Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	gospel_n	heaven_n	key_n	1,914	5	10.0076	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34542	The remains of the reverend and learned Mr. John Corbet, late of Chichester printed from his own manuscripts.; Selections. 1684	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1684 (1684)	Wing C6262; ESTC R2134	198,975	272

teaching so that every authoritative Church-teacher is a Pastor for the Pastor rules only by the spiritual sword which is the word of God and the discipline which he exercises is no more than than the personal application of Christs word in his name to judg the impenitent and absolve the penitent And every authoritative Teacher in Christs name hath power to make such personal application of the word The Pastoral Office hath its work not only towards those that are within but towards those also that are without to bring them into the Fold As Christ the Prince of Pastors or chief Shepherd doth by virtue of that office not only feed the sheep that are gathered to him but goes out also into the wilderness to seek the lost sheep even so the Ministerial pastors or bishops are by virtue of their office under Christ to seek those that are as yet going astray and to bring them to Christ the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls Thus the name Pastor doth very congruously denote the Ministerial Authority towards the unbelieving and unconverted as well as towards believers and converts Moreover the said Officers are stiled Preachers of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4.1 Ambassadors of Christ that have the Ministry of Reconciliation committed to them 2 Cor. 5.18 20. And these Titles infer an Office and Ministry relating as well to those that are without and to be brought into the Fold as to those that are within and to be kept there and in reference to both sorts it is for the edifying or building of the Church In short the Pastoral Office is a state of Authority and obligation to dispence the Word and Sacraments and disciplinary censures of Christ the Mediator in his name The Ministerial dispensation of the Word differs quoad formale from spiritual instruction reproof exhortation given in a common way of Christian charity or in a special way of Oeconomical or civil Authority being performed by Christs commissioned Officers and Stewards in holy things and separated or devoted thereunto And herein the Ministers as Ambassadors or Heralds according to the tenor of the Gospel do publish and offer the mercies of Christ upon his terms and denounce the threatnings of Christ to those that refuse his Mercies The Sacraments being seals annexed by Christ to the word of his grace and a visible word are also to be dispenced by them to whom the dispensation of the word is committed The disciplinary censures of Authoritative Reproof Suspension and Excommunication of persons convicted of ungodliness and impenitency being a particular and personal application of the threatnings of the Gospel and a declaring and judging of the persons unmeet for fellowship with Christ and his Church are likewise to be administred by the same Officers § 4. The nature of the Spiritual Power residing in the Pastors THE Spiritual Power of Pastors Bishops or Elders is expressed by the Author and Giver of it in these terms viz. The keys of the kingdom of heaven binding and loosing remitting and retaining sins To understand the true import of these terms is to understand the Power enquired of The keys of the kingdom of Heaven signifie the Stewardship of Christs Gospel to dispence to every one a due portion thereof according to his command Binding and loosing is a Ministerial Authority of holding impenitent sinners under the curse and absolving the penitent from it only by the word of Christ generally or personally applied and it may further signifie a Ministerial prohibiting of that which is unlawful and allowing of that which is lawful by the doctrine of Christ And the power of remitting and retaining sins as granted to Ministers is only that of meer Stewards or Dispensers of the Blessing or the Curse that hath proceeded out of the mouth of Christ their Lord and there appears no grant from Christ to his Ministers of other power than what is here expressed or what is implyed in it or by necessary consequence follows from it In reference to the ministerial power a great Scholar distinguisheth between a Vicar and a mere Minister and saith a Vicar doth produce actions of the same kind with him whose Vicar he is his words are actiones congeneres tho less perfectly but a mere minister doth not produce such actions but only such as are serviceable to the action of the principal cause Therefore the name of the same action is properly yet analogically attributed to the Vicar as to the principal as for example to pass sentence but to the minister only tropically as remitting and retaining of sins Indeed the sentence of a vicarious Judg whether just or unjust is decisive or definitive and valid as to matter of legal right till it be reversed by the principal but the action of a Minister for the remitting and retaining of sin is of no force no not for a moment if it be unjust or done as the common expression is errante clave Hereupon it follows that the ministerial power of remitting and retaining sins and of binding and loosing at least as to the conscience is merely declarative that is it hath its force and vertue as it is a true declaration of the mind of Christ in that particular otherwise it is void and of no effect The power of Pastors in the acts aforesaid is but the power of Heralds or Ambassadors and therefore only declarative God and Christ doth by the law of grace absolve or justifie the penitent constitutivè Even before the Pastor pronounceth absolution every penitent is by the covenant of grace justifyed or made righteous Therefore the Pastor doth absolve or justifie him only declarativè For when a man is justified by the law of grace and consequently so esteemed and judged of God what hath his officer or minister afterwards to do in his name but to declare what is already done in law As for the saying of Dominus expectat servum that is before God justifies the penitent believer who is ready to submit to all his terms he stays for the sentence of absolution to be pronounced by the Minister I confess I understand not its consistence with the Covenant of Grace Wherefore the pastoral sentence of absolution doth confer no new right nor doth it perfect the right already given by the law of Christ but it doth authoritatively declare that right and strengthen the assurance and comfort the conscience of the penitent The pastoral binding of the impenitent is not the adding of a further curse or obligation to divine vengeance but merely a solemn declaration of the curse already past upon the sinner by the law of Christ But as the solemn declaration of the Kings pardon to repenting rebels and the denunciation of vengeance to the obstinate by an authorized officer according to the law doth strengthen the assurance of the conditional mercy and increase the guilt of continuing in rebellion and more forcibly press to obedience so the like declarative acts

preservative and accumulative not destructive or diminutive The Church is Christs family and the magistrate is not the Lord but a member of it and cannot govern it at his pleasure but only as the Lord himself hath allowed and the state thereof requires In short the magistrate as well as the minister hath received his authority for edisication not for destruction The magistrate cannot make any new essential or integral part of religion either Doctrine of Faith or Divine Worship but he is as much bound up to the religion that is of Gods making as the meanest of his Subjects for he and they are Gods Subjects both alike But by his civil sanctions he may strengthen the true religion and enforce the observance of the Divine Laws so far as it is meet they should be inforced by Humane Laws and this is the most noble part of his work in matters of Religion The Magistrate may and must take care that sacred things be duly administred by sacred or spiritual officers and he may and must punish them for mal-administration He may and must restrain persons of impious principles from venting their wicked errors and from any open impious practice by a power formally civil tho objectively ecclesiastical He may convocate synods or councils of ecclesiastical persons to advise and conclude according to the Word of God how the Church being corrupt is to be reformed and how to be guided and governed when reformed And he ought to use his own judgment of discretion concerning the decrees and judgments of ecclesiastical persons in reference to his own act of political ratifying the same The Magistrate cannot ma●e any new kind of sacred or spiritual office bec●use he cannot institute any new sacred work and the work that Christ hath instituted ●ath an officer of his own institution already appointed for it also because a spiritual office is to be administred not in the Magistrates but in Christs Name yet he may make new offices for civil service about sacred things He cannot appoint any thing in religion that is forbidden by the divine laws nor forbid any thing appointed by the divine laws All his authority being from God cannot be against him And therefore such injunctions and prohibitions can lay no obligations of obedience upon the subject Hereupon he cannot forbid the preaching of the Gospel or the administring of Sacraments for then it were at his pleasure whether Christ should have a Church or Kingdom upon earth He cannot take one part of the Pastors office from him while he continues him the exercise of the other for that were to maim and marr the office He cannot deprive a Pastor of his Pastoral office or discharge him from fulfilling his Ministry because it is held from Christ and not from him He may not compel aminister to give the Sacraments to whom he pleases nor may he compel any to profess either in word or deed wha they believe not or to take that which God hath made the specia priviledg of Believers The accidental parts modes and circumstances of Religion which are necessary in general and left undetermined of God in particular the Magistrate hath power to determine according to the general rules of Gods Word Forasmuch as the Divine Law doth constitute more particulars and leaves less to humane liberty and God is more jealous and conscience more scrupulous in sacred than in common things it behoves the Magistrate to be wary humble and sober in his determinations about these matters He may regulate the preaching of the Gospel provided that regulation be for the furtherance not the hinderance thereof And that can be no part of due ordering that causeth the destruction or dangerous detriment of the thing ordered The Magistrate may not appoint that which is not simply forbidden of God if it be scandalous or mischievous in the consequents nor may he forbid that which God hath not appointed but left indifferent if the omission of it be scandalous or mischievous in the consequents because in such cases God hath forbidden the former and required the latter by his general command and because the Magistrate hath his authority as was said for edification not for destruction OF CERTAINTY and INFALLIBILITY § 1. Of Certainty in general I Begin the enquiry by taking notice of the common distinction of objective and subjective Certainty Objective Certainty or Certainty in the object is the immutable verity of the thing it self For that a thing is what it is is unchangeably true Subjective Certainty is the firmness of assent to a thing apprehended as it is It is this later which I enquire into and it presupposeth the former It must be supposed that our faculties are true that is that in their sound state and set in due circumstances they are adapted to discern things as they are indeed Otherwise the question of the nature of Certainty is out of dores there being no such thing in the world Certainty of Assent includes three things 1. That it be firm without staggering 2. That it be true and not erroneous 3. That it rest upon firm and sure grounds The first is evidently necessary because it is the very notation of the word Certainty the notion we mean thereby is not to doubt or stagger in our apprehension of a thing The second is as evidently necessary for Certainty is an affection of knowledg but an erroneous apprehension is not knowledg but ignorance a confident mistake cannot be certainty The third also is clear for if the grounds be either false or weak the knowledg built thereon cannot be sure Tho the assent be true in respect of the object yet it is not certain in this case because not judicious nor solid yea tho the apprehension be according to the thing yet as far as it rests upon a false or weak ground it is not knowledg properly so called but a casual confidence or presumption and when the insufficiency of the grounds shall appear the apprehension fails and vanisheth away Meer probability is not Certainty strictly so called it is indeed an affection or mode both of knowledg and of error which is a kind of ignorance for that which is only probable may either be or not be what it is apprehended to be and so the apprehension thereof may be either true or false either knowledg or error Yet the apprehending of a probable thing only as probable is always a right apprehension for whether the thing be or not be it is certainly true that it is probable The reason of probability lies in a sufficient evidence that a thing not only may be but is so indeed rather than not so as it is apprehended to be The reason of Certainty lies in a sufficient evidence that a thing must needs be as it is apprehended For if there be not such evidence then if we indeed consider the matter we presently apprehend that in regard the thing may be otherwise it is so for ought we know and that