Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A30992
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The authority of church-guides asserted in a sermon preach'd before our Late Gracious Sovereign King Charles II, at Whitehall, Octob. 17, 1675 / by Miles Barne ...
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Barne, Miles, d. 1709?
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1685
(1685)
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Wing B856; ESTC R12523
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19,284
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35
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Oxford-Paraphrast has fully and learnedly made out in his Annotations on the 2 Thess Chap. 2. not contented to justifie our Separation from the Church of Rome upon the account of Innovations Corruptions and imposing them as necessary Conditions of Communion and so becoming guilty of causal Schism they have represented all the Members of that Church both Pastors and People both in Doctrin and Practice guilty of Heathenish and worse than the most sottish Heathenish Idolatry so foul a Charge and so injurious to that Charity which the Church of England hath always been renown'd for that I hope the Authors of it may have Grace to retract and make satisfaction for that Scandal which is thereby given even to our common Christianity And I have always wondred how it ever could enter into the heart of any man to believe and publickly maintain that so great a number of Christian Professors eminent for Learning and Austerity of Life could be guilty of so damnable an Apostasie concerning the mischiefs of this Charge take the Judgment of the Learned Thorndike in the last words of the first Chapter of his just Weights and Measures And as they who justifie the Reformation by charging the Pope to be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters so on the other side they who over-charge the Reformation to be Hereticks make themselves thereby Schismaticks before God We hope no ingenuous Person though an Adversary will think the worse of the true Sons of the Church of England for the uncharitable Opinions of some particular Men descended perhaps from dissenting Parents educated in dissenting Times and who never yet sufficiently conquered the Prejudices of their Education if they had they would not maintain such Erastian Positions as these viz. That Christ never appointed any particular Form of Church-Government but left it arbitrary and dependent on the Civil State That Christ Jesus is not to be preach'd if the Magistrate and the Law of the Country forbid it That the King has a Power to execute all Pastoral Offices devolve it on others with many others of the like dangerous consequence which that valiant Champion of Church-Power Mr. Lowth has charg'd upon them and learnedly made good the Charge whereas concerning the last of these Positions neither his present M. nor any of his Predecessors by virtue of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy ever thought themselves indow'd with any other Power but that of Nursing Fathers neither do's the true sence of the Oath invest the Civil Magistrate with any other power in Spiritual Matters than what is purely external and coercive if Bishop Bramhal and others may be thought of equal Authority with the Authors there tax'd let them consider in this very juncture of time the consequence of their own Positions and then lay their hands upon their mouths and be for ever after silent or if they please to look backward let them consider what mischiefs the Fathers of the Church had brought upon themselves had they been of this Opinion when Julian and Constantius reign'd had they spent as much time in defending the Church of England as they have in opposing the Church of Rome they would have prov'd themselves as good Subjects to the Father of their Country and as dutiful Sons to their Mother the Church had they given a true account of ancient Church-Government instead of imbroyling us with Irenicum's and Weapon-salves they had purchas'd as much Renown to themselves and more Benefit to Christ's Catholick Church then might we hope to see the Mischiefs of Separation display'd without a Preface of such Concessions as manifestly tend to the destruction of Vniformity and if it be a sign of a luke-warm and ungenerous temper to desert a Friend in affliction that cruel juncture of time in which those Concessions were made does no ways extenuate the Presumption for it deserves no milder a Name for any private Doctor let his Fame he never so great to assume to himself a more than Papal Power to dictate ex Cathedra prescribe to the Church and unfix what has been establisht by her venerable Authority generally receiv'd and approv'd by all her true Subjects then might we not despair to behold and admire the Beauty of the Church of England in all her heights of Decency and Order her Doctrins believ'd her Liturgies daily frequented her Sacraments frequently celebrated her Rubricks duly observ'd her neglected Discipline restored her Censures dreaded her Governours religiously obey'd then might we not despair to see our Controversies in Religion manag'd with all due deference to the Authority of ancient Fathers and Councils general Tradition and the consent of the Catholick Church and consequently with a design to maintain universal Truths rather than our own private Opinions to confute mens Errors rather than expose their Persons and a return of that Christian Spirit which enobled the Writings of Cassander Grotius Forbes and many other Illustrious Conciliators the decay whereof hath widen'd our Breaches and obstructed that Vnion which ought to be the earnest desire endeavor of every good Christian If the Church of England do's not flourish as much in our days as ever it did since the first Reformation the fault must be in our selves since His Majesty in his gracious Declaration has past his Royal Word for the preservation of the Government both of Church and State as it is now by Law established and we cannot in Honor or Duty require more since his Word has always been as Sacred and inviolable to him as his Person and Prerogative ought to be to us wherefore instead of somenting needless Fears and Jalousies concerning our Religion which even in a Coffee-House is dangerous but from the Pulpit do's naturally rise into Disorders and Tumults the people are to be taught the Duties of Submission Humility and Obedience to their Governors both Civil and Spiritual that as Religion is not to be propagated by Force so neither is it lawful to take up Arms against lawful Authority in defence of it they are to be instructed in the Duties of Passive Obedience and non-resistance from the Doctrines of the Scripture the Principles of the Church of England and the Practice of the Primitive Christians when under the severest Persecutions In the same Declaration He is pleas'd further to add That He knows the Principles of the Church of England are for Monarchy and the Members of it have shew'd themselves good and loyal Subjects therefore he will always take care to defend and support it so that out of his abundant Goodness and Clemency he has confirmed his Word by the surest Tyes of Interest and Princely Gratitude It pleased the Almighty in whose hands are the Fate of the greatest of Potentates to call to Heaven his dearest Brother and to leave him the deepest Mourner in the Nation in that very period of time when they might have promis'd themselves a secure enjoyment of earthly Blessings for had not that glorious Monarch like Moses by an invincible Patience and Magnanimity
within her Governours all Triumphant without they had not defac'd Her Innocent Beauty and made Her Militant in the worst of Sences However they can no way be excused who think they can never be secure from Papal Supremacy but by demolishing the Evangelical Hierarchy and introducing a Presbyterian Parity into the Catholick Church and to avoid the Necessity of having an Infallible Judge leaving every private prepossessed Fancy to the Perspicuity of Scripture whereby men are often bewildred in a Labyrinth of Errors seduc'd into those by-paths which lead to the Pit of Destruction For notwithstanding that Beam of Divine Light which shines so bright in the Scriptures it seems some men have Eyes either so weak as to be dazled at the sight of it or else so blind with Pride or Malice as not to perceive it For St. Peter tells us there are in the Scriptures some things hard to be understood which unlearned and unstable men wrest unto their own Destruction And therefore the Unlearned should do well to consult their Teachers the Unstable those that are found in the Faith which brings me to my second general Consideration That though the Scriptures be clear in themselves yet Private men abandoning their Guides and following their own corrupt Fancies may deprave and distort them to their own destruction Who those Wresters were or what those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are wherewith St. Peter chargeth the Epistles of his beloved Brother Paul I shall not strictly inquire the Apostle having pass'd them over in a profound silence it will be difficult at this distance of time exactly to define yet 't is not improbable that either the Gnostick or Cerinthian Hereticks were here chiefly aim'd at who upon a mistake of some Predictions became the Founders of a Temporal Dominion of Christ after His Resurrection wherein His Followers in their New Jerusalem should wallow in sensual Lusts and Pleasures spend the space of a Thousand Years as in a Nuptial Festivity and enjoy the all that is in the World the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life in as ample and exquisite a manner as the most Epicurean Soul could effect or covet A Fancy in its first Original meerly Jewish afterwards entertain'd by some Judaizing Christians and finally rather rectified than abandoned by some of the Fathers in the Primitive times And if those sublime Wits who had all the Learning which either Jerusalem Athens or Rome could boast were nevertheless mistaken in their Expositions of some abstruse Texts of Scripture whilst they deliver'd their Opinions but as private Doctors what wonder if the unlearned and unstable wrest them to their own Destruction That they have de facto done this is manifest since 't will be hard to instance in any one Century which is not either chargeable with new Heresies or the reviving and improving of old And the most extravagant Opinions which ever yet saw the light have still shrouded themselves under the Patronage of Holy Writ What shall we say then shall we condemn the Scriptures of Sin Shall we say That the Scriptures are of themselves either productive of Error or not a sufficient Store-house of Truth God forbid The Scriptures are Holy Just and Good but private men wrest them to their own Destruction And this they do First By their Ignorance Secondly By their Instability I. First By their Ignorance where it will be presently objected that Ignorance is so far from being a cause of Error or Impiety that in a sober sence 't is truly the Mother of Devotion The Wisdom of this World is given in by Tertullian as the prime Cause of Heresie None were greater Tormentors of the Scriptures than the Philosophers for which Reason they are branded by the same Author with the Title of Arch-Hereticks Particularly the Valentinian Heresie concerning the portentous production of the Gods comes from the Platonists Marcion's Vnconcern'd and Lazy God was first set up by the Stoicks the Mortality of the Soul was the Doctrine of the Epicureans the Impossibility of the Resurrection of the Flesh of the whole stream of Philosophers The Apostle tells us Not many Mighty not many Wise not many Noble were chosen cautions his Proselytes against Philosophy and vain Deceit and concludes the Wisdom of this World Foolishness with God Wherefore by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unlearned in this place we are not to understand Ideots and those who never knew Letters but we must understand those who will not be instructed by the Masters of Divine Wisdom the Nolentes discere those who refuse to hear the Church of the Living God which alone is the Pillar and Foundation of Truth And so their Learning like Julian's only qualifies them to deride the Doctrines of a Crucified God and by their Wisdom they become the more formidable Enemies of Christ's Kingdom Thus if Lucifer the Son of the Morning fall from his Allegiance whole Legions of the Heavenly Host are involv'd in the Rebellion That Heresie spreads like the Contagion of a Leprosie which hath an Arrius for its Founder and a Constantius for its Promoter And the Mahumetan Religion owes as well its monstrous Birth as its fatal Increase to the Malice and Cunning of an Apostate Jew and a Renegado Christian And to give but one instance more but of a far more Modern Date and therefore of more dangerous consequence That unhappy man Socinus a person otherwise of singular Wit and Learning but being in this sense unlearned i. e. having entertain'd so slender a Notion of the Church as to date a general Defection from the very Deaths of the Apostles upon this Perswasion thought it not Robbery to make himself equal to the most Oecumenical Councils to contradict the most receiv'd Doctrines of the Church and from this contempt of his Mother to proceed to that daring pitch of impiety as to deny even the Lord that bought him so dangerous is it for private men to rely solely upon the perspicuity of Scripture or to measure the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Incarnation of the Godhead his Consubstantiality with the Father by the scantling of Humane Reason Cedat curiositas fidei gloria saluti was the Advice of as great a Wit as any Age hath bred Our Curiosity must give place to our Faith the thirst of Temporal Glory to the benefits of Eternal Salvation 'T is true by our Reason we are first dispos'd to be Christians for no Creature beneath the Rational is capable of Divine Revelation but when once we have given up our Names to Christ 't is by our Faith we are saved but if we assent to no Doctrines but such as our Reason fully comprehends this is no longer Faith but Science and so we may continue Infidels whilst we go under the Notion of Christians And since we live in such a knowing Age wherein all captivating the Vnderstanding though it be to the Obedience of Faith is made the subject of Grievance and Complaint And