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
B06539	Nicholas Machiavel's letter to Zanobius Buondelmontius in vindication of himself and his writings..	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.; Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.; Wharton, Thomas Wharton, Marquess of, 1648?-1715.	1700 (1700)	Wing W1578; ESTC R186416	17,636	13

writting to the Christians of those times almost in every Epistle commands them to be obedient to the Higher Powers or Magistrates set over them and St. Peter himself from whom this extravagant Empire is pretended to be derived in his first Epistle bids us submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the LORDS sake whether it be to the King or c. and this is enjoyn'd although it is plain that they who govern'd the World in those days were both Heathens Tyrants and Usurpers and in this submission there is no exception or proviso for Ecclesiastical immunity The practice as well as precepts of those Holy Men shews plainly that they had no intention to leave Successors who should deprive Hereditary Princes from their right of Reigning for differing in Religion who without all doubt are by the appointment of the Apostle and by the principles of Christianity to be obeyed and submitted to in things wherein the fundamental Laws of the Government give them power though they were Jews or Gentiles If I should tell you by what Texts in Scripture the Popes claim the powers before mentioned it would stir up your laughter and prove too light for so serious a matter yet because possibly you have never heard so much of this subject before I shall instance in a few They tell you therefore that the Jurisdiction they pretend over the Church and the power of pardoning sins comes from CHRIST to St. Peter and from him to them Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth c. From these two Texts ridiculously applyed comes this great Tree which hath with its branches over-spread the whole Earth and kill'd all the good and wholsome Plants growing upon it The first Text will never by any man of sence be understood to say more than that the Preaching Suffering and Ministry of Peter was like to be a great foundation and Pillar of the Doctrine of Christ the other Text as also another spoken by our Saviour to all his Apostles whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained are all by the primitive Fathers interpreted in this manner wheresoever you shall effectually preach the Gospel you shall carry with you Grace and Remission of sins to them which shall follow your instructions but the people who shal not have these joyful Tidings communicated by you to them shall remain in darkness and in their sins But if any will contest that by some of these last Texts that Evangelical Excommunication which was afterwards brought into the Church by the Apostles was here praesignified by our great Master how unlike were those censures to those now thundered out as he calls it by the Pope these were for edification and not destruction to afflict the flesh for the salvation of the Soul that the Apostolical Ordinance was pronounced for some notorious Scandal or Apostacy from the Faith and first decreed by the Church that is the whole Congregation present and then denounced by the Pastor and reached only to debar such persons from partaking of the Communion or fellowship of that Church till Repentance should re-admit him but was followed by no other prosecution or chastisement as is now practised But suppose all these Texts had been as they would have them how does this make for the Successors of St. Peter or the rest Or how can this prove the Bishops of Rome to have right to such Succession But I make haste from this subject and shal urge but one Text more which is the spiritual man judgeth all men but is himself judged of none from whence is inferred by the Canonists that first the Pope is the Spiritual man and then that he is to be Judge of all the World and last that he is never to belyable to any judgment himself whereas it is obvious to the meanest understanding St. Paul in this text means to distinguish between a person inspired with the Spirit of God and one remaining in the state of Nature which latter he sayes cannot judge of those Heavenly gifts and graces as he explains himself when he sayes The Natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness unto him To take my leave of this matter wholly out of the way of my Studies I shall beg of you Zenobio and of Guilio and the rest of our Society to read over carefully the New Testament and then to see what ground there is for Purgatory by which all the wealth and greatness hath accrew'd to these men what colour for the Idolatrous worship of Saints and their Images and particularly for speaking in their hymes and prayers to a peice of wood the Cross Imean Salve Lignum c. and then fac nos dignos beneficiorum Christi as you may read in that Office what colour or rather what excuse for that horrid unchristian and barbarous Engine called the inquisition brought in by the command and authority of the Pope the inventor of which Peter a Dominican Fryer having been slain amongst the Albigesi as he well deserved is now Cannoniz'd for a Saint and stil'd San Pietro Martine In the dreadfull Prisons of this Inquisition many faithfull and pious Christians to say nothing of honest Moral Moors or Mahometans are tormented and famish'd or if they out-live their sufferings burnt quickly to death and that only for differing in Religion from the Pope without having any crime or the least misdemeanor proved or alledged against them and this is inflicted upon these poor Creatures by those who profess to believe the Scripture which tells us that faith is the gift of God without whose speciall illumination no man can obtain it and therefore is not in reason or humanity to be punished for wanting it And Christ himself hath so clearly decided that point in bidding us let the tares and the wheat grow together till the Harvest that I shall never make any difficulty to call him Antichrist who shall use the least persecution whatsoever agianst any differing in matters of faith from himself whether the person so dissenting be Heretick Jew Gentile or Mahometan Next I beseech you to observe in reading that Holy Book though Christian fasts are doubtless of Divine right what ground there is for enjoying fish to be eaten at least flesh to be abstained from for one third part of the year by which they put the poor to great hardship who not having purses to buy wholsom fish are subjected to all the miseries and diseases incident to a bad and unhealthful dyet whilst the rich and chiefly themselves and their Cardinals exceed Lucullus in their Luxury of Oysters Turbats tender Crabs and Carpioni brought some hundreds of miles to feed their gluttony upon these penetential days of abstinence from Beeff and Pork It may be it