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
A34096	An exhortation of the churches of Bohemia to the Church of England wherein is set forth the good of unity, order, discipline, and obedience in churches rightly now, or to be constituted : with a description premised of the order and discipline used in the churches of the Brethren of Bohemia / by J. Amos Commenius.	Comenius, Johann Amos, 1592-1670.	1661 (1661)	Wing C5507; ESTC R27266	107,538	185

relate how the Hussian Churches in Bohemia and Moravia being by degrees turned to Lutheranism as they call it retained indeed the Doctrine of the Gospel but reformed indeed nothing as to the endeavour of a Christian Conversation That this redounded much to the prejudice of our Churches so well approved of by Luther and his Colleagues for the care of Discipline Whilest the Libertines boasting that without the yoke of Discipline they could bring it so to pass to enjoy the Gospel pure in any other place so that there are none that any more joyn themselves to us yea and some depart from us They therefore demand Whether so great an abuse of the Gospel may be suffered Luther replied in the presence of all the whole Colledge of Divines That Popery could not be subdued but by rooting out all those usages which savour of the yoke of Humane Superstition and violation of the liberty of Conscience and that at this time especially when they take notice that all the world is making head against them it must needs be granted a matter of necessity for us to withstand them what we can and to repair Discipline That to this end he would seriously attend the business as soon as ever he could get any breathing time For the Pope was at this very time in confident expectation of a new Councils making disturbance in all places c. to the like purpose The Brethren then added that they could not expect their endeavours should come to any good effect as they had formerly said in their Letter to Luther Anno 1523. as long as they saw that in their Universities and ●chools so much care was taken of Science and so little regard had unto Conscience entreating them that whilest they set themselves to obviate impendent dangers they would seriously minde those more specially which as to the matter of Conscience warlikely break in upon the Church and overwhelm it c. After this when they had had about two weeks most familiar converse and mutual conference about their whole business with Luther and the rest of the Divines being now ready to return from Witteberg Luther entertaining them with a feast and in the presence of many of the Professors of that University taking his solemn and last farwel of them gave the whole Unity of the Brethren the right hand of holy Fellowship parting with these words Be you the Apostles of Bohemia and I with my Colleagues will be the Apostles of Germany Do you the work of Christ as opportunity shall be given you there and we will do it in like manner here as we may have opportunity 82. Some moneths after the same year Luther writing to the same Augusta inserts these words following Moreover I charge you in the Lord that you hold out with us to the last in the Communion of the Spirit and Doctrine wherein you have begun and strive with us by word and prayer against the Gates of Hell c. Commend me c. respectfully unto all the Brethren in the Lord at Strasberg the day after S. Francis Anno 1542. This great soul'd Luther notwithstanding all the importunities of the Brethren for the restoring of Discipline and the life of Christianity not at all displeased with them persisted in friendly correspondency with them to the end expressing a gracious dear affection towards them and toward the business Lasitius produceth notorious witnesses taking from the mouth of Luther these words following There hath not arose any people since the times of the Apostles whose Church hath come nearer to the Apostolical Doctrine and Orders then the Brethren of Bohemia and again Although these Brethren in purity of Doctrine excel not us all the Articles of Faith with us being sincerely and purely taken out of the Word of God yet in the ordinary Discipline of the Church which they use and whereby they happily govern the Churches they go far beyond us and in this respect are far more praise-worthy And we cannot but acknowledge and yield this to them for the glory of God and of his truth whereas our people of Germany cannot be perswaded to be willing to take the yoke of Discipline upon them 83. Absolutely without doubt this excellent man saw the mischief of the first Errour and was very desirous it should be amended but could not being constrained to divide his attendance between this and other conflicts with so many monstrous abominations sufficiently dispatch all things as true hearted men frequently apologize for him Yea and our Lasitius himself too as was said before Sect. 77. and for certain he commended to God and his Successors prayers and hopes of a further and more perfect degree of Reformation to be attained Howbeit the accomplishment of his Hope hitherto fell short of his prayers For wthin three years and four moneths after these Transactions with the Brethren he departed this life There followed upon his death saith Bucholcer the ●hronologer a double War of the Divines and also Civil wars of the Evangelici among themselves Alass that we rested in vindicating the Theory of the Doctrine of the Gospel without the practice of Discipline God bless us I could wish the Brethren of Bohemia had been proved false Prophets when at the very beginning of this Reformation in Germany in their first Letter to Luther dated 1523. and frequently afterward they foretold these sad events viz. upon this ground because it prevailed in their Schools and Churches contrary to that Apostolical Protestation 1 Cor. 1.1 2. to study knowledge rather then Charity and Edification So that notwithstanding all that Bucer Melancthon Hemingius Saubertus Arnd. J. Valent the Andreas's and many other faithful men acted by the Divine Spirit could do no remedy could take place to rectifie this distemper Not that nothing at all was effected by the endeavours of these holy men but that nothing they could do was sufficient to quench the general flame of malice and prophaneness God amend it even at least by this his smart and general overflowing Discipline of his scourge 84. To return to the Brethren I will briefly touch that Persecution whereby after the Scmalcaldick war was ended they also in Bohemia were oppressed When the Pope had reconciled the King of France to the King of Spain the same being now also Emperour Charls the fifth upon this Article or Condition amongst the re●● that both parties should turn their Forces against the Lutherans it came to pass in France not long after that the Waldenses in the Province of Narbon were cut off and destroyed Caesar also prepared war against the Germans which beginning just ●fter the death of Luther ended the year following in the overthrow of the Protestants At which time Ferdinand dragged the Bohemians to execution for that they had refused to assist Caesar against the Prince Elector of Saxony punishing the chief of the Nobles with imprisonment banishment or confiscation of goods He raged most of all against the Brethren commanding their

holy Unity in which the members of Christ grow up together but also for that the Brethren of the Waldenses it is to be hoped will be of no small advantage to assist you in your small beginnings by reason of their expertness wherein God by much and long experience hath trained them up Wherefore you must all endeavour with the greatest diligence to confirm this your holy communion wirh them more and more 90. And Wolfgang Musculus one of the Divines of Berne hath these words We are very much delighted with that wonderful providence of God in that he was pleased some years since to transplant among you some Brethren which they call the Waldenses when they were cast out of Bohemia that they might be helpful to your Churches in the knowledge and propagation of the Truth This was not intended by them which violently removed them from their habitations neither as I suppose did they themselves think of what God was then doing But he which many ways infatuates and muffles the wise men of this world in their own devices was thus pleased to provide no small relief for the tender infant-state of the Church reviving amongst you And a little after thus I must needs commend your Churches for the course that they have taken to joyn with the Waldenses For I hope by this means you will be less divided among your selves or else the differences which arise will be the sooner composed inasmuch as you may now hereafter be able in your teaching to tell how hit upon the certain form of Doctrine And again thus he I judge that you have done very prudently in that you have embraced that form of Doctrine which is so simple and so consonant to the holy Scripture that as I remember it was unanimously agreed by the Churches even when they were in other matters divided among themselves was fit to be printed and dispersed in our Germany 91. Notorious is the judgement of Peter Martyr at that time a Divine of Strasberg writing thus I advise moreover that the use of Discipline be by all means as soon as may be brought into your Churches For if it be not received at first when the desires of men after the Gospel are vigorous and strong afterward they usually abate and growing cold it will not easily be admitted And that all your labour is in vain without it you may assure your selves upon the experience of very many Churches wherein they being at the first ground-work of Reformation unwilling to take this wholesome yoke upon them could never after by any good government be brought into any order of good life and conversation Whereupon and I speak it with much grief almost all things become unsettled and threatning ruine on every side God bless us but it is a very grievous mischief and the certain decay of the Churches when the nerve of Discipline is wanting therein Nor can they be said truly and solidly to enjoy and possess the Gospel where either there is no Discipline or where it is despised and care not taken to keep it up Certes in the Gospels and Apostolical Epistles it is so punctually set down that we must needs acknowledge it not the least part of Christian Religion They therefore seem to be negligent of Religion which part with so excellent a part thereof 92. Zanchy P. Martyrs Colleague at this time at Strasberg in his to his acquaintance inserts these words Be careful with all diligence that together with the preaching of the Word Ecclesiastical Discipline also be restored in your Churches for we finde daily by sad experience what abundance of mischief hath risen in the Churches with us and in all Germany and how ill it bodes daily that Ecclesiastical Discipline is laid aside with us without doubt God will severely judge them by whose means it is that the use hereof is not restored to the Churches 93. After these Counsels were mutually imparted some yet for all this troubling the state of Church affairs so it was that some of the Nobles of Polonia the greater among whom was the illustrious and right honorable Palatine for one and the other were two Earls James of Ostrorog and Raphael de Lezno desiring to know fully how it was with the Brethren took a journey to them they being about this time in the heart of Moravia there to hold a Synod They joyfully arriving August 24. plainly relate before them all the many and great things they had heard of them about their true hearted Hospitality and singular Piety There were more then two hundred of the Clergy and a great appearance of the Patrons Barons and Nobles here at that time they created fifteen Ministers of the Word of God six Conseniors and two Bishops viz. George Israel and John Blahoslaus the one Superintendent for the Polonian the other for the Moravian Churches Our Countreymen congratulating their happiness saith Lasitius entred into very close Religious Fellowship with them 94. The same year was printed at Tubing in Sweveland the Confession of the Brethren by the care of Paulus Vergerius an Italian sometime formerly Bishop of Justinople and the Popes Legat in Germany who owning the truth of the Gospel was banished upon that account and was now with the Duke of Wirtenberg he having graciously entertained him This Vergerius as concerning the Brethren in his Preface to their Confession writes thus I suppose it very necessary to declare wherefore and upon what account I published this hitherto not enough known Confession of Christian Religion of the Waldenses or as they call them the Piccards When God lately called me cut of Germany into Prussia Lithuania and Polonia being very desirous to see and know the many and different Churches in divers Countreys and travelling about for some time in Polonia there at length I alighted upon about forty Churches constituted after the Waldensian Form and Prescript With which Church I wa● indeed very much affected singularly satisfied and refreshed in them inasmuch as the voyce of the Gospel sounded clear and harmonious among them And so too that I was not able shall I say to observe nay truly not so much as in the least to suspect that there was any errour or controversie either in the Doctrine or amongst their Teachers their Ceremonies most chaste and pure so absolutely removed from all Popish Superstitions and Cringings that there was not so much as any favour print or mention of them remaining Their Discipline grave and strict by means whereof there was such renovation and reformation of life as did produce such fruit as could not but acknowledge that the root of it was none other then unfeigned sound repentance as could be most meet to be found in any Christian But whereas I writ about these things to the Brethren in Italy and other Nations and with great joy related some of them to the most illustrious Princes of Germany and other chief Persons therein Some knew not at all whether there were such a

a matter of necessity that we must give you a meeting for we must absolutely obviate the various attempts of Satan which with all craftiness they make amongst us to disturb the Church and hinder the progress of the Gospel For there are that neither will in all Articles allow our universally received Doctrine nor willingly will submit to Ecclesiastical Discipline we must therefore have mutual consultation to know how to deal with men of this sort and the Lord give his blessing to us that our meeting may not be in vain c. Thus that excellent a Lasco hoped well but was frustrated for they came together to no purpose both this and some years after all the Antitrinitarian Turn-coats as yet hiding their poyson but always bending another way according to that of our Saviour He which doeth evil hateth the light 99. This good old man a Lasco being taken up into his heavenly Countrey another Synod was convened in the Town of Xians 1560. wherein the haters of Truth and Order being very daringly bold affirmed That the Senior or Superintendent was not to be chosen out of the Clergy but out of the Secular men perswading themselves they could more easily instill their poyson into them They pretended two Reasons 1 That the Pastors had enough to do every one with his flock 2. Lest any thing savouring of Popery be still left among them which were separated from the Papacy The Legates of our Churches which were there Laurentius and Rokita not yet founding the depth of Satan in this matter nevertheless being required their opinion said Our custom anciently carries it an other way affirming also that Order with the Authority of Scripture and Arguments To which the Pastors agreed the Nobles dissented and there was a great stir 100. At last the haters of Order broke out to that height to affirm That there was to be had a more perfect Scriptural 〈◊〉 f●●mation of the Church then that of the Brethren of the Waldenses Arguments therefore were drawn up by our men that this very way of Reformation was such as was settled according to the pattern of the ancient Apostolical Church and that the most famous of the Evangelici did attest it to be such at this day nor was this out Reformation rashly made or by any one man but whatever the grave and serious Counsels of many could finde to be best whatever could be learned from experience what the temper of all times could afford or custom could confirm that onely was agreed upon to be admitted why then should we try new and uncertain experiments since that in our experience now for these forty years we have sufficiently been deluded with c. rather then seen by humble and obedient practice any fruit of the Gospel as if the Gospel lay onely in Temples and lips without reformation of life the onely suitable return for so great a light of Truth So true is the Testimony of Speratus Bishop of Pomefania of holy memory now six years agone deceased wherein he finding things then not much otherwise complains We preach saith he and do not our people hear and believe not Well unless the Evangelici of Polonia knit together on all hands in the bands of order nothing will be of any durable standing for Posterity now Order is that some govern and others obey for constant mutual Edification 101. But still they objected That the Brethren did not open their Churches nor had they any full Communion of Saints but administred the Sacrament to some onely which were of their own way at their Devotion To which answer was made Christ for bad to give holy things to them which are not holy and that Christianity must take its beginning at repentance not at receiving the Sacraments nor is it according to the Institution of Christ to pronounce Absolution save onely to them that repent and believe Both of which viz. Repentance and Faith that they be not superficial and counterfeit there must necessarily be a discovery made by examination had to that purpose in some appointed fit season And inasmuch as to attribute salvifical vertue to the naked Elements by reason of the work done is the Basis of all error in the Papacy that that errour cannot be corrected unless by a certain tryal that not huddled over till the secrets of hearts be disclosed and the newly converted be a long time carefully both informed and examined that Cyril well observed that Christ did not presently commit himself to them which made a profession of their faith in him and that Chrysostome called them abortive Christians that were admitted to the use of the Sacraments before they had been learned and taught to renounce all things forbidden in the Decalogue So that 't is the concern of a true Minister of Christ that he makes not abortive Christians to insist upon the fruits meet for repentance as requisite before admission to the Sacrament and that because there be three parts of the Ministery 1 Doctrine 2. Keys and 3. Sacraments The Sacraments may not be administred save onely to such as unfeignedly embrace sound Doctrine and subject their life and conversation to be tryed by the Laws of Discipline If any man refuse this how is he a part of the flock and before he be a member how can he be joyned or received as such are the Constitutions of Order to be disturbed in favour of such Libertines as exempt themselves from all Law of Order 102. The things at that time more largely discussed are well known yet it seems there was then no such force in them as to make the obstinate to yield Yea the conclusions of that Synod were so drawn up that it was plain to be seen that Politique and Carnal Prudence got the better of Divine and Spiritual wisdom For the body of the Church was not formed as the Apostle would have it Eph. 4.16 that by the inward working power it may encrease unto edification of it self in love But it was with them as the Apostle forewarned ver 14. men being unstable as children tossed and carried about with every wind of Doctrine through Satans long experienced craftiness artificially to deceive This I say was apparently the Frenzy-like Arrians spirit everyday more and more impotently putting forth it self and troubling the faith and tranquility of the Church So that at last the Orthodox were fain of necessity to be very watchful to rid themselves of those unquiet spirits to gather up into a more close body by the yet firmer bands of unity in the Spirit 103. For at length the many Counsels of pious and wise men took place so that the Churches of Polonia the less received th Order of the Brethren of Bohemia they constituting out of their number of their Pastors for their own Churches which were scattered all about the Provinces five Bishops or Presbyters of Cracovia of Sendomiria of Lublin of Russia of Belsa and so many Compresbyters with all the Solemn Rites used