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	teacher_n	2,224	5	8.9443	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04324	A retrayt sounded to certaine brethren lately seduced by the schismaticall Brownists to forsake the church written by Edward Iames ...	James, Edward.	1607 (1607)	STC 14435.5; ESTC S4715	11,461	18

sects enuie strife discension and such incest as was not once named amongst the Gentiles they abused the Lords supper and many of them denied the resurrection of the dead and yet Paul writeth vnto this by the name of the (d) 1. Cor. 1. Verse 2. Church of God which was at Corinth Nay cast your eyes vpon Christs owne Disciples and there you shall finde a Iudas and yet his wickednes was not so forcible but that Christs Disciples were still a Church So then it followeth that there may be in a congregation not onely wicked men but euen wicked Ministers and yet that congregation may be a true part or parcell of that generall catholicke and vniuersall Church which comprehendeth all Gods chosen so that although that which Christ saith that by their fruites men shall know true from false seducing Prophets be very true and certaine for that those who preach the truth vnfainedly setting only Gods glory and the saluation of their brethrens soules before their eyes are only to be tearmed true Prophets and these do euer liue vprightly as farre forth as flesh and bloud will suffer them yet notwithstanding it followeth not but that amongst these faithfull and vnfained Pastors there may be other who teach for a time the truth and yet be deceitfull workmen and rauening wolues who doe but watch fit opportunity to prey vpon Gods people as Iudas watched his opportunitie to betray Christ Iesus Of this sort were those of whom Saint Iohn speaketh (e) 1. Iohn ● ver 19. They went from vs but they were not of vs c. Such be the close Atheists and Neuters of the world which liue in euery age and almost in euery congregation who haue two faces vnder one hood with Ianus and with the Cameleon can turne themselues vnto any colour such doe liue and teach in many faithfull congregations and hardly can they be certainely discerned from faithfull Pastors vntill the time of persecution for that is like Christ his fanne wherewith he seperateth the wheate from chaffe the wheate remaineth the chaffe is carried with that wind from the threshing floore which is Christ his Church for whilest the Church enioyeth peace and quietnesse it is gouerned with discipline and ruled with lawes and Canons whereof some prohibite the broaching of vntrue doctrine and not onely admit into no dignities but withall punish such as broach it Others correct the maners and behauiour of lewde liuers profane persons and all their wicked actions and therefore feare and ambition doe make those hypocritish cormorants to teach but truth at leastwise to seeme to liue within their lists but when the Churches peace is turned into persecution when for executing lawes it be driuen to suffer violence and that all dignities and preferments are taken from it then though their ambition still remaineth yet their hope of preferments by the Church is quite cut off and though then they feare such tyrants as vsurpe authoritie yet the feare they had to offend the Churches lawes is departed frō them and therefore then and not before they shew what they were before they embrue their hands in the Churches dearest bloud who lately seemed to be their dearest mother and they endeuour to wound her to death who would haue nourished them to euerlasting life It is not to be doubted as wily as these Foxes are but that in the time that the Church doth flourish they doe often commit such wickednes as is not to be once named yet for that their actions are sometimes so secret that they come not to the knowledge of those in whose hands it is to cut men off from Gods assemblies and sometimes when they are conuented for their enormities they sayne such penitencie that for the hope men haue of their amendments they are suffred to liue within the Church and sometimes as well through the negligence of those who should informe the gouernors as of the gouernors themselues many of their iniquities are winked at and they are neuer called into question for them I conclude therefore that the lewd maners of men liuing in any congregation is no certaine note whereby that congregation may be iudged to be no Church especially if the notes whereby a Church may be discerned be to be found therein and these notes are two Truth of doctrine and the right vse of the sacred Sacraments This truth must be grounded vpon Gods word and these Sacraments must be the very same which Christ did institute to be most certaine seales of our deliuerie and most vndoubted pledges of our Vnion with Christ Iesus Where the former is truely taught and the later rightly ministred it cannot be but that that assembly is assembled in Christ his name and therefore it cannot be but that there Christ is present and vndoubtedly that assembly where Christ is present must needs be Christ his Church Againe this word of God wheresoeuer it be truely taught doth worke effectually in some vnto saluation and in some vnto the contrarie and who knoweth not but that where the saluation of men is wrought there is a Church seeing that out of the Church there is no saluation But seeing that vnto others it works perdition in the same assembly vnto whom as the Apostle speaketh It is a sauour of death vnto death though it be said before that truth of doctrine and right vse of Sacraments be vndoubted notes of Christ his Church yet hereby we may perceine that that is not to be so strictly vnderstood but that in the Church there may happē in doctrine some error in the administratiō of the Sacraments some abuses for that it is impossible that Gods enemies whose hearts are hardned in the hearing of Gods word should be altogether faithfull teachers or obedient hearers And hence it is that in the Galathian Church men were bewitched turned frō the truth of Gods word vnto another Gospell hence it is that some in the Corinthian Church (a) 1. Cor. 15. denied the resurrection of the dead and others (b) 1. Cor. 11. abused the Lords Supper most pernitiously and yet there ceased not to be a Church in the one or other of them So that in a true Church there may be in doctrine error and in Sacraments abuses a true Church I say as long as it doth but suffer and not maintaine these errors and abuses and therefore whosoeuer doth separate himselfe from such a Church he separateth himselfe from the true Arke from the holy congregation and from Gods fauour neither can he be saued vnlesse he doth returne againe into the same Nay there may be in doctrine errours and in Sacraments abuses so tolerable that though the Church doth teach and maintaine them openly yet as long as they are not in matters necessarie vnto saluation it is intolerable for a man for these errours and abuses to cut himselfe off from the Church Such are the errours which may happen concerning things not as yet fully reuealed vnto