Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	contain_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	3,092	5	9.5661	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30444	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall on the 29th of May, 1694, being the anniversary of King Charles II, his birth and restauration by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing B5901; ESTC R4125	16,733	36

wonder as well as the envy of the World for while other Nations have either foolishly thrown up and abandoned their Liberties or have been forcibly deprived of them and see no remedy we have ours not only preserved but secured by fresh explanations and provisions All this put together ought to make us consider the great value of that unspeakable blessing which God is so signally recommending to us by those happy Providences which accompany it If we could examin it in it self without those blessed consequences we should see cause enough to value it highly or if we could compare our own condition with either the Heathen Nations that are utter strangers to it or those degenerated Christians that have corrupted it so as to be but little better than Heathenism it self then we might be able to form a truer judgment of that happiness which we enjoy in it I confess as the far greater part use it there is no great account to be had of it if it is only a set of Notions how true soever they may be and a circle of some forms in which we go always round without making any progress then tho our Religion may be less burdensome and imposing than some others yet after all it can be no great matter it self but if this Gospel and these Laws of God are means intended by him for the greatest ends fitted for them and capable of procuring them to us if they by their own efficiency are capable of making us not only happy in another world but even happy in this life happy in our selves and happy in another if they tend to make a Nation great in general and every individual of it both great in himself and great in his usefulness to mankind then we may justly Glory in our Religion and in those judgments of his mouth with which God hath blessed us and whatever advantages the Iews had reason to reckon themselves under by their Laws beyond the Nations round about them these will appear to belong much more eminently to us when we compare our selves with the corrupted state of Christianity that prevails in so many Kingdoms not far from us The Iews were by the Laws of Moses delivered from all that Idolatry and Magick those superstitious and barbarous rites that had over-run Heathenism from the cruelty of offering up humane Sacrifices nay and their own Children too to those false Gods whom they served They worshipped the host of Heaven Sun Moon and Stars high Hills great Stones ancient Oaks the founders of Nations and inventers of Arts they had Images and Statues to resemble the Divinity and believed that a company of extravagant rites had in them by the Charms they used with them strange and sublime vertues Those Deities they appeased with a variety of oblations which they believed were acceptable to them these were managed with much Pomp and at a vast charge an exactness in them they thought pleased the Deity as much as a failure therein provoked it and they had a variety of Gods for several Countries and Professions a special Deity belonged to every occasion How happy then might the Iews reckon themselves who saw through all those vain imaginations and knew that there was but one only God the supream Lord of all things a pure mind and therefore capable of no bodily representation and so sublime a Being that what Sacrifices and Rites soever he appointed yet admitted of no humane Sacrifices and had limited his appointments within such bounds that all Superstition was cut off Now if these Characters of the Heathenish and Jewish Religion are applied to the present State of Christendom it will appear that we have the same reason to value our Religion that the Iews had to value theirs There is a Communion of Christians whose Churches are full of Corporeal representations of that which they adore those Statues have all such Ornaments about them and such adorations paid them as the Heathens were accustomed to Many created beings have all the acts of worship such as Prayers Praises Incence burnt bodily adoration Churches built Sacraments used for their honour and even that Sacrament which is no less than the immediate object of the highest degrees of worship among them Thus if ever there was or if there can be Idolatry in the world they are guilty of it All those pretended vertues that by their benedictions they give out that they put on holy water Agnus Dei's with all the train of those consecrated things with which they entertain the credulity and the misled Devotion of their People is either Imposture or Charm In the cost of these and of the other invented parts of worship particularly their Processions another rite of heathenism there is no measure put to the Pomp and Magnificence with which they study to adorn them It is true they have no humane Sacrifices in the strictest sense but no Religion ever taught the shedding so much human blood nor made that so main a piece of Religion of such merit so certainly and so highly rewarded as they have done of which both the last and the present Age have received too sensible and too demonstrative a conviction What reason then have we to value our Religion which has so entirely freed us from such excesses and corruptions since Idolatry does vitiate Religion in its Source and Fountain it debasing the Idea of God and bringing us to fancy him to be something like our selves We own him to be a pure mind that can be represented by no bodily figure We worship him in a sp●ritual manner in acts and forms suitable to his nature We worship him only and pay no adorations to Angels or Saints nor have we invented any parts of worship besides those of his own appointment We teach and practice Charity to Enemies even to those who hate us and who we kn●w would persecute us if it were in their power Another Consideration on which the Iews had just reason to value their Religion was because it was fixed and stated in the Books of Moses no additions could b● made to it unless God had sent a Prophet on a special Commission with particular Credentials their Priests had not as the Heathens Books in their hands that were kept as secrets which the people might not see and which they might vouch for any additions with which they loaded them as oft as it served their ends A written Law which every man might read as well as the Priests was a vast security against fraud and Impositions Upon the same account we have just reason to set a high value upon our Religion since it can be neither more nor less than what is contained in the Scriptures we have no Article in reserve for which as oft as we please Tradition may be vouched We have no infallible tribunal to coin new Articles or impose new Doctrines upon the pain of Anathemas and Extirpation How great that Tyranny is and how unbounded is easily enough imagined when a