Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	apostle_n	heaven_n	loose_v	2,492	5	10.3143	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39326	A vindication of the clergy from the contempt imposed upon them by the author of The grounds and occasions of the contempt of the clergy and religion with some short reflections on his further observations.	Eachard, John, 1636?-1697.	1672 (1672)	Wing E65; ESTC R35669	53,663	152

whole Party taking in all its sub-divisions despise and oppose our Reverend Clergy is for their constant and approved Loyalty to God and the King and sticking close to both in all Weathers it being their most sacred Principle Not to meddle with them that are given to Change How great a part of the Nation these three Squadrons of our Churches Enemies make is too sad a Theme for me to enlarge upon they have over-spread the Land like Locusts and 't would puzzle a very good Arithmetician to compute them it is sufficient for my present purpose that none of them dislike our Clergy either for their Ignorance or Poverty for the more Rich and Learned it is the worse they hate or envy it but upon vastly different Motives the first speak evil of them and all things sacred purely on the accompt of their own irreligion the second for their opposing the corrupted Doctrine and Discipline of Rome the third for their malignant Loyalty and resolv'd Obedience to God and his Church maugre all Scotish Covenants or Geneva Models The residue of the Nation we shall allow to be either in reality or pretence at least so far the Churches Friends as that they are not likely to be tempted in haste to throw off her Communion upon any score and yet I must freely grant that neither have many of them so just an esteem and value for the holy Function as they ought to have However if we find out a more probable and substantial Reason why they are also wanting in their due estimation of the Priesthood than either of those two our small Conjecturer hath hit upon his business I presume will be compleatly done he may e'en sit him down and guess again or rather take the Poets advice along with him for the future Sumite materiam vestris qui scribitis aequam Viribus and chuse some fitter subject for him and his idle Muses to play with next time and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not intrude into those things he understands not Now if we would speak out and answer plainly and truly how it comes to pass that so many of our pretended Friends give us not due respect and honour we must say it is because our Clergy are not publickly allowed the Authority due to their Function and necessary for executing the power of the Keys I mean the want of that godly Discipline of Confession and Penance in the Primitive Church which our Church of England hath long since wished for and Sir Edwyn Sandys saith might have been better restored in all the reformed Churches to its Primitive sincerity than utterly abolished and neglected as in most places it is for although we do justly charge the present Church of Rome for corrupting and degenerating from this ancient holy Discipline by their notorious abuses of it particularly by their laying the main stress and efficacy of it upon the definitive sentence of Absolution which according to the Trent Council is given before any fruits of Repentance are produced and requires no after penance but a few Ave Maries and Pater Nosters with some easie Alms to them that are able and a little fasting to such as are willing and sometimes for horrible Blasphemies and other lewdnesses imposeth only the bare saying of their Beads thrice over which they may dispatch too as they go in the streets their believing and teaching that by such like Penances the debt of temporal punishment is redeemed after the sin is pardoned the people all this while making accompt of Confession as professed Drunkards do of vomiting and the Priest using it as a Pick-lock to tyrannize over and torture Mens Consciences and make way for the dangerous delusions of Indulgences yet I say no Reformed Church can excuse it self which to avoid their extravagant abuses is faln into the other extream and lets the sober use of so excellent a piece of Discipline grow into utter desuetude and neglect for it must not it cannot be denied in the first place but that the power of the Keys to be executed not only in admitting Disciples to Church-membership by Baptism but also in rejecting Heretical Schismatical and immoral Professours and then absolving and re-admitting them into Communion upon their unfeigned submission and demonstrations of sincere Repentance is founded immediately upon our Lords own Institution and the Apostles and their Successours to the Worlds end derive their Authority from and act by the same Commission given them St. Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven or as it is explained and renewed St. Iohn 20.23 Whole sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained Nor Secondly can it be denied by any Man that is acquainted with the Sects of the Montanists Novatians Donatists and Meletians and understands the practice of the Primitive Church legible in the Writings of the Apostles ancient Fathers and Councils particularly that of Elvira in Spain held divers years before that at Nicaea and therefore counted as ancient as any the Church hath but that the cure of sin by penance is an unquestionable Tradition of the Apostles Not to mention many other obvious Texts to that purpose the most natural and primary meaning of St. Paul's charge to Timothy 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partaker of other mens sins must needs be fetcht from that known Apostolical Custom of admitting lapsed Christians to penance and the Prayers of the Church by imposition of hands Thirdly and lastly Secret Confession of Sins otherwise not notorious in order to their cure hath been the inviolate practice of the Western bating their abuses aforesaid and also of the Eastern Churches particularly that of Constantinople even to this day and it is recommended and pressed as a duty incumbent on the generality of Christians as well by the ancient Fathers as modern Authors both of the Roman Church and also of the Reformation The Augustine Confession says peremptorily Impium esset ex Ecclesiâ tollere privatam Absolutionem That it were an ungodly a sacrilegious thing to rob the Church of Christ of private Absolution And Chemnitius in his Examen Concil Trid. gives a fivefold accompt of the use and profitableness of this Discipline of private Confession 1. For the information of the ignorant concerning the true knowledge the degrees and heinousness of sin and the right way of performing repentance 2. For Physick viz. how each sin is so to be cured and mortified that it may be avoided for the future and what amendment of life is to be opposed to such and such sins 3. For Counsel that in doubtful cases Pastours may advise and instruct their Flocks out of Gods Word 4. For Spiritual Comfort to relieve disturbed Consciences Lastly because Absolution is to be given only to such as appear truly penitent that the Pastour himself may be assured whether he