Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	body_n	eat_v	faith_n	9,537	5	5.7426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23668	A perswasive to peace & unity among Christians, notwithstanding their different apprehensions in lesser things	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1672 (1672)	Wing A1068; ESTC R38421	62,276	166

then it is a reason to prove that the Lord hath not received them St. Peter thought it a good reason why the Christians should make no difference between believing Jews and believing Gentiles though they were of different perswasions about the necessity and non-necessity of Circumcision wherein the one erred because the Lord made no difference but gave to one the Holy Ghost as well as to the other and purified the hearts of the one by Faith as well as the other Acts 15.8 9. His reason is not setcht from the Nature of the things wherein they differed but from God's giving them an equal interest in his grace notwithstanding their difference When God had vouchsafed the gift of his grace and Spirit to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews St. Peter thought that if after this he should have kept the same distance from them as before he thought he was bound to do he should have withstood God in so doing Act. 11.17 For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God To keep at a distance from those to whom God draws nigh in the Communication of his grace and Spirit is it seems to steer a course against God or to withstand him 3. The Anabaptists and Pedobaptists if Godly do by Faith hold Communion one with another in eating the same Spiritual meat and drinking the same Spiritual drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which is the thing signified in the Lord's Supper Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.53 And therefore they cannot duly deny Communion with them in the Lord's Supper it self which is the sign 1. Because if they do they thereby cross one great end and design of God in that Ordinance which is to increase and strengthen Love and Unity among Christians in communicating together in the sign upon account of their joynt-interest in and Relation to Christ the Substance Christians by their Communion in that Ordinance are made to drink into one Spirit or into one-ness of Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 But by their thus refusing to Communicate one with another they do not only sin in not using the Lord's appointed means to increase and strengthen Love and Unity upon account of common interest in the same Saviour but also in that by such their refusal they destroy Unity and weaken diminish Love they pull down instead of building up steer a contrary course to Christ in appointing that Ordinance 2. Men's right to the sign proceeds upon the best account from their right to the thing signified though not from that only As those who have right to such or such an Estate in Land have thereby a right to the deeds and evidences by which such a right is to be declared So those that have a right to the Body and Blood of Christ through Faith have thereby a right to the Lord's Supper as an evidence appointed by God by which such their right is to be declared and acknowledged And therefore as a detaining of such evidence from him who by having right to the Land hath right to the evidence would be an injury even so for any as much as in them lies to detain the Lord's Supper from them who by having right to the Body and Blood of Christ have right to the Lord's Supper as an evidence and sign thereof would be an injury likewise and that so much greater too as Spiritual things are of more value then temporal 3. It is absurd and against common reason for them to grant that the Godly Pedobaptists have Communion with them in the greater and better part and yet for a supposed errour consistent with saving Faith Love to deny it them in the less whenas the greater alwayes includes the less But for the Godly Pedobaptists to be partakers of like precious Faith with them and thereby to eat of that Flesh which is meat indeed and to drink of that Blood which is drink indeed together with themselves a thing which the Anabaptists will not deny is certainly to have hold and enjoy Communion with them in the greater better more Spiritual and more substantial part of Communion and therefore to deny it them in the out-side and letter of it which is far less considerable is very incongruous and contradictious What was objected by distinguishing between an immediate and remote right if it should be here brought in again hath been answered before and the answer need not be repeated but only applyed here And let it be remembred alwayes that there is a vast difference between those who deny and those that hold the necessity and usefulness of water Baptism in these latter Ages of the Church The Pedobaptists are as much for water-Baptism as the Anabaptists are and hold themselves as firmly engaged by their Infant-Baptism as they do by their after-Baptism If this were not so their case would not be so pleadable as now it is And for any to separate from them upon account of their being Baptized in their Infancy as it is without ground from Scripture I conceive so it is without all president in the Church of Christ for the first fifteen hundred years and more Though some in the ancient Church were Baptized in Infancy and some at Age yet there was never any breaking of Communion among them upon that score so far as ever I could learn untill a Reformation of a Reformation was set on foot the one to puzle and confound the other I mean the attempt of the Anabaptists in Germany to Reform the Reformation by Luther and others Which may be a motive to reflect upon what they have done and to review their grounds Can they think to out-do the Church in her purest times in point of Communion Me-thinks they should greatly suspect themselves in their undertaking wherein they go so manifestly contrary to the Universal Church in all places and Ages till so lately as afore-said II. Dividing Principle to be avoided That it is unlawful to hold Communion with parochial Congregations notwithstanding they have been Baptized into the Profession of the true Faith and continue in that profession This is another grand dividing Principle indeed They who hold this and practice accordingly must prove such Communion unlawful or else lye under the guilt of a sinful Schism or causless separation and of all the evil and mischievous effects and consequences of it And to prove it unlawful they must prove it is so either by proving 1. That all the Members of each Parochial Assembly from which they separate are destitute of saving grace or 2. By proving that the mixture of bad with good makes Communion unlawful or 3. By proving the constitution of such Congregations bad upon account of that distribution by which the whole Nation is divided into its parts and precincts or 4. By proving the worship

appointed and yet for all that our Saviour made choice of Baptism by which to initiate Proselytes into his Religion He used a gesture in eating the Passeover different from what was appointed at the first institution as Ainsworth observes on Exod. 12.6.11 Which things I might improve to several purposes but because they are not so directly apposite to what I have last discoursed I shall leave them to be pondered on by such as are scrupulous over much and who think no alteration of Circumstances between the first and after-use of an institution will justifie a Circumstantial variation from what was first practised thereabout III. Dividing Principle to be avoided Another Dividing Principle is That it doth not belong to the Higher Powers in a Nation professing Christianity to intermeddle in any publick establishment of that Religion farther then to protect countenance and encourage the Professors of it in their Profession I call this a Dividing Principle because the Higher Powers doing more then so in having Divided the whole Nation into particular Parish-Churches and having appointed Gospel-Ordinances to be Administred in those Congregations and obliging and constraining all professing the true Christian Religion in the Nation to attend the Worship of God in those Assemblies this being the National way as they call it some do therefore separate from it In opposition to this Dividing Principle I shall endeavour to shew 1. That Nations professing the true Christian Religion do upon that account according to the Scripture stand related to God as his People in a large sence and in contradistinction to the Heathen and Infidel World 2. That a National settlement of the Christian Worship in the Parish-Churches by the Higher Powers is more for the interest of Religion and Men's Salvation then if there should be none 1. To begin with the first of these When God by Abraham designed to set on foot a method of Reforming the World he declared to him he would do it in a National way As for me my Covenant is with thee a Father of many Nations shalt thou be A Father of many Nations have I made thee saith the Lord Gen. 17.4 5. Meaning I suppose that that Reformation which was begun in him by his Faith and Obedience in forsaking the Idols of his Countrey upon God's call and betaking himself to the Worship and Service of the true God should by degrees extend to the taking in of many Nations God at the very first told him that he should be a Blessing and that in him and in his Seed all Nations should be Blessed Gen. 12.2 3. And by St. Paul Rom. 4.16 17. we understand that God's promise of making Abraham a Father of many Nations was not in respect of many Nations descending from him in the way of Natural Generation but by deriving from him that profession of Faith and holy Worship which was transmitted down from him not only to the Nation of the Jews but also to the Nations of the Gentiles To begin this Work in a National way the Lord promised Abraham to give to his Seed his Natural Seed the Land of Canaan as the place where this work should be eminently begun in a National way And all that Nation were accordingly brought into Covenant with God and became his Church and People And all the Proselytes of the Gentiles that forsook their Idols to joyn with them to Worship the God of Abraham and were Circumcised were without any exception save that of legal uncleanness to eat the Passeover Numb 9. And thus it held on in the way of gathering only some here and there out of the Nations of the Gentiles untill Christ gave Commission to Preach the Gospel to all Nations Baptizing them And as the time of bringing in whole Nations of the Gentiles in times of the Gospel drew nearer so Predictions of it by the Prophets were more particular and express Isa 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations to wit as he promised in particular to the Jews to sprinkle clean water upon them to cleanse them from all their filthiness and from all their Idols Ezek. 36.25 And again Isa 55.5 Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knewest not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee And God's call of a Nation and a Nations Answer to that call makes a Church works a Relation between God and them as some have well observed And Zechariah one of the last Prophets speaks yet more expresly Chap. 2.11 And many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be his People To be joyned to the Lord and to be his People plainly signifie such a Relation between God and them as doth make them to be of his Church Mat. 21.43 The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation that is sure Nationally for otherwise we cannot say it was taken from all of that Nation of the Jews Rev. 11.15 The Kingdomes of this World are become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ These Predictions have been fulfilled as Nations have Nationally imbraced and professed the Christian Religion For it is a vain thing to think that these Prophesies have not yet at all been fulfilled now after the Gospel hath been running its course these sixteen hundred years to accomplish them And if any have a mind to interpret these Prophesies of National Churches by that in Revel 5.9 And hast Redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kinred and Tongue and People and Nation They may do well to consider that the calling of a few out of Nations according to their Notion is not the calling of those Nations themselves It s one thing for Men to be brought to effectual Faith and sincere Obedience by the Gospel and another to be brought to a general profession of it There are the many that are called and yet but few that are the chosen Mat. 20.16 and 22.14 It is in the one sense that they are said to be Redeemed out of every Kinred Tongue People and Nation and in the other that whole Nations are said to be joyned to the Lord and to be his People for so they are by a general call and profession Every individual Person in a Nation that so professeth and Worshippeth the true God in opposition to all false gods as to be called by his Name are in Scripture denominated Sons and Daughters to God in a large sense Isa 43.6 7. Bring my Sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the Earth even every one that is called by my Name As the Worshippers of Idols are called the Children of a strange god Mal. 2.11 So in opposition to that and in a large sense all that Worship the true God are called his Children as the Jews were Diut 14.1 When St. Paul said in Gal. 3.26 to all the Churches of Galatia Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus it was sure from their profession of Faith