Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	blood_n	body_n	cup_n	12,251	5	9.5859	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58850	The method and means to a true spiritual life consisting of three parts, agreeable to the auncient [sic] way / by the late Reverend Matthew Scrivener ... ; cleared from modern abuses, and render'd more easie and practicall.	Scrivener, Matthew.	1688 (1688)	Wing S2118; ESTC R32133	179,257	416

eares so that if Christ should tell us that it was his Bodie we may as reasonably denie that he doth say what in trueth he doth say For the Eye is a lesse fallible sense than the Ear as Philosophers agree And whereas it is said We cannot see substances themselves but onely Accidents it matters not whether that Opinion be true or false being we see as much of those bodies and their substances as of any substance in the world and no more is needfull 8. Seventhly The sacred Symboles are called the Bodie and Blood of Christ because we should understand the dignity and efficacie and strait conjunction between them and Christ and Christ and us who thereby receive him as our Food 9. Lastly The meanes whereby we so receive Christ in this Blessed Sacrament is Faith as is truely and generally said but not alltogether as some may understand and conceive For Faith as in our Sanctification so in our Justification doth work and no otherwise doth it make us worthie and happie Communicants For it layes the foundation of all our Religion and becoming lively by love and Charitie gives life to all our spirituall performances and consequently renders them effectuall to us So that we must believe first according to the true Catholique Faith in generall then specially the nature ends and uses of this Sacrament Lastly we must have a comfortable perswasion of the goodnesse of God in accepting us in the Sacrament and his dispensations towards us but there must allso be joyned herewith 1. Discerning the Lords Body and that not to be it properly which we see but that which is invisible and spiritually taken 2. That we judge our selves by examination and humiliation of our selves that by rashnesse of approach we be not condemned of the Lord. 3. Invocation of Gods mercie for past sins and of his assisting Grace for preventing the like future failings and falls as we have been formerly subject to 4. To have no malice nor notorious hatred in our hearts but Charitie to all men especially towards them with whome we communicate 5. That we be void of all purpose or designe of committing over again any of those sinnes which we finde in our selves upon due enquity and examination but rather have a sincere how weak soever it may be desire and purpose of living more agreeably to Gods holy Will in all things 6. That we have a good hope through Gods Grace which some miscall Faith that we shall live according to our Vow in Baptisme of old made and there renewed and ratified and that this hope begets a care and conscience of our wayes hereafter lest we by relapsing into former errours dissolve that happie Union and conjunction obtained in this Blessed Sacrament with the Father and the Son. SECT X. Of the Difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holie Communion which are here discussed 1. WE are told in the Office of our Church for the celebration of the Communion That as the benefits are great if with a true penitent heart and a lively Faith we receive that Holy Sacrament so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily for then are we guiltie of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ we eat and drink our own damnation not considering the Lords Body we kindle Gods wrath against us we provoke him to plague us with divers Diseases and sundry kindes of Death All which seems to be drawn from the words of Saint Paul 1 Corin. 11. ver 27. Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe not discerning the Lords Bodie which Speeches it behoveth straitly to understand aright lest by violence used in wresting them to too favourable a sense we occasion the profanation of those Holy Mysteries by rudenesse and presumption of unbelieving and impenitent comers unto it or we so straiten the way to Gods holy Table that Believers and they none of the worst rank should be disheartened and discouraged from approaching to it The genuine sense therefore and importance of those Sayings are faithfully to be unfolded for the better informing of the Judgement and directing and satisfying the Conscience of the cordiall Christian and sincere For it is most certain upon too frequent experience that an horrible abuse is made of the opinion of the Holinesse of the Sacrament and Doctrine of Saint Paul and allso of the Church even now recited and that by worldly and loose men who believing in grosse the sacrednesse of the Communion alledge that for a sufficient cause to excuse themselves from receiving of it when God knowes they have little apprehension either of the Holinesse of that or their unholinesse or unfitnesse pretending more scrupulousnesse and warinesse than others and than the Word of God requires absolutely at their hands though it is granted that divers finde themselves so entangled between the consciousnesse of their own unworthinesse and perswasion of the worthinesse of that that they are unwillingly obstructed in drawing nigh thus unto Christ so mercifully offered to them For whose sake I have prepared these following instructions leaving others to be condemned for their falsenesse and hypocrisie in sacred things by their own consciences and that very judgement which is pretended to be feared in so abstaining 2. First then It is to be granted and supposed by all ingenuous as well as pious Christians that it is in it selfe incredible and a great injurie done to the wisdome and goodnesse of Christ instituting this holy Sacrament to imagine that he should so mock the greatest number of true though weak Believers as to ordain such a Sacrament and to such great ends and propound so great benefits and leave so many gracious and kinde invitations and exhortations to come to him there present and in readinesse to satisfie the hungrie Soule with goodnesse and to feast him with the fat and sweet of his own Table and yet withall cloth that precious Ordinance with so many severe circumstances and clogge it with so many dangerous difficult and heavie Conditions as very few should dare to come at it or be the better for it 3. Secondly There is to be observed a very great difference between Worthy Communicating and due or Fit communicating and that both these are vulgarly and Fallaciously contained in that one word Worthie which hath a double sense For he properly is said to be worthy who is equall in qualifications of Vertue and Graces to the worth and merits of that holy Sacrament and in this acceptation no man may be said to be worthy no not the best prepared and holiest man. Another sense of Worthinesse is that we call'd Fitnesse whereby how unworthy soever a Soule may be of that Sacrament he may be reputed worthy and come acceptably and fruitfully and so that willfully in such cases to absent himselfe may turne to his own

perdition more than his coming For excepting some monstrous and notorious evills into which a man may fall and that when the Communion is instant so that no competent time nor meanes remain to discharge his part in due preparation though sudden accidents of that nature may admitt of sudden remorse and intense Repentance when time is denied of more full and thorow humiliation then perhaps such excuses may be tolerable as unpreparednesse but when men have timely advice of such ensuing Solemnitie and have no unavoidable impediments but wilfully and necessarily involve themselves in matters inconsistent with it and so absent themselves neglecting that competent preparation required then doe they shun the Curse of communicating unworthily and fall into the condemnation of not preparing themselves and contempt of such meanes of Salvation as he under the Law that refused to purge his House of Leaven and purifie himselfe to eat the Passe-over 4. For in this one Evill many more are contained such as are frustrating Gods invitation to Grace and Mercy a great provocation of men who are of the same nature with our selves though greater in Power and Honour A bereaving our selves of the benefits there tendered and an hazarding of the losse of the fruits of all other meanes ordained by God to our Salvation For God requires that we should put on the whole Armour of God Ephes 6. 11 13. And Saint Paul likewise Coloss 4. 12. exhorteth to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God. And Saint James assures us Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he shall be guilty of all James 2. 10. insinuating sufficiently unto us that the willfull neglect of one such materiall Dutie and violating one so soveraign Ordinance as this doth injury to all and provokes God to withdraw his Blessing upon those other Ordinances we are content to admitt of For he that contemns him in one contemns the Authour of all and so cannot reasosonably expect any benefit from Sermons or from Publique or private service of God. For no man must trust to his making compensation to God one way having wronged him in another where both may be perfourmed And experience teacheth this to be true that none are generally more rare and remisse in the other parts of Gods Worship than they who are carelesse in this 3. A manifold Scandall is offered to Fellow Christians who upon observing the neglect of some in this point entertain suppositions of the little use of it and consequently that the offence in omitting the same is very inconsiderable and light passing it over accordingly or perhaps that receiving that Sacrament belongs chiefly to the Greater or better sort and such as are more at leisure than are they and not to poor obscure and busie persons as they are Furthermore a Scandall is hereby given to the Brethren of the same Faith and profession as if a Member of the Church were fallen away from them and found some evill in the Actions sacred For God doth not onely require at our hands that we should truely believe and become lively Members of Christs mysticall Body and invisible but allso Visible and not onely so but that so far as lies in us we should be visible members allso of that Body Visible and that we should declare the same and doe nothing to give ground or occasion to believe otherwise of us which must necessarily be if we forbear such necessary and solemn proofs and indications as this is even the Greatest of all and that which as it is Unitive of us to Christ so is it very effectuall to produce and preserve that bond of Charitie which Christ commands to be kept up amongst Brethren in Christ 3. Thirdly The main pretence and Apologie of abstaining from the Communion taken from its Sacrednesse and formidablenesse are grounded upon the foresaid words of Saint Paul which therefore to give a faithfull and proper sense of will be very expedient which we may attain to two wayes chiefly First by rightly understanding the occasion given him to write so severely above others For we finde nothing of the like charge given by Christ to his Disciples at the first Institution of it all which came with no other preparation to it than was Legall or Leviticall Neither have we in holy Writ any thing afterward except the words of Saint Paul about it who upon grosse corruptions and scandalous invading openly that holy Sacrament opportunely bestirs himselfe for the vindication of it from such abuses brings them back to the first institution of Christ which was that they should understand that to eat this as their own Supper was to profane it For Christ at that time had two Suppers One Mosaicall which though it had sacred Rites belonging to it did serve to the use of the naturall Body and was to imprint in their memories a sense of their deliverance from slaughter with the First-born in Egypt and from bondage there allso The other was Evangelicall not given in such quantitie as the other to nourish the Bodie but ceremoniously rather in such sort as might give the receiver certain information and proportionable affection of the Passion and death of Christ whose Bodie was broken and Blood shed for the sinnes of the whole World much more of true Believers Which if they who received those Elements did not consider of so as in them to discern the Lords Bodie thereby signified and his Passion thereby called to remembrance and received by the faithfull to their edification in faith and love and comfort but prophanely ventured to take it as common bread yea to come to it first stuffed full with their own riotous Suppers and drunk with excesse of Wine before all the world would judge and condemne them for so doing and more especially would God be avenged of them for such affront put upon him and those divine Mysteries of his ordaining and that by sudden Deaths or grievous Sicknesses and weaknesses upon their bodies besides the evill upon their Soules Others forbearing to eat and drink at home in their Houses kept their stomachs for the good Cheer they were wont to make and plentifully to take in Gods House or the place and at the time they should have soberly modestly and devoutly partaken of these great Mysteries which worthily so incensed the Apostle as to demand if they had not Houses of their own to eat and to drink in but must come into the publique place of Worship the House of God and there gluttonize and revell not considering nor discerning the Lords Body to the shame of themselves and Religion And that this is the most plain and naturall sense of that whole passage of the Apostle will clearly appear to every attentive and judicious Reader taking in the Context And this St. Chrysostome than whome none of his time magnifies more the Mysteries of the Eucharist doth agree to in a second Homilie he hath upon the Passeover Tom. 5. pag. 921. telling