Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bind_v	earth_n	loose_v	5,255	5	10.5190	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63003	An explication of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, with reference to the catechism of the Church of England to which are premised by way of introduction several general discourses concerning God's both natural and positive laws / by Gabriel Towerson ...	Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697.; Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697. Introduction to the explication of the following commandments.	1676 (1676)	Wing T1970; ESTC R21684	636,461	560

Which it will not be hard for him to discern who comes to it with an unprejudic'd Mind For inasmuch as that Society whereof they are Governours is instituted by God for the Conservation of Religion it will follow that the onely Authority to which they can pretend is to extend no farther than to Matters of Religion or what is necessary to the Conservation of it Which makes a strange that the Church of Rome should pretend to a Power of taking away the Civil Rights of Princes or their Subjects especially when he who is Head even of their Head hath so frankly declar'd that his kingdom is not of this world If the Governours of the Church claim any Power of that nature it must be by the Indulgence of Princes and to it they are to ascribe it Again Forasmuch as the Governours of the Church are but the Ministers of him who is the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls whatever Authority they have must be within the Limits of his Discipline who is the Author no less of their Power than it Lastly Forasmuch as that Power which the Governours of the Church have was given for the edification and not for the destruction of those that are to be ruled by it 2 Cor. 10.8 it will follow that that ought to be the Limit of their Commands and consequently also of our Obedience Care onely would be taken that we do not rashly nor indeed without great and manifest reason pronounce of any thing they enjoyn as either not for edification or to the destruction of the Church partly because what is for edification of the Publick is not easily to be judg'd of by Private Persons and partly because there are few things more destructive to the Being of the Church than the dissolution of that Discipline by which it is ty'd together 3. From the Commands of the Governours of the Church as which do for the most part respect things to be done pass we to their Decrees in such Controversies as do arise concerning th●se ●●ings which are to be believ'd where at the same time I shall set down what Authority those our Spiritual Parents may pretend to and what kind of Honour is to be paid by us to it For the resolution whereof I shall no way doubt to affirm first That it is in the Power of those Governours to come to a decision in them and oblige the several Members of the Church not to make any Publick Opposition to them For the Peace of the Church being broken not so much by any thing as by Controversies which may arise concerning those things that are to be believ'd the Governours of the Church to whom the preservation of the Peace thereof is committed must consequently be suppos'd to be furnish'd with such a Power of Decision as shall bind up the several Members thereof from making any Publick Opposition to what they do so decide Which is so reasonable a thing that there is no formed Church in the World which doth not claim such a Power nor any reasonable Man in them which doth not think himself to be so far bound up by it provided the Decision do not entrench upon an Article of Faith nor be impos'd upon ours but recommended as such onely to which Men shall not openly oppose themselves For though it be not lawful for any Man to abjure that which he does believe to be a Truth yet it may be lawful and sometime necessary not to make profession of some Truths if the Peace of the Church be like to be broken by it But beside that the Honour of the Governours of the Church may require an Acquiescence in their Decisions where those Decisions though it may be not exact do not entrench upon an Article of Faith nor are impos'd upon our Belief I do no way doubt but it may also require the exacting a cordial Acknowledgment of them from those that are the Ministers thereof For it being of great importance to the Welfare of the Church that those which are its Teachers should be well perswaded themselves lest as is but too frequent they disperse their Errours among the People it cannot but be thought requisite for those who are the Governours to exact of those Teachers before they be approv'd a cordial Acknowledgment of such Articles of Religion as they shall deem expedient to be publickly profess'd and taught For how shall they otherwise provide for the Welfare of that Church which is committed to their Charge and for which they shall be accountable to Almighty God or those Candidates of the Ministry provide for the Honour of their Governours who shall not be content to make such an Acknowledgment if they do heartily believe the things propos'd or to be excluded from the Office of Teachers if they do not Honour implying an Acknowledgment of all such Power and Authority as is requisite in a Governour for the conservation of that Society over which he is appointed to preside 4. One onely Species of Honour remains of those which are more peculiar to their Function and that is Submission to th Censures of these our Spiritual Parents Of which beside the Admonition of the Author to the Hebrews where he requires us not onely to obey those that have the Rule over us but also to submit our selves a Proof may be fetch'd from the Authority those Governours are invested with of excluding them from the Communion of the Church who shall not shew themselves faithful Members of it For beside that every Member of the Church covenants in Baptism to shew himself a faithful Soldier of Christ Jesus and consequently cannot be thought to have any injury done him if he be debarr'd the Communion of the Church upon the breach of that his Covenant beside that the Scripture doth so far enjoyn it upon particular Persons as to oblige them to withdraw themselves from every Brother that walketh disorderly beside lastly that God hath committed to the Governours of the Church the power of binding and losing and promis'd that what they do so bind and loose on earth shall be bound and loos'd in heaven which the Church of God hath ever understood with reference to the Power of Excommunication and Absolution that Power is no more than necessary for the conservation of the Church in obedience to God and to the wholsom Commands of their Superiours For who will generally be very careful of keeping the Covenants they have made in Baptism if it be not in the Power of the Governours thereof to debar them the Priviledges of that Communion which the more sound Members of the Church enjoy Now forasmuch as it is in the Power of these our Spiritual Parents not onely to command such things as are salutary but to exclude from the Communion of the Church all such as are disorderly walkers if we will give them that Honour which is due to them we must of necessity acquiesce in that their Censure if justly inflicted so long as

God in general or with respect to the Publick one For inasmuch as the Worship of God as well as all other Actions requires some Time for the performance of it and Experience shews that what is left at large for the Time is either very rarely or perfunctorily perform'd there ariseth from thence a necessity of appointing a certain Time that it may not be either altogether omitted or carelesly celebrated when it is not And accordingly as all Nations have agreed in the owning of a God and in their own Obligation to worship him so we find them also universally to have set apart certain Times for the Adoration of that Deity they profess'd to own Not perhaps without some hint from the Tradition of better Times or from the Example of God's peculiar People for even in Natural Precepts the dull Mind of Man may sometime need to be excited by the instigation of others but without doubt for the main out of their own consciousness of the necessity of fixing a certain Time that so it might not either be omitted or carelesly perform'd There is yet another Reason of setting apart a certain Time if we consider it with respect to the Publick Worship and that is That they who are so to worship may know when they are to meet for that purpose For if * 1 Cor. 14.8 the trumpet give none or an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battel or know when as Tertullian ‖ Apol. c. 39. Coimus ad deum quasi manu facta precationibus ambiamus Haec vis deo grata est speaks they are to meet to besiege God and extort from him those Blessings which they need 4. But beside the setting apart of a certain Time for the Celebration of the Worship of God there is also requisite such a Rest from our Employments as may give us the leisure to intend it and free us from distraction in the performance of it For as the Mind of Man cannot at the same time intend Things of so distant a nature as Sacred and Civil are so if there be not some Interval between our Employments and our Devotions the Businesses of the World will be apt to insinuate themselves into our Thoughts and thereby divert us from intending of the other Such are the Substantial Parts of this Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue such their Nature and the Obligation which they induce What the Circumstances thereof are and what their Nature and Obligation is another Question and will therefore require a distinct Consideration PART II. Concerning such Duties as are onely Circumstances of the Precept which do either respect the determination of the Time wherein we are to worship or the manner of the Observation of it That there is no Obligation upon us either from Nature or the present Precept to observe a Just day a Seventh day or that Seventh day which is here prescrib'd The Ancient Christians Observation of the Jewish Sabbath together with their own Lord's-day considered and answered A Transition to the Observation of the Lord's-day where is shewn That much less than a whole day cannot be deem'd a competent Time for the solemn performance of God's Private and Publick Worship That since God exacted of the Jews a Seventh part of their Time we cannot give less who have far greater Obligations to the Almighty and That Christ's Resurrection upon the Lord's-day is as just a Motive to consecrate it unto God as that of God's Resting the Jewish Sabbath The Observation of the Lord's-day founded in the Vniversal Practice of the Church which is there also deduced from the days of the Apostles down to the Times of Tertullian That such a Practice is of force to infer an Obligation partly because declaring the Consent of that Body wherein it is and to which therefore it is but reasonable that particular Men should subject themselves and partly because an Argument of its having been instituted by the Apostles According to that known Rule of St. Augustine That what the Universal Church holdeth and always hath if it appear not that the same was first decreed by Councils is most rightly believ'd to have been delivered by the Authority of the Holy Apostles The Reason why when God gave the Jews so clear a Precept for the Observation of their Sabbath he should leave us who live at so great a distance from the Institution of ours rather to collect it from the Practice of the Apostles and the Church than to read it in some express Declaration II. HAVING shewn in the foregoing Discourse what the Substantial Parts of this Precept are together with the Morality thereof it remains that I proceed to those which are Circumstantial which may be reduc'd to two Heads 1. The Determination of the Time wherein we are to Worship And 2. The Manner of the Observation of it 1. In the handling of the former whereof I will proceed in this Method 1. I will inquire whether the Determination of the Time according as it is here fix'd be directly obligatory to us Christians 2. Whether if not any thing may be inferr'd from it toward the establishing of the Lord's-day and by what it is further to be strengthned 3. To which I shall add in the third place an Account of other Christian Festivals and shew their Lawfulness Usefulness and the Esteem wherein they ought to be held 1. Now there are three things which this Commandment prescribes concerning the Time of the Solemn Worship of God That it be a Day That it be a Seventh day and That it be that Seventh day on which the Jewish Sabbath fell or Saturday Concerning each of which I will particularly inquire Whether they are morally or otherwise obligatory to us Christians And first If the Question be concerning a Day according as the Jews reckon'd it and as they were commanded to observe their Sabbaths * Lev. 23.32 that is to say of that space of Time which is between the Evening of the foregoing Artificial Day and the Evening of the following one so no Reason appears either from Nature or otherwise why such a Day should be look'd upon as obligatory to us Christians For be it that that Account is most agreeable to the Order of Nature in which as the first Chapter of Genesis assures us Darkness had the precedency of Light and accordingly had the precedency both in the Scriptures and the Jews Account Be it secondly as was before insinuated that the Jews were oblig'd so to reckon their Sabbaths as the foremention'd Precept and their own Practice shew Yet as no Reason in Nature can be given why the Worship of God should begin rather with the Evening than the Morning according as it constantly doth with us so that this Commandment binds not such a Day upon us the perpetual Practice of the Church and the Occasion of that Festival we weekly observe shew For the First day of the Week or Lord's-day being set apart by the Church in