Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	body_n	church_n	mystical_a	1,148	5	10.4023	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47298	An help and exhortation to worthy communicating, or, A treatise describing the meaning, worthy reception, duty, and benefits of the Holy Sacrament and answering the doubts of conscience, and other reasons, which most generally detain men from it together with suitable devotions added / by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1683 (1683)	Wing K369; ESTC R14112	224,392	528

stay away and not receive at all But that they may not be kept back by this hindrance I shall observe to them these three things 1. That they ought not to be forward in judging any others unworthy lest they be mistaken in it 2. When some who as they have great cause to think are unworthy do receive yet ought not that to hinder them from it 3. If it happen that any are really Scandaliz'd at the sight of such as are notoriously Wicked or have done any wrong to their Neighbours either in word or deed upon complaint made in the Congregation they are to be suspended from the Holy Table and denyed the Sacrament 1. I say they ought not to be forward in judging any others unworthy to communicate lest they be mistaken in it For every Penitent Man who is fully Resolved to leave all his Sins is really worthy to receive the Sacrament and whether the Person they think unworthy be so resolved or no is very hard for them to judge since no Man can see into anothers Heart and only God and his own Soul are privy to it When he comes to the Lords Table every Communicant professes to Repent and promises to lead a New Life thenceforward and when he solemnly declares he is thus resolved 't is hard for another Person who cannot see into his Soul to say he is not but is still impenitent Tho all Good Men therefore may be free in judging of themselves yet ought they to be very wary how they pass a Judgment on the unworthiness of others They must not be forward to pronounce of it because 't is hard for them to know it so that when they give Sentence against their Brethren in this point 't is venturously done and they are liable to be deceived in it 2. When some others who as they have great cause to think are unworthy do Receive the Sacrament yet ought not that to hinder them from joyning in it Our Business should not be to move Questions and Disputes about the preparedness of others but to be careful duly to prepare our selves and when once we are sitly qualified for it we ought to come whether they be so or no. Their unworthiness will have all its effect upon themselves but will not hinder our acceptance nor ought to put us by from doing both our Saviour and our own Souls this Service To shew this I shall observe these three things 1. If the company of ill and unworthy Persons be a sufficient hindrance it would equally have hindred our Saviour Christ and the Primitive Christians 2. It ought not only to hinder us from the Communion but also from being Members of the Christian Church and Profession But 3. One shall not bear anothers but every Man his own Burden so that if not we but only they we unworthy we are safe and may freely come and they alone are to be debarred from Receiving 1. If the Company of ill and unworthy Persons be a sufficient hindrance it is not so barely unto us but would equally have hindred our Saviour Christ and the Primitive Christians For when our Lord eat hi● own Supper it was not with a Select Company of worthy Receivers but with a mixt multitude of Saints and Sinners Thus he found it in the Jewish Passover for all the Congregation of Israel both good and bad were to eat of it and none but Foreiners and hired Servants were excluded from it Exod. 12.45 47. And the like mixture of Guests he allowed when he instituted this Feast instead of it For in great likelyhood Judas who as the Scripture says was a Thief and the Son of Perdition was one of the twelve that Communicated with him Mat. 26.20 25 26. Luc. 22.20 21. And in the first times all Christians as I have shewn who came together to pray to God met also to receive the Holy Sacrament that being then a constant part of their Publick Worship The Number of Communicants in those Days was the same with the number of Christians or Baptized Persons for all Men then met in the Communion who were made Members of Christs Mystical Body the Church by Baptism and were not cut off again by Excommunication as St. Paul plainly intimates when he says of all those many who make up the one Body that they are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 and of all those who have been Baptized into one Body that they have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 So that their Communions as well as ours were mixt Assemblies which were made up of worthy and unworthy Receivers and therefore if other Mens unworthiness ought to be our hindrance it should also have hindred our Blessed Saviour Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians who if this be a good Reason for it should all have forborn the Sacrament because Judas a lost man and other unprepared and unworthy Persons met also with them at the same time to partake in it 2. If the Company of unworthy Persons be a just impediment from the Communion it ought to hinder us also from being Members of the Christian Church and Profession For the Church it self is a mixt multitude of fit and unfit of holy and unholy Persons It is compared to a Net wherein Fish of all sorts are caught both good and bad Mat 13.47 48 to a Field where both Wheat and Tares spring up and wherein both must grow together till the Harvest v. 24 25 30. All Christians are not such as their Saviour Christ was and such as their Religion requires they should be and therefore if we refuse to share in any holy thing whilst some unworthy Persons pretend to it and will not joyn in any Act or State wherein ill men participate we must not only shun the Communion but cease also to be members of the Church or Profess the Christian Religion Nay I might add further since all Communities have some Corrupt Members and in every Body of Men there are some Vicious as well as Godly Persons if we decline all Society and fellowship which has ill Men to partake in it we must not stop in avoiding the Communion and leaping out of the Christian Church and Profession but if we run on so far as this Principle will lead us become Out-Laws to Families Townships Kingdoms yea to all Mankind 3. One shall not bear anothers but every Man his own Burden so that if not we but only they are unworthy we are safe and may freely c●me and they alone are debarr'd from receiving God will not punish one Soul for anothers fault or be angry at this because that Person has deserv'd it But every Man shall stand or fall by his own Work and either be approved or ●●ject●d as it prepares him for it Let every Man prove his own Work saith the Apostle for every Man shall bear his own Burden Eph. 6.4 5. So that if we take care to come worthily our selves