Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bind_v	earth_n	retain_v	2,475	5	9.8230	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41435	A discourse concerning auricular confession as it is prescribed by the Council of Trent, and practised in the Church of Rome : with a post-script on occasion of a book lately printed in France, called Historia confessionis auricularis.	Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690.	1684 (1684)	Wing G1104; ESTC R6771	36,206	60

Church of Rome is mischievous to Piety This remains yet to be demonstrated and we will do it the rather in this place because it will be an abundant Confirmation of all that which hath been discoursed under the two former Heads and might indeed have saved the labour of them but that we were unwilling to leave any pretence of theirs undiscussed for if this practice of theirs appear to be mischievous to Prety it will never by any sober man be thought either to have been instituted by our Saviour or to have been the sense and usage of the Catholick Church whatever they pretend on its behalf Now therefore this last and important part of my charge I make good by these Three Articles following First This Method of theirs is dangerous to Piety as it is very apt to cheat People into an Opinion that they are in a better Condition then truly they are or may be in towards God as that their sins are pardoned and discharged by him when there is no such matter The Church-men of Rome complain of the Doctrine of some reformed Divines touching assurance of Salvation that it fills men with too great confidence and renders them careless and presumptuous but whatsoever there is in that it is not my business now to dispute it however methinks it will not very well become a Romanist to aggravate it till he have acquitted himself in the point before us for by this Assurance Office of theirs they comply too much with the self flattery of Mens own Hearts they render Men secure before they are safe and furnish them with a confidence like that of the Whore Solomon speaks of who wipes her Mouth and saith I have done no evil For Men return from the Confessors Chair as they are made to believe as Pure as from the Font and as Innocent as from their Mothers Womb as if God was concluded by the act of the Priest and as if he being satisfied with an humble posture a dejected look and a lamentable murmur God Almighty would be put off so too Ah nimium faciles qui tristia crimina c. Ah cheating Priests who made fond Men believe That God Almighty pardons all you shrieve Perhaps they will say this is the fault and folly of the Men not of the Institution of the Church But why do they not teach them better then Nay why do they countenance and incourage them in so dangerous mistakes For whither else tend those words in the Decree of the Council of Trent ipsi Deo reconciliandis q. d. that by this way of Confession c. men are reconciled to the Divine Majesty himself or those other forecited where the Priest is said to be the Vicar of Christ and in his stead a Judge or President or especially what other meaning can those words have where it is said that this Rite is as necessary as Baptism for as in that all sins are remitted which were committed in former time so in this all sins committed after Baptism are likewise remitted Now I say what is the natural tendency of all this but to make People believe that their Salvation or Damnation is in the Power of the Priest that he is a little God Almighty and his discharge would certainly pass current in the Court of Heaven But there is sophistry and juggle in all this as I thus make appear for 1. The Priest cannot pardon whom he will let him be called Judex and Praeses never so for if his Sentence be not according to Law it will be declared Null at the Great Day only it may be good and valid in the mean time in foro Ecclesiae and here lies the cheat 2. Nor are all sins retained or unforgiven with God that are not pardoned by the Priest it is true in publick Scandals till the Sinner submit to the Church God will not forgive him For what that binds on Earth is in this sense bound in Heaven but what hath the Church to do to retain or to bind the Sinner in the case of secret sins where it can charge no guilt on him 3. Nor is it properly the act of the Priest which pardons but the Tenor of the Law and the disposition of Mind in the Penitent agreeable thereunto qualifying him for Pardon to which the Pardon is to be imputed As it is not the Herald which pardons but the Prince who by his Proclamation bestows that Grace upon those who are so and so qualified 4. Nor Lastly Can the Priest be said to pardon so properly by those Majestick words absolvo te as by his whole Ministry in instructing People in the Terms of the New Covenant and making Application of that to them by the Sacraments this he hath Commission to do but those big words I cannot find that he hath any where Authority to pronounce and therefore as I think I observed before the Ancient Church had no form of Absolution but only receiving Penitents to the Communion And the Greek Church had so much modesty as to Absolve in the third Person not in the first to shew that their Pardon was Ministerial and Declarative only All these things notwithstanding the People are let to go away with such an Opinion as aforesaid because it is for the Grandeur and Interest of the Priesthood that they should be cheated but these misapprehensions would vanish if their teachers would be so just as to distinguish between God's Absolution and the Absolution of the Church the first of which extends to the most secret sins the latter to open Scandals only the one delivers from all real guilt the other from external Censure only of the latter the Priest may by the leave of the Church have the full dispensation so that he is really pardoned with her that hath satisfied the Priest but of the former he dispenses but conditionally To confirm all which I will here add only two Testimonies of the judgment of the Ancient Church The first is of Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea in his Epistle to St. Cyprian reckoned the Seventy Fifth of St. Cyprians where speaking of holding Ecclesiastical Councils every Year he gives these reasons for it Vt si qua graviora sunt communi consilio dirigantur lapsis quoque fratribus post lavacrum salutare à Diabolo vulneratis per poenitentiam medela quaeratur non quasi à nobis remissionem peccatorum consequantur sed ut per nos ad intelligentiam delictorum suorum convertantur Domino plenius satisfacere cogantur partly saith he that by joint advice and common consent we may agree upon an uniform Order in such weighty Affairs as concern our respective Churches partly that we may give relief and apply a remedy to those who by the temptation of the Devil have fallen into sin after Baptism not that we can give them Pardon of their sin but that by our Ministry they may be brought to a knowledge of their sins and directed into a right course