Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	3,413	5	9.3938	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27625	A sermon of the true, spiritual transubstantiation, oppos'd to the gross, carnal, imaginary transubstantiation wherein the true meaning of the Lord's Supper is opened, in order to a constant, habitual and actual preparation to it / by Beverley.	Beverley, Thomas.	1687 (1687)	Wing B2175; ESTC R18401	43,861	64

danger there being so little occasion or appearance of Fear at the Time left Things so as that the following Times deprav'd their Innocent Glory of Learning and sublime Ingeny dyed deep with Love of Christ 3. Through the many Devastations of the Christian Empire by the Barbarous Nations by the Saracens and Turks in a long Tract of Time through the daily Decay of Christian Knowledge Zeal and Holiness there ensued a great Darkness Ignorance Barbarism upon the Christian World in which Men of the best Note seiz'd upon such Expressions of Scripture and the Fathers whose Sepulchres they built and garnished their Tombs all manner of ways I add no more and it may be as it seem'd to them most to make for the Honour of Christian Religion But their Understanding being heavy course sinking into the thick and impure matter bearing also a deep Grain of Paganism they grievously err'd neither knowing the Scriptures the true Sense of the Fathers nor of the Power of God And hereunto they proportion'd all their Notions of the Christian Religion their Worship of God and Christ and most miserably especially They stuck in the mirey Clay as to this great Mystery of the Lord's Supper and the Doctrine of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Christ out of which it was drawn and degraded the most losty Spirituality of the Gospel into the poorest and even vilest of carnal Apprehensions concerning it in the Doctrine of a Carnal fleshly Transubstantiation 4. At the same Times and by the same Degrees grew up a Despotick Arbitrary Church power that imposed what it pleas'd under Anathemaes Curses Excommunications Brands of Heresie and all Cruelty upon the Bodies Names Estates of those who even to Syllables did not Say as they Said and do as they did while at the same Time also there Invaded Persons of as honest and sincere a Devotion as Ignorance could produce a Veneration for the Name of the Catholick Church and the Governours of it and their Canons Now the Impress the Stamp of this Authority being set so particularly and Imperially upon this Doctrine of Transubstantiation it is no wonder it prevail'd so far and sunk so deep into the Minds of Men through what every Age from those Worthies before-nam'd contributed both to the Grossness and Authoritativeness of this false Article of Faith I forbear because I would be as inoffensive as may be consistent with Truth to remark upon that Apostacy that Mystery of Iniquity which the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour foretold were even then beginning and to rise higher and higher in the Latter Times to which even many Things innocent and inoffensive in themselves at first and indeed all Contingencies fathally concurr'd and which it is most certain are not yet remov'd Nor do I think fit at this Time to Animadvert upon the Covetous Practices Cruelties and Inhumanities into which Transubstantiation hath been Transubstantiated not only in the true real sense of spiritual Wickedness but in a sense as corporeal as Corporeity it self I hasten therefore to the fifth Head viz. To represent to you the Danger of such a Doctrine as that Fleshly Transubstantiation not so much as it is a contemplative Thing a Notion a manner of Apprehension or matter of Discourse though that also but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration Now in these Great Points we may very plainly and convincingly understand the great Danger of that Transubstantiation 1. The believing it must needs shake the Credit of all the knowing and judging Faculties of our Natures and Beings than which nothing can be more destructive to Religion or put all Things into greater Disorder and Confusion that concern God our Selves or our Motions in relation to another World For if our Faculties are not true we have nothing to guide our selves or to be guided by Now the Faculties of our Minds first judge and act by Sense then by Reason then by the Notices or Sentiments of Natural Conscience then by Faith and these must be all sound in due state They have all their proper Objects they are all finite and by these Rules they are limited they must not go out of their Limits It is true these are each as so many Stories one above another and the lower must not presume into the Region of the higher for then they will be mistaken and in Error yet the highest is supported and sustained by the lower And seeing they all are from God whatever is true in the lowest cannot be contradicted in the highest and therefore whatever is pretended in the highest cannot be true there if it be justly denied in the lowest Now it were easie to shew this Notion of Carnal Transubstantiation must be false in all the judgment of our Faculties but I shall only instance in Sense And if the Bread be Bread in the Judgment of every one of our Senses of the Senses of all Men in all Places at all Times and in all Ages under the most advantageous Circumstances for sense to judge by the contrary can never be true in Reason in natural Conscience nor in Faith for then either there must be no such Faculty as Sense or that fundamental Faculty of the Souls Judgment by Sense must be false and so all our Faculties will lose their Credit for they may be false too seeing he that gave us one gave us all of them and this of Sense is that we most live and act by in this World If any attempt to parallel this with the Doctrine of the Father the Word and the Spirit being ONE to which Reason say they can never subscribe the Case is manifestly different seeing it is certain our Faculties are finite and cannot judge of Infinity but by Faith in divine Revelation Infinite Being is too High too Deep too Broad too Long for Job 11. 7 8 9. a Finite Reason to judge of It is not its proper Object But Colour Taste Figure Hard Soft Sound may be all judg'd by Sense and properly are so to be judg'd Or if any should make the same Objection against that Spiritual Transubstantiation we have made out by Scripture 't is certain It is only cognisable and to be judg'd of by Faith and Revelation Sense hath no Title to judge of it If it be maintain'd by Faith it is maintain'd in its proper Court But it is certain The Judgment whether this Bread be Bread or Wine be Wine is to be made by some one or more of the Senses at least in the Universality of all the Senses of all Persons Times Places Let any one then lay that place 1 Epist John c. 1. v. 1. That which we have heard that which our Eyes have seen which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled c. to the being born down That in these Senses and all others we are mistaken in judging Bread to be Bread when it is no Bread and Wine when it is no Wine Must not all the Argument the Evidence

which the Evangelist John relates from Christ of which whoever eats shall live by him for ever and he will raise him up at the last day viz. at his Coming till which Coming there is a shewing forth of his Death in this Supper viz. a declaring that efficacy of it which shall then appear And it is certain though Christ had not yet instituted this sacred Rite nor did till some considerable space after this great Discourse yet he knew his own Intention concerning it and he knew this Doctrine should be in its just Time commanded by himself to be represented in that Rite and his Death as a Sacrifice he continually enlivens and keeps new vigorous and in full force by his Intercession upon it in which Intercession he appears with his own Blood in the true Holy of Holies as the High priest with the Blood of the Typical Sacrifices in that Typical Holiest All which becomes a most especial Preparation of his Flesh to be eaten and drunk in the Lord's Supper therefore the Lord's Supper is so peculiar an Annunciation of his Death till he comes viz. in the eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood now become a Peace-offering by his Intercession and to be feasted upon Now in these four sacred Pen-men of this Institution 't is observable That they are all uniform in these Words This is my Body there 's not any difference among them from one to the other not any variety found they all with one Mouth say to a very Tittle This is my Body But they are not so uniform concerning the Cup The Evangelist Matthew and the Evangelist Mark say This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament The Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Paul say This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood so here 's thus much of variety Two say This is my Blood of the New Testament two others say This is the New Testament in my Blood And this I do account will give us great light into the sense of this Institution as you shall perceive in the progress of this Discourse That which is yet farther considerable is that the Apostle Paul says That which I received of the Lord I deliver'd unto 1 Cor. 11. 23. you by which Words there is great Reason to believe that the Apostle as a fourth Evangelist receiv'd this Institution immediately from the Revelation of Jesus Christ and that it is part of that Gospel which he tells us Gal. 1. 11 12. he received not from men neither was taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ so that I think we may certainly and safely conclude He was not only inspired as a sacred Writer of that Epistle to the Corinths but Christ had before that at the time of his Call to the Apostleship made an immediate Revelation of this Institution to him which as it shews the great excellency of this holy Sacrament so to this Apostle was committed as his peculiar part to shew the Obligatoriness of this Ordinance upon all Ages till Christ's coming which is not given in express terms but by him only All this being premis'd it is of concern in the next place to give you an exact Harmony of these four sacred Writers and what they have written concerning this Institution that is out of all the words of each of them drawn out and laid together to make up one even Text of the whole which by Interpreters is call'd a Harmony And thus it is as I shall draw it out of the Apostle Paul as infolding the whole Institution I received of the Lord that which I deliver'd unto you that the Lord Jesus the Night in which he was betray'd while they were eating that Passover of which he had 1 Cor. 11. 23. said Luke 22. 15 16. With Desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer For I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Luc. 22. 19. Kingdom of God he took the Bread which we break and blessed it with Thanksgiving and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body viz. the Communion of it 1 Cor. 10. 16. which is broken for you This do in Remembrance of me In the same manner after Supper when he had supped He took the Cup of Blessing which we bless and when he had given Thanks he gave it to them saying to them Divide it among your selves and drink you all of it For this Cup is my Blood of the New Matt. 26. 28. Marc. 14. 24. Testament and this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood viz. in the Communion of it 1 Cor. 10. 16. which is shed for you and for many for the Remission of sins And they drank all of it Mark 14. 23. This do as often as ye drink it in Remembrance of me As often therefore as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew forth the Lord's Death till he come 1 Cor. 11. 26. This is that which laid together arises out of all these four Evangelists accounting the Apostle Paul for one and comprizing this Institution in what immediately concerns the Institution it self wholly and fully And before it we may place the sixth Chapter of the Evangelist John beginning at v. 27. as giving the Doctrine that supports this Institution And out of this Harmony I shall endeavour to discourse at this time Now it is certain this harmonical Context must be true in every Iota of it and whatever is fuller in any part must inlighten and clear the whole and whatever is obscure in any part or curt and short must be enlarged from what is more clear and full For you know one Writer is as true as another in whatever we place as from them to this matter The very Order in which they give this Institution is much to be considered and if in any particular there seems any thing that does encounter and run cross one thing with another it must be so explain'd as that the whole and every part may be most conciliated with it self so that the whole must be both clear'd and illustrated and reconcil'd by the concert of every part and every part by it self in compare with the other parts of all which we are to make our Advantages as 1. When we find the whole Concert of the Institution so one in these words This is my Body we know That in them is most plainly positively forcibly deliver'd the real Participation and Communion of the Body of Jesus in the Lord's Supper as we shall find all the words joyn'd with them viz. Blessing Breaking Taking Eating a Body broken for us lead us unto and make this Bread the Communion of Christ's Body as the Apostle Paul calls it 2. When we find the four Records of this Institution agree in the Cup even as in the Body thus far that the drinking of it is an equal part of the Institution with the eating the Body that it