Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	earth_n	heaven_n	loose_v	6,038	5	10.6252	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52110	Lex Pacifica, or, Gods own law of determining controversies explain'd and asserted in a sermon preached at Dorchester at the Assizes holden there for the county of Dorset, August 5, 1664 / by John Martin ...	Martin, John, 1619-1693.	1664 (1664)	Wing M843; ESTC R31215	24,813	40

reputation and advantages of his Religion by the like design whose Priests always sit with the secular Magistrates their Alcoran or Scripture after the manner of the ancient Councils lying before them as if all were done by an infallible rule and the judgment were Gods But it almost exceeds belief in what veneration and power that Order of men was in this Land for some hundreds of years after this Nation had received the Faith and that not by any precarious favour of Princes or by an ignorant fondness of the People but establisht their honour was by Law by which every Priest was accounted Thani rectitudine dignus as appears by the a Can ult de Wer●gildis i. e. cap tum aestimati●nibus Vid. S. H. Spelman in epist ad Reg. Jac. ib. Laws of King Ethelstan a respect which I shall neither arrogantly nor unseasonably communicate unto vulgar ears The reason whereof is not only that which our learned Antiquarie gives us in his English Councils Quippe sub his saeculis apud ipsos solum esset literarum clavis c. because the learning of that age was wholly ignorss'd by some of the Clergy the Priest being the Oracle of the People as the Bishops were of the King and Kingdom but there is another and perhaps a stronger reason to be collected out of those words in one of King b Si quis arrogans pro Episcopi justitia e●●ndare noluerit Episcopu● Regi notum faciat Rex au●ë constringat mal●facto ē ut emendat cui soris secerit scil pr●mum Episcopo deind sibi sic erunt ibi duo gladii gladius gladium juv●b●t H●veden Annal. par post Hen. 2. p 6●● n. 50. Edit Savil. Edwards Laws gladius gladium juvabit from the reciprocate assistances of the temporal and spiritual swords Christians then believing that there was as much credit to be given unto those as to any other words of our Saviour Mat. 18.18 Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven But this honour and power together with the immunities of the Church sub Normannicis Regibus nutare coepit says that c Sir H. S. ib. Author and in the Council of Clarendon under Henry the second they received a grievous wound which hath more or less continued bleeding ever since and t is to be fear'd would have done so till the spirits of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction had been clean exhausted if Experience which is sometimes the Mistress of wise men as well as of fools had not bound up the wound with a probatum est No Bishop No King I speak not this as if I thought it either convenient or necessary that the Clergy should concern themselves in matters of civil Judicature Pity it were that so active and learned a Gentry as this Nation is wont to produce should betwixt doing nothing and doing ill which would be the certain consequent of that other design degenerate from the worth and lustre of their Ancestors that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or power of self-Government which the Primitive Church did exercise and for which some men of late did so much struggle and contend though it cannot be denied to be lawful yet was it cumbersome and in many cases uneffectual It could not stand with the Reputation of the Church of Christ to make appeals unto the Heathen Emperors as the d B●ls ex Eu seb Synod Antioch in P●●●● n. Council of Antioch was fain to do under the affronts they received from Samosatenus the Heretick after they had deprived him Nor have the Popes themselves been wholly exempt from the like exigents as appears by one instance for all by the supplicatory Epistle of Pope e Voel tom r. p. 213 B●● ad A● Chr. 419. Boniface to the Emperor Honorius in the case of Schism between the Popes themselves So unuseful if not unsafe will be St. Peters Keys though hanging at the Pope's own girdle if they should lock up Caesar's sword The sober and learned Clergy of this Church must needs know that the Spiritual Jurisdiction stands in need of the temporal power and that the Miter is only safe under the shadow of the Crown Happy then it is for us that Ecclesiastical Dominion can derive it self into the same fountain from whence descends the temporal authority and that like f Ps 85.10 Righteousness and Peace the two Jurisdictions can kiss each other in the Arms of Soveraignty that among us 't is all one to be our King and to be the Defender of the Faith that the Sword is joyn'd to the Word and the Judge to the Priest This Constellation of Power as it is a Prognostick of security and happiness to men of temperate spirits so will it prove a terrible Omen to such as despise Dominion and leave their heady practises to the Censure of just Laws which are the true Standard whereby to measure the crimes of Offenders and not the Opinions of Ignorant and prejudicate men which leads me to the second integrant part of this Law Censura Legis 2. Such hath been the policy of Satan that taking advantage of the ignorance prejudice interest and vices of men he hath sent some sins up and down the world like spies with false names that might not cause men to distrust and avoyd them they were not only carnal but spiritual wickednesses which have wandered about in this disguise compassing the world like him whose emissaries they are not only pravae but Piae fraudes have on all hands cheated men of their pretious souls stellicidia mellis de Lebacunculo venenato as Tertullian speaks the Devil having poysoned the Limbecks from whence men hoped to have suckt most soveraign Elixars and dealt with the world as Praxiteles the Statuary in g Clem. Alex●d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 29. Posidippus did with the foolish Heathen made his own Darlings to be worshipt by mens fancies instead of a Deity But as the judgement of God is according to truth in punishing sinners so are the sins of men exactly recorded by Him in his Doomsday-book at the approach of those everlasting burnings Drunkenness will not then be called good fellowshp nor uncleanness a trick of youth nor cheating a trick of wit nor pride decency nor oppression self-preservation nor Rebellion honesty nor faction Godliness nor Sedition standing for the truth nor superstition devotion nor Sacrilege reformation How light soever it may seem to some in these days to reject the just commands of our Lawful Superiours in Church and State yet ab initio non fuit sic and how it came to pass that that which was so g●ievous a crime among the Jews Gods own people too should be transform'd into an heroick Virtue among Christians will want some Oedipus to unty the knot The Scripture it self bears witness of the hainousness of this Sin allotting it a place among sins of

is that it is injustice in them to make Laws that have punishments annext unto them disproportionate to the offence committed especially in the excess and from hence it is that we account it but ſ Quoties poenam mortis imponebat transgressoribus alicujus legis materiam ill●us legis suisse gravem de se susficientem ad peccatum mortale significat Scot. in 4. d. 1. q 6. Sic Aug l. 2. de Bapt c 6. reasonable to conjecture what is the quality of the crime by the nature of the punishment inflicted upon offenders the crime here is contempt the punishment's death gravis poena sed ad vitandum periculum omnium gravissimum saith the learned and experienced t ad locum Grotius a great punishment but t is inflicted for prevention of the greatest mischief in the world you will believe him if you please to reflect upon the fourth and last integrant part of this Law the Ratio finalis legis the end why God made this Law and secured it from the approches of the foot of pride by so severe a punishment and that was for prevention of Schism exprest here Antonomasticus the evil and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel 4. Schism in the proper notion of it seems to me to be a thing not known to the Heathen world u Serm 11. de verb. Domini S. Augustine indeed and x Lib. cont Gent. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. S. Athanasius tells us of many bloudy quarrels that hapned amongst them concerning their Idolatrous worship but methinks there should be no Schism at least not properly any where there is neither truth nor Church But with Sedition the younger Sister of Schism for Schism seems to be as old as that bloudy quarrel betwixt Cain and Abel the Heathen were so well acquainted that Thucydides gives this true Character of the Monster 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she it is that hath brought forth mischiefs of all shapes and sizes in the World And Schism cannot but be thought so much the more Superiour to Sedition in the production of mischiefs by how much the more fierce all quarrels and contentions are that spring out of different opinions in Religion and further dissentions of this kind have above all others the strongest appetite of propagation Agressours in factions of religion labouring to have their names and opinions serve to that same end as Zisca when he died appointed for his skin who being Leader of the Taberites a faction in Bohemia commanded that a Drum should be made therewith as Dubravius and others tell us that something of Zisca might still be heard to sound in the Ears of his followers and their enemies I shall not burthen your patience by prosecuting the common place of Schism with infinite authorities out of the Fathers setting forth the grievousness of this sin it was the due consideration hereof that made a 22 e q 39.2.3 m. Aquinas to affirm Schism to be the greatest of all sins against our Neighbour and that not only respectu circumstantiarum in respect of the many circumstances and accidents that attend it but likewise respectu speciei in regard of its own nature because it is the most contrary to Charity and the love of our Neighbour for it is contra spirituale bonum multitudinis as he speaks it is against the spiritual good of a multitude so that we may say of Schism as the * 1 Sam. 18.7 Women of Israel sang of David if other sins like Saul kill by thousands Schism like David kills by ten thousands at a time The Apostle in his Epistles calls it Heresy and if noscitur ex sociis be a good Topick you may judge what kind of sin it is by the company amongst which you will find it Gal. 5.19 b D Praescrip● adv Haret l. 1 c 6. Tertullian says that word comes from a Greek Verb signifying to choose so that he makes Schismaticks and Hereticks to be such as will choose for themselves The true definition is t is a voluntary departure from the government of our lawful Superiours and a refusal to communicate with our fellow-members with a design of drawing followers after us This is that poysoned Arrow which the Romanists would fain dart into the sides of the Church of England and therefore make the formal reason of Schism to consist in a voluntary departure from the Pope as being Christs c Bell. lib. 2. de Ro Pont. c. 12 Vicar here on earth but non haeret lateri lethalis arundo we are yet to be convinc'd that the Pope is Christs Vicar here on Earth though we will not deny him to be St. Peters successour in Rome And as for our voluntary departure from a dependency on that Church we have done no more but asserted that just right we had to govern and by consequence to reform our selves by the 28. Canon of the fourth General Council wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal privileges with Rome were granted unto Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so d O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alex. Arist in Synops Can. 28. Alexius Aristinus truly abbreviates that canon because the seat of the Empire was transferr'd from Rome to Constantinople how much rather do the like equal privileges belong to us who have not only translated the seat but the Empire too I mean of our selves from that City of whose vast Dominion this Island was sometimes a part But I return This is that sin which God designed this Law to prevent as a most intolerable evil for without a power to determine Controversies that should arise amongst a seeking and scrupulous party it is not in the power of man to do it And being therefore that it is Gods manner e Grot. ad lo● res humanas conservare modis humanae naturae congruentibus to conserve the affairs of men by ways means agreeable to mans nature and being that others besides the State and Church of the Jews are liable to the like distempers and confusions we may reasonably conceive it not unfit to be examined whether this Law may not be revived by Supreme Authority which is my second Disquisition 2. The Respect of the directive part of this Law is all that we inquire after for as for the coercive part thereof we re-inforce it not hoc nunc agit in Ecclesia Excommunicatio quod agebat tunc interfectio Excommunication among Christians saith f Quaest sup D ut lib. 5. c. 38. S. Augustine in many cases commutes for temporal death under the Law and let this be one of them But for the directive part of this Law why it may be revived by Supreme Authority there be these Reasons producible and fit to be soberly weigh'd by all that have a true Christian temper of mind in them 1. First because the same thing was put in practise by the Apostles themselves for prevention of the same evil Acts.