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
A71273	The verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their Melius inquirendum to which is added A letter from Geneva, to the Assembly of Divines, printed by His late Majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of Protestants.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.; Diodati, Giovanni, 1576-1649. Answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at London by the reverend, noble, and learned man, John Deodate.	1681 (1681)	Wing W3356; ESTC R36681	154,158	329

you O ye Corinthians aggrieved at those Rites which are observed of all Churches Did the Preaching of the Gospel proceed first from you that we must dance after your Pipe and are you the only wise men of the world and are all the Churches else in dotage For those vain janglers you so much admire I will not odiously contend with them But if any of them be a true Prophet and really endowed with those Gifts of the Spirits which ye pretend to He will easily perceive and acknowledge that I do not vent my own passions in this matter but the Commandments of the Lord who without all doubt is contemned by such as will not obey our Prescriptions But if any man be so prophane or blind with prejudice that he will not or cannot see it let him be ignorant at his own peril 'T is not my part to contend but to teach and admonish If he despiseth the Precepts of the Lord which I have delivered he betrays his own impiety and if he will not obey but continue in his filthiness let him be filthy still Thus Bullinger Comments upon the Apostles expostulation And 't is very material that the Apostle writes this in justification of his own Orders prescribed for edification and decency and he writes thus not to the rude and ignorant populacy but to such as being desirous to seem Prophets and Spiritual studied more to introduce their own Mastership into the Church than to acquiesce in the Doctrine Apostolical as Musculus well observeth He that has St. Paul's Principles and governs himself by those general Rules which he has laid down as the Oracles of God He may use the same expostulation to Dissenters Such faithful Ministers tho' they can compel none yet they may call them to a voluntary amendment if they find them refractory they may say with a good Conscience Qui obedire detrectet detrectat He that denys to obey let him deny it He that rejects the truth let him reject it He that had rather perish in his perversness than be saved by being tractable as a little Child let him perish I have done my part if he refuse the Lord's Commands let him see to it Thus Musculus But do our Dissenting Brethren speak thus home to the Consciences of their followers Do they not love to draw Disciples after them and do they not many times speak perverse things to that effect we are well assured there have been flattering Teachers who have blest the People in their Seduction that they might get the Vogue and keep up their Power and Interest to lead them against the injunctions of the Law and the Edicts of Divine Authority And by such courses 't is no wonder if with the Pharisees they Proselyte their Disciples into Hell Do not some of our Dissenters give the like Scandal to their Disciples Do they not Dogmatize them into ill Principles and encourage the Practice thereof by their Example Do they not fill their heads with doubts and jealousies possess them with vain and superstitious fears till they bring them to an avowed disobedience and separation from the Communion of the Church Do they not perplex their Consciences with endless scrupulosities about those minutes made Sin by their Doctrine which else to use our Author 's own words had been as innocent as a piece of powdred Bief and Turnips and such are the Rites and Ceremonies which are in use among us if they were as inoffensive in their Discourses as the Church is in the practice of them Do they not condemn the Church that themselves may seem Righteous and to justifie their own Schism do they not quarrel at the Terms of her Communion They say God hath left something free but they would leave nothing free in matters of Religion but their own Fancy They make that Sin which God never made so and that I do not slander them you have their own instance in the sign of the Cross. Of which they do not speak of modestly as to say they think they doubt or scruple but positively and definitively they tell us They judge it sinful but by what express Law or clear Deduction they can never make us understand They menage the Consciences of their Proselytes betwixt so much awe and boldness that they can make them either take the hedge or start at a shadow They tickle them with a conceit of Liberty while they inthrall them to their own Dictates and put upon their Necks a yoak of their own making much heavier than that of their Governours which they attempt so strenuously to shake off And when they are charged with such unwarrantable Practices to the Scandal of Religion and the disturbance of the Publick Peace where do they take Sanctuary but in the Temple of a Tender Conscience Conscience I confess is a Centurion of great Command but yet 't is under another Jurisdiction and must be accountable for her Conduct Nor is her Liberty or Privilege so great as is imagined For the whole Nature and force of Conscience is exprest in a Practical Syllogism which consists of three Propositions according to the three Offices of Conscience For instance He that will not obey the Church is to be treated as a Publican and a Heathen This is the Major Proposition and our Saviour's express Revelation But thou do'st not obey the Church This is the Minor Proposition produced and attested by the Conscience Therefore Thou art to be treated as a Publican and a Heathen This is the Third Proposition or Conclusion inferr'd from the other Two By this instance we see Conscience hath a threefold Office 1. To Dictate and declare the Rule of the Law This is call'd Synteresis The Second is to Record and declare Matters of Fact and this is call'd Syneidesis The Third is to give Sentence according to the merits or demerits of the Cause and so to determine the Condition of the Person and this is called Crisis Here is all the Power that Conscience hath And 't is clear that Conscience hath no Liberty in any of these Offices Not in the First not a Liberty to call evil Good or Good evil not a Liberty to dictate or declare what every man please to be the sence or letter of the Law for then it should have a Liberty to erre and to deceive by imposing that for a Rule of Law which is not so For Conscience in this Notion that is the Synteresis is obliged to take direction from the Light of Reason and the Revelations of God's Will and from Humane Laws consonant thereto for such Laws made by persons set over us in God's stead must be obeyed for the Lord's sake if the Conscience directs otherwise it is erroneous and leads to Sin and binds over to Damnation till it be corrected and become conformable to its Rule Nor has the Conscience any Liberty in the Second Office in reporting Matters of Fact for then it should

the Parish where we live is quite demolisht by the Doctrine of Justification by Works we are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart and when we are once out we will advise upon another Church not which is tolerable but which is most eligible and in all things neerest the word The Answer That the Soul is a very pretious thing whether we look into its Creation and Original or into the Purchase and Redemption of it we do readily acknowledge We should not hazard it for 't was God's great care and should be ours But we must take heed and we have a Proverb to admonish us that we do not leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire For in this Case of Seperation we may fitly ask the Question What Authority have you for it and and who gave you that Authority Whatever your Corner-stone be we question whether your new erected Church will be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Yet upon second thoughts we find you have something to say out of Scripture for your practice For we find you 1 John 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us We find you again Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them And we find Predecessors of yours 2 Cor. 11 13. and part of your Character at least is to be seen in St Jude's Epistle Psal. 19. These be they who seperate themselves and whether Diotrephes was not the President of the New Colledge you should do well to consider for he had an aspiring spirit and was imperious and as our Author observes of him his fingers itch't to be tampering for he loved to have the preeminence and set himself to oppose Order and Apostolical Authority But there 's little satisfaction in following such examples That Schism is a work of the Flesh and excludes such as are guilty of it from the Kingdom of Heaven is the express Doctrine of the Apostle Gal. 5. 20. 'T is one of his Rules 2 Cor. 7. 24. Wherein a Man is called to the profession of Christianity whether in a state of Servitude or freedom therein to abide so as he may abide the Servant of God If my Christian Liberty dos not warrant or allow me to desert the service of Man to whom I am antecedently ingaged much less the service of the Church into whose Communion I was baptized and under whose Jurisdiction I was bred and born Quo pax concordia Vndique Constat inter Christianos homines quaedam dissimulanda sunt quaedam ferenda quaedàm benigniüs interpretanda Saith the Learned De la Cerda That Peace and Concord may be kept on every side among Christians some things are to be dissembled some things to be tollerated and some things to be favourably interpreted Where there is nothing injoyn'd to the peril of our Souls or the impeachment of our Salvation we are oblig'd to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace not to break the Communion of the Church but to observe the Orders and Decorum practised in it 'T is the Faith which the Learned Zanchy profess'd and published when he was 70 years of Age in the name of himself and Family Tho Defects and Errors are never to be dissembled yet Peace and Communion is to be held with all Societies as the true Churches of Christ in which the Foundation and Sum of Apostolical Doctrine is reteined and no manifest Idolatry admitted Episcopius who was no great admirer of Rites and Ceremonies says there can be no just cause of seperation from the Church but what seperates from Christ from God's Paternal favour and the Kingdom of Heaven And seeing there can no such thing be charged upon this Church 't is undoubtedly Schism to seperate from her Communion Hence the very worthy Dr. Falkner makes this solemn asseveration I account my self to have as plain evidence from the Laws of God and the constitution of the Christian Church that Schism and unnecessary seperation is a sin in the breach of Christian unity as that Adultery is a sin in breaking the bond of Wedlock And I account my self to be as certain that if ever there was any unwarrantable separation from any known Church since the Apostles time the separation from the Church of England is really such Since our Church is truly as free from any just exception● in its Constitution Doctrine and Worship as any other since that time either was or is Thus that worthy Author But these Dissenters do alledge That the Doctrine of Justification is Articulus Stantis vel Cadentis Ecclesiae an Article with which the Church falls or stands And that in the Parish where they or some of them live this Article is quite demolisht by the Doctrine of Justification by Works But I must tell them that one Error broacht in one Parish ought not to make them desert the whole Establisht Church That Error tho grievous cannot be deadly to them that have all necessary truth laid before them if they do cordially embrace and profess the same The Error is only his who through the weakness of his Judgment cannot discern that the necessary truth is not overthrown by it But because they alledge a Print and publick allowance this reflects upon Authority and our Governors and therefore the Charge requires a more strict and punctual examination And here we must premise That Justification without Christ's Merits and Mediation or without Faith in his Blood dissolves the Church of Christ because there is salvation in no other Act. 4. 12. The Christian Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Eph. 2. 20. and other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 3. 11. Fides est Caput initium Christianismi saith St. Austin Into this Olive-tree we are ingrafted and stand by Faith The Jews were broken off through unbelief But in Justification we find several persons concerned There is something attributed to God Something to Christ and something to Man himself 1. God is lookt upon as the Author and Efficient for who can forgive sins but God only I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions Isai. 44. 22. and Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that jnstifieth 2. There is something attributed to Christ. We are to look upon him as the Meritorious Cause and Procurer of it He is said therefore to have loved us to have washed us from our sins in his own Blood Apoc. 1. 5. for by him we have received the Atonement Rom. 5. 11. and for his sake God hath forgiven us Ephesians

betray weak Christians to fall into the same state of Condemnation Hereupon they came to a determination and did actually restrain the use of Christian Liberty in these things 3. They did distinguish of Persons among Christians they found some that were weak and some that were strong The strong were those that were sound in the Faith they perfectly understood the extent of Christian Liberty the nature and use of things indifferent they could forbear or use them as occasion served without hesitation or doubtfulness They were offended at nothing The weak were such as had the Faith newly planted in them They were Novices in Christianity and their Faith being yet tender was apt to be shaken by ill Documents and Examples 'T is an Observation of St. Hìerom on Mat. 18. 6. Quòd qui scandalizatur parvulus est Majores enim scandala non recipiunt He that is offended is weak or a little one for the greater strong in the Faith receive no offence or Scandal But all men had not this Faith Rom. 14. 2. There were some weak saith Catharinus Qui metuebant ubi omnis timoris cessaverat ratio volebant semper manere in legis lacte elementis Such as did fear where there was no reason at all for it and they would by their good will be always feeding upon the milk of the Law From This distinction of Persons some things are observable 1. That this weakness proceeds from ignorance 1 Cor. 8. 7. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge Then when the Church was an Infant certain of the converted from Judaism did believe and contend that the Law was not antiquated by the Gospel but was rather to be observed together with it And these saith Soto the Apostle calls weak in the faith quasi nondum satis progressos confirmatosque in cognitione fidei as if they were not as yet sufficiently instructed and confirmed in the knowledge of the Gospel And this brings great mischief to the Church saepenumero enim turbae in Ecclesiis oriuntur ex eo quod imperiti ignari nolint imperiti ignari videri sed peritiorum doctorum locum occupent saith Hemmingius Debates and Factions in the Churches do for the most part arise from hence that such as are ignorant and unskilful will not seem to be such but will needs possess the place of the more Skilful and Learned Vnde enim turbae magnâ ex parte saith Sclater nisi quòd imperiti nolunt imperiti esse sed peritorum locum occupant 2 Ad Corinth 14. 38. in Scholiis 2. The second observable is this That these weak ones are more prone to Superstition Some renders the word weak by one that is more scrupulous Si quis fuerit inter eos fortassis Judaeorum genere qui ob diutinam superioris instituti vitaeque consuetudinem sit adhuc Superstitiosior nec adhuc sic in eo sides adoleverit ut omnem pristinae legis observationem excludat c. De la Cerda ad Rom. 14. n. 1. n. 3. Alius enim qui sc. est perfectus firmus in fide vacansque omni superstitione he is persuaded he may lawfully eat all things that is he that is most free to use his Christian Liberty is most free from superstition For from hence there arose such contentions and disputes between the Convert Jews and Gentiles illis reliquos damnantibus tanquam profanos contemptores legis divinae his vicissim habentibus illos pro imperitis superstitiosis saith Calixtus They the Jews condemning the rest as Prophane and Contemners of the Divine Law These on the other side the Gentiles accounting them for ignorant and superstitious For what signifies Superstition but an immoderate fear saith Mr. Calvin Quo se anxiè torquent superstitiosi homines dum sibi fabricant inanos scrupulos whereby Superstitious Men do torment themselves with much anguish while they frame vain Scruples to themselves 3. A man may lose the title of a weak brother and the benefits indulged by the Apostle to such Persons 'T is Mr. Perkin 's distinction of Persons Some are weak and some are obstinate Weak ones are such as having turned unto God and carrying in their hearts a purpose in all things to please God nevertheless do sundry things amiss upon simple Ignorance or bad Custom till they be better inform'd And a little after This being always remembred that weak ones truely turn to God and carry in their hearts an honest purpose not to sin against his Laws at any time wittingly and willingly Obstinate persons are such as profess the faith and yet hold and practice bad things of wilful Ignorance and of Malice These Persons saith he are not to be born with nor to be respected 1. After sufficient time and means of information if a man will be offended 't is supposed to be out of stubborness and Malice Si ille qui scandalum accipit vel quodvis aliud detrimentum ex ignorantia fuerit eo usque admonitus ut non possit jure merito ignorantiam obtendere jam ex malitia censetur Scandalizari saith Soto If he that takes offence through ignorance shall be so far admonish'd that he cannot justly pretend ignorance He is supposed to be offended out of Malice 2. When from a modest Inquirer out of a timerous scrupulosity a Mancomes to be Positive and Dogmatical and will not endure sound Doctrine but after his own Lusts shall heap up to himself Teachers having itching Ears He can no longer pass the Muster for a weak Brother As long as there is any appearance or probability that a Heretick a Schismatick or Seditious person and other persons of Pestilent Principles to the Publick good are sick of ignorance it is safe and an Office of Charity to bear with them and to admonish them of the truth with gentleness quoniam ignorantia medicabile est vitium saith de la Cerda Because ignorance is a Medicable Vice a fault that may be healed but saith he assoon as it appears that such Persons adhere to their Sects out of Pride and frowardness out of affection and animosity they are presently to be avoided according to that of the Apostle Hoereticum c. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself Tit. 3. 10 11. and 2 Thes. 3. 6. We command you that you withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly V. Grot. Ad locum 3. When a man is pufft up with an Opinion of his own Knowledge when he becomes a fierce Disputant and a malicious Insidiator when he grows stubborn and despiseth Dominion when he does Dogmatize and Censure and take the Scorner's Chair He does then Commence Schismatick and is by no means to be treated as a weak Brother but as a Seditious Mutineer For now 't