Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	key_n	loose_v	2,596	5	9.8092	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70260	Several tracts, by the ever memorable Mr. John Hales of Eaton Coll. &c. Viz. I. Of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. II. Paraphrase on St. Matthew's Gospel. III. Of the power of the keys. IV. Of schism and schismaticks, (never before printed by the original copy.) V. Miscellanies	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hales, John, 1584-1656. Tract concerning sin against the Holy Ghost.; Hales, John, 1584-1656. Tract concerning schisme.	1677 (1677)	Wing H276A; Wing H280; ESTC R14263	61,040	260

are within for those that are without God shall judge saith Paul Whence she infers That a converted Infidel not yet admitted to the Church is a Stranger to the Judiciary Power of the Keys but being once admitted into the Church he is now become the Churches Subject and so fit matter for the Priest to work on upon his next Relapse What think you of this Reason Do you take it to be good Take heed or else it will give you a deadly stripe For the Conversion of an Infidel out of question is a most proper act of the Keys For since the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven is confest to belong unto the Keys and Heaven which was shut against the Infidel in time of his Infidelity upon his Conversion is acknowledged to be opened unto him certainly whoever converted him used the Keys or else he must pretend to have either a Pick-lock or the Herb Lunaria which they say makes Locks fall off from Doors and the Fetters from Horses heels If then the Conversion of a Sinner be an act of the Keys and by the Argument of the Church of Rome it be not judiciary it follows then that all Acts of the Keys are not Judiciary and if not Judiciary then Declarative only For betwixt these two I know no mean But because to dispute against a man out of his own Principles which perchance are false for this we know oft falls out that by the power of Syllogisms men may and do draw True Conclusions from False Premises because I say thus to do in the judgment of Aristotle leaves a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I am willing not only to perswade you but to better you I will draw the little which remains to be said in this Point from other Places First In all the Apostles practice in Converting Jews and Gentils find you any thing like unto the act of any Judiciary Power They neither did nor could use any such thing That they did not appears by Philip who having Catechised the Eunuch and finding him desirous of Baptism immediately upon profession of his Faith admitted him into the Church That they neither did nor could appears by Peter and the rest of the Apostles in the Acts who could never in the space of an afternoon being none but themselves have converted three thousand souls had they taken any such way as you seem to misfancy Again imagine with your self all circumstances you can which are of force to make a power judiciary apply them all to the practice of the Apostles in the Conversion of Infidels and if you find any one of them agree to that action let me be challenged upon it and be thought to have abused you with a Fallacy To conclude then since your Ligaveritis which is the one half of your pretended Jurisdiction pretends to nothing above Declarative And since your Solveritis in so great an act as is the Conversion of Infidels lays claim to no more what act of the power of the Keys is it wherein we may conceive hope of finding any thing active or judiciary I see what you will say There yet remains a part you think wherein you have hope to speed and that is the reconciling of relapsing Christians As you fancy that in every sinning Christian there is a duty binding him to repair and lay his sin open to the Minister of the Gospel and in him a power to consider of the sins of such as repair unto him to weigh particulars to consider circumstances and occasions and according to true Judgment either upon penance imposed to absolve sin which you call remitting of the sin or to with-hold him for a time from participation of holy duties with Catholick Christians which you call retaining of sins supposing that God doth the like in Heaven as it is written What you bind in Earth is bound in Heaven and what you loose in Earth is loosed in Heaven Now the Rock on which you labour to found so extravagant a Conceit is no other than the Words which I have quoted out of Scripture you press earnestly the Ligaveritis vos all which can yield you small relief for if they help you not at all in those weighty parts of the Power of the Keys which but now were laid before you by what Analogy can you expect they should afford you any assistance here As is Ligare so is Solvere as is the Conversion of an Infidel so is the reconciling of a relapsing Christian for any thing you can make appear Either all is Declarative which is very possible and in many cases necessary or all Judicative which in some cases is impossible and in none necessary so that to fit the Scripture to your Fancy you are constrained to distract and rend it without any Warrant at all But you have found out in the Text a stronger Argument against the declarative Power I contend for You espie an Insufflavit a great a solemn and unwonted Ceremony undoubtedly concluding some greater matter than a poor power declarative What did our serious Master thus spend his breath to no purpose and like a Hocus Pocus with so much shew act us a solemn nothing I pray whose words are these I should have thought them to have been Porphiries or Julians but that I know your hand for you subscribed not your name to your letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are the Words of your Pindarus upon an occasion not much unlike unto this Sir you have no Skill to judg or set a price upon so divine an act He lost not his breath when he spent his Insufflavit he opened their wits that they might understand the Scripture he revealed to them the Mysteries of Jesus Christ dying and rising again for the Worlds salvation the greatest news that ever was reported in the World and till then concealed He commanded them to be the first bringers of this good News and that they might the more undauntedly perform their Charge he endowed them with Infallibility with infinite Constancy and Fortitude with Power of working such Wonders as none could do unless God were with them Appello Conscientiam tuam Were those things such nothings that they deserve to be thus jeered But that befalls you which befalls the Stares that dwell in the Steeple who fear not the Bells because they hear them every day These wonderful Benefits of God have every day sounded in your ears and the frequency of them hath taught you to forget your Reverence to them Yet all this Insufflavit this Ceremony was for no other end but to further a Declarative Power Their undaunted Fortitude their power of Miracling their Infallibility did but add countenance and strength to their Declarative Power by by which they went up and down the World to manifest the good tydings of Salvation So that even these which served thus to set off the Gospel were nothing else but means of the better manifestation of it therefore may they very well pass

Exercise against all established order both in State and Church For indeed all pious Assemblies in times of persecution and corruptions howsoever practised are indeed or rather alone the lawful Congregations and publick Assemblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing else but Riots and Conventicles if they be stained with Corruption and Superstition FINIS Miscellanies WRITTEN By the ever Memorable Mr. JOHN HALES of Eaton-Colledge c. Printed 1677. Miscellanies How to know the Church MArks and Notes to know the Church there are none except we will make True Profession which is the Form and Essence of the Church to be a Mark. And as there are none so is it not necessary there should be For to what purpose should they serve That I might go seek and find out some Company to mark This is no way necessary For glorious Things are in the Scriptures spoken of the Church not that I should run up and down the World to find the persons of the Professors but that I should make my self of it This I do by taking upon me the Profession of Christianity and submitting my self to the Rules of Belief and Practice delivered in the Gospel though besides my self I knew no other Professor in the World If this were not the Authors end in proposal of the Title it is but a meer Vanity To the Description of the Church The Church as it imports a visible Company in Earth is nothing else but the Company of Professors of Christianity wheresoever disperst in the Earth To define it thus by Monarchy under one visible Head is of novelty crept up since men began to change the spiritual Kingdom of Christ to secular Pride and Tyranny and a thing never heard of either in the Scriptures or in the Writings of the Ancients Government whether by one or many or howsoever if it be one of the Churches contingent Attributes it is all certainly it is no necessary Property much less comes it into the Definition and Essence of it I mean outward Government for as for inward Government by which Christ reigns in the Hearts of his Elect and vindicates them from spiritual Enemies I have no occasion to speak neither see I any reference to it in all your Authors Animadversions How Christ is the Head of the Church From the Worlds beginning till the last hour of it the Church is essentially one and the same howsoever perchance in Garment and outward Ceremony it admits of Difference And as it was from the beginning of the World so was it Christian there being no other difference betwixt the Fathers before Christ and us but this As we believe in Christ that is Come so they believed in Christ that was to Come Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Reference unto Christ is the very Essence of the Church and there neither is nor ever was any Church but Christ's and therefore the Church amongst the Jews was properly and truly Christian quoad rem as we are Now as this Church at all times is Christ's Body so is Christ the Head of it For it is as impossible for the Church as for the Body to be without its Head it is not therefore as your Author dreams Christ came not to found a New Church or to profess a Visible Headship of it That Relation to this Church which we express when we call him the Head of it is one and the same from the Beginning to all Eternity neither receives it any alteration in this respect because the Person in whom this Relation is founded is sometimes Visible sometimes not 'T is true indeed the Head of the Church sometimes became Visible but this is but contingent and by Concomitancy For Christ the second Person in the Trinity becoming Man to Redeem this Church and manifest the way of Truth unto it It so fell out that the Head of the Church became Visible Of this Visibility he left no Successor no Doctrine no Use as being a thing meerly accidental I ask Had the Church before Christ any Visible Head if it had then was not Christ the first as here our Teacher tells us If it had none why then should the Church more require a Visible Head than it did from the Beginning To speak the Truth at once All these Questions concerning the Notes the Visibility the Government of the Church if we look upon the Substance and Nature of the Church they are meerly Idle and Impertinent If upon the End why Learned Men do handle them it is nothing else but Faction Of Peter's Ministerial Headship of the Church In your Authors Paragraphs concerning the visible Encrease or Succession of the Church there is no Difference betwixt us As for the Proofs of Peters Ministerial Headship this first concerning his being the Rock of the Church that cannot prove it For Peter was the Rock then when our Saviour spake but then could he not be the visible Head for Christ himself then was living and by our Teachers Doctrine supplied that room himself Peter therefore howsoever or in what sence soever he were the Rock yet could he not be the visible Head except we will grant the Church to have had two visible Heads at once Secondly The Keys of Heaven committed to Peter and Command to feed his Sheep import no more than that common Duty laid upon all the Disciples To teach all Nations for this Duty in several respects is exprest by several Metaphors Teaching as it signifies the opening of the way to life so is it called by the name of Keys but as it signifies the Strengthning of the Soul of Man by the Word which is the Souls spiritual Food so is it called Feeding Thus much is seen by the Defenders of the Church of Rome and therefore they fly for refuge to a Circumstance It is observed that our Saviour delivered this Doctrine to Peter alone as indeed sometimes he did in this it is supposed that some great Mystery rests For why should our Saviour thus single out Peter and commend a common Duty to him if there were not something extraordinary in it which concerned Him above the rest This they interpret a Preeminence that Peter had in his Business of Teaching which they say is a Primacy and Headship inforcing thus much that all the rest were to depend from Him and from Him receive what they were to preach For Answer Grant me there were some great Mystery in it yet whence is it proved that this is that Mystery For if our Saviour did not manifest it then might there be a thousand Causes which Mans Conjecture may easily miss It is great boldness out of Causes concealed to pick so great Consequences and to found Matters of so great weight upon meer Conjectures Thirdly The Prayer for Confirmation of Peters Faith whence it came the Course of the Story set down in the Text doth shew It was our Saviours Prevision of Peters danger to relapse which danger he had certainly run