Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bind_v	church_n	loose_v	4,001	5	10.0884	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54125	The continued cry of the oppressed for justice being a farther account of the late unjust and cruel proceedings of unreasonable men against the persons and estates of many of the people call'd Quakers, only for their peaceable meetings to worship God : presented to the serious consideration of the King and both Houses of Parliament : with a postscript of the nature, difference and limits of civil and ecclesiastical authority, and the inconsistency of such severities with both, recommended and submitted to the perusal of Cæsar's true friends / by the author of England's present interest, &c.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1675 (1675)	Wing P1270; ESTC R18856	19,683	36

and killing and think it may be they do God good Service b●t their Lot shall be with Unbelievers forever Nay I have so effe●●ua●●y provided against all Mastery that I expresly charged them not to be many Masters for one was their Master I told them that the greatest amongst them was to be Servant to the rest not to impose upon the rest nay that to be great in my Kingdom they must become as gentle and harmless as little Children and such cannot force and punish in Matters of Religion In fine I strictly commanded them to love one another as I have loved them who am ready to lay down my Life for the Ungodly instead of taking away Godly Mens Lives for Opinions and this is the great Maxim of my holy Religion He that would be my Disciple must not crucifie other Men but take up his Cross and follow me who am meek and lowly and such so enduring shall find Eternal Rest to their Souls this is the Power I use and this is the Power I give How much this agrees with the Language Doctrine and Example of Jesus Christ I shall leave them to consider that read and believe Scripture but some affected to present Church Power and desiring their Ruine that conform not to her Worship and Discipline will object That Christ did give his Church Power to bind and loose and bid any Person agrieved tell the Church I grant it but what Binding was that with outward Chains and Fetters in nasty Holes and Dungeous nothing less Or was it that his Church had that true Discerning in her and Power with him that what she bound that is condemned or loosed that is remitted should stand so in God's Sight and Christ's Account But tell the Church and what then observe Christ's Extent in the Punishment of the Offender If the Offender will neither receive private Admonition nor hear the Church then sayes Christ let him be to thee as an Heathen c. Here 's no Fines Whips Stocks Pillories Goals and the like Instruments of Cruelty to punish the Heretick for the Purport of his Words seems to be no more then this If any Member of the Church refuse thy private Exhortation and the Church's Admonition look upon such a Person to be no more of you let him take his Course thou hast done well and the Church is clear of him Well but say the Church-Fighters of our Age Did not St. Paul wish them cut off that troubled the Church in his Time Yes But with what Sword think you Such as Christ bid Peter put up or the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Give him leave to explain his own Words For the WE APONS of our Warfare are NOT CARNAL but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high Thing that ex●lteth it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing every Thought into Obedience to Christ What think you of this Here are Warfares Weapons Oppositions and Conformity and not only no external Force about Matters of Religion us'd or countenanced but the most express and pathetical Exclusion and Rejection of any such Thing that could be given Now observe what Sort of Church-Government he recommends to his beloved Timothy Avoid foolish Questions and Genealogies and Contentions and striving about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being CONDEMNED OF HIMSELF or self-condemned It 's very remarkable first That t●is is great Apostle instead of exhorting Timothy to stand upon Niceties and sacrifice Mens Natural Comforts and Enjoyments for Opinions of Religion injoyns him to shun Disputes about them leaving People to their own Thoughts and Aprehensions in those Matters which excellently well coheres with another Passage of his Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any Thing ye be otherwise minded God shall REVEAL even this unto you he did not say you shall be FINED PILLAGED EXCOMMUNICATED and FLUNG into Prison if ye be not of our Mind 2dly That in the Apostles Definition an Heretick is a self-condemned Person one conscious to himself of Error and Obstinacy in it but that are not conscientious Dissenters for many Ten Thousands in this Nation act as they believe and dissent from the National Religion purely upon a Principle of Conscience to Almighty God and with Men of any Tenderness or common Sense their continual great Sufferings in Person and Estate and their Patience under them are a Demonstration or there can be none in the World Nor can their Persecutors disprove them unless they could search Hearts and that is a little too far for a Fallible Spirit to reach and an infallible One they deny So that the Apostle makes not the Heretick to lye upon the Side of misbelieving or not coming up to his Degree of Faith Knowledge but upon the Side of Wilfully Turbulently Obstinately and Self condemnedly maintaining inconsisting Things with the Faith Peace and Prosperity of the Church Granting us then not to be obstinate and self condemned Dissenters and you cannot reasonably refuse it us how do you prove us Erroneous in the other Part All Parties plead Scripture and that for the most opposite Principles Homousians and Arrians Calvinists and Arminians Papists Jansenists and Protestants The Scripture you see cannot determine the Sense of it self it must have an Interpreter he must either be Fallible or Infallible If the first we are worse then before for Men are apt to be more confident and yet are still upon as uncertain Grounds If the last this must either be an external or an Internal Judge If an External you know where you are without pointing for there stands nothing between you and Popery in that Principle If an Internal Judge either it is our selves or the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us Not our selves for then the Rule is the Thing ruled which cannot be and if it be the Spirit of Christ Jesus and the Apostle tells us That unless we have the Spirit we are none of Christ's then is the Neck of Imposition broken and what hast thou to do to judge me let me stand or fall to my own Master And upon this Foot went Luther Calvin Melancthon Beza abroad And Cranmer Ridly Hooper Jewel Bradford Philpot c. at home and as good Men and constant Martyrs in Ages before them But suppose Conscientious Dissenters as ill Men as the Apostle describes an Heretick to be what is the Punishment 3dly A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonision reject that is deny his Communion declare he is none of you condemn his Proceedings by a publick Censure among your selves what more can be strain'd by the fiercest Prosecutors of Men for Religion out of these Words But was this the Evangelical Rule and Practice Yes that it was Oh then whence