Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	bread_n	nourish_v	4,911	5	10.6386	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84086	The eating of the body of Christ, considered in its principles. By John Despagne minister of the gospel. Translated out of French into English, by John Rivers of Chaford in Sussex, Esquire.	Espagne, Jean d', 1591-1659.; Rivers, John, of Chaford in Sussex.; Beau, Wil.	1652 (1652)	Wing E3257; Thomason E1309_2; ESTC R209023	55,931	203

Cross was a mark or token of malediction Gal. 3. 13. a quite contrary quality from that of the Altar which is to bless and to sanctifie 3. Also the holy Scripture speaking of the same Cross on which our transgressions were expiated never gives it the Title of Altar and the holy Ghost always abstains from this phrase although that in many places of the New Testament it seems to come much to the purpose 4. Men speak very inconsiderately to say that the Altar of Burnt-Offerings or that of Incense did represent the Cross on which Jesus Christ ought to be sacrificed There is more appearance that the Cross on which Jesus Christ was put was signified by the wood on which they placed their Victims And indeed Isaac carrying the wood on which he was to be sacrificed was a figure of Jesus Christ bearing the Cross on which he was to die CHAP. III. What is the Subject of the thoughts which Christians ought to have when they receive the holy Supper The Spiritual presence ill understood among the Vulgar TWo men shall produce an action of the same kind and the same quality in which nevertheless the one hath more noble thoughts then the other And for example both may give Almes with like sincerity of heart equall measure of charity and with the same resentment of affection and yet nevertheless in this act one carries more fair and rich conceptions So among many Christians who receive the Sacrament by faith and are carried to this action by motions tending to salvation there are som whose thoughts surpass those of others being more sublime and compleat and so of a higher dignity and which render them nearer to the bosome of Jesus Christ Now the most excellent thoughts which a Christian communicating at the Supper can have are those which Jesus Christ had and did suggest unto us in this action expressing them in words full of an incomparable richness To know then what cogitations are there required the words of Jesus Christ rightly understood will furnish us with the Subject of them But such a one presumes best to understand them who is not yet topick enough in every point appertaining to this matter For I let alone the superficial intelligence wherewith Ideots content themselves When they can say that as the bread nourishes our bodies so the flesh of Christ nourishes our souls they think they know enough Even so many do very ill understand this spiritual presence of Christ that is now so much disputed of Then when they present to themselves a man nailed to a Cross they imagin by this Idea Christ is made present to their thoughts and that in this act consists the participation of the body of Christ 'T is true we cannot call to mind his death and the manner of it but by conceiving such an object namely a humane body as it is painted in the history of the Passion his side being pierced and the bloud streaming from the wound c. But all this is but an historical representation much different from the spiritual communion of the body of Christ For when I represent unto my self Jesus Christ dying on the Cross in the most lively manner possible for me to do this figure or image which I have in my mind is not all this while Jesus Christ himself CHAP. III. A Brief of all that men teach touching the Point of the Lords Supper ALL that we consider in this Doctrin is reduced principally to these things The divers names by which this Sacrament is called It s Institution and the time of it The two Signes employed at this Table and the Censure of those who deny the Cup to the people The Analogie between the Bread and the Body of Christ between the Wine and the Blood The breaking of the one and the powring forth of the other with their signification The Thanksgiving or blessing by which Jesus Christ consecrated these Elements The difference between the corporal reception of the signe common both to the faithfull and the wicked and the Spirituall Communication of the Body of Christ peculiar to believers The examining of these words wherein we finde that there is a Figure the name of the thing signified being attributed to the Signe according to the ordinary custom of Sacramentall locutions That the substance of the Signes remain entire That the Body of Christ is not enclosed in the Bread of the Eucharist nor in any place of the earth That this bodily presence is not requisit to the true and reall Communication of it That this Communion is made by the efficacy of the Spirit on the behalf of Christ and by the Organ of Faith on our part That this Faith reacheth even unto Heaven and doth truely joyn us unto Christ That the end of this action is not there to make an Expiatory Sacrifice but a Commemoration of him That this Commemoration is not idle and vain but full of efficacy and affection That the Supper is unto us a Seal of a new Covenant an earnest of our Resurrection a tye of our Union with the Church and a Badge of our Profession To these are joyned the precepts which shew the preparatory Exercises the examination which every one ought to make of himself for to partake worthily of it and finally the acknowledgement or thanksgiving which we ought to make for it But as this matter is now almost all reduced to controversie the most part of those who undertake an exact description of all that may be said upon the Point of the Eucharist do make stop principally at those things which are in dispute And in this regard it is a hard matter to add to their writings having there neither question which they have not discussed error which they have not encountred difficulty which they have not cleared syllable which they have not culled argument which they have not pressed objection which they have not dissolved But we shall find that we may yet bring hither many other important considerations and without which this Doctrin cannot be compleat CHAP. V. Observations extracted out of the Jews Liturgie THey who have read the Books of the Rites of the ancient Jews have drawn from them some lights which shew the reason of many particulars expressed in the Institution of the Supper For the proceeding of Iesus Christ in the Eucharist answers to that which the Hebrews observe in the Passeover Now besides the Divine Laws which prescribe the form of this sacred Feast the Jews had Rules for those Circumstances which were not mentioned in the Law As for example Moses having pronounced nothing touching the Drink of this Solemn Feast their Ecclesiasticall Canons ordained that which was convenient for the Action They relate therefore among the ordinary Formalities of this Banquet That at the beginning the Master of the house took the Cup and praising God caused it to pass from hand to hand to the end that all who sat at the table might tast of it Thus

every one of them So that if one of my sins hath been Expiated in this Blood all my other sins have there their Expiation also for it is generall and entire So then the termes of the Institution if wee know how to weigh them cause us to know that Jesus Christ hath sounded all the profundities of the Old Testament and drawes from thence those points which shew the excellency and advantages of the New by comparing them together CHAP. XVI The eighth Consideration upon the words of the holy Supper I Intend not to reiterate that which hath been so much written how the Bread is the Body of Christ but onely to observe something upon a question which is common enough viz. Why our Lord did not ordain Flesh rather than Bread for to represent his Body For it seems that this Symbole should be more analogick and significative According to the saying of many it is forasmuch as Flesh hath served in old time in the Sacrifices and in the Passeover and that it behoves that the Sacraments of the Christian Church should be of other Elements than those that have served under the Law But this answer is ill grounded for 1. The Bread and Wine were also used in Sacrifices There was by name an Oblation of Bread and Wine Numb 15. not to speak of the Shew-bread and of the Offerings of Cakes 2. The Element of Water served for Legall purifications Under the Law there was nothing so ordinary as the washing with Water to signifie the clensing of the Soul Yet neverthelesse God would that Baptism should be with Water 3. The contrary is rather true and this is that also which some ancient Fathers say of it That in this action Jesus Christ useth Bread and Wine because that these Elements had already been used under the Law to represent his Body and his Blood And this to the end we should know that it is the same Christ represented by the same signes But why then hath not the Flesh of living Creatures as well place in the Sacrament of the Eucharist sith it hath represented Christ in that of the Passeover and in so many kinds of Sacrifices We say indeed that Christ hath rather chosen Bread because it is the most common and the most nourishing food and so most proper to represent his Body But this excludes not other reasons which we may give thereof Moreover the Eucharist represents not the Body of Jesus Christ simply as nourishment but also as dead Now some may say which neverthelesse is not without contradiction that the Death of Christ was in Old time more ocularly represented by the killing of a Lamb than at this day by the breaking of Bread So it is this is the point I am to handle that Jesus Christ instituting signs of his Dead Body and of his Blood shed did choose things without life and Elements wherein there was no Blood Whereby he would shew that after him no creature should any more lose his life for the sins of man and that no other Blood should be shed in Expiation For the Sacraments of the Old Testament were Bloody to denote the Blood which was to be shed by the death of Christ But this effusion being made the Sacraments which represent it as done and accomplished are without effusion of Blood to shew that there shall be no more Blood shed for sins Hence it is wee have no more a Sacrament which requires the killing of any creature but Signes wherein death doth not intervene as being of themselves without life and of another substance than of Flesh and Blood CHAP. XVII The ninth Consideration upon the words of Jesus Christ MEn principally the common people do naturally love Similitudes because they are drawn from things perceptible to the senses or otherwise common and easie to be conceived But similitudes represent not the essence of a subject and doe not say what a thing is but what it resembles So our Lord would not tell us simply that his Body had resemblance unto Bread nor onely that the Bread is a Seal unto us of the Communion of his Body but also hath shewed us the causes and qualities of this Communion These words To eat the Body of Jesus Christ signifie not onely to take it for the Sustenance of our Souls as we take food for the nourishment of our Bodyes This Similitude if we specifie no more teacheth us but very generally the nature of this Communion and doth not set forth the entire sense of the words of Jesus Christ For in the Eucharist our Lord doth not propound himself as Flesh in generall but as Flesh sacrifised for our sins which is a point of great consequence in this matter I have already said that the word Eating is attributed to the Cōmunion of the body of Christ which is as much as to say that this Communion is in substance that which was in Figure the eating of Sacrifices of the Manna of the Passeover c. And namely that in this Communion we have that which the Law forbad us to wit the eating of the Flesh offred for our sins They who content themselves with the generall similitudes between the Food of the Body and the nourishment of the Soul attain not unto the specifick difference of the subject of the Eucharist But I have yet somewhat to say of an abuse which is committed in the deduction of this Similitude For as many omit that which is contained in the words of the holy Supper so there are some I speak even of Orthodox Divines who adde thereto something of their own CHAP. XVIII The tenth Consideration upon the words of Jesus Christ in the Supper WEe know that wee ought not to carry a Similitude beyond its end For when two divers things are compared to one another it is never in all and through all but onely in some regard When for example our Lord in St. Matth. 13. v. 46. compares the kingdome of Heaven to a Pearl of great price his intention is but to express the greatness of the value and richness of the Gospell Now he that would under pretence of this word Pearl dispute philosophically of all the kinds and proprieties of Pearls search of what matter they are made and how they are formed and subtilly fit all this to the kingdome of Heaven would surpasse the bounds wherein Jesus Christ hath confined the similitude For he doth not in all qualities compare the kingdome of Heaven to a Pearl but onely in the price or esteem which men have of it Notwithstanding there are few found among those who expound the Scriptures who keep themselves within these limits There are even of those who regard no measure when they handle a comparison If our Saviour say that he is a Vine they will name all sorts of Vines and their differences and tell you what territory is proper to them when they are to bee planted how they are to be pruned and kept Also what are the parts of

we could object unto them the Souls which they believe to be in Purgatory which according to the saying of the Roman Church enjoy the Communion of Christ and so of his Flesh and Blood A Communion which cannot be otherwise than in spirit For these Souls have neither mouth nor stomack Neither doe I content my self with that which is alleged for proof of the true Communion that sometimes some have fallen into an Extasy in the receiving their host through admiration of pretended wonders which they there presuppose Such Enthusiasmes are neither sufficient nor necessary for the Communion of the Body of Christ For although it be supernaturall yet notwithstanding it is not done by a miraculous transport nor by a motion so vehement as that of the Prophets when they were ravished in Spirit untill they had even lost their sence and remained unmoveable all the functions of the soul except in those of the Intellect being at that time in their intermission Nevertheless we know that a Christian ought to bring the most strong and vehement thoughts that he is able to so high a mystery All other cogitations ought to be suspended all other objects excluded But it comes to pass often that a Christian after having duly prepared himself for the Holy Supper will find himself all on the sudden and unawares surprised with doubts and scruples at the same moment when he receives the Eucharist I omit the inadvertencies the extravagancies and the enormous thoughts which overtake men in this action These phantasms possess the place which ought to be reserved entire for Jesus Christ and although men strive to drive them away it is nevertheless impossible for them This shews that a human spirit is not Master of it self sith that it cannot stop its own thoughts and that they depend not on his will Now although they are not voluntary nevertheless sith that they are ours and that they cross the attention which is due to an action of so great importance they offend the dignity of the body of Christ And in this also is seen the infirmity of man who sins even against the Sacrifice which brings him the remission of his sins But if he condemn these evill cogitations if he strive to scare them as Abraham did the Birds of prey which came to devour his Sacrifice although notwithstanding this they intervene in the instant and at the very act of the eating of the Sacrament Jesus Christ will not refuse to lodge in the soul of this weak Christian For he who is dead for our transgressions hath also expiated those which we commit even in applying this expiation unto our selves CHAP. V. That the act of the Communion consisteth not in mourning for the death of Christ but rather in joy and contentment of Spirit THere is no need of disputing whether the faithfull who lived before the passion of Jesus Christ had reason to be perplexed not knowing whether they ought to wish that the Son might suffer death or rather desire with St. Peter that this might not happen unto him They were invited to the one for the Love of their Salvation and to the other as it seems for the Love of their Saviour Our Lord decided this question both before his death by that sharp censure which he made of it to his Disciples and afterwards when he alleged the Oracles importing that Jesus Christ must suffer to the end he might enter into his glory But it may be demanded whether the Holy Supper be an action of joy or rather of sadness Certainly the death of Jesus Christ wherein we declare the horrible anguishes of his Soul the strokes of that holy Body broken with griefs the effusion of that innocent blood which we there consider as if it were powred forth before our eyes are a subiect of Sadness unto us And that for asmuch more as acknowledging our selves to be the cause of his sufferings we cannot but be touched with regrete that we have procured them Now these resentments seem to exclude from our minds all manner of Joy in the act of the Communion The Law forbade the putting of incense and oyl which is the Symbol of Joy upon the Flesh sacrificed for sins And the Jews at this day observe so precisely that which heretofore was enjoyned them in the feast of expiations viz. to afflict their souls that on all that day they refrain from reading even any passage of Scripture which contains any matter of joy as the comming forth out of Egypt the Conquest of Canaan c. On the contrary their reading is of nothing but sorrowfull things as are the destruction of Jerusalem the cursings of the Law and such like points But omitting that which might be said of this Superstition there is none who knows not that the Eucharist is an acknowledgement of a benefit which is offered unto us in this action which we cannot receive but with joy Also this Sacrament is instituted for our consolation True it is we ought to come unto it with sadness for the Reasons above said That is a necessary fore runner But the proper act wherein lyes the Communion or reception of the Body of Christ consists not in that but in the joy and contentment which our Soul receives in that Jesus Christ hath given himself for it The Superstitious deceive themselves who believe that the Commemoration of his death consists onely in much mourning For in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is not simply propounded unto us as dead but as dead for us To the end that as his death is our life so it should be also our joy CHAP. VI. Of an advantage which we have above those of the Church of Rome in the instruction required for the Communion and of the distinctions which the Orthodox observe in this matter of the Sacrament A Roman Catholick hath need of a great deal more time to learn his Religion than one that is Orthodox hath to understand his Let a man behold a volume wherin is comprised the whole Roman Religion as the Doctors thereof have reduced their Divinity into one Body he shall see that it much surpasseth the ordinary bulk of those wherein ours is contained For I speak not here of writings of Controversy sith that Faith consists not in the Negative of Errors but in the Affirmative of Truths It is to be understood of positive Divinity whose extent if it be compared with that of our adversaries theirs wil be found much more vast and swelling than ours Their Religion is composed of a greater number of articles For they have many which our Theology doth not acknowledge and in those which are common to us both they have heaped up a number of matters which also our Religion nullifies Briefly the Roman Theology contains almost all our Affirmative but over and above that which it professeth to acknowledge with us it hath its own additions From thence it comes that that is more prolix than ours This is seen above all in

small fault And we ought not to flatter our selves with this pernicious Maxim of the vulgar viz. wee have no need of so much knowledge But on the other side a Christian who strives to instruct himself more and more ought not to think that these omissions which he is forced to make up doe deprive him of the saving Communion of the Sacrament Not without cause doth the scripture give us to know that even the Apostles themselves when Jesus Christ gave them the Eucharist with his own hands were defiled with notable errours Luke 22. v. 24. And it is certain that we know more of the mystery of this Sacrament and understand better the grounds of this doctrine and the causes of the death of Christ Jesus than his disciples did when they were admitted to that first supper CHAP. II. Why doth not the reading of the Passion of Jesus Christ move us so much as the reading of many other histories of the Scripture WEE know that the Remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ which wee declare in the Supper ought not to be naked and idle or to remain in the Brain It must descend into the heart and stir up the affections Now there is nothing which ought to move us equally with the Passion of the son of God and the least of his anguishes ought to be more sensible unto us than those of all men together Neverthelesse if wee read that sad preparation of Abraham going to sacrifize his son or the pitifull words of Jacob when they told him that some beast had devoured Joseph or the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians yea how they handled that miserable King Zedekias wee are touched more lively and these stories will draw more teares from our eyes than the history of the suffrings of Jesus Christ And as there are tears of joy they will sooner fall from our eyes in reading how Joseph met with his brothers and of the cry which he cast forth when he made himself known unto them than in hearing of Christ comming forth of the sepulchre and the joy which his Disciples had to see him risen again Yet so it is that neither the knife which was to cut Jsaacks throat nor the bloody coat of Joseph nor the desolations and crying in the streets of Jerusalem are not to us of such importance as the suffrings of the son of God And his Resurrection is more considerable to us than the exaltation of Joseph For to resolve this question wee have divers things to consider First the suffrings of those who were but men doe easily move us because there is nothing more naturall than to have a fellow-feeling in the Calamities of those who are like us but the griefes of Jesus Christ present themselves unto us in a person which cannot be the object of any commiseration or naturall commotion For wee think of God himself suffring in form of a servant This is the reason wherefore he forbad the tears of those who bewailed him as a man whose affliction is pittied or the losse of whom is much lamented Luke 23. v. 28. Whereupon it is that the history of the Passion is not written in a pittifull and pathetick style as the Lamentations of Jeremiah or the complaint of David over Saul and Jonathan or the ulcers of Job or the sad solitude of the Jsraelites by the Rivers of Babylon For the Gospell doth not propound unto us a spectacle of human calamity but a point of higher consideration Moreover this condoling which hath place in other subjects is found either excluded or swallowed up in this here by more noble and more spirituall motions as are the horrour of our sins which have crucified the Prince of glory the terrour of that dreadfull severity which God hath displayed upon his own Son the admiration of his incomparable wisedome who could joyn his Mercy with his Justice the unspeakable joy of salvation which is derived from thence unto us and the ardent Love which wee bear towards the Father who hath given his Son and towards the Son who hath given himself to death for us For these are the true resentments which wee ought to have of the suffrings of Jesus Christ Now the subject of the spirituall resentments is not naturally perceptible of our affections but is a stranger unto them Therefore it is that they are not moved towards it but as they are drawn unto it by the finger of God And even this is the cause they are not carried thither with so full a vigour and so much readiness as towards those objects whereto they are enclineable of themselves Moreover the spirituall affections although they are strong and vehement are not so easy to be moved and to be felt For forasmuch as they lodge as it were in the center of the Soul they are far from the sensitive faculty which is the source of tears so that they come not thither so soon nor so easily That which I have yet to say belongs to the question following CHAP. III. From whence comes it that the Superstitious are sometimes more moved with the Death of Jesus Christ than true Christians WEE see sometimes Idolaters who having but very little understanding in the mysteries of redemption will weep at the reciting of the Passion of Jesus Christ And neverthelesse a well-instructed Christian and who prizes the Suffrings of his Saviour a great deal more than they that are ignorant will very hardly be moved with it This difference proceeds hence that the Superstitious have before their faces the Passion of Jesus Christ as a tragicall accident which doth easily touch those hearts that are endued with any humanity But the Christian contemplates it with another eye than that wherewith we regard the Calamities of other men The one brings thereunto an humane Commiseration which tears doe naturally follow But the other finds there the subject of many spirituall affections whereof our heart is not so easily susceptible because they proceed not from flesh and blood And the means of framing them to it consist rather in instructions and doctrines whereby wee must handle this matter than in the oratoricall representations of those who reduce it into a Tragedy Moreover it is not an assured proof that he bears most Love towards Jesus Christ that shal have shed most tears for him For oftentimes they proceed as soon frō a tender-heartednes which is more naturall to some than others as from the abundance of piety Many who never wept for the love of Christ nevertheless suffered Martyrdome for the love of him Such a one could not give him so much as one Tear who gave him all his Blood CHAP. IV. Off the vehemency of the thoughts and of the attention required in the action of the Communion And of the weaknesse of the humane spirit herein I doe not here refute those who for want of well understanding our Doctrine think that the spirituall Communion of the Body or Christ consists onely in thought of imagination