Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	bread_n	communion_n	cup_n	8,923	5	10.0506	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60611	A sermon preached on the fourth Sunday in Lent, in the Cathedral Church of Norwich wherein is represented the great sin and danger of neglecting the Holy Communion / by W. Smyth, D.D. ...	Smith, William, b. 1615 or 16.	1680 (1680)	Wing S4282; ESTC R17812	17,831	42

why don't you hope to go to Heaven with Blasphemy in your mouths with bloud and Rapine in your hands or why can't you dispense with hypocrisie intemperance unchastity disloyalty or even with impenitency it self so far as you think your selves to be concerned in Gods Laws to the contrary as well as when you wilfully live in the breach of the express command of God in the case of the Communion Shall not an offence in this one in St. James his sence James 2. 10. make you guilty of all That is put you into the same state of danger as if you were guilty of all Or can you be so vain as to believe that any obedience can be sincere and acceptable to God but that which is intire and universal No it is certain that no Soul can be said to be truly acted by a right principle of the Love and fear of God to do his duty but as the Psalmist devoutly speaks it will make him to have an eye or a respect to all the Commandments The sum of this Argument is that to receive the Lord's Supper is the matter of an Evangelical precept of a special Law of Jesus and therefore necessary and indispensable Secondly The receiving this Holy Sacrament is necessary necessitate medii that is as a means without which we cannot reasonably expect Gods blessing upon our other Christian performances and endeavours For whatever means God hath appointed for a Blessing be they what he pleaseth it is necessary where Providence hath not put a Bar that they should be used for it otherwise the blessing is in vain expected from God though yet we think to substitute other means in their room Indeed to hope for it in an extraordinary way without the use of that means which is ordinarily appointed is an affront put upon the Wisdom and Authority of God And to expect it by substituting one means of that blessing for another is as unreasonable as if one should think to reap the benefits of prayer which he neglects by reading or hearing All the means of Grace tend to one and the same end of making us truly good and improving the Graces of God in us but they operate several ways towards it each according to its own nature and therefore that good effect which is proper to one we must not expect from another while we neglect that We aim at life and health both by Food and Physick but we do not take Medicines for ordinary nourishment nor rely upon our daily bread for recovery from a dangerous sickness I suppose we all grant that the Holy Communion hath its peculiar operation and contributes something in a way proper to it self towards the life of God in us The Cup in the Holy Supper is the Cup of Blessing not only because it is Blessed by the Prayers of the Church but because we are afterwards to be blessed in the use of it The Bread which we break is the Communion of the Body of Christ not only with one another but with God at whose Table we feast upon the Sacrifice that was once offered to him for us And can we imagine that these expressions do not imply that there is some Blessing and Grace conferred upon the Worthy Receiver that is peculiarly an effect of the Holy Sacrament The spiritual benefits of Receiving were indeed obtained for us at Gods hand by that one alsufficient Sacrifice of our Lords Body and Bloud upon the Cross But as they are Sacramentally represented and tendered so are they really Received by the Faithful in the Lords Supper It is farther to be considered that the means of our Spiritual life and growth do not contribute towards the end but by a supernatural Operation upon our minds But he that neglecteth one of the means of Grace especially if it be the greatest has no reason to expect the concurrence of Gods blessing with his use of the rest Where God has commanded us to use means more than one there the use of all but one is not a sufficient discharge of our duty and therefore no sufficient qualification for that Grace which is promised to a sincere use of all We are agreed with those that occasioned the Sacraments once general neglect and of the too frequent dis-use of it now that the Grace and Blessing of Spiritual knowledge is communicated by means appointed And the people are taught strongly to believe it or they would not be so nice in their choice of its Administrators nor would they so zealously post up and down after it nor sometimes so dearly pay for it But then it is strange that though a greater blessing is to be communicated to them in the Holy Sacrament yet that nevertheless they should not without any Conscience of their duty to God or value of the blessing to themselves take a journey of a few steps to the place where Gods Minister stands ready in Gods Name to tender the means of that blessing to them But then the wonder is still encreased when it is considered that though their beloved Guides have by their peculiar mode of Preaching perpetually accustom'd them to the Notions of getting Christ laying hold on Him applying Him and getting an interest in Him that is as is supposed of enjoying a Communion with Him for the saving of their Souls that yet they should not apply those expressions to the enjoying of him in the Sacrament and should not as customarily be pressing them to that Sacred Ordinance concerning which those their expressions may be much more properly used that is where they may undoubtedly have the readiest access to him and the nearest Communion with him or as our Church assures us where they may dwell in Christ and Christ in them they may be one with Christ and Christ with them And if they had so sent them to Christ when they were constantly calling upon them to get him it would have solv'd the Preachers sincerity when he ply'd them with those uncertain expressions of their Duty And the people might have understood how they should have reasonably answered such exhortations And further this would have helped us to know how to manage our dying people who by being accustom'd to that mode of Preaching instead of desiring the sacred Office of the Church that is of making Confessions of their Faith of requiring the Churches wise Expedient to cure their wounded Consciences and of making restitution to whomsoever they have injured are according as they had been taught and their good meaning had been abused crying out for Christ or are using such kind of words to express their desires of having and enjoying his Person Could we have made them sensible that what they complain'd for they might have attain'd in the Holy Sacrament answerable to the very terms of their complaint which hath been always adjudged the proper Viaticum provision for a Christians journey into another world We might have understood our duty and chearfully perform'd it to the dying persons