Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	drink_v	eat_v	5,781	5	7.4332	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54944	A discourse concerning the trial of spirits wherein inquiry is made into mens pretences to inspiration for publishing doctrines, in the name of God beyond the rules of the sacred scriptures : in opposition to some principles and practices of papists and fanaticks, as they contradict the doctrines of the Church of England, defined in her Articles of Religion, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament / by Thomas Pittis ...	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2313; ESTC R33964	135,179	370

an evasion is a palpable error is apparent from the institution of our Saviour as recorded by all the Evangelists that mention it in all the Gospels where this is repeated For as the essential parts are always set down so we have prescribed Bread and Wine which by a solemn consecration are blessed and separated from common uses to signifie Christs Body and Blood and in a separate manner to represent Christ dead and not united under one Symbol And to whomsoever he gave the Body represented by the Bread the same person received the Blood signified by the Wine contained in the Cup As it appears upon the view of Christs own institution If it be Objected upon the grant of this which none can deny that the Apostles then only received And that the Romanists themselves allow it to the Priests It may from thence with a greater colour be argued that the whole Sacrament ought only to be continued to the Clergy And that the Laity should not receive so much as a part And then the argument will sooner deprive them of all than any one part of it But that I may totally invalidate this scruple and at the same time prove the Papists to be erroneous Let us view the institution as repeated by S. Paul who has in this proved Rome to have err'd and clearly frees us from their imposture Though S. Peter sayes nothing of it 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do for a remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Now the whole design of this repetition of the first Institution is to rebuke those disorderly practices of the whole body of the Church of Corinth and to regulate all by the Institution of our Saviour And all together as well people as Clergy are told that as often as they eat this Bread and drink this Cup they shew forth the Lords death till he come If this then is to be continued in the Church as a Memorial of Christs Death till his coming again to judge the World which the Church of Rome will not deny It must be an error thus to depart from the first Institution of Christ and the succeeding practice of his blessed Apostles to say nothing of other Ages of the Church to give to the people an half Communion which the Priests will not be contented with themselves and to deliver them only a part of the Sacrament This certainly is such an error as does not only void their infallibility but a crime too Unless the greatest Sacriledge be a vertue And in plain language it certainly concludes that either the Scriptures or the the Romanists are not infallible Secondly I instance in their Prayer in an unknown tongue I mean a language unknown to the people I cannot but wonder if we had no directions in the Book of God concerning this matter that any persons should be so stupid as to petition from God they know not what and to offer that under the notion of a reasonable service which they do not understand For how can that be presented with Faith which they know not whether it be such as God will accept and as becomes them to offer The Priest here may curse the people in the name of the Devil when they think they are bless'd in the name of God But not to prosecute any absurdities consequential to this irrational practice besides what the Scriptures mention designing not at present to handle these things at large 'T is a direct contradiction to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14. Chap. 14 15. and 16 Verses For the Apostle having laid down this general direction that all things in the publick Worship should be done to edification He affirms that praying and blessing in unknown tongues did not accomplish this end vers the 12 th and 17 th 1. Because he that prayes in an unknown tongue though he understands it himself becomes unprofitable unto others v. the 14. 2. Because no man that understands not can give his assent or breath forth a wish by saying Amen to a Prayer or Blessing in an unknown tongue ver the 16 th And the Apostle from the whole inferrs this as a rule unto himself That when he prays with the Spirit i. e. in an unknown tongue which was then an immediate gift of the Spirit he would pray with understanding also i. e. so as he understanding it himself might become fruitful unto others by giving them its just interpretation that they who understood not divers languages might be able to say Amen when they were rendered into their own So that it must be an error in the Church of Rome to enjoyn their publick Prayers to be made in an unknown tongue Unless they will invalidate the Scriptures of S. Paul by a blind and unwritten authority from S. Peter Lastly They have lost their pretended infallibility by determining that monstrous and absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation It cannot be expected when I introduce this point as a proof of another that I should expatiate upon all the absurdities that attend so prodigious a determination As that the same Body may be in a thousand places at once that there may be admitted a penetration of dimensions That a Body may be somewhere where it was not before without changing its place That the whole Body of Christ may be contain'd within the small compass nay in every little part of a Wafer That it may be eat every day yet remain the same still That an irrational creature a Mouse for example may feed upon the Body of our Lord That one thing may be chang'd into another thing which did exist before That a Body may be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Nay that Christ may give his own Body to be eaten by his Disciples whilst yet he remained alive and entire at the Table These and such like are the absurd consequences of Transubstantiation which men must swallow with the substantial Body and Blood of Christ in the Roman Sacrament of the Lords Supper And they require too large a discourse for me to expatiate upon each severally and apart I shall therefore instance in one absurdity or rather a foundation of great impiety such as destroys the authority of the Gospel if this Doctrine of Transubstantiation proves true and is not an error And that is That it destroyes all the certainty of our senses For if that which has the colour and appearance of Bread That which my taste informs is such That which by touching and handling of it seems to be Bread by as great an evidence as can appear to

upon those heads that are always soft and therefore fit to receive any Who have no notions of things fixed and setled but the images and representations that are the Book in which they read all their Propositions interfere with each other and are either confused or else are crumbled and broken in pieces Besides Religion is of that nature that if we play with it as a thing indifferent or change the true Principles for those that are false We either lose it quite in the midst of variety or 't is with great difficulty if ever we recover it This the Apostle plainly tells us Heb. 6.4 It is impossible or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies very difficult for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance Hence is it that our Saviour charges men to take heed what they hear Mar. 4.24 And S. Paul exhorts men to hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 And S. Jude urges that we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints third ver of his Epistle Let us therefore that are grounded in our Religion behave our selves as men that are resolved And not by any means be frightned from our Faith by the ghastly looks the bold threats or the pretences of new Revelations from any But let those Scriptures we have already received and our shorter Creeds drawn from them be the standing and perpetual Rule of our Faith For variety will disturb us while we live and almost distract us when we come to die and in all probability deprive us of our future happiness We cannot but be sensible of the dreadful condition of those men that are ready to depart out of this before they have prepared for another world Who have all their guilts standing round about them and affrighting them with their gastly appearances when they are toss'd and tumbled upon a Bed of sickness when they can see nothing but death before them and the dismal prospect of a blacker and worse state beyond it And when to all this miserable and frightful scene of things shall be added inward pangs and convulsions of mind doubled and heightned either by the falshood or uncertainty of those Principles by which we direct our eyes in this view How tragical and horrid must our condition be When our Spirits that should support us under the infirmities of our bodies are so wounded within us that they are a torment to themselves and our own doubts and vexatious uncertainties about those Principles of Religion that can only guide us through the Chambers of death and let in the light from some glorious Regions beyond the grave so increase upon us that we are miserably tortured betwixt hope and fear when our setled belief of future things can only render our passage pleasant and our condition tolerable Now since a settlement of our Principles in matters of Religion is of greater concernment to us than the settlement of our Estates Because these only serve to defray the charges of our Bodies whilst they ride Post through a shorter stage when those prepare us for and enter us into Heaven and must maintain us through all the Ages of an endless Eternity And since the Principles of Christianity are the most excellent in themselves and have the best evidence of their Divine Authority of any precepts of Religion extant in the World And we have exhibited in Sacred Writ a method to find out what has been revealed from Heaven Let mens pretences be what they will under whatsoever plausible denomination Who that is rational will not conclude it to be both his duty and his interest if he has a veneration for God or a due reverence and regard to his own being to settle himself upon the foundations of Christianity and upon these to build his belief and practice till at last through the merit of the great Redeemer of men he reaches Heaven Not to pluck the Stars out of the Firmament but by the will and favour of Almighty God to ascend above them and enjoy an happiness suitable to mans glorified capacity in those blisful Regions that can neither admit of a decay or period but shall continue their state and to true Christians their happiness in them through all the endless unmeasurable spaces of a boundless and incomprehensible Eternity And now to conclude this exhortation with Arnobius's Argument and persuading Rhetorick at the latter end of his First Book against the Gentiles If men have gentle souls capable of impression they cannot under pretence of other rules offer any injury to Christ nor reproach his Religion but embrace both if but upon this account only that they promise to them prosperous things Things to be wished for and earnestly desired Can any one refuse to give honour and obedience to the Son of God who was the Messenger of glad tidings who vanquished the shades and darkness of the grave and brought life and immortality to light Who alwayes preached such Doctrines as cannot hurt the minds of any but fill them with a more secure expectation O ingratum impium seculum as he goes on O ungrateful and wicked Generation If a Physician should come to you out of a far Country and should promise you such an universal Medicine that would infallibly cure you of all diseases would you not presently run after him pay all the signals of Courtship and Honour and receive him with all kindness and hospitality Would ye not wish his Medicines to be infallible by the application of which you are promised freedom from those miseries that attend your bodies even to the utmost period of your age Nay though the thing were yet doubtful would you not being inflamed with the love of your own welfare commit your selves to his conduct and not obstinately refuse to drink even his unknown potion in hope of your own health and safety Eluxit atque apparuit Christus rei maximae nunciator c. Christ the proclaimer of great tidings has now shined and appeared in the World What cruelty then what barbarous inhumanity what insuperable pride is it with a supercilious disdain to contemn him who brings such glad tidings unto men Let us embrace therefore his joyful Message give credit to that which affords such hope and pay all reverence and honour to him who is the messenger of him that made us Who came into the World to seek and to save that which was lost And to give to us eternal life Men may if they please contradict the kind promises of our Saviour and suppose a future state impossible But 't is more impossible for any man to prove his denial Or with any certainty to convince himself that there is no such state of men hereafter Since