Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	action_n	body_n	spirit_n	4,810	5	5.3791	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37245	A letter to friend concerning his changing his religion	Davies, Rowland, 1649-1721.	1692 (1692)	Wing D412; ESTC R5643	30,321	32

also evident that our reception of them by Faith is every way as valid as beneficial and as effectual to Salvation as can be imagined in your Carnal Manducation Since it is the Spirit that quickneth and the Flesh profiteth nothing and it is not any action of the Body but the purity and sincerity of the Mind and Soul that God respects in any Holy Exercise and therefore it is this alone that ought to be regarded which unites a Man to Christ and brings down God's Gifts and Graces on him by a due reception of that Holy Sacrament § 15. But notwithstanding all this if you continue positive in this Opinion and will resolutely adhere unto that Man of Sin that Exalteth himself above all that is called God contradicting the Ordinances of Christ with a Non Obstante to his Institution of them And that sitteth as God in the Temple of God imposing Laws and Restrictions upon the Consciences of Men In so much that you may rationally suspect your self to have fallen into the state of those unhappy Persons to whom God hath sent a strong delusion that they should believe a lye and obstinately maintain these apparent Contradictions against all the force both of sense and reason That I may abate at least your fondness for this error or restrain that practice that against the Law of God is founded on it I will offer my second Proposition also to be considered That if those words of Christ This is my Body were to be taken in the literal sense as effecting such a change as against sense and reason is asserted to make the Proposition literally true Yet I say they will neither justifie your practice in worshiping the Host nor maintain the Doctrin of the Church of Rome as by the Council of Trent it is taught and explained For it is plain that those words of Christ in the most literal sense that they can bear can have no relation farther than to his Body only and this too in the most strict and limited notion of a Sacrifice wherein Mankind are made Partakers of it Since as your selves confess the design of the Institution was only this that all Men might become Partakers by it of the Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Altar of the Cross when he made a full atonement for the Sins of the whole World Now we know that the nature of a Sacrifice is such that it must be slain before it can be offered and consequently then this Body of Christ into which you do believe that the Elements are changed must be dead as well as broken and totally abstracted or separated from the Soul as it was offered up in Sacrifice to God and how this Body then in this very state and notion can be a proper Object for Divine Worship is a thing that deserves to be very well considered For it is very evident that it doth not contain the essence of a Man since that consists chiefly in his rational Soul that is departed from it and to which St. Augustine tells us that the Divinity was united And therefore though all his Sufferings in the Flesh are truly attributed to him as the Son of God because it was Christ that suffered who really was that Sacred Person yet when we say that he was buried it is an improper way of speaking as that Father observes and doth express no more but the burial of his Body only since it is evident that it was not the Person of Christ but only his Body that was subject to that Passion We generally look upon it as an infinite condescention in Almighty God that he united his Divine unto our Human Nature even in its greatest purity and perfection But to expect that this Divinity should be immediately united unto the grosser part of Man even his Body or Carcass when his Rational Soul is separated from it and when you cannot truly say that even the Human Nature continues extant there And much more to believe then that any Priest whatsoever can effect this condescention at his pleasure and by the introduction of a Material Substance only unite the Divine Nature to the accidents of Bread and Wine which must then be inherent in the whole Suppositum or subsist by themselves and so cease to be Accidents These are thoughts too hard to be entertained of God except he himself in every Circumstance had expresly declared and promis'd it in Scripture The Council of Trent therefore to avoid this difficulty hath joyned the Soul of Christ together with his Body to accompany his Divinity in the Sacrament Insomuch that I have heard a Doctor of Laws of that Communion declare that he believed that the Host after its Consecration was as rational discursive and visible as any Man But on what Authority all this Confidence is founded I profess I am in the dark as to its discovery For take those words of Christ this is my Body in any sense that they can bear and certainly nothing more than the Body of Christ can be exprest in them besides their Mystical signification and if you will limit this unto the notion of a Sacrifice as I shewed you must that will infer directly that his Soul must be excluded from it And surely then whosoever he is that pretends to Miracles to act not only beyond the Power and the very Conceptions of a Man but even directly against all sense and reason He ought to produce at least the Commission that God hath given him for to do such things with such ample Clauses and Expressions in it as confer that Power beyond all exception Otherwise Men cannot believe him that he is sent by God but will undoubtedly reject him and despise his Doctrin The Consequence then is this That even the most literal sense of Christ's words being granted yet the Consecrated Host is not to be adored But this constant practice of Worshiping it at Mass is a Crime not justifiable in any Christian being directly contrary to the first Commandment in the Law and our Saviours Confirmation of it in the Gospel where he hath expresly commanded us in these unquestionable terms Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. iv 10. § 16. There is one thing more that is observable in this branch of your Devotion which I think my self obliged to make Remarks on and that is the general state of the Congregation when the Mass is Celebrated before them For the Sacrament being daily Administred in the sight of all the People there appears an eminent danger even in going to Mass without such a Preparation for it as befits a Worthy Communicant Since if you consider seriously the Feast which the King made at his Son's Wedding as it is related in the Parable Mat. xxii 2. and is generally understood to represent the Blessed Sacrament wherein Christ is most especially united unto his Church You will find that the Person who is there Condemned was