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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	blood_n	bread_n	consecration_n	4,106	5	10.7048	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42238	The truth of Christian religion in six books / written in Latine by Hugo Grotius ; and now translated into English, with the addition of a seventh book, by Symon Patrick ...; De veritate religionis Christianae. English	Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645.; Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1680 (1680)	Wing G2128; ESTC R7722	132,577	348

Pagans among whom as Grotius observes it was lawful for the Poets to sing what they pleased though never so lewd concerning the Gods and for the Epicures to take Providence out of the World while the Jews were made ridiculous and the Christians most barbarously used as if they had been the vilest of Mankind Of which more anon SECT XII The Romanists themselves overthrow their own Religion THAT argument also which he urges for Christianity against the Pagans that the chief Points of Christian Doctrine were acknowledged by some or other of the best and greatest among them may be used by us also for the Faith to which we now hold there being several learned Writers in the Roman Church who have acknowledged our belief to be sufficient to Salvation and the Points which they have superadded having been lookt upon by the most excellent Persons among them only as meer Scholastical opinions and not certain Truths of which we can have a full assurance Here I might show how the sufficiency of the Scripture hath been owned and the Apostles Creed likewise confessed to contain all things that are absolutely necessary to be believed to salvation But because I would not have this Book swell above the bigness of the foregoing I shall let them alone and instance only in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is now pressed with so much violence upon the Christian World but most plainly condemned by Gratian in their Canon Law and by the Author or Authors of the Canon of the Mass it self About the former we may be satisfied out of the Decretum if we look into the Third part and the second Distinction concerning Consecration Where in the XL VIII Chapter out of St. Austin and Prosper he says The heavenly bread which is truly Christs flesh suo modo after a sort or manner is called the Body of Christ whereas revera in truth it is the Sacrament of his Body which was hanged upon the Cross and the sacrificing of the flesh of Christ by the hand of the Priest is called his death and passion and crucifixion not in the Truth of the thing but in a signifying mystery Which words are so directly against the present sense of the Roman Church that no Protestant can speak more expresly and clearly against it nor desire a plainer confutation of it unless it be that of the Gloss upon those words which is this The celestial Sacrament which truly represents the flesh of Christ is said to be the Body of Christ but improperly whence it is said to be so suo modo sed non rei veritate after a manner but not in the truth of the thing So the sense is it is called Christs body that is it is signified thereby And if we look further into the LII Chapter we find he saith Christ was sacrificed but once in semet ipso in himself when he hung upon the Cross c. Yet is offered daily in Sacramento in the Sacrament which the Church frequents in memory of that thing Which Sacrifice in the next Chapter he calls exemplum the example or resemblance of that upon the Cross offered in remembrance of his Death Which is sufficient to convince us that they believed in those days as we do now and not as the Roman Church doth else He would not have called that which he says was truly the flesh of Christ the heavenly bread But to put all out of doubt let us turn to the lxxii Chapter and there we find these remarkable words out of St. Austin which fully explain the business Because it is not lawful for Christ to be devoured by our teeth therefore our Lord would have this Bread and this Wine in a Mystery by consecration of the Holy Spirit to be potentially created his flesh and blood and to be daily mystically offered for the life of the World They are potentially then or virtually made his Body and Blood though but Bread and Wine in themselves and of this Sacrifice which is thus wonderfully made in commemoration of Christ as he adds out of St. Hierom Chap. lxxvi it is lawful to eat but of that which Christ offered on the Cross secundum se according to it self none can eat But the Canon of the Mass will more abundantly convince us that he or they that made it did not believe any thing of Transubstantiation For First after the Consecration of the Bread and Wine the Priest signs them ten times at least with the sign of the Cross which can have no excuse made for it but is the greatest impudence if it be indeed Christ Himself who lies before the Priest whom he thus crosses For sure he doth not intend to bless Christ or to drive away the Devil from him or any such like thing for which those Crossings are used in that Church But more than this 2dly it is observable that after Consecration also the Priest still calls Christ's Body Panem Sanctum the holy Bread of Eternal life which shows that when this Rule was made they believed the Bread to be still remaining A further Indication of which is that 3dly the Priest proceeds to beseech God that He would vouchsafe to look upon that Sacrifice of his gifts with a propitious and ferene countenance and to accept them as He did the gift of his Servant Abel and the Sacrifice of Abraham and that which his High-Priest Melchisedeck offered to Him Which is most absurdly spoken if the Priest there offer Christ himself unto God For then he intercedes with him for our Intercessor as if he needed our Prayers and besides compares Him with the first-fruits of the Flock and the spoils of War which is so incongruous and so much below his heavenly glory that an unprejudiced Man cannot but think they who composed that Prayer looked upon those gifts which they offered as still Bread and Wine Which appears more fully 4thly from what follows in the next Prayer where bowing profoundly and laying his hands upon the Altar the Priest humbly intreats God in this manner Command these things to be carried by the hands of thy holy Angel to thy high Altar into the presence of thy Divine Majesty Where there are two plain testimonies against their present doctrine For First nothing but the Bread and Wine can be called haec these things which in no propriety of speech can signifie the very natural body of Christ Who secondly can by none of God's Angels be carried into Heaven being there already nor brought more than He is into the presence of the Divine Majesty where He was before the Priest said Mass and sits for ever there at God's right hand Had they that composed this Prayer believed any thing of Transubstantiation they would have said and could not have said otherways if they said any thing of this matter Almighty God behold here before me upon thy Altar lies thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ by my sacrifice unto Thee that very Christ who is at thy right

but to all People and not after that mankind had lived above the space of Two Thousand Years but even from the beginning of all Neither Abel Enoch Noah Melchisedeck Job Abraham Isaac or Jacob though all of them were godly men and dearly beloved of God knew this part of the Law but were altogether ignorant or very little acquainted therewith yet notwithstanding for all that they received the testimony of their confidence in God and of God's love unto them Besides neither did Moses exhort Jethro his Father in law to the receiving of these rites nor did Jonah the Ninivites neither did any other Prophets reprehend the Chaldeans Aegyptians Sydonians Tyrians Idumeans and Moabites for not admitting those ceremonies though when they writ unto them they reckoned up their sins exactly enough These then were peculiar precepts introduced either for the avoiding of some evil which the Jews were prone unto or for the trial of their obedience or for the signification of some future things Wherefore it is no more to be wondred that these are abolished than if any King should abrogate some Municipal Statutes which belong that is to particular Corporations to the end he might establish one law within his dominions Neither can there any reason be alledged to prove that God did so bind himself as that he would change nothing of the same For if it be said that these precepts are called perpetual the same word Men oftentimes use when they would signifie that that which they command is not yearly or accommodated to certain times suppose of War Peace or Scarcity Yet they are not thereby hindred from making new constitutions of the same things specially when the publick good requires it Thus in like manner some of the Divine precepts given to the Hebrews were temporary during the Peoples abode in the Wilderness others were strictly tied to their habitation in the Land of Canaan therefore to distinguish these from the other he calls them perpetual whereby might be understood that they ought not any where or at any time to be intermitted unless God signified that it was his will so to be Which manner of speaking since it is commonly used by all people ought to be less wondered at by the Hebrews who know that in their Law it is called a perpetual statute and a perpetual bondage which continues only from one Jubilee to another And the coming of the Messias is called by them the accomplishment of the Jubilee or the greatest Jubilee of all Thus in the Hebrew Prophets there was anciently a promise of making a new covenant as in Jerem xxxi where God promiseth that he will make a new covenant which shall be put into their inward parts and written in their hearts neither shall men have any need that one shall learn Religion of another for it shall be manifest unto all Yea further the Lord will forgive them their former iniquities and will remember their sin no more which is as if a King after great enmity and discord amongst his Citizens and Subjects should for the establishment of peace and tranquillity among them take away all diversity of Laws and make one perfect Law common to them all promising forgiveness of faults by-past if hereafter they do amend And this which hath been said might suffice but we will survey every part of the Law which is abrogated and shew they were neither such as in themselves could be well pleasing unto God nor ought they to continue for ever SECT VIII As the Sacrifices which of themselves were never well-pleasing unto God THE first and chief thing to be considered are the Sacrifices which many of the Hebrews think were invented by Man before that they were commanded by God And true it is indeed the Hebrews were desirous of abundance of Rites and Ceremonies so that there was cause enough why GOD should enjoyn them very many if it were but for this reason lest they should return unto the worship of false Gods by the remembrance of their sojourning in Egypt Howbeit when their Posterity made too great account of them as though of themselves they had been acceptable unto God and a part of true piety then did the Prophets reprehend them for it About Sacrifices saith God by David in the fiftieth Psalm I will not so much as exchange a word with thee as if I were desirous to have thy burnt offerings continually before me I will take no Buliock out of thy house nor he-goats out of thy folds For every beast of the forest is mine and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wila beasts of the field are mine If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the fulness thereof thinkest thou that I will eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the bloud of goats Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high Some there are among the Hebrews who say that this is spoken because they that offered those sacrifices were of an impure mind and dishonest conversation But the words now alledged shew another matter to wit that the thing in it self was no whit acceptable unto God For if we consider the whole series and order of the Psalm we shall and that God in these words speaks unto the godly for he had said Gather my Saints together unto me and hear my people which are the words of a Teacher and one that instructeth Then having ended those words now alledged as his manner is he speaks unto the wicked But unto the wicked God saith To the same sense we may cite other places as in the 51. Psal Thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thee but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings The sacrifice of God is a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise So likewise in the fortieth Psalm Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire but hast tied me to thee as he whose ear was boared through to be thy servant burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required Then said I Loe I come In the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation Loe I have not refrained my Lips O Lord thou knowest I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation The like we read in the Prophet Isaiah chap. 1. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the bloud of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my Courts Answerable to this place and the

over Jordan carried nothing with him save his staff only and yet returned enriched with a great flock of sheep Moses was a poor exile and feeding the flocks when God appeared to him in the bush and gave him commission for the conduct of his People David also was called to his Kingdom when he was feeding sheep and with many other such like examples doth the Sacred story abound Now concerning the Messias we read that he should be a gladsome Messenger unto the poor that he should make no noise in publick nor use any strife and contention but deal gently forbearing to break the shaken reed and cherishing that heat which remains in smoaking flax Neither ought the rest of his afflictions no not his ignominious death to make him despicable to any For God oftentimes suffereth the godly not only to be vexed and disquieted by the wicked as righteous Lot was by the Citizens of Sodom but also even to be destroyed and slain as is plain by the example of Abel who was cruelly murdered by his Brother of Isaiah who was sawn in pieces and of the seven brethren in the Macchabees who together with their mother were miserably tormented and put to death The very Jews themselves sing the Seventy-ninth Psalm wherein are these words The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven the flesh of those whom thou lovest O God unto the beasts of the earth Their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them And whosoever considers the words of Isaiah in the 53. Chapter cannot deny that the Messias himself ought to have passed thorow much affliction and death to come into his Kingdom and obtain power to adorn his Houshold or Church with the most excellent blessings The words in the Prophet are these Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground He hath no form or comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs And we hide as it were our faces from him He was so despised and in so small esteem among us Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth After imprisonment and sentence passed on him he was taken away but who shall worthily declare his duration when he was restored to life again For he was cut off out of the land of the living but for the transgression of my people he was stricken and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth But though it hath pleased the Lord to bruise him and he hath put him to grief Yet because he made himself an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many by taking away their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death And he was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors Who is there either among the Kings or Prophets to whom these things can be applyed Surely none As touching that shift which some later Jews have invented telling us that the Prophet speaks here of the Hebrews dispersed thorow all Nations that by their example and perswasion they might every where make many Proselytes this sense is first of all repugnant to many testimonies of holy Writ which loudly proclaim that no evil is befaln the Jews which they have not deserved and a great deal more beside for their evil deeds He also of whom Esaias treats was to deprecate God for the Heathen which the Jews do not And lastly the very order and series of the Prophetical Discourse will not bear that interpretation For either the Prophet which seems more proper to that place or God saith This evil happened unto him for the iniquities of my People Now the people of Isaiah or the peculiar people of God are the people of the Hebrews therefore he who is said by Isaiah to have suffered such grievous things cannot be that same People But the ancient Doctors of the Hebrews more ingenuously confess that these things were spoken of the Messias whereupon some later among them have devised two Messiases the one they call the Son of Joseph who was to suffer many miseries and a bloudy death the other is the Son of David to whom all things should succeed prosperously When it would be far more easie and more consonant with the Writings of the Prophets to acknowledge but one Messias who was to pass unto his Kingdom through many difficulties and death it self which we believe of Jesus and the thing it self declares to be most true SECT XX. And as though they were honest men that put him to death MANY of the Jews are kept back from receiving the Religion of Jesus by a certain preconceived opinion of the vertue and honesty of their Ancestors and specially of the Priests who out of prejudice condemned Jesus and rejected his Doctrine But what kind of Men their Ancestors oft-time were that they may not think I defame them let them hear the words of their own Law and Prophets wherein they are often called uncircumcised in heart and ears a people that honoured God with their lips and with the garnish of Ceremonies but their hearts were far from him It was their Ancestors that went about and were very near to have kill'd their brother Joseph and in very deed sold him into bondage It was their Ancestors also that by their continual mutinies and seditions made Moses weary of his life who was their Leader and Redeemer whom the Earth the Sea and the Air obeyed These were they that loathed the Bread that was sent from Heaven complaining as though they had been in greatest want and scarcity even when they belched up again the Fowl that they had eaten It was their Ancestors that forsaking