Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	blood_n	body_n	consecrate_v	3,119	5	9.9831	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60978	Platonism unveil'd, or, An essay concerning the notions and opinions of Plato and some antient and modern divines his followers, in relation to the Logos, or word in particular, and the doctrine of the trinity in general : in two parts.; Platonisme déviolé. English	Souverain, Matthieu, d. ca. 1699.	1700 (1700)	Wing S4776	180,661	144

of them being confecrated by the Power of the Word are the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ incarnate The Protestant Writers observe from this Passage as Dr. Stilling-fleet for one in the 35 p. of his first Dialogue of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compar'd That Justin really ascribes to the same Logos or Word of God the Body that was in the Womb of the Virgin and that Body which is upon the Altar and that in like manner the Holy Ghost makes the Elements to become the Body and Blood of Christ not by an Hypostatic Union but by Divine Influence and Operation But I must tell you too that the Fathers understood no more than Operation or Influence by the Word or the Spirit which they say did consecrate the Elements and change them into the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ So also they meant no more than Influence and not a Person by the Word or the Holy Ghost which formed and sanctified the Body of Jesus Christ in the Womb of the Virgin whereby he was properly the Son of God For why should an Hypostatic Union be rather infer'd from this Passage The Word was made Flesh than from This Bread is my Body Either there is an Hypostatic Union of the Bread and Flesh of Christ or there 's none at all of the Word and Flesh of Christ By the Power of the Word the Bread becomes the Body of Christ by the same Power the Man or the Son of Mary was the Son of God the Case is the same What then is to be done Why Mysteries must be had at any rate and the Machines of Platonism will bring upon the Stage as many as you please of the grossest and most absurd You must abandon your Reason 't is rashness to be inclined to hearken to Reason Let Reason submit herself to Faith and give her alone leave to speak The Papists require us to abandon our Senses but the Trin ns will have us renounce our Reason I am no Christian in the Judgment of the latter if I am not a Brute a Brute did I say if I am not a Block Error is fruitful and leads us into the grossest Absurdities and 't is the System of these Absurdities that is stiled Theology CHAP. XXII Of the True Oeconomy 'T IS certain then that the Antients were unacquainted with good Divinity and knew less of the true Oeconomy They believ'd their Platonism whereof they were mighty fond gave 'em great advantages over the Pagan Philosophers and they us'd it for Reasons of Prudence And as they were for the most part Gentiles by birth they knew not the antient Jewish Oeconomy which would have put 'em in the right way or it may be they were rather inclin'd to pursue their own Bigotries Their Oeconomy is this As in a Family the Father and the Son are but One Lord when the Son rules in the Name and by the Authority of his Father who has transfer'd the Exercise of that Right to him 't is the same thing say they in the Church which is the Family of God The Father and the Son are but One by virtue of that Oeconomy which lodges a Power in the Son's hands to dispose of the Father's Favours and to exercise all Authority 'T is thus Tertullian explains the Oeconomy in his Discourse against Praxeas He shews him that he does not destroy the Notion of a Monarchy or the Government of One over the Universe because the Father may exercise it by the Ministry of his Son or such as he shall think fit to substitute in his room as the Angels his Officers and Commissioners but chiefly because the Son does nothing but at the Will of his Father and with a Power he has receiv'd Which is evident even from this that he shall one day surrender it to his Father as the Apostle tells us and the Son himself shall be subject to him Lactantius pursues exactly the Steps of Tertullian in lib. 4. c. 29. When a Father says he has a Son whom he dearly loves giving him the Title of Lord with Authority if notwithstanding this Son continues in his Father's House under him it may be said however according to the Civil Law that 't is but one House and one Master or Lord. So this World is but one House or Family and the Father and the Son who governs it with the Father's Consent are but One God since that One is as Two and the Two as One. And 't is not to be wonder'd at seeing that the Son is in the Father because the Father loves the Son And the Father is in the Son because the Son obeys faithfully the Father's Will and does nothing but what the Father wills or commands him God therefore as Tertullian shews may communicate his Right to all intelligent Creatures and use in a way of condescension their Ministry to make himself known to his Children For as he is by his Nature incomprehensible his Supreme Majesty being far above all his Creatures he stoops as it were by this Method to their shallow Capacities 'T is thus at other times that he us'd the Ministry of Angels and at that day the Ministry of a Man whom he made his Son and Heir of his House In short this Dispensation by his Son under the New Testament differs not from that of the Angels in the old Administration only in this that the latter was temporary and provisional but that of Christ is perpetual The Angels exercis'd their Oeconomy as Ministers commission'd and delegated Jesus Christ exercises his in the capacity of a Son and Heir who continnes always in the House or Family They who know the antient Oeconomy to be such as St. Paul and St. Stephen have discover'd it to be who acquaint us that 't was Angels or an Angel which gave the Law and said I am the Lord c. I am the God of Abraham c. They I say were in no danger of believing that 't was the Incomprehensible and Invisible God who appear'd to the Jews They were assur'd that it was none other than his Angel his Word his Face or his Person by which he made himself to be seen and understood accommodating himself by this Dispensation to the Weakness of Men who could not see God and live But they who comprehended not this Oeconomy of Goodness and Condescension grosly fancied this Angel to be an uncreated One as they call'd him or the Supreme God himself As if it were not the grossest absurdity to imagine that the Supreme God had put his Name upon the Supreme God If this Angel was really Jehovah by Nature could he receive this Name from another Has he in his Manifestations occasion for another Name and another Authority besides his own The same Mistake has happen'd with regard to the true Oeconomy by Jesus Christ The Mystery and Secret of the Dispensation being not known that Man has been taken for the Supreme God or an uncreated Angel who was born of a

and turn'd the Anagogick into an Historical and Literal Sense Let us begin with Barnabas The Sacred Writers having said that J. C. was the Rock of the Desert the Passover Propitiation c. in like manner Barnabas accustom'd to the Method his Nation follow'd ever since the Captivity accommodates to J. C. many Passages of the Old Testament which had their mystick and spiritual Truth in him According to this way of interpreting the Rock was J. C. intelligibly David was J. C. anagogically The Antients tempted J. C. because they tempted Moses or the Angel who were the Types of the Messiah So that it might safely be said that Christ was an intelligible Moses an intelligible David or Rock and consequently an intelligible Word in the same sense that Hesychius calls the Blood of the Eucharist intelligible Blood that is to say a mystical Blood which is conceiv'd such only by our Thought and Mind not being really so and in the very Letter For who can so much as doubt that the Word is J. C. or that J. C. is the Word by the which God created the World in the same sense as he is the Passover or the Rock of the Desert That is to say there is found in him mystically that Divine Efficacy or that powerful Word which speaks which commands and the Creature immediately obeys its Orders God said Let there be Light and there was Light J. C. said Let this blind Man recover his Sight and there was Light the blind Man saw it● he perform'd his Miracles by a Word only Can you accommodate better the Old Creation to the New And that so much the more because the same Word which created the World acted in the Flesh of J. C. the which it not only inhabited having descended on it in the shape of a Dove but into which it had likewise insinuated it self as the principle of his Conception and Birth But that you may not believe me upon my bare word I will prove my Hypothesis by Barnabas his own Epistle The most plausible Argument is drawn from Chap. 4. where the Greek is wanting Christ saith this Father is the Lord of the World to whom God said before the Foundation of the World Let us make Man c. But it appears by Chap. 5. whereof we have the Original that Barnabas takes these Words in an allegoric and spiritual Sense Reading alone takes away the difficulty God as he saith having renewed us by the Remission of our Sins hath made us as it were Children and restor'd to us a Form totally spiritual For the Scripture speaks thus of us introducing God as it were speaking to his Son Let us make Man according to our Image And the Lord beholding our new Nature hath said to us Increase c. Behold now how he hath spoken to his Son I will once more shew you how God hath given you a new Figure in these last Times The Lord saith Behold I make all things new It is as clear as the Sun that this Expression Let us make Man is applied to the New Creation to the second Form that God gives us and that when God hath thus reform'd us by the Spirit of his Son he hath as it were said to his Son Let us make Man You need not doubt then that the same allegorick Sense is to be look'd for in Chap. 4. which without any ground is taken literally Whatever God saith according to the Letter either speaking to the Angels or consulting himself may assuredly be said in a mystical Sense to have been spoken to his Son by whose means he hath made a new Man As if Barnabas should say What God saith at the time of the first Creation Let us make Man according to our Image is found true concerning the New but in a more sublime Sense having in this made use of his Son to form Man according to the Image of his Holiness and Justice And if Barnabas did explain allegorically this Saying Let us make Man according to our Image why might not the Fathers in like manner explain these He spake and the things were created Hidden and mystical Meanings were always sought for in the Old Testament This Ignatius did in his Episte to the Ephesians There is but one Teacher saith he that spake and the thing was done and all that he did in silence not only by teaching but also suffering is altogether worthy of his Father Where you see he applies to J. C. what was said of God the Father and to the New Creation what was said of the Old This is visible by the distinction he makes between the Speech and the Silence of J. C. between what he perform'd by his Preaching and what he did by his Obedience and Patience Let us go on with Barnabas In Chap. 5. whilst allegorizing on the Land of Promise which flow'd with Milk and Honey We are those saith he speaking of us Christians whom God hath brought into this blessed Land being nourish'd with the Faith of the Promise And carrying on his Allegory in Chap. 6. Enter into this Blessed Land c. to which he gives that spiritual Meaning Learn what Knowledg saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the sublime Sense of this Passage Hope ye saith he in Jesus who is to be manifested to you in Flesh Could he have recommended better to us the Science of Allegories which he calls Gnosticism or Knowledg by way of Excellency In the same Chapter he adapts to J. C. what was said of the Sacrifices of old and particularly that of Isaac He finds there a Figure of the Church as also of J. C. and concludes thus This Calf this Victim is J. C. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Could he say that the Calf sacrific'd was J. C. and may he not by the same way of speaking be call'd the Word Because this was not only his Figure but also the Virtue that actuated him in the Formation of the New World In the 7th Chapter he allegorizeth strangely upon the Circumcision He finds there a certain Cabala in the number of the Persons whom Abraham caused to be circumcis'd and discovers there the Name of Jesus as also his Cross and what not This Science is pregnant with Inventions it can find J. C. every where in an Arithmetick Number 318 in the Plural Number of a Noun The Gods have created and in the Plural Number of a Verb Let Vs make Man See in Chap. 8. his Spiritual Meanings which he draws from the Prohibition of the Flesh of some Creatures and taking notice that Moses said this only in a Figure regarding the mystical Sense the Spirit and not the Letter Moses saith he spake thus in Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If then Moses did speak of J. C. when he said that the Word created the World he did speak of this also in Spirit and it is not true but in a spiritual Sense In the 9th Chapter besides the Allegory on the Water of Baptism

't is necessary that we should be Ministers of the Gospel as well in the Letter as in the Spirit and that we preach the sensible or corporeal Gospel as he stiles it When we see it proper we tell the Carnal that we aim at nothing else but to know Jesus Christ crucified But when we meet with the elevated Minds that are advanced in the Doctrine of our Saviour and enflamed with the Love of Heavenly Wisdom 't is these we acquaint with the Knowledg of the Word or Logos And in his 7th Book against Celsus There is not one Person says he to whom Jesus Christ does not give a tast of these Mysteries some way or other For he imparts his Theology to the Wise who raise their Minds to contemplate sublime Subjects On the other hand he accommodates himself to the Capacity of the Common People of Idiots of the Weak of Women of Slaves c. He affords them such means of a good Life as they seek after keeping from them such Notions as they cannot comprehend Thanks be to God I can now take Breath The Doctrine of God the Word is no more than secret or mystical Christianity not necessary to the Vulgar and serves only for Contemplation May it continue to be the Study of contemplative Minds who were born for the purpose of knowing Mysteries and have Skill to advance their Knowledg beyond Revelation It 's enough for me that I have their Leave to content my self with plain revealed Christianity which is the Object of Faith and that they allowing me the Rudiments or Lessons of the Gospel for my Guide I may say with their Leave as the Apostle and other plain simple Christians of the same Class I know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified Really one could not but with surprize hear so great a Doctor as Origen treating the Christian Religion and the Theology of St. Paul so unworthily if one did not know at the same time his Fondness for Platonism What! shall this Contemplation be accounted the sublime Christianity because it has found out Objects of it self without the help of Revelation What then is that poor Faith that 's founded upon Objects revealed Can it be any thing more or less than a carnal Christianity 'T is some favour however that it may be Christianity Tho so much as that will hardly be granted at this time of Day They who know nothing but a crucified Christ do not pass even for Christians now a deified Jesus is the only Orthodoxy If you have a mind to observe also what a prodigious difference there is between the Simplicity of the Apostolic Faith and the Mystery of Platonism you need only to consider how little regard it had to the first assoon as any one own'd this Fundamental Article that Jesus was the Messias he was instantly baptized and received as a true Member of the Church But when its Articles of Faith were enlarged and became inexplicable by the profound Speculations with which they were clog'd how cautiously and warily did they initiate Persons in the Theology of the same Church This is plain from the several degrees of the catechized State thro which their Novices passed At first they did not suffer them to come within their Churches then they admitted 'em only to hear Sermons after that they might be present at the Prayers at last after long Instructions they were qualified for Baptism Tantae molis erat Platonis condere gentem So great a Task had they to establish the Platonick Theology Will it not be said that these are the same Formalities that were us'd in admitting the antient Mystae Thro how many degrees must they pass before they were admitted to enter the Sanctuary of the Great Goddess that is before they became Epoprae or Eye-Witnesses of the most private Ceremonies The Pagans lost nothing in the Forms of Initiation by embracing the Christian Religion But this is not all it must be farther consider'd what a Beadroll of Mysteries are taught in their Catechisings Take but that of Cyril of Jerusalem and you will certainly meet with them in him There you have the Trinity the Eternal Generation the Incarnation the sacred and venerable Sacrifice and many other things of that nature that must be known he tells you in order to Baptism If any one of them be neglected there 's no Admission for you All these Mysteries have an essential Band of Union between them so that if any one of them be not understood you are in peril of being ignorant of all the rest And hereupon Cyril recommends to the Catechized before all other things the Knowledg of these Mysteries What a Drudgery is here for the poor Novices Incomprehensible Mystery and a Labyrinth in Theology And besides which is a little wonderful he does not forget that Mystery of Mysteries and sublimer part of Theology I mean the Doctrine of Transubstantiation There is no longer says he to his Novices Bread or Wine let your Senses say what they please you are not to regard them but the Testimony of Faith Since J. C. has said of the Bread This is my Body who dares call it in question And since he has said This is my Blood who dares say it is not He at other times changed Water into Wine and is he not to be believed when he says he has changed the Wine into his Blood c. Here he acquits himself like an Orator and a Sophister too Can any body wonder after this if the stew baptized were deluded into the Belief of the Trinity with such Harangues as these The Artifice is the same in both Cases Wherefore the Author of the Book of the Sacraments takes care to compare these two Mysteries and to prove them as I may say by one another shewing that what we receive in the Eucharist is as really the true Flesh of Christ as he is truly the consubstantial Son of God As Jesus Christ says he is the true Son of God and is so not only by Grace as Men are but as he is a Son of the Substance of the Father So it is the Flesh of Christ we receive and the Blood of Christ that we drink One deep calls upon another The Doctrine of the Consubstantiality c. is the Model and Original to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation And the first serves for a Guide and a Light to conduct you thro the Perplexitys and Obscurities of the last for they are Twin-Sisters born in Plato's School That which is remarkable is that Justin the first of the Platonizing Fathers made the very same Comparison so natural was it for Platonism to sort these two Mysterys and make 'em Companions We do not says he Apol. 2. receive these things as common Bread or common Wine but just as by the Word of God Jesus Christ our Saviour was made Man and took Flesh and Blood to save us so we are taught that the Elements wherewith our Flesh and Blood are nourished by the Alteration