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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	bind_v	heaven_n	loose_v	3,336	5	10.8622	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61546	A discourse concerning the power of excommunication in a Christian church, by way of appendix to the Irenicum by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Irenicum.	1662 (1662)	Wing S5583; ESTC R38297	24,655	38

arise from meer consent is that Deed of Gift whereby our Blessed Saviour did confer the Power of the Keyes on the Apostle Peter as the representative in that action of the whole Colledge of the Apostles and Governours of the Church of which power all the Apostles were actually infeoffed John 20.23 By which Power of the Keyes is certainly meant some administration in the Church which doth respect it as a visible society in which sense the Church is so frequently called as in that place the Kingdom of Heaven and in all probability the administration intended here by the Power of the Keyes is that we are now discoursing of viz. the Power of Admission into the Church of Christ in order to the pardon of the sins of all penitent believers and the shutting out of such who were manifestly unworthy of so holy a communion So that the Power of the Keyes doth not primarily respect exclusion out of the Church and receiving into it again upon absolution but it chiefly respects the Power of Admission into the Church though by way of connotation and Analogy of reason it will carry the other along with it For if the Apostles as Governours of the Church were invested with a power of judging of mens fitness for admission into the Church as members of it it stands to the highest reason that they should have thereby likewise a power conveyed to them of excluding such as are unworthy after their admission to maintain communion with the Church So that this interpretation of the power of the Keyes is far from invalidating the power of the Church as to its censuring offendors all that it pretends to is only giving a more natural and genuine sense of the power of the Keyes which will appear so to be if we consider these things 1. That this power was given to Saint Peter before any Christian Church was actually formed which as I have elsewhere made manifest was not done till after Christs resurrection when Christ had given the Apostles their commission to go preach and baptize c. Matth. 28.19 Is it not therefore far more rational that the power of the Keyes here given should respect the founding of a Church and admission into it then ejection out of it before it was in being and receiving into it again And this we find likewise remarkably fulfilled in the person of the Apostle Peter who opened the door of admission into the Christian Church both to Jews and Gentiles So the Jews by his Sermon at Pentecost when about 3000. souls were brought into the Church of Christ. So the Gentiles as is most evident in the story of Cornelius Acts 10.28 who was the first fruits of the Gentiles So that if we should yield so far to the great inhancers of Saint Peters power that something was intended peculiar to his person in the Keyes given him by our Saviour we hereby see how rationally it may be understood without the least advantage to the extravagant pretensions of Saint Peters pretended successors 2. The pardon of sin in Scripture is most annexed to Baptism and Admission into the Church and thence it seems evident that the loosing of sin should be by admitting into the Church by Baptism in the same sense by which Baptism is said to save us and it is called the washing of regeneration respecting the spiritual advantages which come by admission into the Church of Christ and so they are said to have their sins bound upon them who continue refractory in their sins as Simon Magus is said to be in the bonds of iniquity 3. The Metaphor of the Keyes referrs most to admission into the house and excluding out of it rather then ejecting any out of it and re-admitting them Thus when Eliakim is said to have the Keyes of the house of David it was in regard of his power to open and shut upon whom he pleased And thus Cyprian as our learned Mr. Thorndike observes understands the power of binding and loosing in this sense in his Epistle to John where speaking of the remission of sins in Baptism he brings these very words of our Saviour to Peter as the evidence of it That what he should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven and concludes with this sentence Vnde intelligimus non nisi in Ecclesiâ praepositis in Evangelicâ lege ac Dominicâ ordinati●ne fundatis licere baptizare remissam peccatorum dare foris autem nec ligari aliquid posse nec solvi ubi non sit qui ligare possit aut solvere That which I now inferr from this discourse is that the power of the Church doth not arise from meer consent and confederation both because this power doth respect those who have not actually consented to it and because it is settled upon the Governours of the Church by divine institution Thus it appears that the right of inflicting censures doth not result meerly ex confederatâ disciplinâ which was the thing to be proved The like evidence may be given for the duty of submitting to penalties or Church-censures in the members of the Church which that it ariseth not from meer consent of parties will appear on these accounts 1. Every person who enters this Society is bound to consent before he doth it because of the obligation lying upon conscience to an open profession of Christianity presently upon conviction of the understanding of the truth and certainty of Christian Religion For when once the mind of any rational man is so far wrought upon by the influence of the Divine Spirit as to discover the most rational and undoubted evidences which there are of the truth of Christianity he is presently obliged to profess Christ openly to worship him solemnly to assemble with others for instruction and participation of Gospel-Ordinances and thence it follows that there is an antecedent obligation upon conscience to associate with others and consequently to consent to be governed by the rulers of the Society which he enters into So that this submission to the power of Church-officers in the exercise of Discipline upon offendors is implyed in the very conditions of Christianity and the solemn professing and undertaking of it 2. It were impossible any Society should be upheld if it be not laid by the founder of the Society as the necessary duty of all members to undergo the penalties which shall be inflicted by those who have the care of governing that Society so they be not contrary to the Laws nature and constitution of it Else there would be no provision made for preventing divisions and confusions which will happen upon any breach made upon the Laws of the Society Now this obligation to submission to censures doth speak something antecedently to the confederation although the expression of it lies in the confederation its self By this I hope we have made it evident that it is nothing else but a mistake in those otherwise learned persons who