Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	canon_n	council_n	nice_a	2,852	5	10.4936	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56746	A practical discourse of repentance rectifying the mistakes about it, especially such as lead either to despair or presumption ... and demonstrating the invalidity of a death-bed repentance / by William Payne ...	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1693 (1693)	Wing P907; ESTC R35391	226,756	585

would never receive them again into their Communion thereby to fright all persons from all false and cowardly compliances in those times of danger and persecution but afterwards the Church was forced to abate of this rigour which had made such Disturbances and occasioned those great Schisms of the Novatians and Donatists There were other Sins also for which the guilty Penitents were excluded from all Communion to the last in those purer and severer Ages as Murder Adultery and those Unnatural Lusts which they call'd Monstra these were never admitted to Pardon and Absolution of the Church as appears by the Canons of those antient Councils of Eliberis Arle and Ancyra and by the Writings of Tertullian and others and the opposition made in Africa to the Decree of Pope Zephyrine and by the milder Canons of the Council of Nice afterwards but all this was only prudential and an external Discipline in foro humano which the Church altered according to its Discretion but they did not deny all Pardon with God for those Sins upon Repentance nor utterly cut them off from all hopes in another World but allowed God could pardon them tho' not the Church that they might be forgiven though not in this World yet in the World to come according to that Jewish Notion that though there were no Sacrifices nor ordinary means of Expiation for some Sins yet that God would forgive them hereafter Secondly That Sins are Pardoned after Baptism as well as before is plain from the Incestuous Corinthian who though he had committed such a Sin as was not usual among the Gentiles and was to be put out of the Church and to be delivered unto Satan for it yet this was not to cut him off from Pardon and Salvation but as a better means to bring him to both it was only for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord 1 Cor. 5.5 And this sure was the design of those severe and long Penances in the Primitive Church whereby tho' they excluded Sinners from the benefits of Communion and means of Grace yet it was not to bereave them of all hopes of Pardon and consign them irreversibly to Damnation but to beget a greater terrour and dread of Sin and to make their Repentance for it more compleat and perfect and so by those present Judgments and Severities here to prevent their Eternal Condemnation hereafter for this ought to be the Rule and Measure of all Church Power and Discipline it ought to be for Edification not for Destruction and they could not miss of this The Spirit of God writes to the Church of Ephesus which were a company of Baptized Christians to Remember from whence they were fallen and Repent and do their first works Rev. 2.5 And St. Paul threatens the Christians at Corinth to bewail and correct those which had sinned and not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness they had committed 2 Cor. 12.21 but does not denounce that they were unpardonable Sad would it be if all wilful Sins were so after Baptism this would make Christianity a more terrible and severe dispensation than the Law and put us in a worse condition than we were without it and no Man would then be Baptized till he was a Clinic and near dying and going out of the World but Baptism puts us into a state of Pardon and the Grace and the Vertue of it continues all our lives and if we sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2.1 and his Mediation will upon our Repentance procure Pardon at Gods hands at all times for us Thirdly I shall next consider Sins of Relapse when a Person after Sorrow and Repentance for a Sin yet falls into it again and repeats it after he has resolved against it and been convicted of the heinousness of it now this is a sad case and shows the power of his Lusts and the weakness of Religion upon a Mans Mind and no Man who is in this state can be said to Repent He is no more got rid of his Sins than a Man is of a Feaver because it intermits sometimes and he is well by intervals but his Fits return again upon him which shows that the Disease is still in his Blood as the other's Relapses do that sin still reigns in him because he obeys it in the Lusts thereof A Man in the beginning of his Repentance from some habitual Sins may not get rid immediately of all his Evil Customs and Sinful Inclinations but they may sometimes draw him back again and sometimes master and overcome him and he may rally again and recover himself and at last vanquish them Now whilst this Conflict lasts and 't is uncertain which side will get the better and have the final victory no judgment can be made of a Mans state because the issue is doubtful and uncertain He is fighting and striving for his Life for his Soul and for Heaven and he may by his own care and endeavours and by the assistance of Heaven conquer and overcome his Sins and to him that overcometh God will give of the tree of life Rev. 2.7 but if he is overcome by them he is a slave of Sin and a captive of the Devil and a child of Hell and heir of Damnation but what shall a Man do who has often thus relapsed into Sin after his most serious Vows and Resolutions against it are his Sins against those unpardonable and is there no hopes for him I Answer by no means if he can but recover himself from them and after all attempts at last get rid of them and bring forth the contrary fruits of Repentance and Obedience I confess such an one ought to suspect himself and to suspect his Repentance till by many tryals he has made it good and confirmed it and he ought to be doubly watchful over himself and to take heed least Sin enter again at any of those weak places at which it used to have admittance and to fortifie himself against all those temptations and opportunities that used to betray him to it and therefore to keep his Mind to a close sense of Religion and to a careful use of all the Means and Instruments of it and to beg earnestly of Heaven Grace proportionable to his needs and then if it be not his own fault it will certainly be sufficient for him But such Relapses though they are not quite hopeless nor put a Man into a condition that is desperate yet they are very dangerous they grieve Gods Holy Spirit they give a new Wound to our Consciences they make the old Wound that was healed bleed afresh and render it more difficult to be cured again and more ready to mortifie and become incurable they bring the Mind to a weakness and unsteadiness and irresolution and to have no power or command over it self but let its good Purposes and Principles be bore down by a weak Lust or