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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	bind_v	key_n	loose_v	3,794	5	10.2737	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94297	Of the government of churches; a discourse pointing at the primitive form.	Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672.	1641 (1641)	Wing T1055; Thomason E1102_1; ESTC R203782	63,264	216

not disposed of their maintenance Though perhaps the advantage of fingring money was it that made them take so much upon them in his time whereof he complaineth Nay it is plain this must rest in the power of Bishop and Presbyters by the portions and divisions thereof wherein each of them had interesse as his maintenance whereof we find remembrance in S. Cyprians Epistles In the last Canon of the Councel of Antiochia is provided that the Bishop shall not alienate the Church-goods which though immovable were given for the same purpose without consent of his Presbyters And in those which are called the Canons of the Apostles which the world knoweth are not theirs but yet do expresse very ancient customes of the Church Can. iii. iv having ordered what sorts of first-fruits should be sent to the Church what home to the Bishop and Presbyters it followeth Now it is manifest that they are to be divided by them among the Deacons and Clergy to the Deacons for the maintenance of the poore to the Clergy for their own Where you see the interesse of the Presbyters in disposing of such oblations CHAP. XI Of the discipline of Penance Those that have the Keyes remit sinnes by prescribing Penance The intercession of the Church Particular persons excommunicated among the Jews Our Lord prohibiteth their course among his Disciples Two degrees of Excommunication as well in the Church as in the Synagogue The Keyes are given to Bishop and Presbyters The interesse of the people and what is required at the hands of the Common-wealth THere remaineth now two particulars of the office common to Bishop and Presbyters wherein the people also claim their interesse the one is the discipline of Penance the other the making of Ministers The due course whereof assigned by our Lord and his Apostles will best be discovered laying together first what we find of them in Scripture and then comparing of it with the proceeding of the Primitive time which we shall perceive the right to go along with The Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven are given by our Lord to the first of his Disciples in those words Matth. xvi 19. And I will give thee the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou bindest on earth shall be bound in Heaven whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven If mens minds were not possessed with prejudice it would soon appear to be the same power that is given to all the Apostles John xx 24. Whosesoever sinnes ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sinnes ye retein they are reteined But Matt. xviii 17 18. to the same purpose though more at large And if he shall neglect to heare them tell it unto the Church But if he neglect to heare the Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven To this must be added the proceeding of the Apostle in delivering to Satan the incestuous person at Corinth 1. Cor. v. 3 4 5. which he also did to Hymeneus and Alexander 1. Tim. i. 20. Now in the practice of the Primitive Church those that exercised this power were in part Judges Censours you may call them if you please and in part Physicians Both parts comprised in S. Cyprians words Ep. 51. Vbi lapsis nec censura deest quae increpet nec medicina quae sanet Judges they are in shutting Gods house upon offenders and binding their sins upon their consciences And the effect of this censure such supposing the proceeding of it to be due that as the disease of sin is not to be cured without the medicine of repentance no more can this knot wherewith sinnes notorious of themselves or otherwise known are tyed to mens consciences be undone without known repentance For since the worst of the souls sicknesse consisteth in not acknowledging her disease it pleased God to give his Church power and charge to constrain offenders to take their Physick which the grief of bodily diseases is able to do alone Physicians they are then in prescribing the medicine of Repentance and in that respect alone are truly said to remit sinnes God himself saith not to the Soul I absolve thee from thine offenses but upon supposition of the means his own gift of repentance that worketh the cure so farre it is from the power of his creature to pronounce forgivenesse without knowledge of the effect which the medicine of repentance hath wrought But if we say true when a Physician is said to cure a mans disease though all the world know he doth no more but prescribe the medicine or at the most see it applyed with as good right is it to be said that mens sinnes are cured by them that prescribe the course by which they are cured Onely whereas he that is cured of a bodily disease is able to tell himself when he is well he that is once sensible of the maladies of his soul is not easily satisfied when the cure is done It hath therefore pleased the goodnesse of God to provide an office and charge in his Church to assure men of forgivenesse of sinnes upon due knowledge of repentance by taking away that knot wherewith they remained tied upon their consciences Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea Cappadociae in his Epistle to S. Cyprian the lxxvth in number of his Epistles thus writeth Lapsis quoque fratribus per poenitentiam medela quaeratur Non quasi à nobis remissionem peccatorum consequantur sed ut per nos ad intelligentiam delictorum suorum convertantur Domino pleniùs satisfacere cogantur To this purpose was the time and order and fashion of Penance regulated in the ancient Church that the diseases of the soul might receive every one their competent cure and therefore it is plain that among them it was a favour to be admitted to Penance in opposition to Novatianus Qui nemini dandam poenitentiam putavit saith Saint Ambrose De Poenit. 2. 1. exhorting men to repentance indeed but leaving them for pardon to God who had power to give it as his Disciple Socrates writeth Eccles hist iv 13. That is not imploying the power of the keyes and the benefit of it to the cure of their offenses Whereupon S. Ambrose you see calleth it dare poenitentiam as on the offenders side it was then called petere poenitentiam demanding and granting of Penance For this cause it was that this medicine of repentance was wont to be joyned with the prayers of the Congregation but in the chief place of the Bishop and Presbyters which if repentance be Physick is correspondent to that which is given to make Physick work And this is called in Tertullian Presbyteris advolvi Caris Dei adgeniculari Omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae injungere and in S. Augustine Gemitus columbae the Mourning of the

turtle procuring their release at Gods hands And to this purpose was the Imposition of hands so often repeated in Penance because as S. Augustine saith of it in confirmation wherein he followeth Tertullian the one in these words Quid enim est impositio manuum nisi oratio super hominem the other afore him in these Dehinc manus imponitur per benedictionem advocans invitans Spiritum Sanctum That it is but a Ceremony of benediction imploring the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost which it representeth So was it in Penance nothing else but a form of benediction interceding for their reconcilement This may very well be thought to be the intent of the words of our Lord in the Gospel alledged Matth. xviii 19. For having delivered to the Church the power of binding and loosing in the words recited it followeth straight Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them For as in the words next going afore he sheweth how mens sins are bound and loosed to wit by the power which he giveth his Church to that purpose so he may well seem in the next words to point at the course by which this power may become effectuall to the loosing of sinnes to wit the intercession of the Congregation of Gods people At least thus much hath been observed by men of excellent learning that lamenting is a work specified by the Apostle himself in the businesse of reducing offenders by Penance 1. Cor. v. 2. Ye have not lamented to put away such a transgression from you And again 2. Cor. xii 20. I fear that when I come unto you I shall not find you such as I desire and shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleannesse and fornication and lasciviousnesse that they have committed meaning that he should put them to Penance by consequence This maketh the interesse of the Congregation in the work of Discipline to be considerable but intituleth it not to the keyes of Gods house For to conceive our Lords meaning aright let us take notice that there was among the Jews much use of excommunicating by particular persons as is to be seen in their writings Maimoni in Talmud Torah c. 7. Arba Turim or Shulchan Aruch in Tore Deah Hilcoth Niddui Vcherem and that many times upon causes of their particular interesse For example a Rabbi or Rabbies Mate was able to excommunicate for his credit when he found himself slighted True it is they count it commendable in a Rabbi to passe over all disrespect to himself in private but he that shall do it in publick they bind him to remember it and watch his party like a Serpent till he seek favour and reconcilement Maimoni n. ult And true it is that in some cases they void excommunication that is grounded upon particular interesse and not for the honour of God Jore Deah out of the Hierusalem Talmud and R. Joseph Karo upon it f. 364. And generally he that excommunicateth without cause is to be excommunicated himself it is the last of twenty foure causes for which they excommunicate but what disorders might come upon such practice is easie to imagine And therefore there is great cause to think that our Lords words whereof we speak are aimed on purpose to abrogate this course among his followers though covertly to avoyd offense For two things he prescribeth in opposition to it first to aim at a brothers reformation and nothing else in all the proceeding Matt. xviii 15. If thy brother shall trespasse against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he shall heare thee thou hast gained thy brother The second is that they shall proceed no further then contestation in private the rest he prescribeth to be referred in publick to the Church So it followeth But if he will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to heare them tell it unto the Church Now this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is first used in the Greek of the old Testament to signifie the Congregation of the people of Israel The Jews that have lived since the Prophets have espoused and appropriated this later word the Synagogue to signifie sometimes the whole body of that Nation or rather of that Faith as among the Fathers the Synagogue standeth for the Jews in opposition to the Church of Christians sometimes particular Congregations of it and by consequence the place of their assemblies as in the Gospel He loveth our nation and hath built us a Synagogue And just so in all respects is the word ECCLESIA the Church used in relation to Christians our Lord in the Gospel having begun to appropriate it to the Congregation which he now began to institute Matt. xvi 18. Vpon this rock will I build my Church and in the text in hand Matt. xviii 17. Tell it to the Church So that it must not be denied it is not usuall for the Church which signifieth the whole Congregation of people to signifie the chief part of it But it is as certain on the other side that looking backward to the Synagogue upon which our Lord reflecteth as was said such censures as these are whereof our Lord speaketh proceeding from the public private ones being excluded as hath been said issued all from the Courts of Justice mentioned afore without respect to the Congregation of the people As thus There were among them two degrees of Excommunication and no more the lesse called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Separation the greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Anathema and the effect of them to cut a man off more or lesse from the Congregation of the people as is to be seen in the late most learned work De Jure Nat. Gent. sec disc Ebr. iiii 9. The ordinary sentence of Separation which is that we spake of afore was for thirtie dayes unlesse the Court thought fit to abbridge or inlarge the term for that time no man must come within foure cubits of him that stood excommunicate besides those of his house he must not be reckoned among three which is the number required at Blessing of meat he must not be reckoned among tenne which is the number required to make a Synagogue under that they go not to prayers in the Synagogue And how it is in the power of the Court to aggravate this is to be seen in Shulchan Aruch as afore Num. x. At thirty dayes end they iterated the sentence and stayed thirty dayes more If then he stood out it was in their power to excommunicate him with curses which is that