Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	article_n	church_n	creed_n	2,425	5	10.1630	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66484	An address to those of the Roman communion in England occasioned by the late act of Parliament, for the further preventing the growth of popery.	Willis, Richard, 1664-1734.	1700 (1700)	Wing W2815; ESTC R7811	45,628	170

be contained wholly in that which is less and that not once only but as many times over as there are Points in the Bread and Wine That the same thing at the same time should be wholly above it self and wholly below it self within it self and without it self on the right Hand and on the left Hand and round about it self That the same thing at the same time should move to and from it self and lie still or that it should be carried from one place to another through the middle space and yet not move That to be One should be to be undivided from it self and yet that one and the same thing should be divided from it self That a finite thing may be in all Places at once That there should be no certainty in our Senses and yet that we should know some things certainly and know nothing Corporal but by our Senses That that which is and was long ago should now begin to be That the same thing should be before and after it self That it should be possible that the same Man for Example You or I may at the same time be awake at London and not awake but asleep at Rome there run or walk here not run or walk but stand still sit or liedown there study or write here do nothing but dine or sup there speak here be silent that he may in one place freeze with cold in another burn with heat that he may be drunk in one place sober in another valiant in one place a coward in another a Thief in one place and honest in another that he may be a Papist and go to Mass in Rome a Protestant and go to Church in England that he may die in Rome and live in England or dying in both Places may go to Hell from Rome and to Heaven from Fngland That the Body and Soul of Christ should cease to be where it was and yet not go to another place nor be destroyed These are some of those monstrous Contradictions which are involved in this Doctrine of Transubstantiation I shall only observe these few things more about this Matter and then conclude this Point 1. That you ought not for the avoiding of these Difficulties to content your selves to believe in general that somehow or other you don't know how this Sacrament is the Body of Christ for your Church has determined the Matter that it is the very Body of Christ which was Born of the Virgin Mary and was afterward Crucified and that there remains no substance of Bread but only this Body of Christ after Consecration 2. I would observe that none of these Difficulties are taken off by considering Christ's Body as glorified for besides that if it be a Body still it must have the Properties of a Body this Sacrament was Instituted while our Saviour lived in the World and had just such a Body as other Men of the same bigness and all other qualities as to his Body the same And therefore in interpreting these Words This is my Body all the Difficlties are still the same as if he were now living or as they would be were they spoken of the Body of any other Man 3. I desire that you would consider that you may be sure we do not mis-understand nor mis-represent your Opinion because these Absurdities are what your own Divines take notice of as well as ours and do not pretend to be able to give any direct Answer to them 4. I would observe That tho' these Contradictions are so apparent and staring that no Body that hears of this Doctrine can well miss of them yet they are new and none of them ever heard of in the Church for many Hundred Years from whence we inferr that the Doctrine it self was as little heard of 5. We do not find that any Christian for many Hundred Years ever denied or disputed the truth of this Doctrine from whence we cannot but conclude that it was then unknown in the Church for it must have had strange good fortune to escape without any Contradiction when all the Articles of the Creed had been Disputed round 6. As this was not disputed or denied by any Christians so neither was it objected against the Christian Religion by any Heathen not even by Julian himself who as being an Apostate must have known all the Secrets of our Religion whereas in truth there had been Ten times more weight in this than in all the Objections together which they made use of against Christianity 7. There were several things in the Primitive Church inconsistent with the belief of this Doctrine in particular that of mixing Water with the Wine the Water to represent the People as the Wine represented the Blood of Christ of which St. Cyprian gives us a full Account Vid. Cypr. Epist 63. 8. I would observe That the Church of Rome can assign no peculiar necessity or usefulness of this Sacrament above others that should give a probable Reason of the mighty difference betwixt this and others and of such a strange wonderful Dispensation as the eating our Blessed Saviour himself Nay with them both Baplism and Confession are esteemed much more necessary and the omission of them more dangerous than the omission of this Sacrament 9. To conclude this whole Matter I think I have sufficiently shewed that this Doctrine has no foundation in Scripture I would have considered at large the Sense of the Primitive Church in it and I do not question but to have been able very clearly to make out that it was a Doctrine quite unknown to the Church of God for many Ages but that was not consistent with the Brevity I am at present forced to use I would therefore only observe this one thing That we ought not to conclude this to have been the Doctrine of the Fathers only from some accidental or general Expressions which they sometimes make use of It 's plain that none of them designedly treat of this Matter or explain it to us none of them recite it among the Articles of their Faith none of them take any notice of the difficulties of it no Christians appear to have been shocked at this Doctrine and no Heathens to have Objected it all which could hardly have been avoided had this been the constant Doctrine of the Catholick Church And as for General Expressions the calling what they received the Body and Blood of Christ that could not be avoided the Nature of the thing requiring them even according to our Opinion of this Matter And we see that notwithstanding we have made such express Declarations against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and that by reason of this Controversy we express our selves more cautiously than we may suppose the Fathers would do before any Controversy was moved ved about it yet some general Expressions of our own Divines are often turned against us by those of the Church of Rome and there is no question but were the Authors of them as Old as the