Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A30663
|
The constant communicant a diatribe proving that constancy in receiving the Lords Supper is the indespensible duty of every Christian / by Ar. Bury ...
|
Bury, Arthur, 1624-1713.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing B6191; ESTC R32021
|
237,193
|
397
|
such but against total Apostacy from Christianity yet if we carefully examin we shall find the Reason yea the very Phrase reach the former For if we reduce the Rhetorical expressions to plain Reason we find the Christian Religion balanced against the Mosaical and advanced above it in a triple opposition the Law-givers the Rites and the Promulgation In the first both parties are expressed Moses and the Son of God In the other two One is expressed and the Other implyed 2. The Blood of the Covenant wherewith a Christian is Sanctified implicitely compared with the Blood of the Heifer wherewith a Jew was sprinkled 3. The Spirit of Grace in whose mirific power our Savior first and his Apostls afterward proclaimed the Gospel and whom to Blaspheme was unpardonable weighed against the Angel that proclaimed the Law at Mount Sinai 2. The Second is to Us most considerabl That whereas our Lord stiled This Cup the New Covenant in His Blood The Apostl pointeth at it in the Proper Phrase as That Character whereby a Christian Professor is to be Known viz. The blood of the Covenant wherein he was sanctified For he speaketh by Metonym of the Sign for the signified a Figure Elegant Emphatical and Common It is as if one should thus express a Knight of the Garter deserting his Order He hath torn off his Ribon Broken in peices his George Left off his Starr c. Every one seeth that the Laying aside these several peices of his Habit are so many Descriptions of his Apostacy bicaus the Wearing of them ar so many Cognisances of a Brother Since therefor this Supper Hath I should say Had the Same Office in the Christian Church as Those Cognisances have in That Fraternity therefor must the Desertion thereof be equally Expressive of an Apostate from Christianity There is only This and no disadvantageos difference That This One Singly signifieth as much in a Christian as Those Severals did Joyntly either in Knight or Jew He that kept not the Sabbath might retene other signes of a Jew he might be Circumcised keep the New Moons the Passover c. But at the date of this Epistl This Cup was Constantly celebrated by Every Christian in Every Assembly as an Indispensibl bicause Critical Rite of public worship so that it was the same thing to desert the Lords Table and his Church God forbid we should not allow for so Great a Change however unjustifieabl in our Publik worship but should charge such as Apostates from Christ who perhaps fear less to Shed rheir Own Blood in his Service than to Drink His at his Table yet were it to be wished that we would better consider that Moses's own Child was in great danger to be destroyed for want of Circumcision and he that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day thoght as litl of Apostacy from God as any of us do from Christ Yea look we upon the words before us Who wer they that dyed without mercy as dispising Moses's law Wer they such only as Totally fell from Judaism Wer they not All such as neglected any One of those Rites that wer therefor Capital bicaus Distinctive When therefor all is considered we can plead nothing but the goodness of our Intentions or the greater goodness of Gods grace if upon the same reason we should be caled to account for our omission of This Rite no less Important and Indispensibl Yea as we have already seen if the Reason be the same the Crime is much greater not only bicause of the Better Law and Law-giver but bicause of the Greater Contemt There the Law was despised here the Person who 's blood is the mater of the Law That was the Law of Moses This the Blood of the Son of God That was despised This is troden under foot and therefor upon so Many and so Great accounts of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that is guilty of so much greater contumely But bicause we usually judge of the Price which the Law-giver puts upon his Law by the Penalty which he annexeth to it lest we be temted to think our Lords Supper not intended in the words we now com from viewing And its deserter so far from worthy of any sorer punishment that indeed he is worthy of None bicause None is threatned by our Lord in his Institution It is therefor necessary that Thirdly we observe IV. 3. VVITH What Obligation our Lord hath bound This duty upon us We ar here fundamentally to consider the difference between the Laws of Christ and Those of Moses and all Other lawgivers Our Lord declared his Kingdom not of this world and 't is plain his Punishments ar not For thogh the Apostl the more to prevail with the Corinthians speak no Less and perhaps More of Temporal than of Eternal judgments yet doth he herein rather speak his Own Reason than our Lords Revelation applying himself ad homines to their sensual apprehensions not to any declared threats of our Lord who hath not bound his Command upon us by any Chains of Fear but the much Stronger and more proper Bonds of Love And if the Prophet might make it a complaint against Ephraim I led them with the cords of a man with bonds of Love yet they knew not that I healed them it must not be Diminution but Aggravation of the crime if we break Such bonds asunder and cast Such cords from us The word used by the Prophet is the same whence our English Cable seemeth derived and written by the very same Letters But we need not contend with the Translation For rhose Bonds of Love ar Both Cables for Strength and Cords for Compliance Silken Cables whose Soft Smooth flexiblness twineth about the heart and whose Strength so forceth it that it cannot so much as wish either to Slip or Break the Obligation These ar called the Cords of a man they lay hold on our Humanity fasten upon our very Nature prevail on us by force of Reason And they ar the Bonds of Love no less suitabl to the Nature of the Gospel and more particlarly of This Institution than to Our Own The very Design of the Command is a Thankful remembrance of the Death of the Author and it had be'n most incongrous ro kindle the Spirit of Thankfulness with the blustering of Threats Do this or Dy may very well suit with the Spirit of Bondage But Do this in remembrance of my Death to an Evangelical Spirit is much more Potent as well as Proper than Do This for fear of Your Own As our Lord chose this more Obliging way so hath he Improved it with all such Endearments as may fasten it most Powerfully upon our Affections that so it may not be possibl for any despiser to impute his Kindness towards Us to Coldness toward his Institution CHAP. II. This is Appropriate to our Lords Person and recommended by signal marks of his favor 1. This Command appropriat to our Lords Person and Humanity And thereby I.
greater Mysteries If saith he I tell you Earthly things and ye believe not how will ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things Meaning by Earthly and Heavenly as St. Paul afterward did Phil. 2.10 and in several other places by the Former the Jewish by the Later the Christian Mysteries whereof he giveth a Specimen in his coming from Heaven his returning Thither and his being There and his crucifixion for the salvation of the world That which we mention This for is to shew that our Lord manifestly adopted the Jewish Tradition of Baptism into the Gospel making it then a necessary badge of a Disciple as he also afterward did when he returned to Heaven requiring his Apostles to go and Disciple all nations Baptising them for this reason bicause whoever believeth and is Baptised i. e. publikely professeth his Discipleship shall be saved By all which it is apparent that our Lord appointed this as a Livree whereby his servants must profess to own Him for their Master if they should by him be own'd and saved III. YET is not this the Adaequate nay nor the Principal badge of a Christian For we receve This but Once and that without our own consent As were we when this Seal was put upon us so was its Impression when we came to age we wer at liberty to Own or Reneg it and whether we do This or That appears by no other visibl mark but only our Receving or Neglecting This more Critical Sacrament in due season appointed by our Lord as a more Lasting and Alway Visible cognisance I say our Lord appointed this Other Sacrament in Due season For had he do'n it sooner his Disciples would have forgotten his Command before they understood it yet could he not forbear to Prophecy of it saying He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life But since his Death must needs be understood when he had suffered it even by Those who before knew not what it meant he therefor took the time when it was in a manner Present as fittest for the Institution which was both to Commemorate it and Distinguish his Disciples by such constant Repetitions whereof Baptism was incapable Those who are honored with the Noble Order of the Garter as they are solenly Installed so ar they Obliged ever after to wear the George and the Star as permanent badges of the Honor and Vow they have receved and if Any person however solenly Installed shall afterward lay his Habit aside he doth not only Offend against the Law of the Order but Disclaim his Interest in it as refusing to be esteemed a Brother of that Royal Fraternity This Sacrament is our George and our Star This if we constantly wear not we tacitly renounce our Christianity Those very Persons who perhaps will not Admit certainly do not sufficiently Press this for a Necessary Duty abundantly urge it to other purposes When they are required to assign the marks of a true Church they name Administration of the Sacraments for One and it will troubl any reasonabl man to deny that if the Administration be the mark of a True Church the Reception must be so of a True Member of the Church And som Ultramarine Churches have found it necessary to declare as the Council of Agatha did of old that those who receve not the Sacraments oght not to be reputed as Christians For which censure thogh we have already seen Reason sufficient yet perhaps we may see more IV. 2. THOSE Rites whereby One Religion is Crititically distinguished from Another however slight the Mater may seem ar highly to be esteemed for That office Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing said the Apostl yet was the One mortal in the Old Testament and the Other in the New and Both upon the same Reason He that was circumcised was a debtor unto the whole Law To eat an Apple or any other Fruit of a Tree is a small matter but when the forbearance was made a Sacrament i. e. a Specimen of the new made Creatures owning the dominion of the Creator Then Eating was condemned not only as an act of Misdemeanor but Rebellion and the Smith which thoght it too much that God should be so severe for an Apple might be answered that it was not for the Apple but for the experiment he thereby gave of his disowning Gods authority over him And for This reason did God make Those offences Capital which had otherwise be'n Venial He that was uncircumcised He that kept not the Passover He that brake the Sabbath c. That soul must be cut off from his people bicause God had said of every one of those otherwise slight performances This shall be a sign between Me and You. This dubl care of God as well in Negative as Positive Ceremonies taught his peopl to infer That if a Jew must forbear the Rites of Gentilism then must the Gentile as for the same Reason so upon the same Penalty forbear those of Judaism Since the One no less than the Other was necessary to the Discriminarive which was the Adaequate vertu of the Law As God therefor made it mortal to the Jew to Neglect such Rites so did the Jews make it to a Gentile to Usurp them as thereby robbing them of their proper vertu since by being common to Both they wer disabled to distinguish the One from the Other The Gentile saith the Gemera Babylonica which observed the Law of Moses was guilty of death How so bicause it is said Moses commanded us a Law for an Inheritance It is an Inheritancs to Us not to the Gentile Yea their most Learned Maimonides saith that if a Gentile celebrated a Sabbath thogh he mistook the day yet if he did it with intention to keep the Sabbath he was guilty of death They did not indeed inflict death on such offenders but stripes only yet not without admonition that he was guilty of death thogh not punished with it Since therefor our Lord left us This Law as Moses did His Ceremonial for an Inheritance the Reason being the Same in the Law the Crime must be the Same in the Disobedience V. THE Same in its Reason but incomparably Greater in Haynosness For by how much the Covenant is Better the Law-giver Greater the Redemtion more costly c. by so much more criminal must it be to omit This than any Mosaical Rite And how much That is if we enquire we must do it in the stile of the Author to the Hebrews not to seek satisfaction but to express amazement He that despised Moses 's Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath do'n despight to the Spirit of Grace I grant that This dreadful Thunder is not leveled against the neglect of This Institution as