Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	body_n	bread_n	sacramental_a	3,200	5	12.1852	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41384	The fundamentals of the Protestant religion asserted by reason as well as Scriptvre written in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; made English by Sidnet Lodge ; to which is added his Letters to Monsieur de Militiere and other personages of the French-court upon the same subject.	Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lodge, Sidney, b. 1648 or 9.	1682 (1682)	Wing G1024; ESTC R14808	82,659	180

as that of his Body which was to be broken for us From hence 't is apparent that the Breaking and the Communion are so firmly joyned to this Action that without them 't is not indeed a Sacrament Let those who so frequently urge that He hath said it teach us after what manner He gave his Body to his Disciples during his Weakness before his Resurrection and Glory as also before his Passion and Death Is it not in breaking Bread for 'em himself who was in some sort broken before he suffer'd and that by his own hands and not by those of his Enemies since the Sacrament preceded the Sacrifice Is it not according to the custom of all Sacraments that he spake of it in giving it a Name expressive of the Effect and in saying that 't is not only what he represents but that which he offers to those who desire to receive it Who perceives not that our Corporal eating does assist at the same time and is a means to excite our ●ouls to a ●piritual one which is absolutely dependent on Faith 'T is certain that many have been afraid after the Blessing to give the Bread the name of Bread lest it should be taken for ordinary Bread But St. Paul calls it Bread four times at least for fear that as by the Capernaites or Romans it should be taken for Flesh he said also the Cup is the Communion of the Blood of Christ for fear it should be believ'd the Blood it self We cannot doubtless approach these Sacred Signs with too great Reverence since by their means the things they signifie are convey'd to us or at least so offer'd that 't is but desiring 'em and we may receive ' em Faith serves as a Mouth to us and our Souls in some sort eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as our Bodies eat and drink the Bread and Wine which represent ' em Thus the Fathers to stir up a Peoples Devotion and engage 'em to the profound Respect of Holy Things used certain ways of speaking which were not to have been believed had they not been figurative Their mighty Zeal which perswaded 'em they could never say too much left 'em no room to imagine that their Metaphors Metonymies and Hyperboles would one day pass for Articles of Faith They could never have thought that from the Flowers of their Rhetorick would have grown such a monstrous Doctrine or that from the Weakness or Malice of men their serious and devout Meditations would have been turn'd into Chimerical Notions But having endeavour'd to improve each others Expressions they have unhappily contributed without thinking of it to a Mystery they as yet knew not and have by their Arguments helped to strengthen it's Abuse Their Evidence is every day cited to this purpose the Transports of their Thoughts and their extraordinary heights of Speech are urged as undoubted Testimonies of the simple Truth Though the same Writings of these Fathers are so expounded that we may say of them as of the Holy Scriptures That those things which are clear and manifest remove the Scruples raised by such which are difficult and obscure yet the great Doctors of the Age whatever Reasons have been shewn 'em to the contrary forbear not to impose on the Credulity of the People who as the highest Peice of Devotion daily worship a bit of Bread and in this are so far prevail'd with by Custom that they are even ready to massacre those who will not believe it Add to the Errors of Speech the long Conversation the Primitive Christians held with the Heathens of whom they have not only borrowed Temples Altars and Images but also Habits Gestures Numbers and Mysteries you 'll find that after their Example they have omitted nothing that may render their Religion pompous and suitable to the Grandeur of the World that they could not stoop to the simplicity of the Gospel preferring rather the Appearance of things than the real Truth Those who have read but a very little must confess that they scarce see any thing in their Churches which they have not borrowed from the superstitious Gentiles And not to speak of any thing but what relates to our Subject of Discourse they worshipp'd no Images but what must be consecrated being perswaded the Deities they represented were fixed to 'em by the power of their magical Operations Those Christians who have not been satisfy'd with the Terms of Blessing and giving of Thanks have been so pleas'd with that of Consecration that in time they believed a Virtue and Efficacy in it hence proceeded the Observation of many mysterious Ceremonies an Affectation of certain Words often repeated besides a Presumption of adding others to those of Jesus Christ's that they might not be wanting either in their Numbers or Virtue Hence arose the Name of Transubstantiation so ill understood and so ill made use of that without the Explication they give of it 't would not be in the least significative of what they design it This is a Doctrine which as much as 't is possible destroys the Humanity of Jesus Christ and which frames to it self a God in which no reasonable Creature can believe This is the Source from whence flow such Streams of Contradictions and unallowable Consequences that they both scandalize and discourage the greatest part of Men they obstruct the Conversion of the Infidel and confirm the Atheist in his Unbelief 'T is indeed a horrible Abuse of those Sacramental Words This is my Body to place a Power in 'em in these lattertimes of changing the Bread of the Eucharist into the incorruptible Body of Jesus Christ to be receiv'd in by our corruptible ones without any Need or our finding any extraordinary Effect or Advantage by it The Text is much more express that says The Word was made Flesh yet no one believes that by Transubstantiation the Divine Nature was changed into the Humane So from the Sacramental way of speaking that says This is my Body no one ought to infer that the Substance of the Bread is converted into the Substance of the Body of Jesus Christ What Virtue what efficacious Use has not been allowed to Baptism both by the Scripture and the Fathers By it we put on Jesus Christ and partake not only of his Death and Burial but his Resurrection also By it we are in an Instant made new Creatures we pass from Sin to Justification and ascend from Earth to Heaven However Holy and Celestial the Eucharist is what more abundant Graces can it bestow on us than the Confirmation of these same Priviledges the Operations of the same Spirit the first Fruits of the same Transfiguration and Glory Yet for this only the Learned of the Times have sought out many Inventions that exceed the Capacity of Men and subvert all Orders and the very Principles of the True Doctrine From their hollow brain is produced an idle vain thing that is void of all Substance a real Apparition which presents it self

may urge to these Doctors to be eaten by the most abject Creatures of the Earth But let us pass by in silence these many Inconveniences which they themselves infer from this so ill-grounded Doctrine and to palliate 'em are oblig'd to have Recourse to Rules and Canons which were they not Superstitious we would call Ridiculous Let us only add that if the Body of Jesus Christ be inclos'd in the Sacrament we may eat it without believing in him Thus Infidels obtain more than they require They eat of Celestial Food they have not asked for nay their very Contempt of it does not hinder 'em from it since they cannot receive the Sacrament without eating it but they are so far from eating it that Believers themselves do it not as 't is understood by the Church of Rome They receive not with the Sacrament the Divine Essence but the Virtue and Essicacy of the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ and since the Wicked cannot partake of his Graces it follows that those Graces are not joyn'd to it by Consecration 'T is not the Words pronounc'd but believed that make Jesus Christ communicated in the Sacrament 'T would be strange if he must be unworthily eaten by his very Enemies and that he who is Holiness it self should every day enter into their defiled bodies only to render 'em more guilty and that he might have more Reason to condemn and punish ' em On the contrary 't is the Devil that would enter into 'em as he did Judas when our Lord gave him the Sop. How is it possible these two Guests so irreconcileable can agree together It is not credible that being fill'd with the most sovereign Good we should only have a sense of Evil from it we receive our Saviour that we may be saved the Wicked take only the consecrated Signs and because such they commit Sacriledge and render themselves guilty of Treason against the Divine Majesty because they have no regard to the Institution of Our Lord contemn his Offers in it and deny it's Vertue They publickly take his Enemies part they again spit in his Face they crown him with Thorns they strike and crucifie him 'T is thus they eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup unworthily 't is thus they eat their own Condemnation not discerning the Body of Jesus Christ For the Symboles Seals and Pledges of his Love are accounted himself by those who believe in him it being Faith alone which makes the Signs inseparable from the thing signified 'T is heavenly Food given to no one for his Condemnation but only for his Justification for Life and not for Death not being under the Accidents of Bread or in the Bread it self but in the Heart of those who receive it Thus the Bread ceases not to be Bread but to be common Bread it loses not it's Substance but acquires Sanctification which changes not it's Nature but adds Grace to Nature for the sake of those that believe The Mystery of the Incarnation unites us to the Body of our Saviour Faith with which he inspires us by his Word unites us to his Spirit which double Union is confirm'd to us by the Communion of Sacraments But as our Union with Jesus Christ cannot be perfect in this World by reason of our Sins and Death which is a Consequence of 'em so though we take the Symboles he gives us corporally yet 't is neither possible or necessary for us to take what they signifie but spiritually For if we take his Body as the Church of Rome imagines it does our Infirmities could not bear his Glory the stronger would overcome the weaker we shou'd doubtless perish or his Vertue would even then blot out all our sins we should in an instant be transform'd and become incorruptible and glorious we should be assured never to see Death But we partake not of one of all these but by the comfort the Spirit gives us but by Faith by which we rely on his Promises and but by that Hope we have of a Life to come Thus to eat the Body of Jesus Christ is to hear his Word is to believe in him to behold him on the Cross loaded with our Sins to be truly sensible of his Wounds and Sorrows and to confess that by the Satisfaction of the Son whose Merit is infinite we satisfie the Father whom we have infinitely offended 'T is to be inflam'd with the love of him who has so very much loved us and to assure him as we do all those we love that he is alwayes in our Thoughts that he fully possesses our Hearts that he is the Soul of our Souls and to use his own terms that He dwells in us and we in him In fine To eat the Body of Jesus Christ is to have a fresh and lively sense of those Favours he has bestow'd on us and to think that we are not only his Servants and Friends but his Brethren his own blood bone of his bones flesh of his flesh and that we are part of that Church whom he has honour'd so far as to make his Eternal Spouse Behold what is the Meat and the Drink which are not given to all sorts of Persons which satisfie and quench the Thirst of those only who hunger and thirst after Righteousness But the Men of this World have not truly relish'd the Simplicity of this Institution they would heighten the Lustre of this double Sacrament and do all things according to the Example or rather in Emulation of the Superstitions of the World The Name of Religion of a Church and even of God himself who serv'd 'em but as a pretence to make themselves more honourable to procure with more Ease earthly Advantages and Preferments Besides this I have often thought what lawful and necessary use they could make of this Transubstantiation 't is what they themselves could scarce tell if so be they would consider the common cause of Salvation as well that of the Jews as of the Gentiles These prodigious Errors are the true Causes of all that Mischief which happens in the World and Mankind will be so long infested with Judgments as Superstition continues to corrupt Religion But the Divine Oracles give us Reason to hope that the days of Sorrow will be shorten'd and that God will confound the Wicked by the Breath of his Mouth The Time will come that Children shall abhor and detest the Belief of their Fathers and will say Is it possible that our Predecessors have been so silly and stupid or so extreamly harden'd by Custom or so very careless in search of the Truth to have believ'd things altogether incredible What Spirit of Pride what high Presumption has possess'd these Councils who have imagin'd they could appoint better Orders for Divine Service than the Providence of God himself had done by the Mouth of his own Son I will then conclude with the Wise Man or at least with his Translator who makes him speak after this manner Ecclesiastes chap. 3.