Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	apostolical_a	church_n	tradition_n	2,354	5	9.3436	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78612	A pretended voice from heaven, proved to bee the voice of man, and not of God. Or, An answer to a treatise, called A voice from heaven, written by Mr. Gualter Postlethwait, an unordained preacher, taking upon him to exercise the pastoral charge, in a congregation at Lewis in Sussex. Wherein, his weakness, in undertaking to prove all protestant churches to bee antichristian, and to bee separated from, as no true churches of Christ, is discovered; and the sinfulness of such a separation evinced. Together with, a brief answer inserted, to the arguments for popular ordination, brought by the answerers of Jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici, in their book called The preacher sent. By Ezekiel Charke, M.A. and rector of Waldron in Sussex. Imprimatur, Edmond Calamy.	Charke, Ezekiel.	1658 (1658)	Wing C2069; Thomason E959_5; ESTC R207673	108,343	141

Moses and Aaron who did turne the waters to blood and did smite the Egyptian earth with all Plagues Exod. 7. Now it is observable 1 That in two of these three paire of types one beares the person of a Magistrate the other of a Minister or Prophet Moses and Zerubbabel were Magistrates Aaron and Joshuah Ministers 2 That in the times of the Baalitical Apostacy which answers most fitly to the times of the Apostacy of Antichrist the witnesses are onely Prophets Elias and Elisha 3 That wee have in these three paire of types four Prophets for two Magistrates These things considered By the two Witnesses I understand Magistrates and Ministers some of both sorts who have in their several ages witnessed against Antichrist from the very first rise of him down to our times But in no age have Prophets been wanting to this office and work whereas Magistrates appear in it at some times onely as 1 In the beginning of reformation in a Land or Nation as Moses appeared with Aaron when the people were brought out of Egypt to serve the Lord and Zerubbabel appears with Joshua in the beginning of the reformation after the Babylonish captivity 2 Towards the end of Antichrists reign Rev. 17.16 But now the Prophets they must prophesie in sackcloth one thousand two hundred and sixty daies that is all along the Tyranny of Antichrist which hath been in great part made good by the event This being so overthrows his notion of the Witnesses neither can Congregational Ministers bee any otherwise reckoned any part of the Witnesses than as they are taken in conjunction with the other godly Ministers of this and other reformed and Rome-renouncing Churches that have and in this age do stand up as a part of the two Witnesses against Antichrist and for Gods truth and worship And though in a large sense all those may bee reckoned as witnesses against Antichrist that have made open profession of the grand truths of the Gospel in opposition to Antichrist and those who have laid down their lives in that witness Yet in a strict sense Effecta quae efficiunt Praec●nes illi in electis duo consolatio illuminatio quarom illa significatur nomine Olearum ista vero nomine Candelabrorum Pisc the Witnesses are Magistrates and Ministers and yet more especially Ministers who have in all ages opposed themselves to Antichrists Idolatries These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks that enlighten comfort and feed the Church of God during the whole time of Antichrists reign Rev. 11.3 4. and Rev. 12.6 compared To what you cite out of the Epistle to the Little-stone that Almost nine parts of ten in the Churches of Scotland are not sheep nor fit for civil much less for spiritual priviledges I answer P. 21. I am not easily induced to beleeve the State of the Church of Scotland to bee so corrupt considering what an honourable testimony holy Mr. Burroughs hath given concerning it Lect. 13. on Hosea p. 368. And whereas it is said that many of the sheep there turne head against their Shepherds The more I say is the pity But certainly the reason of it is the present laxness of Church-Government to which those of your way contribute not a little and which if it should recover its ancient vigour and strength and beauty would remedy this evil And I beleeve some Brethren of the Congreganal way have cause enough to make the same complaint of their Sheep One of them godly and learned told mee some few years ago that their people were grown to such a passe that they knew not what to do with them Mr. W. G. And how many sad proofs have wee seen hereof in these late years Neither let it seem harsh to any that admire the antiquity of Churches in England which they conceive began to bee planted by Joseph of Arimathea or Simon Zelotes that I press the casting out of the Parish-Churches the deemed successors of them They retain not their priviledge whose neither constitution nor conversation they can bee found to imitate And wee know P. 24 25. that the Holy Ghost teacheth us to say of as few as may bee to give a valid testimony against the Antichristians of two witnessing Churches These are the two Candlesticks i. e. Churches standing before the God of the earth Whereby the Churchdome of these witnessing separated Churches is not onely established and approved but the much claimed Churchdome of others rejected Your prohibition cannot hinder it from seeming harsh not onely to us but also to some Congregational Brethren that you should unchurch our Churches Way p. 54 because Parochial It appears saith Mr. Cotton to bee an errour to say there is no limitation or distinction of Parishes Way p. 112. meaning of Churches jure divino and speaking of the Churches of England All the work now is not to make them Churches which were none before but to reduce and restore them to their primitive Institution Your self do not deny our Parish-Churches to bee the successors of the Churches planted here by the mentioned worthies and on that account one would think reformation should serve your turne without rising so high as separation But this you think will beare you out that they do not imitate the constitution nor conversation of those first Churches If you should go about to prove either part of this assertion which you wisely forbeare to do you would finde a hard task of it Because it is not possible you should certainly know what was the constitution or conversation of those first Churches But I shall grant and do beleeve ours do not generally imitate their conversation being more corrupted in manners through the neglect of Discipline And what then doth the Scripture any where teach you that corruption in manners yea in many regards in administration and use of ordinances whilst the fundamentals and essentials are retained in doctrine and worship is a sufficient ground for Separation I provoke you to make that appear And indeed this is the point that you Separatists stand bound to make good and which if you cannot as I am sure you cannot from the Word all your declamations against our Churches will not a whit free you from the guilt of Schisme As for the other branch of not imitating their constitution 't is a charge as weakly bottomed and inferring as the other For the particular constitution of those Churches is as I have said unknown to you and our Churches are not now newly constituting but have been long constituted and are successors of those first Churches And no more unchurched and necessitated to bee newly constituted by the intervention of Papal corruptions then the Church of Israel was by the intervention of heathenish Idolatries in it during the reign of bad Kings And that way of constitution still holds our Churches in their State which gave and maintained an ecclesiastical being to the Apostolical Churches even the professing and owning of the doctrines of the Gospel in them and the associating under Pastors for the use of Ordinances Which though defective among us in some points that concern the bene esse yet are so far found as suffice to maintain the esse of our Churches So

Apostles should more than materially bind him And these Decrees are made by a joynt act of the Apostles Elders and Brethren difference in the order of their concurrence we grant but in the nature of the Act wee cannot grant but it will not bee granted that the Brethren did exercise an Act of Rule over other Churches To say that by the whole Church is meant the Synodical Church is without ground being built on the impossibility of the meeting of the Church of Jerusalem in one place which hath been refuted And if the Brethren were shut out from a concurrence of the same nature with the Elders will they say that the Elders of a Classical Presbytery at Jerusalem did exercise rule over all these Churches so far distant that could not be of their combination If vers 28. of laying a burden bee objected Let it bee considered whether there be not as much said of the assertion of the Pharisees ver 5 10. Thus if wee should grant Classical Eldership it will bee hard to grant any more with Scripture warrant But wee shall not grant these having proved the most numerous Churches to have been Congregational and called severally by the name of Church in the singular and the numerous Church of Corinth was not onely Congregational but had and exercised the power of the Keyes Paul wraps up Elders and people together in the exercise of discipline with a concurrence of the like nature And thus the whole fabrick of the Classical way falls to the ground Mr. P. as one observes is a man of growing scruples and hath much out-stript in them the Reverend New-England Congregational Brethren Keys chap. 6. and that in weighty points rejecting Ruling-Elders c. and here Synods Mr. Cotton tells him that Synods are an Ordinance of Christ grounding himself on Act. 15. saying 'T is a precedent for succeeding Ages And that they have power by the grace of Christ to command and injoyn the things to bee beleeved and done for which hee cites the express words of the Synodal letter vers 28. And that this power to binde burdens ariseth not onely materially from the weight of the things imposed but formally from the authority of the Synod as an Ordinance of Christ Adding that the fraternity have onely a power of liberty not of authority for which hee quotes Act. 16.4 And excepts from the power of a Synod onely the injoyning of things in their use indifferent not denying them power of Ordination and Excommunication But Mr. P. is an Independent of an higher form Let us consider what he saith 1 His first reason against the Synodicalness of this Assembly that wee Read not of a combination of Churches is untrue For the deputed Elders of the Church of Antioch combined with those of Jerusalem and there is no reason to exclude those of the Churches of Syria and Cilicia since the Decrees reach them and that not onely the Church of Antioch but also those Churches are subjected to them Will Mr. P. grant no more than what hee reads in express words 2 His second is as weak That we read of no forreigners there but those of Antioch and that they concurred not in the making of the Decrees For if there were no more forreigners yet forreigners they were but where doth hee read that the Elders of Syria and Cilicia were not joyned to them There is sufficient reason to conclude they were since the Decrees reach those Churches In saying that these forreigners concurred not in making the Decrees hee speaks clearly besides the book For they being Elders and at Jerusalem met with the Elders of that Church and hee being so punctual in holding no more than he reads in express words Let him see whether he can exclude them from those Texts vers 6 20 22 25 28. Act. 16.4 If the Forreigners were Elders certainly these texts include them and 't is one of the mysterious reaches of his wit to apprehend them excluded from the decision of the controversy by Act. 16.4 for were not the Forreigners Elders and were they not at Jerusalem and in the Assembly at the making of the Decrees how then doth this text exclude them 3 His third is frivolous That there was no appeal from the censure of the Church at Antioch Grant there had passed no formal censure which is more than hee can prove might they not appeal for the deciding of what was debated and which there could bee no joynt agreement upon His fancied main end of their applying themselves to the Church of Jerusalem to get satisfaction that there was the same doctrin taught at Jerusalem that was at Antioch sheweth that hee looketh on the Chapter through spectacles of pre-occupation Else hee would have seen that comming about the Question of difference vers 2. and the Apostles and Elders comming together to consider of the matter ver 6. and together decreeing and laying a burden upon the Churches concerned vers 28. must needs evince that the main end was to have the question authoritatively decided The knowing of the minde and practice of the Church of Jerusalem needed not all this work Paul and others might have informed the Church of Antioch of it before Any Messengers sent might soon have certified them of it Those that came might without such a solemn convening have been assured of it The Apostles and Elders in their Epistles shew not that they minded such an end chiefly in assembling For though they disown the erroneous Teachers doctrine and declare that they gave them no incouragement for it in those words To whom wee gave no such commandement which is all that Mr. P. can build upon yet they clearly manifest that the end of their convening was upon the hearing the difference in the Church of Antioch to decide the Question authoritatively and that the end of sending chosen men with Barnabas and Paul was to give them the greater assurance of this decision as the dependance of the 28. vers on the 27. by the illative for doth clearly shew 4 His fourth is a huddle of groundlesse surmises Here was hee saith no Rule exercised because 't would bee a diminution of Pauls Apostolical Authority But Paul acted not then as an Apostle but as an Elder of the Church of Antioch When the Elders there could not prevail against the corrupt Teachers and their Doctrin they have recourse to a Synod joyning themselves as Elders to the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem giving herein an example of the right way of healing Church-divisions that cannot bee remedied in the respective Churches to the end of the world The Apostles themselves acted not meerly as Apostles but as members of the Synod yielding to a fair dispute on both sides Next hee saith The Brethren concurred with the Apostles and Elders in making the Decrees therefore there was no rule exercised thereby for it will not bee granted by us that the Brethren can exercise an act of rule over other Churches

Yet this vial is as yet poured out but in part as are also severall others of the Vials The dregs of them and of this in particular remaining to bee poured upon the beast in a doctrinal way by this Angel who shall give the last warning of Babylons instant ruine The effect whereof is that the earth is inlightned that is many more of the common people are drawn off from communion with Babylon and joyn issue with some of the ten horns fallen off from the Whore and hating her But as for her more honourable slaves and vassals they receive no benefit by the Ministery of this Angell but either perish in Babylons ruine or by the dregs of the vials poured out upon her associates Vers 2. Cecidit cecidit i. e. Paulo post casura certissime gravissime Pisc Here we have the summe of the report of this Angel concerning Babylons fall which is by way of anticipation set down as actually come to pass after the manner of the Prophets to note the certainty of it and the expression doubled to note the grievousnesse of her fall Vers 3. Here wee have the procuring cause of Babylons fall her abominable Idolatries and whoring seducings wherein shee continueth after convictions admonitions and threatnings Vers 4 Here t is observable Militaris exhortatio ut non solum ab ea secedant sed et acriter eam oppugnent Grass that the Holy Ghost alters the usual manner and way of witnessing against Babylon for here is no Angel but a voice from heaven It may bee vox è castris a voice from the campe God is mustering up his Armies and the warre is advancing to the very gates of Rome and now the voice of Providence doth thereby cry out aloud Come out c. By Babylon I understand with Pareus c. not onely the City of Rome but all those places that are under the power and jurisdiction of the Pope where his authority takes place and where his idolatrous worship and doctrines are submitted to and imbraced To come out of Babylon is to renounce communion with her in her soule sinnes and abominable Idolatries and to disclaim and reject the usurped power of Antichrist both in temporals and especially in spirituals The not doing of this maketh men her associates and will cause them to partake of her plagues Rev. 13.16 17. Rev. 14.8 9 10. and here Rev. 18.3 4. From these Texts I observe 1 That Antichrists sin lies principally in this that hee causeth all under great penalties to receive the mark of the name of the beast in their right hands or foreheads that is to own the universal headship of the Pope especially in spirituals So that no point of Christian faith must bee received unless warranted by his authority and whatsoever is stampt with his authority must bee owned though never so contrary to the Scriptures 2 The sin of his followers lyeth in this that they resign up themselves in obedience to the Pope and make him soveraign Lord over their persons rights and consciences in all things receiving owning pleading fighting for his abominable Doctrines worship and usurpation Kings themselves submitting their crowns to him and maintaining by their Laws and edicts his blasphemous doctrines and tyranny 3 Those onely are threatned to partake of Babylons plagues that partake with her in her sins And who those are the Holy Ghost tells us Rev. 13.16 17. All and onely they that receive a marke the name of the beast or the number of his name in their right hand or in their fore-head That is that own the usurped authority of the Pope and his doctrines and idolatries because stampt with his authority which whosoever doth to the death cannot bee saved Rev. 16.3 The Doctrine of the Church of Rome as set forth and confirmed for such by the Tridentine Council is this Sea consisting of the popish errors collected into one body as many waters meet in the Sea The Angell that turned this Sea into bloud might bee among others Martin Chemuitius who poured out his vial on it when hee wrote his Examination of the Trent Council And every Soul living in this Sea dyed whosoever owneth the Popish Religion as set forth by that Councill and dies in that Faith cannot bee saved for what the Apostle saith of one of its anti-Scriptural doctrines Gal. 5.4 may be said of all of them that rase the foundation On the contrary those that renounce the universal headship of the Pope and all his anti-scriptural doctrines as the insufficiency of the Scriptures the authority and necessity of his traditions justification by works praying to glorified Saints and Angels worshiping Images and Crucifixes Purgatory and Indulgences c. and withal abhorre and renounce his Idolatrous worship and profess themselves resolved to resist unto blood rather than hold communion with him in his sins All such persons and Churches are come out of Babylon already And among such are the Protestant Churches in England Scotland Holland France Germany c. professing the sound doctrines of the Gospel in opposition to Antichrists Idolatries How those Churches that disown and reject the corrupt doctrine and worship of the Roman Church and have sealed their witness against them with their blood being by their profession and sufferings the instruments whereby God hath shaken the Kingdome of the Beast How these Churches should yet bee Antichristian limbs of the Beast may well bee a Mystery to all considerate and unprejudiced men And whereas Mr. P. beleeves that none save a few separate Churches named Congregational are yet come out of Babylon which the Brownists Anabaptists Quakers c. plead each for themselves I have one text to offer to his consideration thereupon which is Rev. 14.1 2 3 4. 1 By the Lamb is undoubtedly meant the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Mount-Sion is opposed to Babylon the Gospel-Church to the Church Antichristian 3 The 144000 that stand upon Mount-Sion a definite number for an indefinite and have their Fathers name written in their fore-heads must therefore bee members of the true Church in opposition to the members of the Church of Anti-Christ who have his name or mark in their right hand or forehead 4 By their having their Fathers name written in their forehead is therefore hinted their keeping close in the main to Gods institutions in profession and worship in opposition to the Idolatries of the Antichristian Church Which further appears in that it is said that they are not defiled with women vers 4. that is with the Idolatries of the great Whore Now can any man say that those of whom the holy Ghost thus speaketh are yet in Babylon How can they bee upon Mount-Sion and yet in Babylon too 5 The 144000 signifie some definite number of the people of God that in all ages from the first rise of Antichrists Kingdome have cleaved to the Lamb and kept a true Church-State which is signified by their standing with the Lamb upon Mount-Sion with