the Church In his Adue as Mr. Whitgift calleth it hath been abused under Popery and Prelacy is notoriously evident and especially by the Pope whose continual practice was to inflict it on any one as a Delinquent either in matters of Faith or Manners Pier. de Moul. Buc. de la foy f. 506. or by it to presse men to restore things lost and to pay their debts within a certain time and sometimes without any cognisance of the cause Kings and Emperours were most obnoxious to this censure who being Excommunicated as the Pope pretendeth could not without sinning exercise their Iurisdiction and what Acts and Sentences during the Excommunication they pronounced were null and void by which rule he also deposed them From whose institutions the Prelates originally derive their Iurisdiction and in their discipline doe not much vary setting the Papal Altitude and Latitude aside and therefore was our Arch-Prelate stiled Alterius orbis Papa who likewise transgressed in the excessive abuse of excommunications as Whitgift a Patron of Praelacy acknowledgeth in these words In his Admonition That excommunication the last and greatest punishment in the Church is commonly used in many trifling matters and therefore is commonly neglected and contemned I pray God saith he restore it to its first purity neither was by either of them the pious end of Excommunication respected 1 Tim. 5. which was that for shame of the separation the separated should be drawn to repentance as the Apostle saith of the Incestuous one That his flesh may be destroyed and the spirit saved in the day of the Lord Jesus and also of the blasphemers 1 Tim. 1.20 That they may learn not to blaspheme whereas their ultimate drift was to heap up monyes and inrich themselves by formal Absolutions and pecuniary Satisfactions supposing gaine to be godlinesse and through coveteousnesse by fained words to make merchandize of mens souls 1 Tim. 5.6 as the Apostle speaketh For such and like abominable abuses the Popes Excommunications are slighted and despised of most Princes and the Papal and Prelatical Iurisdicton neglected in all Reformed Churches and in our Church utterly abolished as it was resolved in the late Parliament by the declaration of the Lords and Commons in answer to the Scotch papers the fourth of March 1647. That the discipline of Ecclesiastical censures and other punishments for matters in Religion are disclaimed as grounded on Popish and Preletical Principles and not to be revived again under any Image and shape whatsoever CAP. VIII 1. Who out of ignorance and infirmity erre are not to be rejected but to be instructed with meeknesse 2 Such as abuse their liberty are to be punished THere are others who out of ignorance and infirmity erre Grot. de Iu. b. pa. l. 2. c. 20. and are called by Salvianus Haeretici non scientes qui bono animo errant affectu Dei who erre with a good mind affection towards God beleiving that they honour love God and such saith Whitaker are not Hereticks though they harbour a false and erroneous opinion De sacr scrip l. 1. non est haereticus qui falsam haereticam opinionem colit For else Cyprian had been an Heretick who defended Anabaptisme and Augustine who had been a Maniche and Peter also who denied the calling of the Gentiles and that they were to be excluded the communion of Saints yet was it false Et in ea Petrum errasse saith Whitaker and therefore are such falsities properly errors as Augustine said of himselfe Errare possum haereticus esse nolo For an erroneous conscience may be a good conscience as Pauls was when he was a Jew Bar. Ann. 173. and Tertullian whilst he was a Montanist Such consciences are tenderly to be cured not to be cauterized and as the Apostle adviseth 2 Tim. 2.25 are to be instructed with meeknesse and gently to be intreated or convinced by arguments as Augustine did the Manichees whose divine reasons for their Elegancy and Excellency merit a literal repetition Illi saeviant in vos qui nesciunt Grotius de Jur. bel pac l. 2. c. 20. saith he quocum labore verum inveniatur et quam difficillime caveantur errores Illi saeviant in vos qui nesciunt quam rarum arduum sit carnalia phantasmata piae mentis serenitate superare Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quanta difficultate sanetur oculus interior is hominis Illi in vos faeviant qui nesciunt quantis gemitibus suspiriis fiat ut ex quantulacumque parte intelligi possit Deus Postremo illi in vos saeviant qùi nullo tali errore decepti

that spirituall maladies require spirituall remedies that faith doth not plant it self by violence in the hearts of men for which reason he granted to the Hugonets freedome and liberty of conscience to which the Divine Resolve of the late Parliament of England c. may be annexed contained in their Declaration in answer to the Letters of the Scotch Commissioners Feb. 17. 1648. As for the truth and power of Religion it being a thing intrinsecate between God and the soul and the matter of Faith in the Gospell being such as no naturall light can reach unto we conceive there is no humane power of coercion thereunto not to restrain men from believing what God suffers their judgements to be perswaded of CAP. IIII. 1 Liberty is either external or corporeal and may be forced or internal and mental and cannot be compelled 2 Our Saviour compelled none to receive his Doctrine and his Disciples had no Commission to command but to teach and instruct 3 It is Irreligion and tyranny to force the consciences of men THe power of doing what one will is the liberty opposite to servitude and is external and possible to be forced The liberty which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within us Ar. l. 1. de An. G●ffend ne philof Epicur in f. 1594. as Epicurus is internal in the will and mind and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impatible Quod adeò solum sit verè liberum ut impediri perturbarique nullatenus queat which alone is so truly free that it can by no means be impeded or molested The soul is invulnerable and impregnable and cannot be conquered or inslaved which caused some to scorn death as among the Heathens Cato Antony Cleopatra Brutus Cassius and many more and among Christians the glorious Army of Martyrs who triumphed over death Currius of Alexander The mind of man is by arms invincible and was not conquered by the great Conqueror who could not imperare animis linguis And only by ratiocination and argument it may be convinced or by consent or belief perswaded for Liberty of Conscience is a natural right therefore our Saviour compelled none to receive his Doctrine Grotius but est Dominus non cogens he is not a constraining Lord but committing his liberty to the will said publiquely to all If any man will come after me and to his Apostles Will ye also go away And his Disciples were not Commanders but Instructers and Teachers which was their Commission Compulsion and terrene penalties are out of his Jurisdiction whose Kingdome was not of this world which he acknowledgeth not only in speech but in practice for when the Disciples would have commanded fire from heaven to have consumed the Samaritans Luk. 9.36 he rebuked them And when he was apprehended by the Chief Priests and Elders Mat. 26.53 he could have commanded legions of Angels but would not It is Irreligion to take away the liberty of Religion So Tertullian Clap. de act imp f. 139. ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrit This concurreth to the commendation of Irreligion to take away the liberty of Religion and strictly to forbid the opinion of Divinity that it may not be lawfull for me to worship whom I will but shall be compelled to worship whom I will not 2 Cor. 1.29 and therefore saith the Apostle We have not Dominion over your faith The history and Doctrine of Christ is not comprehended by reason and argument but by belief and faith which at the first hearing is not admitted into the minds of men unless by the secret assistance of the Spirit of God the which to whomsoever it is given or denied is for some peculiar internall causes to us unknown and therefore as Grotius Grot. de Ju. B. P l. 2. c. 20. non humano judicio punibilis is not punishable by humane judgement And for this reason doth the fourth Councel of Toledo decree Concil Tolet. 4. Can. 55. Nemini deinceps ad credendum vim inferre cujus enim vult miseretur Deus quem vult indurat That henceforth no man be inforced to believe for God hath mercy on whom he will Clap. de arc imperit and whom he will not he hardeneth and therefore is such unconscionable force called by Nazianzen animorum carnificina a torture of minds and is indeed a spirituall tyranny CAP. V. 1 Kings and Emperors were from the beginning as well Priests as Kings 2 They had the ordering of the affairs of the Church as well as of the State 3 They nominated Bishops and deposed Popes upon just causes 4 That the Pope first arrogated to himself Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and encroached also on the civil endeavouring by force to abr●gate the Royal freedome of Princes and to subject their Consciences by his Bulls of Excommunications to his tyranny IF we revolve the antient Monuments of the Christian Church many examples will occur in which as in a glass may clearly be seen the bloody and fatall events which usually attended the enforcement of religious consciences wherein the Pope who proudly proclaimeth himself the Head of the Church was the principal Author and Actor as by the sequel may appear Kings and Emperors originally were mixt persons as well Priests as Kings Mos apud Judaeos fuit ut eosdem reges sacerdotes haberent Justia l. 13. Ir was a custome among the Jews that Kings and Priests were accounted the same As the Poet of Annius Virg. Rex idem hominum Phoebique sacerdos So was it in the Heroique and antient times among the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the King was an Emperour 3 Pol. c. 3. and a Judge and Lord of those things concerned Religion And among the Latins and Romans Virgil Aene. inferretque Deos Latio King Faunus was the first instituted Religion in Italy from whence their Temples were called Fana which after was propagated by Aeneas and at the last reduced into an order by Romulus and Numa Clap. de arc imp fo 311. whence it was a Law among the Romans Rex sacrorum praeses esto Let the King be President of sacred things And after the expulsion of the Kings of Rome the same honor was resiant in the Emperour from the time of Julius Caesar who first united them and so continued in the Christian Empire till Gratian who first refused the Pontifical habit as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlawful to a Christian and after Theodosius had dissolved the Colledge of Pontifices and all the rest of the Priests did the Emperours notwithstanding retaine the Supreme power over the Christian Church as Isaiah prophecieth Isa 49.23 Kings shall be their nursing fathers and their Queens their nursing mothers which Leo in his letter to Leontius intimates Clap. de arc imp f. 32. Debes inquit incunctanter advertere Regiam potestatem tihi non solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad ecclesia praesidium esse collatam You ought