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	rome_n	transubstantiation_n	3,421	5	11.4318	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60407	A sermon preached July 17, 1681, at the assizes in Huntingdon before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Mountague and Mr. Justice Windham, judges of the assize / by Benjamin Smith, Rector of Boxworth, in Cambridge-shire.	Smith, Benjamin, fl. 1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing S4021B; ESTC R37563	22,452	38

Now it is an Article of their Faith that the Pope is Head of the Universal Church A thing that was not thought to be so from the beginning For Saint Chrysostom in his Exposition of that place Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers says that the Apostle enjoynes this to all both to Priests and Monks and not to Lawmen only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Although thou be an Apostle although thou be an Evangelist although thou be a Prophet or whatsoever else thou art And for the other Point the Council of Calcedon determined that the See of Constantinople should have Conc. calced ●a● 2● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal priviledges with old Rome which they never had done had the Pope then been thought the Supream Head of the Church and Christ's onely Vicar upon earth Again we can tell them when the Worship of Images was first Authorized in their Church and it is notoriously known that the Second Council of Nice was the first that determined for it and that was past the middle of the Eighth Century Their Prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation the peculiar Doctrine of the Church of Rome was first defined by Gregory the Seventh but not compleatly setled nor the Name brought in till Innocent the Third in his Lateran Council in the year 1215. A thing utterly unknown to all the Fathers of the eight first Centuryes and a Name so strange and unusual that a learned French Antiquary observes that no Antient Dictionary Mr. Spon M. S. either Greek or Latine hath the word or any other that so much as contains or expresseth the Sense of it not in two so Copious Languages And so for their gainful Doctrine of Purgatory it 's evident that the Primitive Times as well as the Scriptures are ignorant of it and utterly strangers to it And it 's somewhat a puzling Question that the forementioned Antiquary asks Le Chese this present French King's Confessour that if the Doctrine of Purgatory be Ancient and not of a late Coinage and Date why in all the Ancient Epitaphs before the seventh or eighth Century we never meet with an Orate pro anima or a Requiescat in them And yet now no Roman Epitaph is made without them Their Half Communion it s well enough known was first determined in the Council of Constance and they had the face to do it with an non obstante to our Saviours own Institution and to the Practice of the primitive Church And though they grant that Jesus Christ administred it to his Disciples in Both Kinds and in the primitive Church the Faithful used to partake of it so yet ad evitandum aliqua pericula scandala to avoid some imaginary Dangers and Scandals they would venture to determine contrary to the Practice of the Church and the Institution of Christ And this bold Council sate not till the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century And so would my Time and your Patience serve I could easily go over all the Articles in difference between us and either tell you the Time when they were first introduced and the Council that gave them Authority or prove that there was a Time long before them when the contrary Practice was in use and when the Doctrines which we Contend for in opposition to theirs were received and embraced Is this then the Faith once delivered to the Saints that neither the Scriptures nor Antiquity knew any thing of Is this the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles which is so lately crept forth and that in Contradiction to what they delivered on Record in Scriptures These must therefore needs be the effects of a Prodigious Insolence for Men to take upon them to add to or alter what God hath established and first Themselves to depart from that Faith which was once that is immutably and unalterably delivered to the Saints and then to require Others under pain of Damnation to go along with them No Church or Society of men upon earth either hath or can have sufficient Authority or power to Coin new Articles of Faith and give them a sacred Stamp and make them Obligatory to the Consciences of men Every Church hath a sufficient Power in matters of Discipline for her own Government and can make Laws and Cannons relating to Decency and Order which the Members of that Church are bound to Obey not onely for Wrath but Conscience sake and for this we need not go to Rome nor are we bound to stand to her Determinations we have all the just Rights and Power of a Church within our selves and what have we to do with Rome or Rome with us But to add more Articles of Faith to the Apostles Creed and to require those to be believed and received with the same Faith and Assent of mind that the others are as Pope Pius the Fifth falsly so call'd hath impiously done it is an intollerable Encroachment upon the Authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and a wide Deviation from that Doctrine once delivered to the Saints and so delivered as not to be altered For this is the Faith that we are concerned in and the onely Faith that we are to Contend for that which was delivered to the Saints that which was preached by the Apostles and believed and embraced by the Saints those ancient and eldest Christians What is Contrary to this we ought to reject and for this we ought to Contend that we may retain and preserve intire and pure the True Religion the truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith And this for the First thing What we must Contend for 2. The Second thing in the words to be enquired into is How this Faith must be Contended for And this is worthy our most serious Enquiry For the Faith we must Contend for being a matter of so great Concern the Manner of our Contending for it is of important Consideration also for if we Contend not as we ought or otherwise than we ought we may lose what we strive for instead of obtaining it for it hath been known that some have so Contended for the Faith and by such Ways and Means as have been a real Prejudice to it and they have either lost their Religion or shewed that they had None while they Contended for it by unjust and irreligious Ways And this indeed as much as any thing proves that the Religion which the Church of Rome Contends for and would impose upon the world is none of the Faith Once delivered to the Saints in that she useth such irreligious and unconscionable Methods to impose and Crow'd it upon us by 'T is fit for the Turkish Alcoran to be presented upon the point of the Sword and false Religions have need of external Force and Violence to introduce and settle them in the world but this is so contrary to the Progress and Proceedings of the Gospel and the Ways of its Advancement that this alone is a Disparagement to any Religion that it

are not found among these Doctrines or are repugnant to them we justly renounce as New and Erroneous though they have contracted a venerable Rust by their Age and seek to impose upon us under the mask of Antiquity and by the descent and length of their Pedigree Primum quodque verissimum is Tertullians Rule and we desire to stand and be tryed by it and would have nothing imposed upon us that the Scriptures the true and Authentick Records of Antiquity do not mention nor own The Doctrines which the Apostles preached the Rules of Life and Salvation which they gave is what we Contend for for this is the Faith delivered to the Saints Let us now consider 2. What is to be understood by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Once delivered in the Text. There are two Senses given of it by Interpreters both which may be taken in as being both indeed implyed in the word 1. Once may carry the sense of Conjunctim and so the learned and judicious Hammond paraphraseth it preached uniformly to all by the consent of all the Apostles This was that Doctrine that was One and the same though preached by different persons this the Apostles all agreed in and observed in their preaching through the world that though they were so far distant one from another yet they all preached the same thing and made no Difference in the Doctrine they Preached in the Faith they delivered to the Saints How happy had it been for the World and how much had it conduced to the peace and Purity of the Church and to the safety and security of the Souls of men if the Missionaries of Rome had observed and proceeded by the same Rule and kept to the Doctrine that was once delivered and had taught none other things then what the Apostles by Common consent and Harmony of mind had preached Then had they never imposed so much False Doctrine upon the world nor ever preached things so vastly different from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Then might the Church in a great measure have retained her Virgin-Purity still and had not been defiled nor the world been disturbed by the insolent Encroachments of Rome Then might Images a very Fornication in Religion have kept their place among the Batts and Moles and in holes and Brambles where the Prophet sayes the Is● 2. 20. Jews upon their Reformation should throw theirs and had never crept forth to see the light to be adorned and admired nay to be set up and worshipped by Foolish men Then might the Church have been left to pray and say Amen with understanding and to go to the Throne of Grace in a way where all knew what they were doing and the Scriptures those Fountains of living waters had never been sealed up under an unknown Tongue from the eyes and use of those whose Duty as well as Interest it is to peruse and understand them Then might the Church have enjoyed the Sacraments as they were first instituted for her use and as our Lord appointed they should be received and the Cup had neither been taken away nor the Bread been made a God and a Prodigious Idol to be worshipped and eaten Had they followed the Faith and Doctrine of the Apostles they would never have dared to Alter what our Saviour had Ordered nor have presumed to deprive the People of the Cup when our Saviour at the first institution of that Ordinance said Drink ye all of it Mat. 26. 27. Then might Princes have enjoyed their Rights and neither have been questioned nor molested in their Thrones by those who ought to be subject to them and then might the People have led their lives under them peaceably in all godliness and honesty and had never felt the effects of those Fire-brands which the Pope hath thrown abroad in the world nor ever been taught to rebell against God and the King In short then had that Mass of Corrupt Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines that have with so much confidence been broached so highly to the dishonour of Religion and to the danger of Souls never seen the light nor defiled the Church had they kept to the Faith that was once delivered that is delivered conjunctly by all the Apostles one and the same 2. Once delivered carries in it the sense of Immutably Once for all as we say not to be changed or altered any more God gave his people the Jews a Law and Ordinances of his own appointment but these were not to hold but till the Fulness of time was come and then that dispensation was to cease and be done away to make room for one more perfect and lasting one to be so Once delivered as not to be delivered again in another way or with any addition or amendment And in this sense the Scriptures use the word elsewhere Psal 89. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Once have I sworn in my Holiness that I will not lye unto David That is certainly immutably and without alteration And this way both Grotius and Beza go Semel Quia de ea Doctrina nihil sit imutandum Once Because nothing was to be changed in that doctrine And therefore every Substraction or Addition to this Faith thus Once delivered is a notorious Wrong to it a Corruption of the Doctrine and an Encroachment upon the Authority of God Almighty in whose power alone it is to make and establish an Article of Faith And therefore do we appeal to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and desire to stand and be tryed by that for since it was Once delivered so as not to be altered the Church of Rome having made both Additions to it and Variations from it stands justly charged with that Novelty which she would fix upon us When our Saviour reproves the corrupt Practices and Glosses of the Jews he reduceth them to the true and Ancient standard and tells them from the beginning it was not so And upon many of the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome we may write the same Remark and shew that from the beginning it was not so We can tell by what steps the Papal Grandeur advanced and by what unjust Encroachments and undecent huffs and insolencies they enlarged their dominions and enslaved the Church and imperiously trampled upon Princes We can tell them the Time and prove it when they please that the Bishops of Rome were more tractable and humble and that the world did not take them to be such uncontroulable Pieces as afterwards they grew up to be Gregory the Great ownes the Emperour Mauritius for his Lord and Master and declares him to be the Forerunner of Anti-christ that desires the Title of Oecumenical Pastor or universal Bishop And he held the Chair in the end of the Sixth Century But the world is much altered with them since as to both these points and now they assume a power of deposing Princes and to dispose of the Kingdomes of the earth at their pleasure

Christ is that which is by Divines called a saving and justifying Faith a Faith that works by love and is the fulfilling of the Gospel-condition a Faith that receives and submits to the Lord Jesus in all his Offices and as he is offered in the Gospel This is an usual and frequent meaning of the word Faith in the New-Testament and that which we should by all means Contend and endeavour to preserve entire That neither the pleasures of this life nor the inclinations of a Corrupt mind neither the sly insinuations of lewd Companions nor the interest and Grandeur of this present World divert us from it That neither to comply with the Lusts of the Flesh nor to form or promote an Intrigue or design we should violate the Rules of a good conscience or make bold with the Laws of Jesus Christ In short that neither Debauchery nor Dishonesty nor Knavery should make us forget our obedience to the Gospel or in any thing depart from the Principles of that Religion which we profess This is a Faith thus to be Contended for and preserved but this is not the Faith here meant in the Text. For besides this there is 2. Fides quam Credimus And by that is meant the Gospel And the Doctrines of Jesus Christ and his Apostles the Message they brought the Rules they gave the Means they prescribed in order to eternal Salvation are very frequently in Scripture called the Faith This Acts 6. 7. And the word of God increased or got ground and the number of the disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Faith So Galat. 1. 23. He that persecuted us in times past now preacheth the Faith which once he destroyed And so again 1 Tim. 3. 9. Holding the Mystery of the Faith in a pure conscience And to name no more so it is in this place That ye should earnestly Contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints Where it is not the Faith whereby they believe but the Faith which they believe the Faith delivered to the Saints to be believed received and kept that is meant Not an Assent to the Revelation but the Revelation it self to which we give Assent The Faith here then is the Truth the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Doctrines of Salvation and those Rules and Means that guide us to eternal life or in one word the True Religion And this is further set out 2. By a considerable distinguishing Circumstance once delivered to the Saints Every Doctrine is not to be Contended for and every Religion is not worth the keeping and every thing that hath by men been delivered to men is not too tenaciously to be adhered to The Faith the Religion which Saint Jude proposeth to our Care and endeavours to keep is described by this which distinguisheth it from all that are false and sets the true and currant stamp upon it it is the Faith the Doctrine the Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once delivered to the Saints And this being the Mark and distinguishing Character of that Faith and Religion which we must Contend for it must the more carefully be enquired into that we may not miss our Mark and Contend for what we ought to avoid There are therefore two things to be explained in these words and we must enquire who are the Saints and what is to be understood by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. 1. Who are the Saints here to whom the Faith was delivered And here I think the Answer is plain and easy enough that by Saints he means no other than those to whom the Gospel was first preached and who did receive it and believe Sanctos says one usitato Scripturae modo vocat Credentes he calls the Believers Saints according to the usual Language of the Scriptures And thus Saint Paul calls the Believers and Embracers of the Gospel the Saints and faithful brethren which are at Colosse and Philip. 1. 1. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi But then considering that it is Saint Jude the Apostle of our Lord that writes thus as is evident by the first verse of this Epistle where he styles himself Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James and by the Inscription of the Epistle which though it be not Canonical Scripture yet is the sense of the Ancient Church which entituleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Epistle of Jude the Apostle This Epistle then being written by him and calling the Doctrine of the Gospel the Faith delivered to the Saints that which in his time was delivered and received was preached and believed To us it sets the Mark and stamp of Antiquity upon that Faith and Doctrine which he calls upon us to Contend for And if we ask what is the Doctrine we ought to receive what the Faith we ought to Contend for the Answer is in Saint Jude the Doctrine the Apostles preached and the Faith the Ancient and Eldest Christians received This directly opposeth all Novel Doctrines and all Religions that are late and upstart Whatsoever is not derived from these Ancient and uncorrupt Fountains we are no ways obliged to maintain or Contend for as being none of the Faith delivered to the Saints And yet this is the quarrel between the Church of Rome and us She hath notoriously and visibly corrupted the Faith and departed in numerous instances from the true and old Religion We desire to adhere to it and to separate the Precious from the Vile and in Reforming our selves have done no more than returned to what was truely Ancient and have onely recovered out of the Rubbish of their Novel Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints For this they Charge our Doctrines with Novelty and call our Faith a New Religion but to whom that Charge most justly belongs will be no hard matter to the impartial and unbiassed mind to discover Athanasius wittily derides the Arrians that when they produced their Confession of Faith in the Council of Rimini they set down in the stile of it the Day and the Month and the Consulls when it was made as from thence dating the Beginning of their Faith and fixing the first Original of their Heresy and shewing thereby that their Faith was Late and upstart But what would he have said to the Church of Rome had he lived now And how smartly would he have rebuked their Novel Encroachments the Body of whose Religion as it is now embraced bears date from the Counsel of Trent and there is not one Article in their Faith wherein they differ from us but we can shew and prove it to be of a late foundation Late I mean in comparison with the Truth and the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints What Christ and his Apostles preached and what the first and eldest Christians believed and received we own and adhere to but other things that