Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	church_n	infallible_a	2,870	5	9.5232	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42085	Discourses upon several divine subjects by Tho. Gregory ...	Gregory, Thomas, 1668 or 9-1706.	1696 (1696)	Wing G1932; ESTC R7592	108,242	264

have any Man's Learning or Piety in such Veneration as to receive all he says for an Oracle for an infallible Rule of your Faith and Manners but that you always remember that you have a great Master in Heaven who has given you a sure and certain Rule to walk by and who expects your Obedience without any Reserve This Caution was given by our Lord himself to his Disciples Mat. 23. and it truly favours of the excellent Wisdom and Providence of its Author For the Proselites of the Pharisees were possest with such a Perswasion of the great Sanctity and unparallell'd Learning of their Masters that they entirely resign'd themselves up to their Conduct and Guidance becoming thereby both in Notion and Practice twofold more the Children of Hell than themselves and those famous Contests between the Thomists and Scotists and other Disputants in the Church of Rome are wholly to be ascrib'd to the over-weening Opinion which they all pertinaciously retain for their own Patriarchs Nay the First Sin that crept into the World came this way for I conceive with a great and learned * Joseph Mede Book 1. Disc xl Author of our own that 't was the too great Opinion which the Woman entertain'd of the Wisdom of the Serpent that induc'd her first to listen to and then to comply with his Suggestions and I doubt not but that the Apostate Spirits themselves might still have kept their Heavenly Habitations had not their deluded Fancies doubled the Glory of that Son of the Morning Lucifer In short † Vid. Hen. Dodwell Ep. 2. Sect. 5. Steph. Penton Appar Spec. ad Theol. par 1. cap. 6. 'T is the superstitious Reverence and unaccountable Honour which the Schoolmen pay to Authority that betrays them into many unhappy Errors as well in their Theological as Philosophical Speculations Honour Men then only as Men. Whatever their Natural or Acquir'd Excellencies may be they are all subject to Error Try all their Doctrines therefore whether they be of God and believe nothing tho' enforced with the greatest Human Authority unless upon due Examination you find it consonant to Scripture and Reason And so I come to the 2. Thing advisable which is That you would try all Things and not take up your Religion upon Trust upon the Authority and Recommendation of your Natural Civil or Spiritual Fathers but that you would let it be what it ought to be a Rational Service the Result of your own mature impartial and well-weigh'd Considerations And what in this I say unto you I would say more particularly to our Dissenting Brethren They are equally guilty with the Romanists in this Point depending too securely upon the Authority and acquiescing in the Reports and Representations of their Leaders I would therefore I say most earnestly intreat them as they will answer it at the Dreadful Day of Judgment when every Man must stand or fall by his own Conscience to judge for themselves and fairly and ingenuously severely and impartially to weigh and consider the Doctrine and Discipline the Principles and Order of our Establish'd Church Could we thus far prevail I am verily parsuaded that those Heats and Passions which now so tumultuously boil in some Mens Bowels against her would all evaporate and expire and we should soon walk together into the House of God as Friends Which I therefore believe because 't is well known that many of her Adversaries have been perfectly reconcil'd to her upon lesser Motives only by venturing to consult their own Senses and calmly and sedately to look into her Devotions The Church did then to their unbiass'd Judgments most clearly unfold her ravishing Beauty and Brightness and their wondring Eyes saw and confess'd her Parts and comely Proportions She appear'd fair as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem and quite contrary to their Expectations terrible to Enthusiasm and Popery too as an Army with Banners I would therefore I say again most earnestly intreat these Persons to lay aside their Prejudices and with their own Eyes seriously to look into and examine her Constitution If she injoyns any thing that 's inconsistent with any Law of Reason any Law or Rule of the Gospel any Article of our Faith any part of Christian Worship or the Practice of the Universal Church in the First and Purest Ages Reason would that we should bear with their Separation But if her Doctrine be truly consonant to the Word of God If her Discipline serves directly to the Beating down the Strong-holds of Sin and to the Promotion of Piety and a Good Life If her Devotions are substantially pious and prudent serious and comprehensive significant and intelligible and Every way most wisely and divinely compos'd If her Ceremonies are not only few in Number but likewise decent grave significant and edifying in their Nature and Use In a word If she does all things according to the Apostolical Injunction Decently and in order after the Primitive Patterns according to the best measures of Human Wisdom If I say she does all this and all this 't will be demonstratively evident to every impartial Enquirer that she does then I cannot but affirm that their Separation from us in point of Conscience is altogether unwarrantable impious schismatical But because they are taught to be deaf to our Apologies and with an unmanly blind implicit Faith to believe us Apostates to Popery and Innovation I would I say most earnestly beseech them to use their own Senses and to read to think and to judge at last for themselves That they would not pass Sentence upon us before they know us nor judge of the Doctrine or Discipline of our Church by the Prejudices of their Education or the disingenuous illaudable Reports of their Partial Leaders but wholly and entirely by the word of God the sure infallible Rule of the Holy-Scriptures A Method which in the next place I likewise most heartily advise you to 3. Then Read the Scriptures This is the Duty of Every Christian requir'd and injoyn'd by the Saviour of our Souls the Lord Christ Jesus Search the Scriptures says * Joh. 5.39 he for in them ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me And indeed 't was by these that our Lord himself repell'd the impudent Assaults and crafty Insinuations of the Devil that his Apostles both planted and water'd his Church and that the pious Fathers and Councils baffled the Heresies and put to Silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. Let as many of us therefore as can distinguish between Good and Evil Young Men and Maidens Old Men and even Children be conversant in these Writings They are that Rule which if duly attended to will not suffer us to err being not like the Oracles of Daemons wrapt up in intricate obscure ambiguous Expressions but plain and easie to the meanest Understanding Plain and Easie I say in all things necessary to Salvation the Credenda as well as the Agenda of our Religion the things