Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	authority_n	church_n	office_n	1,059	5	7.1206	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78437	Vindiciæ clavium: or, A vindication of the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven, into the hands of the right owners. Being some animadversions upon a tract of Mr. I.C. called, The keyes of the kingdome of Heaven. As also upon another tract of his, called, The way of the churches of Nevv-England. Manifesting; 1. The weaknesse of his proofes. 2. The contradictions to himselfe, and others. 3. The middle-way (so called) of Independents, to be the extreme, or by-way of the Brownists. / By an earnest well-wisher to the truth.	Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.	1645 (1645)	Wing C1640; Thomason E299_4; ESTC R200247	69,538	116

Anabaptisme 2. I aske by what power of the keyes doe your Pastors admit a member of another Church to partake of the Lords Supper in yours Or in what relation doth your Pastor stand to that member of another Church You say Pastor and Church are relates and he is a Pastor to none but of his owne Church Either then to administer the Lords Supper to a member of another Church is no Pastorall act but may be done by a gifted brother Or else a Pastor and his Church are not so relates but that he is a Pastor beyond the limits of his owne Congregation which yet you doe deny 3. You are also very sparing in granting this liberty For you adde In case neither himselfe nor the Church from whence he comes doe lye under any publicke offence But what if that party be free from the guilt of that offence Shall the innocent suffer for the nocent what charity what justice is in this 4. But your reason I like very well For we receive the Lords Supper not only as a Seale of our Communion with the Lord Iesus and with his members in our owne Church but also in all the Churches of the Saints Whence I inferre then it is not any favour dispensed by you to a member of another Church but a dignity or priviledge common to every member of that body by vertue of that membership and not with respect to his particular Church membership And I pray is not Baptisme also a Seale of our Communion with all the members of Christs body Why then may you not admit the children of the members of any Church to be baptized by your Pastors upon just occasion as well as to admit the parents to the Lords Supper Nay further If the Sacraments be Seales of our communion with all the members of Christ why doe you not admit any true Christian and his children to the communion of the Sacraments though they be not as yet admitted members of any particular Congregation How dare you deny any member of that Body communion with its fellow-members when it hath union and communion with the Head Consider it 2. A second way of your communion of Churches is By way of recommendation as Paul in the behalfe of Phoebe c. But this is so farre from being any part of the power of the Keyes that it is a duty which a Church or party owe to any Christian that is godly not by vertue of any particular Church-membership but by the common interest of Christianity yea by the common right of humanity even to an honest Heathen according to the ninth Commandement which requires us to beare true witnesse to our brother if we be thereto required The letters are only declarative of the good behaviour of the party occasioned to remove to such a place Was this thinke you a part of the power of the Keyes delivered to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Besides if there be any vertue in these letters to admit a member into communion is there not a like vertue in them to excommunicate one ungodly And if these letters dimissory have power to admit a member of one Church to be a member of another without any new covenanting have they not the like power to admit the Pastor of one Church to be a Pastor of another Church without any new Ordination which yet I beleeve you doe not practise 3. By way of Consultation and 4 by Congregation into a Synod But what is all this to the power of the Keyes If upon Congregation and consultation of other Church-Officers there be not a binding power it is rather a latch of a doore which may be opened and shut at any bodies pleasure than a Key to let in or locke out with any Authority But of the power of Synods more hereafter 4. A fifth way is The liberty of giving and receiving mutuall supplyes one from another gifted men or benevolences c. I conceive first these are rather duties of common charity than of Church liberty or any power of the Keyes And I desire to know what those gifted men were that the Church of Antioch sent to other Countries Were they not Apostles or Prophets or Teachers in Office Then they were Pastors or Teachers by Office before they were sent before they were elected or ordained by the Churches to which they were sent Thereupon it followes that a Pastor or Teacher because you may say a Pastor relates to his owne flocke a Teacher so was Barnabas Acts 13.1 is a Teacher to the generall visible Church not to the particular Church only as you hold And then againe a Teacher quâ Teacher may preach to another Church and convert Heathens and not as a gifted brother only as you sometimes speake A sixth way is By way of mutuall admonition when a publicke offence is found amongst them One Church may send to admonish another and if that Church will not heare take two or three other Churches and if not heare them then withdraw c. This admonition is a duty of every brother at least of every Christian as a Christian and no power of the Keyes at all And let it be considered that the place Matth. 18.15 16. Those two or three are not considered as a Church-body but as a sufficient number of witnesses to joyne with a brother offended c. agreeing in a duty of brotherly love c. The way p. 53. doth not make the admonition of one or more brethren any power of the Keyes but a duty only concerning every man in order to the censure of the Church But if one or more Churches may proceed with a Church-offending as private persons with an offending brother why may they not take the third step as the last remedy to excommunicate her being obstinate as the Church doth an obstinate b●o her No Because the Churches are all of equall authority But so are all the members of a Congregation of equall authority yet the whole may excommunicate him And if there be as much Church-communion between Churches as there is between members of a particular Congregation I see no reason why many Churches assembled in a Synod may not as well excommunicate an obstinate Church as a Congregation a particular member If you deny excommunication of a Church others will and doe deny excommunication of a member and say non-communion or withdrawing is as much as can be done And if you say the Churches may withdraw communion I demand first what is that in effect but excommunication wanting only a Synodicall Decree yet page 25. you say A Synod hath power to determine to withdraw communion from an offending Church And is it any more in the excommunic●tion of an offending brother They doe but determine all shall withdraw communion from him This is therefore but a meere Logom●chie 6. The last way of Communion of Churches is by way of prop●gation or multiplication of Churches But 1. This is rather a division of Churches