Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
death_n cup_n drink_v eat_v 8,062 5 7.8137 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A60584 A sermon about frequent communion preached before the University of Oxford, August the 17th, 1679 / by Tho. Smith ... Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710. 1685 (1685) Wing S4248; ESTC R39556 22,930 42

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

A SERMON ABOUT Frequent Communion Preached before the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD August the 17th 1679. By Tho. Smith D. D. and Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College Oxon. LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. REVERENDISSIMO in Christo Patri ac Domino D. GULIELMO Divinâ Providentiâ Archiepiscopo CANTVARIENSI Totius Angliae Primati Metropolitano Serenissimae Regiae Majestati à Sanctioribus Consiliis Ecclesiae CATHOLICAE Primaevae Antiquitatis ECCLESIASTICAE HIERARCHIAE Strenuo Vindici Adsertori ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE Sub optimo benignissimo REGE Prudentissimo Moderatori Magno Literatorum PATRONO T. S. Hanc de frequenti Communione Concionem coram Academicis Oxoniensibus habitam humillimè cum omni debita veneratione offert A SERMON ABOUT FREQUENT COMMUNION 1 Epistle to the Corinthians ch 11. v. 26. For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's death till he come WHatever doth happen extraordinarily and above the usual and established course of Nature doth mightily affect our minds and fansies at first and surprize and fill us with wonder but as soon as we are grown a little familiar with it our thoughts are at rest and notwithstanding our former transports and heats we quickly grow cool and the impressions which it made upon us wear away by degrees and we care not to make any farther reflexions upon it And the like is to be said of great and extraordinary Favours in the moral state of things as well as of extraordinary events in the natural when they are first conferred they draw our minds hugely after them nothing doth or can insinuate it self more kindly into our affections Greatness may make it self be feared and respected too for who will dare to affront armed Power or chuse to be defective in those points of Ceremony and Honour which are due to the person oftentimes merely for the sake of his character But then there is a secret hatred mixed with that fear and the respect is outward and forced and if it be not it is but the effect of a civil and prudent behaviour and of a wise compliance Whereas we are naturally enclined to applaud to admire to love such as have done any publick good and especially if we have any share in it Interest and a particular concern for our selves heighten our esteem and our affections and our resentments hereupon become more pleasing and ravishing But all this for the most part is but a fit of Passion and a mere scene and representation of Fancy arising from the present sense of the benefit for the longer we enjoy it we become less and less sensible So forgetfull are we of every thing but our selves whom we could be content onely to love and admire for ever Whether this arises from an impatience of fixing our thoughts too long upon the same thing or from the natural Pride which every man carries about him as if the remembrance and acknowledgment of a favour were a tacit upbraiding us of our want and of the infelicity of our former condition yet so it is and we need continually to be put in mind of our Devoirs and Obligations It is but a piece of ordinary Justice for instance and what we cannot deny without the imputation of Rudeness as well as the guilt of Ingratitude that such as have sacrificed their dearest Interests for their Countrey as have out of an Heroick Principle of meriting of the Publick exposed themselves to all the Misfortunes and Hardships and Adversities of humane life and have redeemed the Lives of Thousands with the generous loss of their own should have their Names mentioned with honour they deserve at least as a reward of all their labours and sufferings that their memories be held dear and pretious by their surviving Friends and Country-men this common gratitude obliges us to do and especially if the benefit be perpetual the remembrance of it should be perpetual also Now what greater benefit could possibly be done to the Sons of men than the redemption of them from the slavery of Sin and Hell and from the wrath and indignation of an offended God by the Sufferings and Death of our blessed Saviour This Victory he obtained for us but not without much Sweat and Bloud whereby he has restored Liberty to the World and put an end to the Usurpations and Tyranny of the Devil who had enlarged his Conquest and spread his Empire far and wide and held the greatest part of Mankind in a dismal and miserable Bondage This certainly deserves everlasting Acknowledgments and an eternal Triumph This ought to be continually and for ever fresh in our Memories Who is not amazed at this new and strange way of Conquest that through death he should destroy him who had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 that he should triumph over the evil Spirits in the Grave the place where they used to erect their Trophies over the ruines of Mankind and where the direfull effects of their Power and Malice and Revenge were most seen and lastly that the end of his Life should be the beginning of his Glory and Exaltation And then who is not equally or rather more amazed at the greatness of his Condescension and Love that he should come down from his glory and assume the nature of a Man with all the natural Infirmities and Imperfections of it undergo the Malice and Slanders and Fury of an enraged Multitude who by their restless importunity got him sentenced to die as an Impostor and Malefactor and submit to the Torments and Ignominies of the Cross and endure with so great patience the revilings and contradictions of these impious and unrighteous Men even while he hung upon the cursed Tree which must needs add to the anguish and pain which the violent extension of his Nerves caused in his tender Flesh and all this for our sakes who were the Enemies of God and lost to all sense of goodness and who deserved no pity This was the effect of his tender Compassion and Love to Mankind 't was this that made him even relish that bitter Cup and though as Man he had just apprehensions of the Horrours of Death and the Wrath and Justice of God which he as our Surety and as in our stead was to undergo and satisfie yet this alleviated his passion and made him submit willingly to the hard condition of dying This indeed which he hath done and suffered for us men and for our Salvation cannot be forgotten without monstrous baseness and unpardonable ingratitude and without making our selves unworthy of the blessed effects and consequences of his passion And our Blessed Saviour himself would have the Memory of it perpetuated to all Ages and Generations and to assist our Weakness and sustain our Faith which has need of such supports and to make it impossible that it should ever be forgotten He has instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and
Bloud as a perpetual and visible representation of it He still presents himself before us as hanging upon the Cross his Body rent and torn with wounds and his pretious Bloud gushing in a plentifull stream out of his side Thus he is evidently set forth before our eyes crucified among us still Gal. 3.1 as it were in Effigie These memorials he has left us of himself till his second coming to put us continually in mind how much he suffered for us This was the grand Reason of the Institution the better to imprint it on our minds that we might always have before our Eyes a lively Image and Figure of his Sufferings the mysterious Rites used in the celebration being for this very end and purpose and the whole Action solemn and fully significant For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lord's death till he come I shall comprize the full sense of these words in these four following Propositions I. That the holy Elements after Consecration retain their own proper Essence and Nature without any Physical and Substantial Change made of them It is Bread that we eat and Wine that we drink but with a distinction and note of Dignity and Honour it is this Bread and this Cup that is of ordinary and common they become mystical and sacramental they are altered and changed as to their use and effect and condition and not onely a divine Signification but a divine Virtue is imprinted upon them II. That the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Lord doth very fitly and fully represent and set forth his death III. That it is of perpetual Use and Observation and to be continued till the end of the World ye shew forth the Lord's death till he come that is till he come to judge the World at the last day and to put an end to the present state of things IV. That all who profess their Belief in a crucified Saviour and exspect the saving benefits of his Passion are obliged to a frequent celebration of this holy and tremendous Mystery which is here plainly supposed as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup. Which last Proposition I intend to make the Argument of my Discourse at this time Now the Reason and Necessity of the Obligation will appear if we consider these two things I. The End and Design of the Institution of the holy Sacrament II. The blessed Consequences and Effects of frequent Communion 1. The End and Design of the holy Sacrament is that it might be an everlasting Memorial of the Death and Passion of our Lord and Saviour He was pleased after the Consecration of both Elements to add particularly and distinctly not in the way of Advice to be followed if we think fit our selves but in the way of a peremptory and absolute Command v. 24. This doe in remembrance of me and v. 25. This doe ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me It is certain that we ought to remember the Death of our Blessed Saviour at other times as when we are upon our knees at our Prayers He gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes. 5.2 by virtue of which our Prayers wing'd with a lively Faith in his Bloud and with Zeal ascend like a Cloud of Incense into the Holy of Holies and find acceptance with God We cannot employ our Thoughts and Meditations better when we are upon our Beds or when we are in private and especially upon our Days of Fasting and Penitence when God onely is witness to these spiritual Exercises No Argument can make us more and better sensible of the defiling and damning nature of Sin than the consideration of a crucified Saviour that his Bloud was shed on purpose to expiate and attone it This will make us reflect upon our sins with a hearty sorrow and regret which brought the Son of God to so sad and shamefull an end How ought I to abhor and loath my self when I consider that the sins which I have committed though so many hundred years after contributed to his dying and make me an accessory of the guilt of the Jews who were the cruel Instruments of his Murther Nothing can more and better inflame our Zeal and Love to God and to Christ than frequent Meditation on our Saviour's Death that God should contrive this admirable way of our Redemption by the Death of his onely Son whom he sent out of his own bosome on purpose to be a Sacrifice for Sin and whom he set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Rom. 3.25 and that Christ should willingly undergo all this for our sakes O blessed Saviour how can we recompense this thy infinite Love towards faln Man Jesu God! I cannot doe I cannot suffer enough in the way of a just acknowledgment of thy inexpressible Kindness and Pity to my poor Soul which thou hast redeemed from the nethermost Hell and from the Wrath of God which would have been the more intolerable The reading also of the Narrative and History of our Saviour's Sufferings and Death as they are recorded in the holy Gospels together with a reflexion on the several circumstances of them must needs leave deep impressions upon our memories This tragical story wherewith the Heathen of old used to upbraid the Christians as Votaries and Worshippers of a crucified God was so universally diffused throughout the World that it was impossible that it should be forgotten and the sight of a Cross which assoon as the Roman Empire turned Christian became an Ensign and Trophy of Honour every where to be met with in their Banners and upon their Bucklers and Helmets upon the Diadems of the Emperours upon their Medals upon their Churches and Spires of their Towers and in their solemn Processions would quickly refresh their memories and put them in mind of the great Saviour of the World whose Hands and Feet were nailed to it and his Armes extended upon it to receive and embrace all who fly to him for refuge from the assaults and pursuits of offended Justice But Christ who knew the best and most effectual method to keep alive for ever the Memory of his Passion and Death has ordained this holy Sacrament as the most proper Instrument to make us truly and really sensible and mindfull of it It is not then a matter of mere indifference whether we will receive the Sacrament or no we cannot with any pretence or shew of Reason take a liberty of dispensing with this Law of our Religion as if it were wholly in our power to come and abstain as we please For certainly all Laws were given with an intent that they may be observed and obeyed If they oblige to a Duty and require any thing to be done the Omission is culpable and is more or less aggravated