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	teach_v	teacher_n	2,504	5	9.1605	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33545	Fifteen sermons preach'd upon several occassions, and on various subjects by John Cockburn ...	Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.	1697 (1697)	Wing C4808; ESTC R32630	223,517	543

good will and only holds off because he wants sufficient Instruction or that the Truth appears not to him with clearness and evidence there is place for Charity for in that case the defect is in the Judgment and not in the Will the Head and not the Heart is to blame But there is no place for Charity it self when one will not lay aside his Prejudices against the Truth when he employs his Wit to raise Objections and to find Shifts when the plainest Assertions will not prevail but rather than yield will do violence to his own reason and other Mens Such were the Scribes and Pharisees of old they would not receive Jesus as the Messias tho' he came at the time appointed and with all the Evidence that could be desired The Socinians now are rather more guilty they also wilfully resist the Truth and the holy Spirit of God who is the Author of it and therefore deserve to be abhorred they are among the Number of those false Teachers who privily bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and therefore bring upon themselves swift destruction as St. Peter speaks I wish what he subjoins there may not hold true of these times we live in especially amongst our selves viz. That many shall follow their pernicious ways There is a time of which it is said that every Man doth whatsoever is right in his own Eyes and there is a time not much unlike the other in which Men take liberty to speak what they please to teach and vent whatever Fancies come in their Head When the Order and Unity of the Church is broken when its Pastors and Governours cannot exert their Authority then the Enemy steps in and sowes his Tares then false Teachers arise and diffuse their Poisonous Doctrines We have not only reason to fear this but cause enough already to bewail and lament it for it is actually done This and other Damnable Errors came in with the late Troubles and they spread and grew up mightily under Cromwell his Usurpation which made Maresius utter these remarkable words O deplorandam conditionem Anglioe quoe post Reges exactos ipsi Christo Regi Regum mandat exilium nec videtur majorem libertatem magno cruore redemptam anhelasse quam ut Licentiam consequeretur faceret quidlibet audendi quidlibet scribendi quidlibet credendi O the deplorable Condition of England which having driven out their Kings now constrains the King of Kings to be Banished and it seems that they have panted after a Liberty even at the expence of much Blood only to obtain a Licence of Hearing Writing and Believing what they please I would not make this Remark if it was not necessary if these Errors were not Dangerous and Damnable if they did not strike at the root of our holy Religion and did not overturn all the hopes which the Catholick Church have been Building for near these Seventeen Hundred Years The Deity of Jesus Christ is not an idle Speculation which one may be safely ignorant of and which no body is obliged to know believe or profess as an insolent Unworthy Author in a late Blasphemous Pamphlet is pleased to talk No certainly it is a Truth of the highest Importance which shines in the Scriptures with all clearness and evident Splendor and where every one that reads may see the express Belief and Acknowledgment of it required as absolutely necessary to Salvation Wherefore let us take care to build our selves up in this Faith and to do it this Day is not improper nay it is very proper for we cannot commemorate his Birth with sufficient Admiration and Thankfulness if we do not believe the Dignity of his Person our Joy and Gladness will fall low and vanish into nothing if we be not perswaded that the Child which was this Day Born and given unto us was truly Immanuel or God with us And what small hopes can we raise to our selves from the Sacrament which is to be Administred if we be not assured that by it is communicated and applied unto us the Merits of one who is God as well as Man and so both able and willing to save to the uttermost such as come unto him For evincing of this Important Useful and Comfortable Truth I need not go beyond the Text for there it is plainly and fully asserted For 1. You see that here the Apostle declares Jesus Christ to have pre-existed or to have had a Being before he was Man for unless he had subsisted before it could not have been said that he took upon himself the form of a Servant and that in so doing he made himself of no reputation for what is not in being cannot assume to it self an Existence nor make choice of the manner and condition of its Existence 2. It is clear by what the Apostle saith that the state in which he pre-existed was preferable to and more glorious than that in which he was made or found in the likeness of Men otherwise it could not be true that he made himself of no reputation when he became Man By which expression also it appears that the Apostle evidently referrs to some pre-existent state for unless he debased himself by submitting to be Born he cannot be said to debase himself by any after Act for neither his Birth nor first Years were so glorious as his last in which he appeared as a Prophet at least and a very eminent one too full of Power and Authority 3. We see clearly here his Divinity and Godhead in that it is said expresly he was or subsisted in the form of God and in that state thought it not Robbery to be equal with God By subsisting in the form of God there must be understood 1. A real participation of the Divine Nature and all its essential Attributes as Wisdom Power Goodness Eternity c. for the form of a thing is its Essence and to partake of the form of any thing is to have the Essence of that thing 2. This comprehends the Majesty Glory Authority Splendor and Dignity which agrees to the infinite and incomprehensible Nature of God and all those Acts Signs and Tokens by which the great God manifests himself to the heavenly Inhabitants for the form of a King is not the Name or Simple Right to hold that Name but it comprehends the Marks Badges and Emblems of Royal Dignity as the Purple the Scepter and Diadem the Throne and Guards and what else the Laws of Nations or the particular Custom of Kingdoms make declarative of Majesty and Kingly Power This is the form of a King and he who doth not possess this cannot be said to be in the form of a King So the form of God is the Glory Dignity Majesty and Greatness which is due to so high a Name And by ascribing to Jesus Christ the form of God is declared that he not only in himself did partake of the Divine Nature but also that

somewhat more Spiritual than what these amount to But to leave this and come to an Application This Text in both parts may be accommodated to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper These words Let us draw near may be without stretching applied to our coming to this Ordinance for this is one way of drawing near to God and the most solemn we can make in this Life and an earnest of that intimate admission into his glorious presence hereafter and hereby also is set forth that which procur'd us this gracious Privilege viz. The Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ. Wherefore those who desire to draw near to God and would have the comfort of his Favour and the hopes of everlasting Glory should embrace readily and chearfully the occasion of the Sacrament And to speak freely to you I know nothing can keep People from this Sacrament and make them slight it but the want of a true desire after God and the little concern they have for their Eternal Salvation I pray God forgive those who have made some believe it a mark of Religion or greater Sanctity to withdraw themselves from our Communion I intreat you be not easily deceived believe not every Spirit but examine well what you hear whether it be agreeable to Truth None that knows the Truth or loves the Purity of the Gospel can join in Communion with the Church of Rome But I appeal to all your Consciences if there be any Doctrine taught in this Church or any thing practised in our Worship disagreeable to the Word of God And if there be not why should Persons withdraw from our Communion And what can excuse such withdrawing These Tables are indeed too seldom covered but when they are covered let them be filled with Guests and if they be not what a shame is it Let not this poor Church be miserably torn with needless and unwarrantable separations whereby we become both a prey and a laughing-stock to our Enemies How comely a thing is it saith the Psalmist for brethren to dwell together in unity and it is as profitable as comely Are the Times bad We should meet to pray God to make them better Is this a wicked generation That should not make us forsake the assembling our selves together but we should the rather do it to provoke one another to love and good works Let not any pretend a liberty of doing what they please or say they are not accountable to us whether they go or come Consider I pray you that you are all accountable to God as also as Christians and Members of his Church you are all accountable to his Ministers especially to his Supream Ministers under Christ the Bishops to whom you are subject as to your Spiritual Superiours and ought to obey them This is his Command and therefore you are obliged to do what he Commands and not what is right in your own Eyes or in the Eyes of others let therefore his Laws be punctually observed and his Ordinances waited on And let none take to themselves a Dispensation from any of these lest they incurr his displeasure which of all things is most to be feared But though I wish all would come to this Sacrament yet I would not have any to come unworthily and without due Preparation for St. Paul has told us the sad danger of that Now what is required to render one worthy you may learn from the Text he hath the wedding garment who hath the qualifications in the Text. Let me therefore beseech you all to retire Home to lay aside the thoughts of other Business and in all seriousness to examine how it stands between God and you see whether you be already adorn'd with these Qualifications here spoken of if you have them rejoice and bless God and come up to Morrow to the House of God and to this Sacrament that they may be confirmed and perfected in you If as yet ye are Strangers to these Qualifications do not resolve to withdraw for that is to continue in your sin and so without God but be ye rather more earnest this Night in acquiring them In so short a time 't is true you cannot bring them to Perfection but you may have them in Sincerity which for the present will be admitted O! rouze up your Faith and let it operate in your Minds besprinkle your selves with the Tears of true Contrition and cleanse your selves with stedfast Purposes of departing from all Iniquity and of keeping ever hereafter the Commandments of God and if you do so you shall go back justified in God's Sight Amen SERMON XII On HOSEA X. 12. Sow to your selves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you THESE words contain a sound and wholsome Advice to a miserable People lying under the weight of God's Anger and threatned with many sad and grievous Judgments The People were Israel the Children of the Ten Tribes with whom God had a Controversie because there was no Truth nor Mercy nor Knowledge of God in the Land They had cast off the Service of the true God and corrupted themselves with the Idolatry Superstition and other Abominations of the Heathen Nations among whom they dwelt For which God's Wrath was kindled against them and this Prophet was sent forth to intimate the Divine Displeasure and how severely it would fall on them But the Divine Threatnings are for the most part like Ionathan's Arrows shot for Warning rather than Destruction In the midst of Wrath he remembers Mercy and when he denounceth War he intends to spare and therefore denounceth it that Men may be awakened to their Duty and so prevent if not the Temporal Evils which they deserve yet their Eternal Ruin which is worst of all Wherefore it is that the Prophet so often intermixeth his Threatnings with Exhortations to Repentance Obedience and seeking the Lord as here in our Text. This Advice has no particularity in it to restrain it to those to whom it was here given but it may very well suit with any other People who are desirous of God's Favour and have reason to fear his Displeasure Nay here is laid down the general and indispensable Conditions on which any People may expect Peace and Reconciliation with God and the sure means of obtaining good things from him and so they are proper to be considered by you at this time Hosea speaks here in Metaphorical terms borrowed from Husbandry which as it is the most ancient Employment of Mankind So according to Cicero it is of all others most becoming and worthy of a Gentleman and hath employed the Pens of the greatest among the Romans and there is a great deal both of Grace and Force in the terms of it to carry the things recommended by the familiar use of them home to the Minds of Men and render them more effectual Upon which account nothing is more