Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A77288
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A sermon of the blessed sacrament of the Lords Supper; proving that there is therein no proper sacrifice now offered; together with the disapproving of sundry passages in 2. bookes set forth by Dr. Pocklington; the one called Altare Christianum, the other Sunday no Sabbath: formerly printed with licence. By William Bray, Dr. of Divinity. Now published by command.
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Bray, William, d. 1644.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B4316; Thomason E157_8; ESTC R22819
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22,195
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69
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diffitemur quin ita nobis monstraturillic Christi immolatio ut crucis spectaculum pene ob oculos statuatur qualiter in oculis Galatorum Christum suisse crucisixum dicit Aposte dum illis propositacrucis predicatio suerat Calvin l. 4. Jnllit c. 18 § 11 For first The Ministers setting apart the Bread and Wine upon the Holy Table and Consecrating them represents God the Fathers unspeakeable Love to mankind in setting apart and sending his only begotten Son into the World to dye for us here 's the prime cause of his death Againe the breaking of the Bread that resembles the brusing of our Saviours body the Agonies of his soule for our iniquities and the powring forth of the Wine and the distribution of the Bread and Wine severally and apart doth most aptly resemble the shedding of his most precious bloud and the severing of it from his Body on the Crosse wherein consisted the very Passion And lastly the Effects and Operations of Bread and VVine upon the Bodies of men they doe most Lively resemble the Effects and Operations of the death of Christ upon the Soule To the sound and healthfull body Bread satisfies Hunger and strengthens life And Wine makes glad the heart of man saith the Psalmist * Psa 104.15 But on the contrary to a foule or feverish body wine is turned into poyfon and there is nothing surfets the body more suddenly nor more dangerously then bread according to the Aphorisme Hippo. Aphor. l. 7. Aphor. 62 Si quis febricitanti cibum dederit quem sano exhibet valenti Robur aegrotanti morbus fit In like manner the death of Christ applyed to the faithfull and devout soule satisfies his spirituall hunger strengthens the life of grace in him fills him with joy unspeakable and most glorious It is to him the savour of life unto life but to the unbeleever and impenitent that wilfully perishes It becomes the savour of death unto death * 2 Cor. 2.16 vid. S. Cypr de coena Domini §. 7. Let our soules goe along here and meditate of these and the like Analogies in the time of receaving Hoc age doe this And this is the first sence of shewing forth Christs death in the Sacrament In this Sacrament wee doe not onely make a bare shew of Christs death by way of representation and resemblance but we shew it forth also by way of evidence and confirmation For this Sacramentall Cup is the New Testament in Christs Bloud And all the promises in the Gospell which are the Legacies of the New Testament and Benefits of Christs death are in the right use of this Sacrament conveyed and assur'd to us In this Sacrament Christ sets his Scale to his Testament and delivers it particularly into every worthy Communicants hand and every such Communicant receaves it to his soules comfort from God as his deed and gift and hereof hee may assure himselfe as verily as hee receaves the outward Elements of Bread and VVine to his bodily nourishment And though a fraile and mortall man be the Minister and Jnstrument to convey this assurance to you yet what he doth herein he doth it in the Name of Christ by Commission from Christ and in Christ's stead So that it is Christ's Act and deed and the Assurance is Authentically and Originally from Him who is Jnvisibilis Sacerdos the Invisible High Priest John 4 v. ◠2 In the 4 of Saint Iohn wee read that Christ Baptized more then Iohn though Iesus himselfe Baptized not saith the Text but only His Disciples If therefore Baptisme be our Saviours Act In and by the Ministery of His Disciples which He never administred by Himselfe how much more is this Blessed Sacrament His Act and Deed by the hands of his Ministers which He Jnstituted Consecrated and Administred Himselfe in His own person And as much Comfort and Assurance may Yee reape from it now by the hands of Christs Ministers as if Ye should receive it from Christ's owne Blessed hands as the Disciples did Onely as yee desire to enjoy the Comfort of it be carefull to observe Theophylact's Counsell which he gives upon this very Ground in his Comment on my Text Eo affectu debetis esse imbuti Yee ought to be so well disposed when yee come to receive the Eucharist as yee your-selves thinke yee should and could have beene if with the Disciples yee had enjoy'd the happy presence of our Saviour at his last Supper and had taken this Blessed Sacrament at the first Institution of it from our Saviours owne hands Yee ought to aspire after it now that yee may bee affected with the same heavenly Devotion and humble Reverence with the same fervent Charity and hearty thankefulnes toward our blessed Saviour considering it is the same Holy Supper and no other and the very same Death which wee now shew forth and unto the worlds end as then at the first Institution and Ordination of it Thirdly and lastly we doe in this Sacrament shew forth Christs Death by way of Memoriall and Commemoration Do this in remembrance of Mee saith our Saviour * 22. S. Luk. 19. And for this end mainly was this Sacrament instituted by our blessed Saviour And from this main end of it this Sacrament is and hath been in all Ages of the Church called by the name of the Eucharist as being a sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God in Remembrance of our Saviours Death and Passion And accordingly our Church exhorts and practices in the service of the Communion * The last Exhortation before the Communion and the first Prayer after the Communion Above all things we must here give humble and heartie Thanks to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for the Redemption of the World by the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ both God and Man who did humble himselfe to the Death upon the Crosse for us miserable sinners And to the end wee should always remember the exceeding great Love of our Master and only Saviour thus dying for us he hath instituted and ordain'd these holy Mysteries To Him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost Let us give as we are most bounden continuall Thanks And that this our Thansgiving may be acceptable to God let us first conform ourselves to our blessed Saviour in his Death and Passions let us die to sin and live to Christ Consider we therefore the worke we have in hand and the end of our comming as often as wee come to Celebrate the Holy Eucharist We come here to Commemorate the Death and Passion of our Saviour for our sins and it would ill beseem us then to solemnize the Funerals of our Lord and Master not having on our mourning Garments without suitable sorrow and suffering in our owne souls Should we suffer sin to live in us which cost our Saviour his Life and make that our Delight which caused his Death and that at the very time when wee
come to the Holy Table of the Lord to shew forth his Death with a thankfull Commemoration what else is this but to stand laughing under our Saviour's Crosse as it were to make ourselves merry with his Agonies and to triumph prophanely in his bitter sufferings with the wicked Souldiers it is to crucifie him afresh and to put him again to an open shame In stead of an honourable and gratefull shewing forth of his death This were to make ourselves guiltie of his death Guiltie of the bodie and blood of our Lord as the Apostle speaks Wherefore that wee may shew forth the Lord's Death as wee ought Let us first set up the Crosse of Christ in our owne hearts Let us fasten ourselves to it and conforme ourselves there to the sufferings of our Head Let us willingly suffer shame and ignominie in the due acknowledgment of our sins Let us suffer pain in a true sorrrw and Compunction of soule for them Let the Remembrance of them be as Thorns in our Temples and as a Spear at our very hearts Let us so subdue and chasten our Flesh and Revenge our selves upon Our selves as the Scripture * 2 Cor. 7.11 speaks by severe and strict Mortification that the Old Man may languish and die daily in us And let us so Compose and settle our Desires and Affections even as men that are hanging upon the Crosse with our Blessed Saviour and ready to depart this World Let us make our peace with God and all the World Let us wean our selves from the Earth which wee are leaving and set our Affections on Heaven and the things above whither wee are going Let us no longer make provision for the Flesh to fulfill it in the Lusts thereof * 13. Rom. 14 But let us put on the Lord Iesus Christ and thus shew forth the Lords Death till hee come And at his Comming wee shall by his Infinite Mercie Live and Raigne with Him for ever in the Kingdome of his Glorie Thus you have the Orthodox interpretation of these words the true and onely way of shewing forth Christ's Death in this Sacrament according to the Doctrine of the Church of England and of approv'd Antiquitie But the Church of Rome not content with this way doth in the Councell of Trent * Concil Trid. Sess 22. Can. 3. denounce an Anathema against all those that will acknowledge no other sacrifice in the Eucharist then by way of Remembrance and Commemoration of that one onely true and proper Sacrifice of Christ's Bodie and Bloud offer'd upon the the Altar of his Crosse once for all And therfore if you wil believe her she wil tel you of a more excellent way of shewing forth Christ's Death in the Sacrament to wit by way of Iteration or a new and daily Oblation of the very Same naturall Bodie and Blood which was offer'd unto Death upon the Crosse onely with this Difference in the Manner of the Offering That Christ's Bodie upon the Crosse was offer'd after a bloodie but here upon their Altars after an unbloody Manner And from this Fountaine of Corrupt Doctrine there flow divers streames of very dangerous Errours I 'le instance but in two for our present purpose First upon this Ground they define this Sacrisice in the Eucharist to be a true proper and propitiatorie Sacrifice to be every way equall with the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse and their Altars to be as true and proper Altars which doubtlesse is a very high derogation from Christ and his Sacrifice let them mince and excuse it the best they can Secondly From hence they teach most perilously that the same Adoration which is due to Christ is due to this Sacrament And certainly to give that Adoration which is due to Christ to any of the Creatures can amount to no lesse then Idolatry Neither will Bellarmine's evasion which hee uses * Lib. 4 de Euchar cap 29. §. Sed haec mera calumnia est c. acquit the Papists of Idolatrie herein though hee pleads not Guiltie because they hold not the Consecrated Bread and Wine to be any longer Bread and Wine but to be transubstantiated into the very naturall bodie and blood of Christ so he pleads they worship not the bread but Christ alone But a false perswasion as we have proved this to be in the former part of the Sermon hath not the power either to nullifie a sin or to alter the species of it either to make a sin no sin or to be any other then it is in the kind of it The most charitable Construction that can be made in this Case is That perhaps to Men so perswaded as some of the Romanists are their Adoration of the Sacrament is not in them wilfull Idolatrie yet in it self Idolatrie still for all their perswasion However for our selves that by the infinite blessing of God to us are better taught and perswaded for us I say not to renounce and detest this Abomination of the Popish Adoration of the Sacrament would be most wilfull Idolatrie without the least cloak for our sin For mine owne part therefore as becomes a true Protestant of the Reformed Church of England I doe here solemnly protest against all Popish Errours and in speciall against the manifold and dangerous errours in the Doctrine and Practice of the Popish Masse against their pretended Oblation of the very naturall bodie and bloud of Christ against their Propitiatorie sacrifice in that intended Oblation and theirs or any other sort of men their true proper Altars and against their Idolatrous Adoration of the Sacrament and acknowledge onely one true and proper Sacrifice and Altar that is the Sacrifice of Christ himself offer'd uppon the Altar of the Crosse once for all And give me leave here also solemnly to professe my Opinion concerning the Lord's day and the sanctification of it I hold that according to God's holy will and pleasure the Lord's day ought to be celebrated both in Publike and in Private in the Church and out of the Church in the Forenoon and in the Afternoon by hearing the Word of God read and taught by Publike Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments by holy Meditations Private Prayer Reading and calling to Mind what we have read or heard by work 's of Charitie to our Neighbour and the like And I hold it to be our Dutie in speciall that are God's Ministers to teach exhort and incourage the People by all means to such a sanctification of the Lord's day And for mine owne part I heartily honour a conscientious man who hath a Carefull Regard to yield Obedience to all Gods Commandements as far as humane frailtie will permit I honour such a man the more the more strict hee is in a Religious Observation of the Lord's day And further I hold that this great Holyday which we Christians now celebrate upon the first day of the Week though the Scripture and so the Proper name of it be the Lord's Day yet