Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	authority_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,708	5	9.1860	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84091	An essay on hypocrasie and Pharisaism. As it was set forth in a Sermon / by A curate of souls.	Curate of Souls.; J. W.	1683 (1683)	Wing E3288; ESTC R176777	25,935	40

Jerusalem their hearts should return to their Lord even to Rehoboam King of Judah and this was the Hypocrisie of Judas when he grudged the expence of the precious oyntment on his Masters head saying To what purpose is this wast for this oyntment might have bin sold for much and given to the poor This he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the bag and bare that which was put therein And that this was also the Hypocrisie of the Pharisees will appear upon enquiry into three things concerning them They are these 1. The Being and Original of their Sect. 2. A few of their most remarkable Opinions 3. Their practical Excesses in matters of Religion 1. For the being and original of their Sect what they were and whence they did derive And touching this you shall understand how that anciently before the time of the Maccabees there were but two professed differences in Religion amongst the Jews one of these Sects was called the Karraim they were such as adhered wholly to the written Law and allowed only of the Scripture for the Canon of Religion The other was called the Assidim i. e. greater zealots in Religion than Ordinary they admitted sundry additions to the Law and had also the Traditions and Glosses of their Fathers in equal esteem with the written Law Bishop Hall calls them supererogatory and Popish Jews men that professed a stricter holiness than the Law required Out of these sprang the Sect of the Pharisees as you shall hear by and by Concerning these Assideans Scaliger informs us that they did sequester themselvs from worldly business Jos Scal. elench Trihaer Nic. Serrar cap. 22. and of their own free accord devoted themselvs in an extraordinary manner to matters of Religion that they were a sort of Guild or Religious Corporation concluded under certain Rules of Order and Fraternity He supposeth them to derive from the house of the Rechabites in this manner The Rechabites ye know of whom the Prophet Jeremiah speaketh they instituted an austere Order of Religion and Devotion amongst themselvs but the Captivity coming upon them shortly after its institution the Order was dissolved and again upon their return the sons of Jonadab renewed their former observations and without restriction of them to their own family admitted whomsoever would into their Order and then they went under the Denomination of Assideans i. e. holy men continually attending the service of Religion So Scaliger interprets Jeremiahs prophecy that Jonadab should not want a man to stand before the Lord i. e. to minister and attend holy duties like as did Anna the Prophetess By the time of the Maccabees they were grown very considerable Thus we read 1 Maccab. 2.42 there resorted to Mattathias a great company of the Assideans even all such as were voluntarily devoted to the Law As for the particular Rites and Characters of this Order beside their continual attendance on holy duties the Prophet mentions only abstinence from wine at their first institution But in process of time the number of their Proselytes increasing they multiplyed also their Religious observations And so it was that while this their way of living and their Austerities were lookt upon as voluntary services and more than men were antecedently obliged to in point of salvation whiles it was so esteemed there hapned no Schism or Religious faction among the people they all lived in love and peace together they that would be of this Order might and they that would not might chuse and be never a whit the lesse respected in their place counted still as brethrenss and partakers of the same hope tho these of the holy society were peculiarly reverenced for their self-denyal and Austerity But after that they collected their Observations into a body and Canons and Injunctions were made and engross'd in writing there arose among these Assideans certain Dogmatists persons that subdivided themselvs under a zealous persuasion for the necessity of their observations They were such as preacht up the severe rules of their Order as necessary in themselvs and obliging all men in point of salvation which others accounted only as extraordinary Devotion and voluntary performances They were men it seems that were strangely captivated with the rules and practices of their Society and mightily employed themselvs in the study of the books and Canons of their Order But not considering the ground and design of their first institution and belike interpreting the Scripture according to them they came at length to conceiv and teach them as the Oracles of God and cryed them up for the unwritten law of Moses received down by Tradition from their Fathers and therefore obliging all men to observ them Hereupon they separated themselvs from the body of the Assideans and from the vulgar and they called themselvs Pherushim or Pharisees i. e. holy Separatists So much for the Original and Derivation of this Sect of the Pharisees namely that they sprang out of the Society of the Assideans and separated themselves upon a mistake of the Will-worship or voluntary services of that Order for necessary Observations obliging all their Nation on terms of Salvation 2. Let us enquire a little into one or two of the most eminent and peculiar Opinions of these Pharisees 1. The first and fundamental opinions of the Religion of this Sect was concerning their Traditions These Traditions they equalled with the written law and derived from Moses himself pretending that as he gave them a written Law so also he delivered many things to the Fathers in the wilderness only by word of mouth to the intent that they should convey them down to posterity from generation to generation and those Traditions which were in request with the Pharisees they asserted to be the very same received from Moses and taught them with like Autority as the Scriptures upon which account our Saviour said they taught for doctrines the Commandments of men Now this opinion of the Divine Autority of their Traditions was requisite for them in the first place to warrant their Separation and then to maintain and propagate their Sect. No persons being able to justify such a case or willing to embrace such a persuasion unless upon pretence of Divine Autority Another Opinion was that none but such as were of their Sect and Persuasion could be saved And this opinion tho it be a very bold and uncharitable doctrine is yet very convenient for upholding any religious Sect because it is apt to startle the weaker sort of any other Persuasion and scare them into a complyance besides that it fetters their own Proselytes when they are upon enquiry after a better way this thought pulls them back and holds them to a stricter Devotion They had other remarkable Opinions which signifyed much zeal for God or an extraordinary interest in him but really in effect had a greater awe upon the people 3. Let us now enquire how suitable to their principles their