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
A84289	An exhortation directed to the elders of the several congregations within this province of Lancaster. By the Provincial Assembly at Preston, May 1. 1655.	Preston (Lancashire, England). Provincial Assembly.	1655 (1655)	Wing E3866; Thomason E850_18; ESTC R207413	9,123	16

Minister hath not done his part when he hath publikely warned or Doctrinally to all in general declared against unworthy receiving at the Lords Table he hath invested in him the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven not only a Key but Keyes that is as we understand A Key to binde or shut as well as a Key to loose or open and a Key of Power or Discipline as well as a Key of Knowledge or Doctrine He hath a Watch to keep as well as a Word to declare as he may not be a dumbe Dog that cannot or will not bark so he must not be a blind sleeping or unobserving watchman as his work is to feed the Church of God so he is charged and that in order thereunto to take heed to all the flock and to take the oversight thereof That which we read practised by the ministers of Christ or committed to any such to be practised or commended in them when practised in order to the fulfilling of the Ministry and to the edifying of Churches that we conceive to be matter of rule now to them who are set in the same calling and relation Now we find that the Apostles Paul and Barnabas were careful after they had preached the word of the Lord and planted Churches to go again to them and to see or look into them how they did That Tychicus was sent by the Apostle Paul to the Colossians for the same purpose that he might know their estate that in like manner Paul sent Timotheus to the Thessalonians to know their faith and that the Angel of the Church of Ephesus is noted and praised by the Lord Jesus for that he could not bear them which were evil and had tryed them which said they were Apostles and were not and had found them lyars As on the contrary hand it was a charge which he had against the Angel of the Church of Pergamos that he had them that held the Doctrine of the Nicholaitans so hateful to him and semblably he objecteth against the Angel of the Church in Thyatira That he suffered the woman Jezebel which called her self a Prophetess to teach and to seduce his servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols We are perswaded to extricate a Minister from that labyrinth he may suppose himself in betwixt a promiscuous administration on the one hand and a laying down that Ordinance on the other there are other ways besides the chusing and practising of either of these and those clear and warrantable ones which to our judgement these are not And if there be any of our Brethren who cannot find out any such way we wish they would be present at our next Provincial meeting and concur with us in advising upon it for their resolution which offer we expect they will hearken to in reference not only to themselves but to many of their Brethren of which number our selves are who are much unsatisfied both with the non-administration of some and with the boundless administration of others And we do hereby declare unto them the offence which is taken we think justly by others and our selves at the practice of them both especially at the latter that if they will own their duty in the case of offences they may be moved to accept of this our admonition and offer And for the latter as we know and resent it to be a plainly anti-scriptural and very harmful and offensive practise so we judge it to be a novel course against the constant judgement and order of the Church of Christ in all ages and scarce ever professed or defended by any one before this age nor in the latitude it s now held practised till these very few years And whereas divers that hold this course seem to have a zeal for the continuance in publike of the Book of Common Prayer we wish them to remember that in this they themselves do manifestly cashier and cross it and that whether they admit persons without before-hand requiring and taking notice of their intent to communicate or they receive such as are uncatechized or they administer to them that are openly scandalous livers * See for this the Rubrick or Rules prefixed to the Order for the administration of the Lords Supper The first and third Reasons for Catechizing prefixed to the Order of Confirmation with the last rule suffixed to that Order and the beginning of the Commi●ation against sinners And for that Book in general having upon this occasion mentioned it we may make this observation truly that the wholsom Order therein is for substance retained by those that think fit to lay aside the reading or reciting its lines verbatim whilst it is broken and abolished by those that would in what suits with their minds keep up its form of words But we thus leave this point and this our particular address to our Brethen in the Ministry Upon these and other the like considerations we exhort you all our beloved Brethren of every congregational Presbyterie whether Ministers or other Elders that have heretofore joyned in the Government to own that work of God by applying your selves diligently and faithfully to execute the same in all the duties thereof and for that end to cast your eyes continually upon the flock for the inspection thereof and constantly as opportunity is afforded to keep the meetings of the Presbyteries whether congregational or classical And because all men called to this work are not of equal forwardness and that which are so far lapsed as to be out of use may be not easily or suddenly to be restored we desire neighbour Brethren of the Ministry to excite and strengthen the hands of each other by mutual exhortation and counsel and every of them to perswade the Elders of their own and of the adjoyning Congregations to the work And though all whom it concerns be not presently gained to it yet to pursue them still with brotherly invitations while there is any hope And if at the first they attain not to a competent number fully to act yet those that are disposed to it if they have any to concur with them let them meet constantly both Congregationally and Classically and we doubt not but their so doing through Gods acceptance of and blessing upon their willing mind and offer of themselves to this his work may have some effect worth that labour either to the publike advancement of this work or to their own edification and comfort of conscience And we propose to them as a seasonable action when they re-assume this work solemnly to humble themselves before God under the remembrance and sense of all by-past backwardnesses and obstructions and of all present imperfections and impediments and to seek unto him for his presence instruction and help in this attempt and then to proceed faithfully industriously and resolutely as he shall please to lay their duty before them and open a door to them for the execution of it though attended with manifold discouragements

ignorance error division a spirit of security pride and self-willedness and manifold prophaness in life and now of late very strange strong and most dangerous Satanical delusions and how the Ordinances of God which yet they retain among them are through that defect subject to inefficacy contempt and profanation much more then it might be hoped they would be if the Discipline were in force As to themselves that by the same means they are brought under much difficulty perplexity and grief of soul in and about their administrations their charge as to the knowledge of particular persons and cases being not distinctly enough known to them and so they are left uncertain to whom to apply themselves and what and how to administer so as to give to each their portion in due season Moreover hence it is that in publike Dispensations there is an offensive diversity betwixt the practise of one Minister and of another from whence arise distastes censures and stomachings betwixt Minister and Minister betwixt people and people and betwixt people and minister together with disorderly rangings of people from their proper places as there is particularly in the use of both the Sacraments And in relation to that of the Lords Supper we observe that Ministers in many if not the most places where the Government is not used find no other way to acquit themselves but either to dispense it promiscuously or to lay aside and bereave their flocks and themselves wholly of it neither of which ways we think can be justified Here is no room for discussion in relation to each of those courses Only to promiscuous admission to the Table of the Lord it being the commoner and the looser way we will say this The Church of God especially as assembled and employed about the Ordinances of the Gospel is a Temple a City a Flock an Army To expose then her communion and the Ordinances of Christ peculiar to her unto all comers is to make her a Temple without a Court Doors or Porters a City without walls Gates and Bars a Flock without Fold or Shepherd and an Army without Guard or Discipline The Temple of God which the Church of Christ is is holy the Lords Supper is an holy thing as in some other respects so in as much as the Elements of it were by our blessed Saviour both instituted and solemnly set apart by prayer unto a holy use which latter by vertue of that first institution and benediction is continually done by the Minister the prohibition of Christ is indefinite Give not that which is holy unto the Dogs And indeed the nature of holiness consists in a separation from common commerce or use the measure of which separation is the will or rule of him that is the Founder or Author of that holiness The Rule of the Gospel is If thy brother go on in an offence to the neglecting of the Churches admonition let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican Again Mark them which cause offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them And again Looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God Lest any root ●f bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest there be any Fornicator or profane person c. And else-where We command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly And if any man obey not our word note that man and have no company with him And in another place Ye have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you Know ye not that a little Leaven leaveneth the whole lump Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump Now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat Do not ye judge them that are within Therefore put away from among your selves that wicked person And whereas there are some who would have these five last passages all comprised in one chapter or some of them to be taken only of private converse or fellowship not of publike or Church-communion besides their presumption in putting a restriction upon the Scripture serving their own turn without warrant from it self they are confuted by the Text it self which in every one of those passages insisteth on the same thing to wit the ejection of the wicked person from among them to whom he writes the Church of God at Corinth the which he resembleth to a whole lump or mass in danger to be tainted by the corruption of that person while he was continued among them as one particle or piece thereof Yea further the Apostle in his urging upon them the performance of that act of ejection inserteth this as an Argument by which he plainly applyeth the whole discourse to this matter of the Lords Supper For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness What can the Apostle as to his Argument in hand mean by holding out Christ as our Passover which is sacrificed for us and by calling us therefore to keep the Feast with the exclusion of old leaven but that Christ in the publike administration of his Supper in his Church is the same in substance to us Christians which the Passover was to the Israelites that this Supper succeedeth in the room of that Passover and that the Rite of that Passover in the expurgation of leaven is a rule or instruction to us in our keeping of this Supper when Christs last Passover was ended and in the evening in which he was betrayed and led away to death he instituted this Supper to be a continual memorial of the Sacrifice of his death therefore as the Israelites during the feast of the Passover were to abstain from leavened bread and for that purpose they were to put away leaven out of their houses no leaven was to be seen with them in all their quarters so is the Church of Christ now to observe the Feast of their Passover the Supper of the Lord without the association of wicked persons that is not only those that are out of the Church but such as being among them and of their Brotherhood and Body have lapsed into gross sins and have not manifested their repentance and for that end when they go about the celebration of that Feast they are to look intently to the exclusion of such persons if any be from among them and to see that their Assembly be a refined or new lump This appears to us to be the clear importance of that place These are some of the rules describing the sanctimony of the Churches communion particularly in the celebration of the Lords Supper Doubtless a