Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	2,927	5	9.4030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27562	A sermon concerning the excellency and usefulness of the common prayer preached by William Beveridge ... 27th of November. 1681.	Beveridge, William, 1637-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing B2100; ESTC R974	27,675	46

The Lord be with you the other And with thy spirit And then immediately falling down upon our knees we adore and supplicate each person of the most blessed Trinity to have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us After which we address our selves to God in the words that he hath put into our mouths saying the Lords prayer which ended the Minister and People by turns lift up their hearts to God in some short and heavenly Ejaculations striving as it were to outvy each other in prevailing with the Allmighty to powr down his Blessings upon us And then in an humble and solemn manner we joyn together in supplicating his Divine Majesty for his Grace and Favour his Defence and Protection his Mercy and Blessing for our selves for the King for the Royal Family for his Church and for all Mankind And this we do ordinarily in the Collects appointed for that purpose But upon Wednesdays and Fridays upon which days the Primitive Church used to perform more than their ordinary Devotions as also upon the Lords day in the morning we do it in the Litany and in such a Litany as comprehends all and every thing that we can ever need to desire of Allmighty God either for our selves or others After this upon Sundays and Holydays we proceed to the Communion Service And therefore approaching to the Lords Table we begin it with his own Prayer And after another short Prayer to God to cleanse the thoughts of our heart by the Inspiration of his Holy Spirit we read the Ten Commandments which he hath enjoyned us to observe and after every Commandment we ask God Mercy for our Transgressions thereof for the time past and grace to keep the same for the time to come saying Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law And then after a Prayer for the King and the Collect for the day we read the Epistle and Gospel that is most commonly a short Paragraph taken out of the Cannonical Epistles and another out of one of the Holy Gospels which was the ancient way of Reading the Scripture before it was divided into Chapters And we do it now to prepare us the better for the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ therein revealed to us But seeing we neither do nor can read over the whole we repeat the substance of it in the Nicene Creed which it is very necessary we should do at this time that so we may demonstrate our selves to be Christians and so capable of receiving the most holy Communion He that all this while hath employed himself as he ought to do in the service of our Church cannot but find himself strangely edified by it Yet howsoever that nothing may be wanting that may any way conduce to our Edification after the Nicene Creed our Church hath appointed a Sermon to be preached which if sound plain and practical as it ought to be cannot but be very edifying too And now we may be well supposed to be so far edified as to be raised up to the highest pitch of Devotion that we can arrive at in this world and so are fit to be admitted to the highest Ordinance of the Church the Sacrament of the Lords Supper And therefore we now betake our selves to it But that we may not appear before our Lord empty we first offer up something to him of what he hath bestowed upon us to be disposed of to pious and charitable uses testifying thereby our acknowledgment of his goodness to us and that we have nothing but what we receive from him And to excite and encourage us to do this all the while that we are offering we have some select sentences of Scripture read to us wherein God either commands us to be charitable or else promiseth a blessing to those that are so And then we pray for Christs whole Church Militant here on earth whereby we profess our selves to be real Members of it and desirous to hold Communion with it in Christs Mystical Body and Blood And so we proceed to the Celebration of it in which the method is so clear so apparently edifying that I need not say any thing of it But shall only observe two things in general concerning it First That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being the highest Mystery in all our Religion as representing the death of the Son of God to us hence that place where this Sacrament is Administred was always made and reputed the highest place in the Church And therefore also it was wont to be separated from the rest of the Church by a Skreen or Partition of Network in Latine Cancelli and that so generally that from thence the place its self is called the Chancell That this was anciently observed in the building of all considerable Churches for I speak not of private Oratories or Chappels within few Centuries after the Apostles themselves even in the days of Constantine the Great as well as in all Ages since I could easily demonstrate from the Records of those times But having purposely waved Antiquity hitherto I am loath to trouble you with it now But I mention it at present only because some perhaps may wonder why this should be observed in our Church rather than in all the other Churches which have been lately built in this City Whereas they should rather wonder why it was not observed in all other as well as this For besides our Obligations to conform as much as may be to the practice of the Universal Church and to avoid novelty and singularity in all things relating to the Worship of God it cannot be easily imagined that the Catholick Church in all Ages and places for 13 or 1400 years together should observe such a Custom as this except there were great reasons for it What they were it is not necessary for us to enquire now It may be sufficient to observe at present that the Chancel in our Christian Churches was always looked upon as answering to the Holy of Holies in the Temple which you know was separated from the Sanctuary or Body of the Temple by the Command of God himself And that this place being apppropriated to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper it ought to be so contrived as may be most convenient for those who are to partake of that Blessed Ordinance But it must needs be more convenient for those who are to enjoy Communion with Christ and in him with one another in this holy Sacrament to meet together as one body in one place separated for that purpose then to be dispersed as otherwise they would be some in one and some in another part of the Church Or in short it is much better for the place to be separate than the people Furthermore It is not only convenient but in some sense necessary for every Communicant to observe and take special notice of the several Circumstances which our Lord hath

ordained to be used in this Sacrament as the Breaking of the Bread and the Consecrating both that and the Wine to represent his Death the breaking of his Body and the shedding of his Blood for our sins that so our hearts may be the more affected with it and by consequence our Souls more edified by it But this cannot be so well done except there be a place set apart for it where they may all be placed about or near to the Communion Table and so behold what is there done at the Consecration of the Elements Hence also it is that the Seats there are and ought to be so ordered that all that are in them may still look that way and contemplate upon their Blessed Saviour there evidently set forth as Crucified for them The other thing that I would observe unto you concerning the Holy Communion is this that our Church requireth or at least supposeth it to be Administered every Lords-day and every Holy day throughout the year as it was in the Primitive Church For that is the reason that the Communion Service is appointed to be used upon all such days and to be read at the Communion Table that so the Minister may be there ready to Administer it unto all that desire to partake of it Which shews the great care that our Church hath of all her Members that they might be edified and confirmed in the Faith To which nothing contributes more than frequent Communion at our Lords Table Which if people could once be perswaded to they would soon find greater benefit by it then I can express or they themselves till then imagine I shall say no more of it at present but only this That I am so sensible of what I now say that could I be sure to have a sufficient number of Communicants I should be heartily glad to Administer this Holy Sacrament every Lords day both for their sakes and my own too Thus I have given you a short Scheme of that excellent Method wherein our Divine Service is performed Which whosoever rightly considers will need no other Argument to convince him that it is according to the Apostles Rule very Edifying indeed The last thing to be considered in it is the Manner of its Performance by which I mean only the several postures of the Body as standing and kneeling which are used in it for they also are done to edifying While we say or sing the Hymns and Psalms to the Praise and Glory of God we stand up not only to signifie but to excite the Elevation of our minds at that time For as on the one hand if our Souls be really lift up in the praises of God our Bodies will naturally lift up themselves to accompany them as far as they can towards Heaven so on the other hand the raising up of our bodies helps towards the raising up of our Souls too by putting us in mind of that high and heavenly work we are now about wherein according to our weak Capacities we joyn with the Quire of Heaven in praising God now as we hope to do it for evermore For this cause also we stand at the Creeds for they being Confessions of our Faith in God as such they come under the proper Notion of Hymns or Songs of praise to him All our praising God being really nothing else but our Confessing and acknowledging him to be what he is in himself and to us And besides that by our standing both at the Creeds and Gospels we signifie our assent unto them and our readiness to defend them to the utmost of our power against all opposition whatsoever And as for the Gospels particularly they contain the very Acts which our Lord did and the very Words which he spake when he was upon Earth and therefore we who profess him to be our Lord and Master cannot surely but stand up when we hear him speaking and listen diligently to those gracious words which proceeded out of his Divine Mouth And as when we praise God we raise up our selves as high as we can towards Heaven so when we pray unto him we fall down as low as we can towards the Earth not daring to present our Supplications to the absolute Monarch of the whole World any other ways then upon our knees Which is so proper so natural a posture of Supplicants that if all men would but duly consider what they do when they pray to Almighty God the Church need never have commanded them to kneel at that time For they could not chuse but do it No not although the place where they are should seem never so inconvenient for it For we find our Blessed Saviour himself kneeling at his Prayer in the Garden upon the bare ground Luke 22. 41. and St. Paul upon the Sea-shore where he could have no other Cushion but Stones or Sand Acts 21. 5. Howsoever To take off all those little excuses that men are apt to make for themselves in this case the Seats in this Church are so disposed and all things so prepared in them that there can be no inconvenience at all in it but rather all the conveniences for kneeling that can be desired And therefore if any of you shall yet neglect to kneel while the Prayers are read they will give us too much cause to call their Religion into question or to suspect they have none at all For if they had they durst not they could not offer such a manifest affront to the great Creator of the World as to carry themselves no otherwise while they pray to him then as if they were conversing with their Fellow Creatures But why do I speak of their praying unto God It is too much to be feared they do not pray at all nor come to Church for any better purpose then only to see and be seen I am sure they perform no Act of External Worship or Adoration unto God nor shew hm that respect and reverence which is due unto him and so give very great offence to all pious and devout Christians Whereas if all and every person in the Congregation would always be upon their knees while they put up their petitions to the most high God what a mighty advantage would this be not onely to every one in particular but to the whole Congregation in general For as every one would by this means keep his heart more stedfast in the true fear and dread of God and likewise more certainly obtain the good things he prays for as the Fathers frequently assert so the whole Congregation also would be very much edified by it For by this means we should excite and inflame each others Devotions confirm and strengthen one anothers Faith and convince both our selves and all that see us that Religion is indeed a serious thing and that we believe it to be so by our serving God with so much reverence and godly fear as this humble posture representeth And therefore as you tender the love of God the credit of