Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	apostle_n	church_n	truth_n	3,216	5	6.2495	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29341	The Christian sacrament and sacrifice by way of discourse, meditation, & prayer upon the nature, parts, and blessings of the holy communion / by Dan. Brevint.	Brevint, Daniel, 1616-1695.	1673 (1673)	Wing B4417; ESTC R23806	53,735	149

that is his Church For we that are many saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.17 are one Bread To this purpose the holy Martyr Ignatius Epist Rom. being ready to be offered up by Martyrdom said he was the wheat of God which was to be ground by Beasts teeth Soon after the Church added Oyl and Frankincense to Bread and Wine to make up the whole Meat Offering which consisted of these four Things The truth is all what we can offer upon our own account is but such an Oblation as this Meat and Drink offering of Moses was that cannot be presented but by the virtue and merits of Jesus Christ who supports it and that can never ascend up to Heaven but along with the sacred smoke of that great Burnt Sacrifice which is to carry it up thither For on the one side our own persons our works or any thing else that may be ours are by themselves but weak unsubstantial kinds of Offerings which cannot be presented unto God otherwise but as these Additional Oblations which from themselves fall to the ground unless a more solid Sacrifice do sustain them And on the other side this solid and fundamental Sacrifice upholds saves and sanctifies but those persons and things that according to the Law of Moses his Meat Offerings are thrown into this his fire are hallowed upon his Altar and are together with him consecrated to God by him 11. For this cause it is that as soon as the Prophet had preached the coming of this Everlasting Sacrifice and the propitiation and happiness which it would spread over all the world he foretels at the same time that the Apostles and their successors whom he designs by expressions proper to that Oeconomy under which he did live should bring the Nations from all parts of the Earth as an Offering unto the Lord. Esay 66. And to the same purpose St. Paul himself speaks of his Evangelical Office as of a Sacrificing Priesthood and of the Gentiles whom he did convert to Christ as of so many Sacrifices which he presented to the Lord. I exercise saies he in the Gospel a holy Sacerdotal Priesthood for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both that the Oblation of the Gentiles may be acceptable being sanctified by the holy spirit Rom. 15.16 Hence proceeds that Method which he observes most constantly never to preach the Faith in Jesus Christ without inviting presently the Beleivers to Offer up unto God either their Bodies and Souls as Rom. 12. or their works of holiness of Praise of Charity c. as every where else And these are the Spiritual Offerings which every true Christian must join to cast upon the fundamental Sacrifice of Christ Jesus 12. We know indeed that the universal Assembly of Christians could never meet at the same time or place either to follow Christ in a Body when he went to offer himself for them or to fall upon their faces and prostrate themselves to the ground when he bowed his head under their Sins Providence that scatters men up and down throughout all places and times of the world permitting no possibility of such a general meeting But the Sacrifice of Christ tho it was confined to few hours and to a small parcel of Ground as to the Suffering yet being everlasting infinit and still the same as as to the sufficiency and virtue of it coextends it self most perfectly to all both times and places when and where those scattered members will ever come to Offer up themselves to God with their head And besides this the second part of his Sacerdotal Office which consists in interceding continuing still in the very Act till the worlds end They that could not embrace his Cross and join with him at that same time that he Offer'd himself may do it every day and humble themselves like poor victims loaden with sins and miseries at the same time that now he continues still actually interceding So in all Places at all times and upon any emergencies whensoever the Beleivers will present themselves unto God both with and by his Son Jesus they may still receive the favor of acceptation and that real efflux of saving Odor from Christ which was represented by that typical holiness which the additional Oblation did receive from the principal Sacrifice when it was adjoined to it Whereas it is most certain that all the Merit and blood of Christ shall no more save Men that will not draw neer and join themselves to conformity and Communion of his Death then the continual and other burning Sacrifices were ever able to consecrate that meat that Wine that Oyl and that Frankincense which were not brought nor burned upon the the same Altar with them 13. Now tho all men be called to this conformity and Communion in the Sufferings of Christ from the time of those sufferings until there be no times at all and altho the daies of our present life have all the priviledg which these seven feast daies once had when every one might gird his loins eat his unleavened bread and kill his own Bullock as the Priest did Sacrifice the Paschal Lamb which Bullock was superadded to the Paschal Lamb that both might better suffice for the 7 Festival daies besides its other ritual and figurative importance as a Sacrifice it is certain nevertheless that there are two more special and extraordinary daies wherein Christians are invited by more urgent and proper Circumstances to present their Souls and Bodies by way of Second Offering upon the Sacrifice of their Savior The first is past and that was when the Savior offered himself to death when Heaven and Earth Temple and Graves shook at the blow that killed him when pious Souls either stood immoveable as the blessed Virgin hard by his Cross or in a manner crucified themselves beating their breasts as the Daughters of Jerusalem and when every Disciple might by the very conjuncture of all the things he saw be moved to say as Thomas let us go and let us dy with him Joh. 11.16 The other time most favorable and proper next to that of his real Passion is that of the holy Communion which as it hath bin * Gelas Cyzic part 2. cap. 31. explained is a Sacramental Passion where tho the Body be broken and the blood shed but by way of representative Mystery yet both are as effectually and as truly offered for our own use if we go to it worthily as when that holy and divine Lamb did offer himself the first time 14. Therefore whensoever Christians approach to this dreadful Mystery and to the Lamb of God lying and sacrificed as some say that the holy Nicene Council speaks upon the holy Table it concerns their main interest in point of Salvation as well as in other duties to take a special care not to lame and deprive the grand Sacrifice of its own due Attendance But to behave themselves in that manner that as both the principal and additional Sacrifices were consumed by the

in his Talent or his Didrachm or his Mite according as God daily blosses him and whence he must be sure to take nothing but for a special holy use as if he did take it from Gods Altar 15. It is true indeed that not only this but also any thing else that we have at home is already consecrated since God having given it to us we have given it back again unto God For whensoever we gave him up our own persons all our Goods were involved in this general Consecration and thereby became ipso facto holy Offerings unto the Lord. But as these holy Offerings under the Law were of two sorts some which the Worshipper and his wife and Children might eat some of which it was not lawful for any to eat except the Priests only my meaning is that the truly pious Christian should gather day by day and by little and little both to make his Devotion less burthensom and by a continual application to this work to sanctify the whole course of his life the better a Magazine of holy things of this last kind which may be only emploied to God and his Churches service 16. But at the same instant that the Christian Worshipper shall take the materials of his good works out of this store he must have a great care to draw withal out of the good Treasure of his heart the fire and the Frankincense that is the zeal and the holy thoughts that may improve and raise good moral works to the being of Religious Sacrifices And as without doubt at first he had a care not to lay aside these first fruits in a Corner of his house either negligently or rudely as some do throw their Alms into Beggars hands or as Judas did his thirty Pieces into the Temple so he must not forget himself so much as to take them thence and bestow them on the Body or members of Christ that is the Church and his Neighbor but with such pious Elevations and applications of his mind as may become both that Majesty which he adores and the pious and holy Act that he intends Let him do it whether at his door or in the way or in the Temple it matters not for the hour is long since come that Religious Acts or Worshippings are confined neither to this Mountain nor to Jerusalem Joh. 4.21 wheresoever God gives thee the occasion and power to perform any holy work there he makes holy Ground for thee only this work to be holy and becoming a Worshipper must by all means be don in Spirit and in Truth This Spirit will teach us what Flesh and Blood cannot do both to perceive and consider not an Angel only as the Patriarcks often did but Christ himself in the condition of an afflicted Church for example or of an honest distressed friend and then at such occasions to lay our liberalities with that same mind and thought that a true Worshipper would lay his Oblations upon the Altar where he knows that Christ will most effectually both find it and accept of it Once He received the Gold the Myrrh and the Frankincense which the wise men gave Joseph He did also receive the Goods which Susanna and other Religious Women did put in the hands of his Disciples since that time the Church and all her distressed Members have bin instated by Christ himself most expressly into the Place of these happy Persons and as if they had bin for this purpose created Christs solemn Officers and Angels about the time that he was to suffer and to leave his beloved Disciples he promised them both to accept and account as bestowed on himself these small Offerings which for his sake we should deposite in their hands Mat. 25.40 45. 17. This same spirit and this Actual application is the only means that we can have to raise up good moral works and to make them true Heave-Offerings Without this Elevation what we give may in it self be a good deed to us a considerable-expense and to other men some benefit but to God it is no sacrifice or it is such a sacrifice as sends up no savor above but either like the Oblation of Cain falls all down to Ashes and Dust or like the Alms of Pharises to such a paltry toward as we get perhaps from men Gen. 10. Mat. 6. 18. All these considerations and pious intentions of the Soul which to the Worshipper must be instead of the Sacerdotal Utensils and to the Oblation instead of the fire and Frankincense are much revived and stirred up by the Circumstantial solemnity and Holiness of the blessed Communion Look to the Adoration of the Ancient Israelites I was c. Deut. 26. I Dare appear before the Lord with all my sins and my sorrows It is very just also that I should appear with these few blessings which are mine they are mine by thy favor and having received them of thy hand now do I offer them to thee * 1 Chron. 29.14 Forgive I beseech thee my sins deliver me from my sorrows and accept of this small Blessing Accept of this my sacrifice as thou didst of that of Abel of Abraham and of Noah or rather look in my behalf on that only true Sacrifice whereof here is the Sacrament the Sacrifice of the only unspotted Lamb the Sacrifice of thine own Son of thine only begotten Son of thy Son proceeding from thee to dy for me O let him again come from thee to me let him come now as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and of truth to bless me Amen Amen FINIS INDEX SECTION I. The Importance of well understanding the Nature of this Sacrament Pag. 1. SECTION II. Concerning the Sacrament as it is a Memorial of the Sufferings and Death of Christ p. 4. SECTION III. Of the blessed Sacrament as it stands for a Sign of present Graces p. 19 SECTION IV. Concerning the Communion as it is not a Representation only but a means of Grace p. 36. SECTION V. Of the Blessed Communion as being a Pledg of the Happiness and Glory to come p. 56. SECTION VI. Of the Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice And first of the Commemorative Sacrifice p. 71. SECTION VII Concerning the Sacrifices of our own Persons p. 80. SECTION VIII Concerning the Oblation of our Goods and Alms or the Sacrifice of Justice p. p. 106.