Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	religion_n	time_n	1,786	5	3.4723	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08260	Advice to those who never received the sacrament, or, The true penitent instructed before, at, and after the receiving the Lord's Supper with meditations suited to the several parts of that solemn ordinance, particularly with respect to Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, the whole written in a different method from any thing published on this subject / By a person of honour.		1697 (1697)	Wing A665A; ESTC R172108	102,688	248

of life and to enable us in this work let us set our Faces towards the Altar of God for 't is there we are to receive strength and comfort and every good thing This is what we obliged our selves to at our Baptism and since we have lived unworthy of the First Sacrament let us in Humiliation and Repentance approach the Second that our sins may be blotted out and we may be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light and now if any ask what preparation we ought to make I answer I know of no other than what I have endeavoured to perswade and what is necessary and reasonable even a true Faith and Repentance that the Sacrament is a Duty is generally acknowledg'd yet through mistakes there are abundance neglect it Our Saviour was very particular in this Order to his Disciples and his Apostles devoutly press it in all their Writings and the Ancients received it as an inestimable Blessing We are told that unless we Eat Christ's Body and drink his Blood we have no life in us and that this is to be done by Bread and Wine in the Holy Communion is what the Apostles and generality of Mankind down to this Age have believed Christ when he gave it them told them it was his Body and St. Paul directs our Behaviour that we might not receive it unworthily but discern it as the Lord's body and therefore first to Examine our selves and then Eat of that Bread and Drink of that Cup what then should hinder our approaches to this Holy Banquet that we are wicked is no excuse for why are we not otherwise that we are affraid because of our unworthiness if there is no other reason but our fear is no Excuse For 't is not the sense of our unworthiness that should hinder us but our resolution or unwillingness to be otherwise and that indeed will make us unworthy for ever for where shall we be washed if not in this Fountain which is opened for Sin and Uncleanness If none but such as are perfect could approach this Holy Table who then would venture to come near And what can we think of our Saviour that could propose a Snare to endanger our Ruin No it was ordain'd for such as had a sense of their Unworthiness and were sensible of their load but desired to be eased of their heavy burthen Well but they who come to the Sacrament are obliged to live stricter lives than other Men and some are affraid they can't conform to an exactness of Conversation Why are they not as well affraid that because they don't lead such lives that they shall be punished which would be an argument to put them upon that Tryal and when once they saw the pleasantness of the paths of Righteousness they would endeavour to persevere in them Besides they are not obliged but to lead such lives as is necessary to Salvation and how dares any Man that believes another World do less There is danger indeed in unworthy Receiving and there is as great a danger in staying away both of them are a contempt of the Lord's Body and will receive their reward in short whatever our Scruples are that hinder us from this Ordinance let us with all speed endeavour to remove them for there is no excuse for our Abscence nor any objection but what may easily be answered if we are sincere in our inquiries 't is the neglect of this Sacrament that is the cause of our coldness in Religion and I can't tell how it comes to pass that tho' the Church and State requires all that are at the Age of Sixteen to communicate at least three times in the Year that there is not one in a Thousand observe the order there are a great many considerate persons that never seem to have a desire after it till they come upon their Death-bed and then are willing to have it to conduct them to Heaven The Ancient Church refused to Administer to any that had not received it before and if the discipline was maintained it would make us more circumspect for a great many think if they can have the Minister to pray by them and give them the Sacrament all will be well But if they who refused it in their Health were deny'd it upon their Death-bed it would be a dreadful warning to others not to neglect it and those Ministers who venture now to Adminster it transgress the Rubrick in this case but 't is as indiscreet to trust to This now as to depend upon a Repentance begun at such a time which is hardly possible to be sincere and if not they are lost for ever there are the same Arguments to bring Men to the Sacrament as there are to perswade them to a newness of life without both we are not assured of Salvation and he that pretends to lead a life according to God's Holy Word and yet refuses to eat of the Bread which came down from Heaven how can he hope to be raised up at the last day The truth on 't is Men are not willing to part with their Lusts and as long as they are in that mind they do well to stay away but do very ill to continue in such a resolution but what shall we say if neither Promise or Threats Rewards or Punishments Heaven or Hell will perswade Men to forsake their sins nothing will however we must never be weary in well doing and 't is our Duty to exhort one another daily which was the chief inducement of this Advice to those which never Receiv'd the Sacrament and this I thought I cou'd not do in a better manner than by shewing First the unreasonableness of Sin and then Secondly the necessity of Repentance to this end I have collected a form of Devotion which may be useful in our Conversion and when we are so happy as to be sensible of the folly of our ways that we can set before us the difficulty of returning and yet dare venture thro' all hardships to attain Salvation I thought it necessary to add some Arguments to oblige us to that Duty which is our interest to comply with and which will strengthen our resolutions in Piety to these Directions I have collected another form of preparitory Devotions to be used at any time before we approach the Sacrament and left it to the Reader 's Discretion to use as much of it and as often as he pleases That our behaviour in the Church might be answerable to the Solemnity there is appointed a large Form of Devotion and I have endeavoured to range them in a suitable Order that every Prayer having a particular relation to what we are then a doing our Minds might be more moved and our Souls thus ascending with our Devotions we may pray by the Spirit and the understanding also I 'm very willing to believe that all who come to this Holy Table endeavour to be as devout as they can and 't is possible fancy themselves