Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	practice_n	primitive_a	3,231	5	9.0425	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05344	A speech, delivered at the visitation of Downe and Conner, held in Lisnegarvy the 26th. of September, 1638 Wherein, for the convincing of the non-conformists, there is a full confutation of the covenant lately sworne and subscribed by many in Scotland. Published by authority.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1639 (1639)	STC 15496; ESTC S108505	22,572	42

look to our own And surely methinks that if there were in you a sparke of the sear of God and of true loyaltie unto the King the rebellious proceedings of these men would put you out of love with their Religion For I perswade my self that when you were first leavned with their doctrine you did little think that their aim was Rebellion But did conceive as sometimes I my self did that they did all out of conscience and were men free from violence or the least thought of disloyalty But now behold their proceedings and judge them by their fruits You may perceive how that Sect since the first beginning of it which is not much above Fourscore yeers in the Raign of Q. Mary of England hath proceeded from evill to worse by Six degrees At first they did only manifest a dislike of Episcopall government and some Ceremonies used in the Church of England as liking better of the government of Geneva which was devised by Master Calvin and that cunningly enough for the state of that Republick which being popular could not brook any other government of the Church but that which is popular also And yet I must tell you that Master Calvin wanted nothing of a Bishop but only the title For the Church of Geneva is not a Parochiall but Diocesan Church consisting of divers parishes which make up one great Presbytrie and he all the dayes of his life was moderator thereof without whose consent no Act neither of Ordination nor Jurisdiction was done And so likewise Mr. Beza for ten yeers after the others death held the same place of government untill Danaeus set him beside the cushion and procured the Presidency to go by turns In the next place from dislike they proceeded to contempt of Episcopall government and this if ye will beleeve St. Cyprian hath been the very beginning of all heresies and Schismes Ad Rogarionum Initia Haereticorum saith he ortus Schismaticorum haec sunt ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant And againe Vnde Schismata ●aereses ortae sunt nisi ●um Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Ad Pupianum superbâ quorundam presumptione contemn●tur homo dig●at●●ne Dei ●ororatus ab ind●gnis hominibus judicatur In the third place from contempt they did proceed unto open disobedience unto all the Orders of the Church And like those of whom Nazia●zen speakes would be pleased with nothing but what did proceed from their own devising esteeming him the holiest man who could find most faults From disobedience they did proceed unto Schisme and open separation accounting themselves only to be the brethren and Congregation of Christ and all others who are not of their faction to be the children of this world From Schisme they proceeded to heresie For it is most true which S Jerome did observe that Omne Schisma gignit sibi ●aresin Every Schisme doth devise unto it self a heresie some false doctrine or other to maintain their separation And these men have devised not a few and some that have been condemned by ancient Councels and Fathers as namely Epiphanius reckons among the condemned heresies of Acrius that he maintained there was no differēce between a Bishop and a Presbyter and that all set Fasts are unlawfull Jewish and Superstitious And is not this the doctrine of these men But lastly their disobedience Schisme and heresie have now drawne them into open Rebellion and I wonder whither will they go next For I am deceived if they have not yet a further journey to go and that they cannot subsist untill they arrive at pure Anabaptisme From which they now differ but a little And surely if any of you will read the History of the Anabaptists you will finde that their proceedings were a great deal more moderate and Christian like then these mens●re This is the just judgement of God that they who run out of the Communion of the Church should likewise run out of their own wits I beseech you therefore to consider their wayes and how that if you do not break off company they will shortly lead you into Rebellion For mine own part I professe that the first thing that made me out of love with that Religion besides their grosse hypocrisie was their injurious dealing with Kings who are Gods Vice-gerents here upon Earth which I observed both by their doctrine and by their practice and I will now give you a briefe taste of both As for their Doctrine you know they take from the King all authority in causes Ecclesiasticall and will not allow him to do these things which the good Kings of Judah and the godly Emperours of the Primitive Church did Yea they will not allow them to present or nominate a Minister to a Benefice nor to give a Vote in a Generall Assembly except forsooth the King be a Lay-elder nor yet to make any Law●s concerning matters of outward Order and Politie to be observed in the Church Nay They have gone further allowing Subjects to resist their Prince by force of Armes and in some cases to depose him yea and to take away his life if he be a Tyrant and though he be the godliest Prince in the world he must be esteemed a Tyrant if it please the Presbytery to declare him for to be such So that Kings should be in a farre worse case under the Presbytery then ever they were under the Pope For in stead of one Pope they must be subject unto a thousand This is their doctrine Now I will shew you their Practice And first how they dealt with that blessed King James while he was in Scotland They did persecute him in his mothers womb and when he came unto ripe yeers they suffer'd him not to enjoy one quiet day by their Seditious practices Of a great many I will cull out a few of their attempts which are most notorious First when as the Ring-leaders of that Faction had concluded the state of Bishops to be unlawfull they sent their Commissioners unto the King commanding him and his Councell under pain of Excommunication to put them downe Againe A French Ambassadour being in Scotland when he was to go away the King commanded the City of Edenburrough according to the ancient custome to entertaine him with a banquet This charge was given on the Saturday and the banquet to be on the Munday and upon Sunday morning some of the factious ministers hearing of it to crosse his Majefties designes proclaimed a publick Fast to be kept on that day and because that the Nobility the Kings Servants the Provost and chiefe Citizens of Edenburrough did by the Kings direction attend the Ambassadour they proceeded against them almost unto the sentence of Excōmunication Afterwards when his Majesty was taken prisoner at Reuthen by some of his treacherous Subjects intendig thereby to force his Majesty to their owne ends His Majesty being happily delivered did with the consent of his three Estates in Parliament declare

Church unchangeable were to confound matters of Doctrine and matters of Discipline matters of Faith and matters of Order The rule therefore of Tertullian is infallible Regula fidei immobilis irrefragabilis Caetera disciplinae admittunt novitatem correctionis 5 If they had sworne as these men would have it to maintaine their discipline which they then used without alteration or addition like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Then had they ascribed unto themselves an absolute perfection more then ever did the Pharisees in Christs dayes or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after or the Popes of late since they established their own infallibility Surely the contrivers of the first Confession did manifest a great deal of more modesty in their Preface Protesting that if any man shall note in this our Confession any Article or Sentence repugnant to Gods holy Word and do admonish of the same in Writing we by Gods grace do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God that is from his holy Scriptures or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amisse And are these men become wiser then their Fathers to think that nothing which they did could be amended 6 That could not be the meaning of the first Oath to maintain their discipline in all points without alteration For they themselves during the days of the Presbytery did change many things and that as I beleeve without violation of their Oath Sometimes their Lay-elders had voyce in the Presbytery af●erwards the Ministers perceiving the inconvenience restrained them to their Parish-sessions Sometimes it was made altogether unlawfull to bury in Churches afterwards they did permit it And if I had the inspection of the Book of the Acts of the generall Assembly which I have not seen these four and twenty yeers I would make it appear that every Assembly did either alter or adde something in matters of discipline Finally How could they Swear to maintain that discipline in all points when there are many things in their new found discipline whereof they were not agreed nor are to this day as namely Whether Pastors and Doctors be one office or distinct And if distinct Whether Doctors have any voyce in government What is the Office of Deacons and whether they may give a voyce in the consistory with the rest Whether their ruling Eldermen be Ecclesisticall persons or Lay-men Whether their Office should be only annuall or during life Whether those Elders should have a voice in the election Ordination deprivation of ministers and in weilding of the keyes for Excommunication and Absolution By all which it is more then manifest that the meaning of these words in the former Oath We will continue in the obedience of the discipline of this Kirk is not that they would observe the same discipline then used in all particulars without alteration or addition for so their Oath must be contrary to their Confession of faith contrary to right reason to the practise of the Primitive Church to the opinion of all Divines yea contrary to their owne practice and indeed such an Oath as were both unlawfull and impossible to be observed And unlesse that Interpretation be allowed them that Oath makes nothing either against Episcopacy or the five Articles of Perth we must therefore finde out some other meaning of these words of the Covenant It is a rule in the civill Law Semper in dubijs benigniora sunt praeferendae And again Non sunt rejiciendae leges quae interpretatione aliquâ possunt convenire If any thing Fact writing or Law may in reasonable construction admit two interpretations the best and mildest is ever to be received But the words in the former Oath may admit a good interpretation namely they did sweare to continue in the discipline of that Kirk in regard of all substantials viz. for administration of the Sacraments and weilding of the Keyes for binding and loosing of sinners and that for the particular determination of person time place and outward forme of administration They would observe the discipline of that Kirk which should be from time to time lawfu●ly established And therefore it is as I observed before that they did not say The present discipline of this Kirk And by this Interpretation which is the only reasonable sense of these words that can be given they are all bound by their nationall Oath as they terme it to submit themselves to Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth which were lawfully established and are now a part of the Discipline of that Church Thus have I shewed that this late Oath is substantially different from the former in that now they doe not sweare with the King but against him It containes a bond of mutuall defence of one another It inables Subjects to take Armes without lawfull Authority and containes such an interpretation of the Old covenant as is manifestly false In all which respects the Oath is unlawfull But yet to convince them further of perjury I will shew unto you that they have not observed any of these conditions which God himselfe requireth in an Oath In the fourth of Ieremy and second verse Thou shalt sweare the Lord liveth in trueth in iudgement and in righteousnesse In trueth and therefore not falsly In judgement and therefore not rashly In righteousnesse and therefore not lewdly nor to a bad end We must sweare in trueth and not falsly for the Lord himselfe saith Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly Levit. 19.12 The onely true matter of an Oath is trueth but all the grounds of this last Oath are notoriously false as namely that the Negative Confession is the Nationall confession of the church of Scotland And I have shewed that to be otherwise That this Oath is the very same that King Iames and his Family did sweare And I have proved that not to be so That Episcopacie and the five Articles of Perth are innovations abjured in the former Oath and I have manifested that to be evidently false Finally That what they doe is to avert The danger of the true reformed religion of the Kings honor and of the publick peace of the Kingdome When as indeed they could not have taken a course more to indanger the true Religion wound the Kings honour and disturbe the publick peace So that in this late Oath there is no trueth Againe We must sweare in judgement that is out of a certain knowledge of the thing which we sweare We finde in the fifth of Leviticus that when a man did sweare that which was hid from him It was a sin for which a Trespasse-offering was to be offered And now they have sworn unto many things which are hid from them and whereof they could have no certaine knowledge for they could not know that the Negative Confession is the National Confession of that Church nor that this Oath is the same with that which the King did sweare nor that Episcopacy and the five Articles of Perths Assembly were