Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A30994
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A discourse concerning the nature of Christ's Kingdom with relation to the kingdoms of this world in two sermons preach'd at St. Maries before the University of Cambridge by Miles Barne.
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Barne, Miles, d. 1709?
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1682
(1682)
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Wing B858; ESTC R28352
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25,388
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69
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Secondly Whose Kingdom do they belong to who negotiate the affairs of Souls after another manner than Christ did Who aim at Superiority in the Church with a Design to Lord It over Christs Flock and exercise Tyranny over the Consciences of men Who take upon them the Ministerial Function to gratifie their Avarice and Ambition and make the Patrimony of the Church subservient to base Secular ends Who if once arriv'd to a pretended unappealable degree of Hierarchy presently exalt themselves above all that is called God These are so far from being Faithfull Subjects of Christs Kingdom that they are the very enemies of Christ For if the Governours of the Church of Good Shepherds become Ravenous Wolves And instead of Reducing the Strays to the Flock in the Spirit of meekness they shall by their Pride and Haughtiness Drive the Sheep from thence what a sad account will they have to make hereafter to the Great Shepherd of Souls How guilty the Pope and his Ecclesiasticks have been of this Charge I shall not need declare But so long as the Governours of the Church execute their High Calling according to Christs Prescript the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Bishops with Humility Sobriety Hospitality Gravity and Moderation there is yet great hopes that the Governed the People may yet bring forth the blessed Fruits of Love Peace Joy Obedience Long-suffering Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Thirdly Let us enquire whose Kingdom they belong to who would destroy all those whom they account the Enemies of Christs Kingdom with other weapons than He hath allowed of Of all Feuds those about Religion are the fiercest And therefore 't is well the Captain of our Salvation hath told us what kind of Armes we are to use in its Defence otherwise the Christian Camp through the Perversness of the Commanders had made but one common Field of Bloud Lukewarmness in Religion or an Indifferency to All Religions is as bad as if we profess'd none at all To maintain our Religion by Cruelty or Injustice is worse than if we profess'd none at all He who denies a God only proclaims himself a Fool But we want a name to distinguish him by who makes God the Author of Impieties or his Religion a Countenancer of Injustice He who out of Zeal to God robbeth Caesar of his Dues were it in his power would de-throne God and set himself up in His Room Jesus answer'd My Kingdom is not of this world What then shall we think of His pretended Vicar who impudently claimeth a Right to all the Kingdoms of this world Who whilst he hypocritically stiles himself a servant of the meanest of the servants of Jesus Christ Usurps the Power of deposing Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms To deal sincerely with you I think this Impious Practice to be one of the most Irrefragable Arguments to prove him to be The Anti-Christ That whereas some have taken a great deal of Pains to prove Him so from the obscure Prophecies of Daniel And others with great Labour and Difficulties have applied all the Phaenomena and Characters of the Apocalyptical False Prophet to the Pope This is a more sure and compendious way of stamping upon him the Mark of the Beast Christ was both a King and a Priest His Priestly Office in the most solemn manner He conferr'd upon the Apostles His Kingly He left where He founded It Delegated by His Father upon the Emperours of the world and confirm'd that Delegation to us by His own Obedience to Them Now then if the Pope out of Great solicitude for the Churches committed to His charge makes any unjust Attempts upon their Regalities He strikes at the Kingly Office of Christ and endeavours Solvere Jesum the Dissolution of Jesus as the Vulgar Translation and those Greek Copies it follows have it Now since He dares not pretend to this Power immediately from Christ for He cannot find any such Donation amongst all the Rights He pretends to as St Peters Successor His Indirect Power and in Order to Spirituals will not serve his Turn For to suppose the worst That the Kings of the earth should stand up and take Council together to destroy Christs Kingdom shall therefore his Holiness add Impiety to their madness by Deposing them and absolving their Subjects from their Obedience If he does he is so far from being Christs Vicar That he is a Barabbas and though he may escape as Barabbas did Punishment in this Life yet that eternal Vengeance which pursues Robbers and Murtherers will overtake him in the other All that the Governours of the Church can do in this Extremity is to Advise Admonish Rebuke with all Gravity and Humility to set before them the Folly and Danger of such Councils and the certain Destruction which always attends them And if such with all other Christian means prove ineffectual they having discharg'd their Duty must commit Themselves and Their Cause to God in Tears Fasting and Prayers And in those very Prayers they must remember more especially their Persecutors Lastly if God so willeth in a Patient suffering the Loss of Life These are the only justifiable weapons by which the Church of Christ opposeth Her Enemies And now give me leave in a few words to bring all home to our selves None of us have been so closely Immur'd in our Studies but we must have observ'd something of the present State of Affairs How that our Church hath two Potent and Restless Enemies to Encounter the Romanists and the Presbyterians with all the Inferior Sects that fight under their Banner We have been sufficiently Alarm'd by the Hellish Plots of the one And we have by sad Experience felt the unsupportable Tyranny of the other Yet God forbid that we should serve Them as they would do Us Defend Our Religion by the same unwarrantable Practices by which they would Destroy It. The Reformed Religion of the Church of England as it has the most of Primitive Purity in worship Doctrine and Discipline so hath it of Christian Loyalty of any other Religion in the world And 't is our Happiness to live under as Gracious a Prince as ever Sway'd the English Sceptre since the Conquest Who has through his whole Reign been more Tender of the Liberty and Property of the Subject than of his own Prerogative Whence then these Hideous Murmurings and Complainings in our Streets Whence these Daily Outcries and Fears of being led into Captivity Are they not from hence that there are a sort of restless ungratefull people amongst us who under pretence of Securing the Protestant Religion would ruine the Church of England the best and surest Guard against Popery Who by wheadling the People with the specious Names of Liberty and Property would undermine Monarchy the strongest bullwark against Tyranny and Arbitrary Power But is it possible that the same cheats should pass twice upon a Nation in the same Age Have we so soon forgot the Miseries and Desolations of the late Usurpation or
Antidotes which they prescrib'd against the Contagion of Hereticks show me one that has the least composition of Force or Violence in it They endeavour'd to convince them the Hereticks from the Autority of Christ the Apostles and the Deference paid to the Apostolical Churches the Novelty of the Hereticks Doctrines their palpable Corruption and interpolation of Scripture their irregular Lives and Scandalous Dissentions the Unanimity of Catholicks the consent and Harmony of their Doctrines and the sufficient knowledge they had of the Apostles and first promulgators of the Christian Religion and the sufficient Instruction which the Apostles receiv'd from Christ These were some of those wholsom Remedies which they thought fit to prescribe against the Hereticks of their times And happy had it been for Christendom if none of a different nature had been made use of since only those enforc't by Civil Sanction for what has Rome got by her modern bloudy Inquisition Or Geneva by her Tyrannical Usurpations over the Consciences and Common Liberties of mankind What did the Council of Constance get by their uncanonical treacherous cruel proceedings against those poor men Jerom of Prague and John Huss Their putting the later to death contrary to promise and the publick Faith widened the Schism brought an odium upon the Council and they will never be able to wash away the stain of so Barbarous an Act. They seem'd indeed sensible of it when 't was too late for in the Ample-safe-Conduct granted in the XVIII Session of Trent under Pious IV they recede from the Practice and Decree of Constance or of any other Council prejudicial to safe Conducts But then they mince the matter in these words In hâc parte pro hâc vice derogamus c. So that even this Recession was rather extorted from them by the necessity they lay under than any willingness in those pretended Infallible Doctors to retract or own that they had done amiss 'T is true He who renounc'd all Sovereignty here on earth that so the Princes and Emperours of the world might have no suspicion of Him or his followers did nevertheless keep his Religion under his own Cognizance and exempt It from their Jurisdiction for he did not only teach promulge and practise it in opposition to the Laws and Customs then receiv'd in the very face of the Magistrate but moreover encourag'd his Disciples to the like confidence and Resolution He foretold them that they should be brought before Kings and Governours for his name before the Jewish Sanedrim and Roman Tribunals to bear Testimony to the Truth but bids them not be dismayed for He would be their Advocate and defend both them and It against all Opposition Not that hereby He grants them a Licence to Rebel to violate their Duty to the Publick in defiance of the Magistrate but only Instructs and encourages them in their Duty to God in despite of sufferings He bids them not fear them who can only destroy the Body but rather Him who can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Thus they learn't Christ and thus they taught others Christianity Thus Christianity at first set out and accordingly found Reception in the world thus it made a glorious Progress and thus it shall finally Triumph over all the Powers of Darkness Which ushers in my Third and last Position That 't is the Duty of Christians patiently to suffer for their Religion when 't is their Lot to fall into Perfecuting times and this in most Cases the best in some the only Remedy left them For hereby we give the Dearest Pledges of an unfeigned Love to our Master that we have not only followed Him for the Loaves for any secular Ends or Advantages Hereby we make a Publick Declaration of the Sincerity of our Hearts Hereby we give the Noblest Proof of the Truth of our Religion Hereby it appears we are true Disciples when we can take up the Cross and follow Christ in the most difficult but most heroick Act of the Christian Warfare Hereby we shew that we have escaped the Pollutions of the world and that the Glory of God and our own Salvation hath been our Chiefest Aime Yet this Position however true in it self seems of very hard Digestion to our corrupt Natures And this is the true Reason why our Dissenters of late have made such Dismal Out-cries such Dire Presages and still continue to Alarm the Nation with Fears I hope of their own Creation And therefore I shall be very short with them The Religion for which they express so great Concern and about which they make such a stir that Heaven and earth have been disturb'd with their Out-cries is either from God or from Men. If it be from God He will either defend it from Persecution or else by His mighty Power enable the Professors patiently to suffer for it And which way soever shall seem best to his just Providence is fittest and most profitable for us And so we are safe If it be from men 't will come to nought 't is mutable as all other humane Institutions are and will rather veer to the Religion of the State than undergo the least Tryal of Persecution And 't is to me a manifest sign that those men who cry out so much of Persecution before hand And amidst the full Enjoyment of a dangerous Liberty as if they had a Faggot already Flaming in their Breasts never intend to resist unto Bloud or undergo the fiery Tryal if they should be really brought to it Their Religion is too Voluptuous and the Professors of it too Effeminate to court Martyrdom Let them choose which Part of the Dilemma they please and they are for ever silenc'd If then sober Advice might take place I would entreat them in their Zeal to Religion not to disturb the Peace of the State In their Fears of Persecution not to betray and desert the Cross of Christ In their just Exclamations against the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome not to make Shipwrack of the Catholick Faith in a willfull Separation from their Mother the Church of England Let them not out of a commendable Indignation against the wicked and Hellish Practices of the Romish Emissaries to establish the Popish Religion become Guilty of the same in an Obstinate Illegal Unchristian Defence of their Own And if any one think I injure them by this Advice for I confess it implies a Guilt of the mischiefs caution'd against I recommend to his serious and impartial Perusal several late Collections publish't from their Originals And there He will find that the most pernicious Doctrines laid down by the Jesuits in their Morals are to be match't if not out-done For there He will find a Dispensation for Oaths taken Licences to take contrary Oaths Equivocation Lying Perjury recommended There He will find that the Saints alone had a Right to inherit the Earth that the wicked might be Slander'd Plunder'd Murthered and all this under pretence of doing God