Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95843	The supreme povver of Christian states vindicated against the insolent pretences of Guillielmus Apollonii, or A translation of a book intituled, Grallæ, seu vere puerilis cothurnus sapientiæ, &c. Or, the stilts, or most childish chapin of knowledge upon which William Appolonius of Trever, and minister of the church of Middleburgh boasts, among such as are ignorant, in his patcht rhapsodies, which hee set forth concerning supreame power and jurisdiction in matters of religion. Against the book of the most famous Dr. Nicholaus Vedelius, intituled Of the episcopacy of Constantine the Great.; Grallæ. English.	Vedel, Nicolaus, 1596-1642,	1647 (1647)	Wing V168; Thomason E388_5; ESTC R201503	255,312	305

bragges that this right remaines onely for him as being Peters successor and so commonly his subjects beleeve But this is an impudent lye fit for Antichrist Our Apellonians doe indeed convince the Pope of sacriledge for his bragging thus and yet they themselves are more impudently puffed up with this power of the Keyes For they confesse and in effect prove that they cannot preach infallibly and yet they cry out that he is guilty of sacriledge who doubts of their possessing their Key now Which impudency is farre greater then that of the Pope For he assumes to himselfe the right of opening heaven because he saith that he hath an infallible Key and truly Apostolicall But these will have the same right ascribed to them and yet doe confesse that they are not infallible Although hee bee an Impostor who promiseth to open the Treasure making shew of having that Key which hee hath not yet hee is a more impudent Impostor who cries out that hee will open the Treasure and yet confesseth that either he hath no Key or if he shewes any Key it is so unfit and rusty that it cannot open the Lock For because the moderne preaching Key wants true spirituality which is the infallibility of truth it is to be accounted a dead body or like a Clock which is moved about with wheels But these are set on work by the weight of honour and gain No otherwise can wee think of the Judiciall or Censoriall Key which in the Apostles by reason of their gifts and power was alwayes just and effectuall For they had a most divine certitude of Judicature so that they conferred Heaven upon none nor debarred any from it but by a sure knowledge and revelation so that assuredly Heaven was shut against them whom they bound and whose sins were retained on earth and it was certainly opened to them whom they loosed and pardoned It is sufficiently evident that these gifts and power were in the Apostles All which as most rare and exceeding humane reach were promised to the Apostles under the power of the Keyes which is apparent to all who will not shut their eyes wilfully against the light of truth Whence it is cleare that the Keyes are terminated in the Apostles because those conditions with the gifts which I spoke and which make up the Jurisdiction of the Keyes are ceased with them So with as great right they make the Apostles Office permanent and perpetuall in the Church as the use of these heavenly Keyes So that it is frivolous and ridiculous for Apolonius and the Pope to bragge so much of the power of the Keyes as though hee had power to shut and open heaven to binde and loose on Earth what is bound and loosed in Heaven Whereas hee knowes not whom he shall certainly shut out of heaven or shut in And oftentimes perversly hee looseth and judgeth worthy of heaven whom God bindeth and shutteth out of heaven And contrarily he excludes from heaven whom God thinkes worthy of Heaven so that he who compares the vizard of our moderne Censure and Excommunicacion to that of the Apostles seemes no otherwise to play the foole then the Jewes did who were wont to prate strange things of the sanctity of their Temple and fought for the honour thereof against Titus till they were destroyed And yet they might have known had they not been blind that that was not the old Temple of Solomon because it wanted Urim and Thummim and all the benefites of Divine presence and assistance which made up the particular sanctity of that Temple But there seemes to bee a plainer place Matth. 18.17 Tell the Church and if hee heares not the Church let him bee to thee as a Publican and Heathen In which words they say Christ hath given to the Church Judiciall Ecclesiastick power of excommunication which at this day is in use both amongst the old and new Papists The vanity of this conceit will bee easily seen if wee doe but observe that Christ in these words doth not instruct his Disciples as they were to be the over-seers and Rulers of the Church but onely taught ordinary things which are common to all Christians by the right of fraternity according to that generall Rule given to all by GOD Deuter. 17.19 Thou shalt not hate thy brother but sharply reprove him neither shalt thou suffer any evill in him Which Law CHRIST here sheweth must be kept not onely when a brother shall offend God or others but then also when he wrongs us which brotherly duty Christ will have wisely to bee exercised and with moderation lest this reproofe may seem to proceed from revenge or evill words by which the mind of the injuring brother may bee exasperated hee will have the brothers offence to be covered and not to be divulged but will have the difference to be taken up in private between brother and brother by two other brothers whose admonitions if the offending brother slight Christ permits not that the brother offended shall forsake the brother offending but then will have the brothers offence brought out in publicke that it may be made known to all the Church not to stirre up all odiously against him but that they might save him and that he who could not be brought to concord by the reproofe of one or more brothers may be brought to it by the admonitions of some in the Church or all Which endeavour of the Church being brotherly and charitable if the offending brother goe on to contemne the offended brother is not onely permitted but also commanded to esteem of the other at a Publican and Heathen that is that he shall have no private commerce with him as the Apostle describes and declares this act 1 Cor. 5.9.11 and 2 Thess 3.6.14 For Christ alludes to the custome that then was among the Jewes and of which we have already spoken Hence now it appeares that the old and new Papists have shamefully corrupted this place in turning this brotherly and charitable duty into an authoritative and judiciall Office and very insolently have appropriated the word CHURCH to the Rulers and Over-seers of the Church onely Tell the Church that is saith the Papist tell the Bishop which is truly a foolish interpretation unworthy of refutation Tell the Church that is say our new Papists tell the Rulers of the Church which is an unaccustomed acception of this word For they cannot produce one place out of Scripture in which the word CHURCH is appropriated to the Rulers onely I know the Walachrian Stilt-Walker babbles much every where of the Church representative and that the word Church is given to the Rulers thereof because they represent the Church But because hee learned this not out of Scripture but out of Popish writings the inventors of this I answer him briefly That to him who sayes much and proves nothing of right no priviledge belongs which as it is true in humane things so much more in Divine and sacred matters Whence I now

be made a tormenter of mens consciences which serves to preserve and confirme Faith and to comfort afflicted consciences and son these ends was ordained by God I hope you will bear with us patiently if in this we differ from you And a little after In the second held there is yet a greater difficulty for though we know that one should be excluded yet wee see no reason why he upon his repentance should bee longer suspended from the Communion for seeing the Lords Supper is a publike thanksgiving and belongs to the Confession of Faith we thinke it a hard case that a Christian should be forbidden to doe that which in it selfe is just holy and a Christians chiefe duty you rely upon that place Matth. 18. of which much may be said but for brevities sake I forbeare But let us yeeld that such an excommunication is there commanded yet by that place can be meant no longer time then till he confesse his repentance and acknowledging his fault desire reconciliation with the Church For he that said Let him be to thee as a Publican and Heathen the same commands us to forgive our offending brother seventy times seven times by which precept there the Church is bound I hope you will not deny for there also you will say Excommunication is handled For why should the Church which consists only of Christians be more rigid in punishing of offences then becomes private men Or by what reason shall she call him a stranger from the Lords Family whom the Lord himselfe of the Family hath received into grace We would faine see some example to prove that God will not presently receive converted Penitents Did not that prodigall sonne publikely offend against his Father his elder Brother the whole Family yea against heaven it selfe Did not he give scandall both at home abroad yet upon his repentance and confession of his sinne his Father presently pardons him restores him to his former dignity honours him being restored with the ring of reconciliation and for him will have that fat Calfe killled that hee might feast and rejoyce with his whole Family Why then should we debarany longer from that joyfull and saving feast of the Church those that make the same confeshon with her why then should we exact new satisfactions But there is danger you 'l say least they counterfeit repentance I confesse it But shall we avoid this danger if whole yeares they be kept off from the Communion Truly no length of time will reclaime a wicked Hypocrite Neither let us feare to be deceived whilest we imitate God the Fathers Gentlenesse If Hypocrites deceive us it s to their own danger they will to themselves eate and drinke damnation we shall be blamelesse But I beseech you Brother may not we our selves bee deceived and in our rash zeale exclude him from the Supper who being truly converted Christ feedes with his owne body and bloud How unfitting is it to cast him into a new sorrow whom the Sonne of God will have to rejoyce in him How shall we excuse that rigidnesse in rejecting him whom the Lord receiveth into his armes Here surely we may fear lest wee be found companions of that naughty servant who having obtained mercy of his Master used his fellow servant hardly c. And shortly after what you write concerning setting up of Presbyteries in Churches we will easily admit where there is no Christian Magistrate For some there must be by whose authority they may be contained in their duty who are apt to offend lest Religion bee exposed to scorn among strangers But under Christian Princes this care will bee fitter and safer committed to them who sit at the sterne of Government And I know not how safe it may be to create a new Magistrateship for many inconveniences may follow which are tedious now to renearse But this I cannot dissemble in the Palatinate the greatest scandals fell out by the fault of the Elders erected there And who I pray will endure such censures hereafter who suffered the Sicilian an impure Sodomite and a most pestiferous calumniator to escape unpunished that hee might not be drawne before the lawfull Judges For they thought it fit to proceede slowly that they might be the Judges of that m●tter Upon this reason an Italian one well knowne to you and a good man excused them when I objected this example to him Now what is it to claime the Magistrates office to themselves i● this be not Mans ambition truly is unsatiable and few are found who grow not insolent upon any power committed to them And if we will look upon ancient stories we shall finde that the greatest and most dangerous scandals of the Church proceeded from the Bishops and other Ministers which wee may now see in Germany among the Lutheran superintendants who think they may do any thing being armed with too much power but what shal we hope of them who in Heydelberg plead this cause This one boldnesse doth suff●ciently admonish us by which they accuse all men of Atheisme that will not subscribe to their opinion and indeed such men as excell in faith doctrine and holinesse of life If then we feare least a new tyrannie be set up in the Church upon these principles who will say our fear is without cause But as I wrote else-where wee will not hinder them to enjoy their own meaning who thinke they can profitably use this forme of Discipline We only tell them this that they must not goe about to put or to thrust the same shooe upon every mans foot and for a point yet in controversie and whose forme cannot bee every where the same pull the Churches asunder and by making new controversies make themselves ridiculous to the common-enemy To this purpose serves that which Bullinger wrote in a certain Epistle to Peter Dathenus where amongst many other passages he writes thus What we think and what we have ever thought of Churches discipline you cannot be ignorant whereas we have briefly touched it in that confession of the Helvetian Churches but lately published wee never taught that there should bee no Church Discipline at all which we confesse to be needful Concerning the manner and way of this Discipline all men are not nor have not been of the same opinion Our Church never mingled Christs mysticall Supper with Church-Discipline neither hath she been for ought I know therefore accused of impiety by any one neither had we ever a Presbytery or any such Ecclesiastick Senate which examined Communicants or admitted to the Communion or excluded from it sinners those I mean who by their comming to the Supper after serious and grave admonitions do as it were promise amendment of life and desire to give thankes with all their hearts for their redemption We think that wicked men and such as offend the Church should be curbed some other way and amended For we suppose and believe that the Lords supper was instituted by him not to be a Fan

members keepers and nursing fathers of the Church Hence we see how much the Stilt-walker is deceived in thinking Magistrates to be excluded from Church-affaires in this place because of the word Church seeing in the most significations of this word Church the Magistrate is included onely one that excludes him which is not onely devised but is not plainely expressed by Christ how vaine then is this his argument wherein he so much prides himselfe Christ gave this power to the Church but the Magistrate is not the Church for if hee deludes us under the collective name of the Church represented or representing then we grant that the Magistrate is not the Church but so neither is Apollonius the Church except he will call himself the Pope and so this power belongs no more to Apollonius then to the Magistrate but if he speak of the Church as it is indefinitely used by Christ then he cannot make it appeare that Ministers alone are more comprehended under this word then Magistrates alone because both are parts of the Church and the Magistrate in respect of his judicatory power the more excellent part The other error is that out of these words tell the Church the old Papists beat out by a strange paraphrase the whole building of the huge papall Hierarchie as if they would shew that the Pope is Judge of all controversies between Kings the donor and distributer of Lands the Monarch of all Monarchs the infallible censurer and poler of all Nations the dispenser of all wickednesse in others and in himselfe all this they think Christ established in these words tell the Church The Stilt-walker instructed in the same Catechisme out of these words tell the Church doth almost draw out every thing to wit that the Magistrates must not meddle with Church-matters and that they are not within but about and without the Church that they have no power of Vocation making of Lawes or decisive censuring of Ministers but that all these belong solely to Ministers who in this are free and immediately depending on Christ and no way depending on the Magistrate so that if they should faile in their life and manners yet the Magistrate if he be a pious son must not presently rise up against the Minister his Father but he must first wink at his vices and then except in some few cases must not punish him but onely he must procure that Church-men as being specially holy punish the specially holy Minister which is as likely that these Walachrians will do as if you should make Elephants clear one another of their Leprofie These and much more doth he conclude out of these three words tell the Church but indeed this is to make a beame of a mote I rather say that Christ in this place ordained nothing else but that a brother who is willing to be reconciled to his brother which is unwilling should and may for ending the controversie implore the Churches help and in this case the Church ought to help him But what I pray is this for grounding that huge Hierarchie of the Church that she must have absolute power of consecrating excommunicating commanding and such like for if the words following if he heare not the Church let him be to thee as a Publican and Heathen ordain the right of excommunication then Christ bestowes it not there on the Church but on the brother who desires to be reconciled For he doth not say let the Church account or declare that brother for a Publican and Heathen but let him be to thee a Publican and Heathen c. that is as a brother thou may esteem him for a Publican c. if this signifieth to excommunicate then Christ gave the power of excommunication not to the Church but to every private brother that I wonder so proud a Divine should so carelesly weigh his owne lawes out of which he drawes so many priviledges One lie more there rests in this Argument to be shewed in saying that Ministers are immediately subject to Christ and depend from him whence he concludes that they are not subject to the Magistrate but this is a meer fiction for I will aske how shall we know this for I never read it in Scripture he will say that Christ is the immediate Anthor of the Church power because he gave the keyes to the Church he said tell the Church and he gave Apostles Prophets c. out of all which it is manifest that the office or as he calls it the Church power is immediately ordained by Christ I confesse this is truly said of the Church functions and it is no lesse true of the civill power which Christ the Mediator also immediatly established saying give to Caesar what is Caesars to God what is Gods especially when by Paul he hath declared Magistrates to be his Legates and hath subjected to them the Ministers for conscience sake so that now the Civill power depends as well immediately from Christ as the Ecclesiastick But how will hee hence prove that all who use this power that is Ministers and Preachers are immediately subject to Christ and depend from him This is a Popish fiction and an old cheat the falshood whereof any may quickly perceive for if all do immediately depend on Christ who discharge any office which Christ or God hath immediately ordained then all Magistrates Fathers Masters Deacons Readers and whosoever exercise any function ordained by God must depend on him immediately and therefore shall be under the command of none in respect of that function but of God or Christ Which fiction the Stilt-walker will finde in himselfe for if all Preachers be subject to none but to Christ because of their free Ecclesiastick power which they exercise how will their dependencie consist and the spirits of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets For he confesseth that the brothers are subject to the Consistory this to the Classis the Classis to the Synod and the lesser Synod to the greater and so in infinitum I know Apollonius teacheth this onely pro forma because he saith elsewhere that he is onely tied to the authority of the Synod as humane But here I hold him fast intangled in his owne gin for either it is false that Ministers in regard of their Ecclesiastick functions are subject onely to Christ immediately or else it is true that the Consistory Classis and Synods are nothing else but Christ himselfe but this last is blasphemy Ergo the first is most false it 's truly ridiculous to say that he is onely subject to Christ immediately who is subject to so many of which none is Christ So we see this Walachrian is carried every where with a Popish giddinesse Whence now I conclude if it be no wayes against the immediate and fictitious dependencie of Preachers from Christ that they are subject to so many Church-men why should this be a hindrance from being subject to the Civill Magistrate he will say I suppose that this subjection

will be made branches stones trees chickens sheep fish fruits grasse corn and what not Of Preachers and Church-men there will be made not onely Kings Pastors Captaines Housholders as they will have but servants wolves dogs pillars stones bell-ringers pipers walls flames candle-sticks fires and many more to which the Holy Ghost compares them So that if hee should shake the budgets of most abstruse Divinity he cannot compose these things but he shall be laughed at by all This is his errour in that he will out of figurative speeches draw literall conclusions as if out of painted gold he would make a reall crowne of gold Much of this kind he spreads every where chiefly Part 2. p. 28. he doth plainly dispute for the Kingly censuring power of Church-men For saith hee the jurisdiction of the Church is called the right of the keyes and the Churches key is called Davids key which was regall whence he concludes That the jurisdiction of the Church is regall I answer These things are spoken figuratively and to be ascribed to Christ onely if they be taken properly not to the moderne Church which properly wants the keyes of heaven as I shewed elsewhere The chiefe errour is in this that with the Pope he makes of the keyes the Scepter and regall Crowne If all be Kings that have the right of the keyes then the Key-bearers of Temples Cities Hospitalls of Bedlems and of all Cells shall be Kings And whereas he saith that Davids and Christs key is regall and that therefore such is the key of the moderne Church it is all one as if I should say there was a King who carried the keyes of the City therefore all are Kings afterwards who carry those keyes How false this is appeares in Peter who first and properly received these keyes and yet he was a poore Fisher-man not a King Surely if Apollonius had Peters true key yet Christ would forbid in him all Kingly state and pride Mat. 20. saying The Kings of the earth beare rule but it shall not be so with you But Mat. 18. Christ gave to the Church power of judicature which saith he is kingly I answered elsewhere that in this place Christ did not bestow on the Church the right of judicature but only to intercede and to compose differences For the power of judging one to be a Publican or Heathen he gives properly to a Brother not to the Church and so every private man should have regall power Truly if all be Kings that judge there will be innumerable Kings in the same kingdome If Apollonius play not the foole he was a King long since because he carried the keyes and judged many things after his manner His chief argument is out of that place Mat. 28. Christ sending his Disciples to preach speaks first of his regall power saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth he concludes also from his regall power saying I will be with you till the end of the world thence he gathers That the power not onely of Christ but also of the Church and therefore of Ministers is regall O wonderfull Lindanus indeed and other Papists are ridiculous in their devices but what Jesuite at this day is there of any braine who will not burst with laughter when he shall see and think of these Apollonian scientificall demonstrations to wit that Calvinists by such fictions doe seek after power to reigne in the Church which they have hitherto execrated in the Pope Christ the King of Kings speaking before and after of his Kingly power commanded the Apostles to teach and baptize Ergo he made them Kings and indowed them with Kingly power If Apollonius were as quick-sighted in both his eyes as Lynx he could not see this consequence He reasons thus out of his foolish Dialectick As often as Kings speaking of their Majesty command their Heralds to publish their will and Letters Patents they presently of Heralds become Kings that Herald were worthy of Hellebore who would thus conclude especially if the King in plaine termes should tell his Messenger Although my other servants may command and domineere in their Offices yet I forbid thee to do so neither will I permit thee to reigne for this is the sense of Christs words Mat. 20. The Kings of the Nations beare rule but it shall not be so with you So we need not stay any longer in the Walachrian devices whereas we may every where see that the Pope and Apollonius are both of one minde to wit that they have regall power howsoever Christ and the whole Scripture contradict it but by a Jesuiticall quirk he tells us that their power is not secular carnall or despoticall for these husks he leaves for the Magistrate reserving to himselfe the pure flower of spirituality but Ecclesiasticke holy and celestiall which because it proceeds not from the speciall sanctity of their Church-Discipline as the object nor from the dignity of modern vocation as I have now shewed we must henceforth search into the other lurking holes of the Walachrian Church sanctity least these rattle-mice hide themselves any longer in their under-ground caves of spirituality Therefore having overthrowne the chiefe foundations of the Walachrian sanctity and dominion which are the spirituality of their moderne Discipline and the mysticall sublimity of their calling now I will pursue the Arguments which the Stilt-walker still useth to purchase authority to himselfe among the ignorant which with the Papists he borroweth from the Epithetes and names given to Preachers in Scripture by which he strives to establish his regall majesty in the Church in this playing the canvasse Merchant with Papists which that the Reader may see I will first in generall point at three of his ordinary fallacies 1. In that the most titles are figurative and metaphoricall Fallaciae in titulis out of which he raiseth literall conclusions by which he must needs fall into a thousand absurdities for if this be admitted in Divinity that every one interpret as hee pleaseth figures similitudes and metaphors which are found in Scripture there will be nothing certaine but we may infer any thing out of any thing by this reason I may easily of Apollonius and his other Preachers make stocks stones yea brute beasts for Church-Doctors are called in Scripture Pillars Foundations and watchfull Dogs now we know that Pillars are made of stocks and stumps of trees Foundations of stones and that Dogs are brute and impudent beasts whence the folly of old Papists appears who have erected their whole Hierarchy out of parabolicall and figurative Scripture phrases as famous Marnixius hath merrily demonstrated and because he could find no other new way to set up his regall power therefore the VValachrian Papist walks altogether in his Predecessors foot-steps Apollonius his other errour is that of indefinite Propositions he makes exclusive and understands simply what is spoken respectively this he borrowed also of the Jesuites for Bellarmine commonly thus concludes Christ gave