Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	blood_n	flesh_n	meat_n	9,640	5	9.2298	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75807	The Christian moderator: or, Persecution for religion condemned, by the light of nature. Law of God. Evidence of our own principles.	Birchley, William, 1613-1669.	1651 (1651)	Wing A4243; Thomason E640_1; ESTC R206658	32,813	31

or set up by private authority and not by the authority of them that are our soveraigne Pastors is idolatry for the Commandement is THOU SHALT NOT MAKE TO THY SELF ANY GRAVEN IMAGE Thus in my judgment doth that learned Protestant absolutely clear the Papists of idolatry though perhaps he had more precisely exprest this last way of transgressing the second Commandement if he had call'd it will-worship rather then idolatry because there is only a want of commission no excesse in the degree of reverence And though afterwards he condemne praying to Saints departed as idolatry yet it is only upon a particular supposition of his own that there is yet no such thing as Saints in heaven When I had read this passage of so famous an Author to the Recusant he to requite my civility immediately shewed me the words of the Councell of Trent which he said differed nothing at all from Mr. Hobs and very little from me For as I thought that the exhibition of some inferior kind of reverence towards Churches and other instruments of piety was probably unforbidden So that Councell decrees the absolute lawfulnesse thereof in the 25. Session where to the Canon concerning Images are added these words of explanation Not that there is believed any divinity or vertue in them for which they ought to be worshipped or that they are to be petitioned for any thing or any confidence ought to be reposed in images as of old was done by the Gentiles who placed their hope in Idolls but because the honor exhibited to them is referred to the Prototypes they represent that so thorough the Images which we kisse and before which we bare our heads and kneel down we may adore Christ and venerate his Saints Upon occasion of which words the Papist assured me that in no Councell is used the phrase of Religious worship when they treat of these questions nor any thing concerning them commanded as necessary but only their lawfullnesse declared that such as find benefit by their assisting the memory or exciting the affections may safely use them the rest may let them alone provided they censure not the practise of others over whom they have no Jurisdiction nor condemn the judgment of the Church who has Jurisdiction over them And hereupon we both agreed in this collaterall observation that if all modern Controvertists would restrain their disputes to positions generally received as of Faith in the Church of which they are members attending only to her expressions and not to the termes of particular Writers the differences amongst Christians so fatall to the peace of Europe would be both lesse numerous and far more reconcileable Whether Papists be guilty of Idolatry in the Eucharist BEfore we could proceed to the second part of this Question the Recusant upon some occasions was obliged to go into the Countrey whence he sent me this following paper Since it is concluded between us that probability exempts from persecution I shall endeavour to prove that the reall presence of our Saviour in the Eucharist is at least a probable Opinion and in order thereunto cite the most expresse and direct termes of the holy Scripture as first the promise of our SAVIOUR John 6. 5. The bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world and verse 55. My Flesh is meat indeed and my Bloud is drink indeed Secondly The performance of that promise in the words of Institution Take eat this is my Body punctually repeated by the other three Evangelists Mat. 26. 26. Mar. 14. 22. Luke 22. 19. And thirdly the places declaring the use of this Sacrament in the Apostles time 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the bread which we break is it not the participation of the Body of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body Thus the great Apostle S. Paul and all the foure Evangelists unanimously teach the Doctrine of the Reall Presence and not one single place produceable that in direct termes calls the Eucharist a signe or figure of Christs Body notwithstanding the maintainers thereof admit no proof as authenticall but the precise text of Scripture yet in this so important controversie they flie to logicall inferences and Philosophicall discourses and so make their own reason the Judge and not the Word of God rendring by their now and private interpretations this great Sacrament inferior in dignity not only to the Paschall Lamb a type of Christ but even to Manna which was but a figure of this very mystery Surely if we shal add to so many evident texts of Scripture the constant iudgment of the Fathers and the universall practice of the whole Christian world for above a thousand years since so long is acknowledged the absolute reigne of our Religion we may safely conclude the Doctrine of our Saviours presence in the Eucharist to be at least probable and consequently Catholikes in no wise accusable of rashnesse or obstinacy in believing a Position so efficaciously recommended unto them But admitting the Doctrine of non-reality to be true said the Letter of the Recusant yet ought not Catholikes to be iudged guilty of the sin of idolatry because their adoration is not intentionally directed to any creature but to the Person of Christ our Lord and if He be not there their worship is mistaken in the place not in the obiect and therefore at most an error of fact and no formall Idolatry which no temperate Judge will impute unto sin much lesse our mercifull Redeemer who came to save not to destroy who accepts of the good meaning of his servants though mingled with humane infirmities as when Abimelech mis-took Sara from her husband being informed by Abraham that she was his Sister the sincere and conscientious King received absolution from God himself upon this account that he did it saith the text in the simplicity of his heart Gen. 20. 6. which seems an expresse and infallible decision of this Controversie that men may be unhappy by being deceived but are not guilty unlesse they deceive themselves This kind of reasoning prevailed somewhat the more with me because the Apology of the reformed Churches of France expressely approves it saying if an Apostle had by mistake adored some other man resembling Christ when he lived on earth his error would have excused him Daillé chap. 11. As on the other side Mary Magdalens not adoring Christ when he appeared to her in the habit of a Gardener John 20. 15. was never accused as a defect of devotion wherefore since the Papists all professe not to terminate their adoration in the species of Bread and Wine nor any other creature but in the blessed person of our Lord I conclude them erroneous in their Doctrine but not Idolatrous in their practise to be pitied as souls misled not

who besides them they submit their understandings to the definitions of their Church and their wills to the obedience of it's Discipline in Fasting Confession and many other burthensome duties all which are very disagreeable to the Dictates of flesh and bloud as containing the real practise of the highest self-deniall that can be imagined and for the serious hour of death I must confesse I have known many of us turn Papists upon our death-bed but never in all my life so much as once the contrary and to speak ingenuously I have often observed that they who go from us to them seem which you make the only judge more spirituall retired and devout then before they left us whereas of the Papists that become Protestants besides the worldly designs they may easily be thought to have most commonly they grow more licentious both in Faith and manners especially the Priests who seldome or never are converted if once past the age of marrying I who had alwaies believed the punishments laid upon them were reducible to civill crimes though defended by them as points of Religion resolved to follow those so certain and evident Principles which I had already framed for discerning of tender Consciences whithersoever they should lead me and therefore desired my friend to bring me to the knowledge of some moderate and discreet Papist that I might examine their Tenents not doubling their easie exclusion from the priviledges of tender Consciences this my friend immediately did recommending one to me a morally honest and understanding man though sayes he a little abused in his Religion and a great deal for it After we had met and agreed to discourse with all freedome the Recusant began with a short story of the present sufferings of Papists whereof he said Some are sequestred for Delinquency and those of all Cavaliers caeteris paribus the most severely though of all the most excuseable because wholly depending upon the pleasure of the late King and infinitely obliged to his Royall Lenity noting it as an unanswerable argument of their fidelity and gratitude towards such as deal with them in mercy as also that their declining to receive the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which they have heretofore been so violently persecuted proceeded not from any aversion to civill obedience but because there were mingled in those oaths certain expressions of a pure spirituall nature repugnant to their Consciences and altogether unnecessary to the common security Others are equally punished that is their whole estates sequestred allowing only a fifth part for their wives and children though in true reason they are altogether justifiable having never been in any Engagement but found only in some Garrisons of the King whether they were driven for refuge being put out of the protection of the Parliament by publique Proclamation their houses every where rifled their goods plunder'd and lives endangered by the souldiers whose condition seems clearly to be within the equity of that Article of the Armies Proposalls Aug. 1647. That the Kings meniall servants who never took up Arms but only attended on his Person according to their Offices be freed from Composition much more those who had both the civill reason of duty and the unanswerable argument of necessity to plead for their discharge And which is yet more hard some Recusants of this Classe who never bare Armes but were only found in Garrisons for their own personall security as aforesaid are now rank'd among the highest Delinquents and their estates to be sold such are Sir Henry Beddingfield Mr. Bodenham Mr. Gefford c. As for the single Recusants two thirds of their estates are seized upon only for the cause of Religion under which notion are included all such as were heretofore convict of not resorting to Common Prayers or do now refuse the Oath of Abjuration a new Oath made by the two Houses when the former kind of service was abolish't wherein the practise is strangely severe for upon bare information the estate of the suspected is secured that is his rents c. suspended before any tryall or legall proof even in these times of peace and being once thus half-condemn'd he has no other remedy to help himself but by forswearing his Religion and so by an oath a thousand times harsher then that Ex Officio they draw out of his own mouth his condemnation When the Sequestrators have thus seized into their hands two thirds of the most innocent Recusants lands and goods then come the Excize-men Tax-gatherers and other Collectors and pinch away no small part of the poor third penny that was left them so that after these deductions I have known some estates of three hundred pound a year reduced to lesse then threescore a lean pittance to maint●in them and their children being persons for the most part of good quality and civill education and as for Priests it is made as great a crime to have taken Orders after the rites of their Church as to have committed the most hainous treason that can be imagined and they are far more cruelly punish't then those that murder their own Parents Besides these extreme and fatall Penalties that lie upon the Recusants meerly for their Conscience there are many other afflictions whereof few take notice which though of lesser weight yet being added to the former quite sink them down to the bottom of sorrow and perplexity as their continuall fear of having their houses broken open search'd by Pursuivants who enter at what hours they please and do there what they list taking away not only all the instruments of their Religion but oftentimes money plate watches and other such Popish Idolls especially if they be found in the same room with any Pictures and so infected with a relative superstition Another of their afflictions is that they I mean these single Recusants have no power to sell or morgage the least part of their estates either to pay their just debts or defray their necessary expences whereby they are disabled for all commerce and their credit being utterly lost upon which many of them now provide even their daily bread they must needs in a short time be brought to a desperate necessity if not absolute ruine and if any the most quiet and moderate amongst them should desire to transplant himself to a milder Climate and to endeavour to avoid the offence that is taken against him in his own Countrey he cannot so dispose of his estate here as by Bill of exchange or any other way to provide the least subsistence for himself and his Family a severity far beyond the most rigid practice of the Scotch Kirk for there as I am informed the persons of Recusants are only banisht out of the Kingdome and prohibited to reside at their own homes above forty daies in a year which time is allowed them for the managing of their estates and their estates allowed them for their maintainance abroad A proceeding which their Principles would clearly justifie if they