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A70542 Two great questions determined by the principles of reason & divinity I. whether the right to succession in hæreditary kingdoms, be eternal and unalterable? Neg. : II. whether some certain politick reasons may not be sufficient grounds of divorce? Affirm. Lawrence, William, 1613 or 14-1681 or 2. 1681 (1681) Wing L692A; ESTC R19202 24,141 40

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publick Good finally ceases to be His Right or Propriety and that to deprive him of the Possession of that thing is not an Injury nor doing Evil that Good may come of it I will in short endeavour to make out by shewing That God doth Himself Dispence in such Cases with Princes forc't Actions I might insist on a tacit Consent of every Subject to this purpose because Government is not Fixed and setled without such a Consent but shall rather conclude with the strongest Proof the Authority of Scripture The Apostles had a Power given them by our Saviour That what soever they did bind on Earth should be Bound in Heaven and whatsoever they did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven and whosoever Sins they did Remit they were Remitted and whosoever Sins they did Retain they were Retained Which Apostolical Power of Loosing and Binding Remitting and Retaining the Learned observe and Expound to be the power of admitting into the Number and Fellowship of the Faithful upon Repentance and Exclusion or Banishment from it for Sins Scandalous and putting them into a state of unworthyness to partake of the Christian Mysteries and be reputed a Member of Christ and this is called Excommunication from which too upon unfeigned Repentance they had Authority to Release now this Power is commonly called the Power of the Keyes is an ordinary jurisdiction derived from the Apostles to their Successors who exercise such an Authority to this day Now This jurisdiction seems to derive from the abovementioned Texts on which 't is grounded so universal an extent as if no one whatsoever not Princes themselves were exempt from it the words Whatsoever and Whomsoever being Universal and in common Speech Excluding none but comprehending all And some men namely the Romanists who catched at the least outward appearance or countenance from Scripture for erecting the Popes Unlimited Power suppose these places of Scripture to confer on Church Governours a Jurisdiction Authority and Right of Government over Princes Themselves so as to Censure and Actually Excommunicate them because 't is said That Whatsoever they did bind on Earth should be bound in Heaven But neither in the Apostles practise nor examples of Antiquity can we find ever such an Authority to have been exercised over Princes though no doubt occasion might often enough occur And Conformably to this the best Reformed Church I mean That of England Teaches That 't is not Lawful to Excommunicate Princes that is denounce them to be No Members of Christ and his Church For although this Power is for Edification and not for Destruction and no doubt every Christian Prince like every other Private Christian is intrusted to the care of some Spiritual Pastor or Pastors to Instruct him and give Account for his Soul if it be lost through their default and therefore they might seem to have Power of using all means for His Salvation as they may for others and this of Excommunication being such they might therefore Excommunicate Him I mean not from the Visible Company of the Faithful for that they cannot but from Participation of the Mysteries and Ordinances of our Religion and from being a Member of Christ's Invisible Church But this neither they did nor we do on this Supposition and Maxim in Divinity that Princes are and ought to be Exempt from common and ordinary Rules which others are Subject to if so be the Obliging a Prince to those Rules would be occasion of Dammage and Danger to the Common-Wealth as subjecting him to Church-Censures tho never so deservedly would necessarily be for it would look as if he had a Superiour on Earth though really it were only a Superiours Delegate and subject Him to be despised and slighted by some who would value themselves above him as not so near to Gods Favour and Commnunion as themselves it would occasion discord between the Prince and the Church and hazard the taking away all just Authority nay the expulsion of Christianity it self and therefore rather than endanger the publick Peace and Tranquillity the Prince should be Exempt from an Ordinance and Institution of Christ Himself which in Reason doth touch Him as well as any else Will it not then follow that rather than manifestly hazard the both Spiritual and Temporal good of His People a Divorce being the only remedy may as well be warranted and He as well freed from the dangerous Tye of Marriage in such a Case as from Excommunication it self Nay we find God himself Dispensing with an Eternal and Natural Law for the sake of the Publick Spiritual Good God Dispensed with the Natural Law of doing no Murther and that within the near Relation of Father and Son and commanded Abraham to flay Isaac that He might thus give a rare Example of his Faith for all the Church of God afterwards to imitate both Jewes and Christians and David in extremity of Hunger was Indulged and that not immediatly by God but by the prudential rational deduction of Ahimelech the Priest that a Case of necessity did sufficiently Dispense was Indulged I say eating the Shew-bread against a positive Law that none but the Priests alone should eat it and yet did not do Evil in eating the forbidden Bread that Good might come of it the preservation of his Life and that was all the good it did because his Life at that time not being King had no other Influence on the publick Good than as afterwards he was to be King I Conclude therefore that if not only the publick good cannot be procured but the greatest and highest Mischiefs be prevented without the Divorce of a Person whose Marriage hinders the only remedy and prevention of those great Mischiefs introduction of Idolatry Superstition and Defection from the true Religion that a perpetual Separation of that Person from the Prince is made necessary to the avoiding those Mischiefs and because those Mischiefs must and ought to be and may lawfully by this way of Separation be Avoided Christianity it self for the prevention of like Mischiefs dispensing with Him in another as solemn an Ordinance of Religion this Separation so necessitated shall not leave any Tye or Obligation on the Prince which is inconsistent with perpetual necessary not accidental Separation and such a Tye is Marriage but that the Prince is thus dis-ingaged single and free to pursue the averting those dreadful destructive and otherwise certain Mischiefs which would Ensue to the ruine of the greatest Publick Good both Spiritual and Temporal the procurement of which cannot be prejudiced by any private Interest or Right for that ceases to be so when it stands in competition with the Publick but dispenseth with the Annulling that Right and Propriety by a prudential rational and true Inference from an unavoidable Necessity FINIS