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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	jesus_n	lord_n	8,211	5	3.8236	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36092	A discourse for taking off the tests and penal laws about religion		1687 (1687)	Wing D1593; ESTC R3313	36,709	48

Communion an Interest in the Advantages of the Government of the Land. So that if it has been her care to open the way that those who believe Transubstantiation may notwithstanding that belief be admitted to her Communion the making this Test to the excluding all such Believers of Transubstantiation from their Civil Rights must needs be unjustifiable in the Church of England But in Obedience to Queen Elizabeth it has been the endeavor of the Church of England to explain the Doctrin of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist in such a Latitude of Expression as might indeed take in under it the Notion of Transubstantiation Thus much the Queen commanded as Dr. Burnet in his History of Reformation reports in these words The Queen who inclin'd to keep up Images in the Churches was resolved to have the Manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament left in some general words that those who believe the Corporal Presence might not be driven away from the Church by too nice an Explication of it And as Dr. Heylin assures us the Church obey'd this Injunction For saith he in his Hist of Q. Eliz. In the first year of K. Edward the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper being delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the Preservation of thy Body and Soul to Life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. This was thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the gross and carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passeth by the name of Transubstantiation in the School of Rome This was alter'd into this Form in the second Liturgy that is to say Take eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy heart by Faith with Thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisers of the Book in Queen Elizabeth 's time joyned both Forms together that so according to the Queen's Injunctions the Corporal Presence by the Addition of the old Form might receive countenance Vpon this ground they expunged also a whole Rubric at the end of the Communion Service in which 't was declared that Kneeling was not in Regard of any Real and Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood. And to come up closer to the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queen's Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread should be made round in fashion of the Wafers as in Queen Mary 's Days She also ordered That the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood So far Heylin Besides in pursuance of the Queens Orders in the Communion in the Catechism and Book of Homilies there are several Expressions countenancing the Real and Corporal Presence which has been the occasion of Dr. Moor's brief Discourse on the Real Presence in which it must be observ'd that the Doctor putting us in mind of the Bishop of Meaux's Judgment which was That the Opinion of the Real Presence is the Doctrin of all the Churches as well Reform'd as Unreform'd The Doctor adds That he must confess he has been of this Persuasion ever since he wrote his Mystery of Godliness viz. That it is the Doctrin of the Church of England and that the Doctrin is true And he further assures us in these Words I remember saith he this I have heard from a near Relation of mine when I was a Youth a Dignitary of the Church of England and that often viz. That our Church was for the Real Presence but for the manner thereof if asked he would answer Rem scimus modum nescimus We know the Thing but the Mode or Manner thereof we know not And the Assurance we have of the Thing is from the common Suffrage of the Ancient Fathers and from the Scripture it self which impress'd that Notion on the Minds of our pious Predecessors in the Church of God. Nor can we as I humbly conceive relinquish this Doctrin of the Real Presence without declining the most easie and natural Sense of the Holy Scripture as it stands written in the Sixth Chapter of John. Pag. 42. Of which this Doctor saith It is plain that our Saviour's Discourse in this Chapter has for its Object or Subject not the Manner or Way of receiving his Body and Blood as if it were meant of that very Flesh and Blood on the Cross but that it was to be receiv'd in a Spiritual manner which Interpreters several of them drive at but the Object of his Discourse is his very Flesh and Blood it self to be taken as the Fish and Loaves were wherewith he lately fed them or it is Himself in reference to his Flesh and Blood which belongs to him as he is the Eternal Word Thus far Dr. Moor of Cambridge if he be the Author of the Mystery of Godliness from whom I observe the Doctrin of the Church of England to be this viz. That the very Flesh and Blood of Christ is present in the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the same Sense as the Fish and Loaves were present to the multitude miraculously fed by them Of this Thing with them there is no doubt tho' as to the Manner how it should be so they are in the dark And were not the Fish and the Loaves Corporally present How then can the Flesh and Blood of Christ be present in the Eucharist as the Fish and Loaves were unless Corporally present And if Corporally present there must be either a Transubstantiation or a Consubstantiation And I have heard some Learned Protestants say that of the two Consubstantiation is the most difficult and perplexing And this Doctor himself unless he lays a violence on the very Words of the Text as understood by all Men throughout Christendom whether Papist or Protestant and moreover falls into one of the greatest Extravagances of Plato cannot escape a closure with Transubstantiation For he offers nothing towards the solving this great Phainomenon but this That tho' the Body of Christ is present yet not the Body Broken on the Cross tho' the Holy Ghost expresly affirms it but a Body made of Divine and Spiritual Flesh and Blood every where present a Vehicle for the Eternal Logos to inhabit So that he is necessitated contrary to express Scripture not to make a Coat for the Moon but God Almighty knows with horror I mention it a Coat for the Godhead of Christ a Body compos'd of Flesh and Blood of equal extent with and for the Clothing of Divine Nature For the countenancing which he brings Gratian a Popish Canonist whom he quotes out of Morney distinguishing between the Body of Christ's Soul which was Broken on the Cross and the Body of the Eternal Word or Logos and affirms That the Body in the Eucharist is the Omnipresent Body of the Eternal Word which is there Corporally present From the whole then I would humbly propose to the Reader 's Thoughts these few Considerations 1. That the Doctrin of the Church

Subjects are deprived of their Civil Rights for the sake of their Religion and such are the Test-Laws is contrary to the Ancient Constitution of our Government which secures our Civil Rights Liberties and Properties from the Assaults of those who would for Religion divest us of them and that therefore it 's his Majesty's Interest which very much consists in the Ease and Quiet of his Subjects to be for the removal of all those Laws And such are the Principles of Protestant Dissenters sufficiently discover'd by their many Complaints against Persecution for Conscience sake that they cannot be for Penal Laws nor for the Test Laws which are of the same kind with them and indeed such is their Interest that unless they improve the present Overture they may never have the like Opportunity more and so be expos'd to the Curse of their Posterity for entaling on them a lasting Persecution And as for the Church of England if she doth not hold that Dominion is founded on Grace and desire to be delivered from the Odium of abetting so pernicious a Principle or of doing the very thing for which they condemned the old Brownists as Traitors she must be for the Taking off those Tests And now there remains nothing but the Objections against the Contents of this Discourse which are to be set down with fairness and faithfulness that is with that openness and ingenuity which becomes an English Heart and to be Answer'd accordingly These Objections may be drawn together in a little room as they are very happily by the Hand of a Learned and worthy Person that hath sent them me unto whom these Papers have been shewn and because I cannot draw them up more short and full I will give them as I have them In all Laws saith the Gentleman the great or chief Thing which is to be attended is the End of their making or the Intention of the Lawgiver If the End of these Tests were to get all who are concern'd to take them they were the most wicked Laws that could be made for what could be more openly profane than for a Man to renounce the Religion he thinks true But this is not the End of the Law the End is that by the refusing the Test such and such Men may be hindred from such and such Offices and Employments which they could not possess without Danger to the Publick And there can be no Complaint here but of their Grievance in being kept out of those Advantages which else they might enjoy But as for that an Answer is in every Month that this is the Nature of Laws in general to restrain Particular Persons from some Conveniences which were else their Right for the sake of the Community that the Publick Emolument be promoted or Detriment prevented There is no Government could stand but on this Foundation That which is not profitable to the Bee-hive is not good for the Bee as Antoninus has it Now if the Test be Repealed it is supposed we shall in due time have a Parliament trumpt up that may be most Papists and the Popish Religion consisting in the Decrees of General Councils confirm'd by the Pope The Council of Lateran we know hath decreed the Extermination of all Heretics by which Means the Nation being generally Protestants may come to Destruction Popery under Toleration may Strengthen but Popery in Dominion Ruins this Nation And what can be now said to this with any satisfaction I see not seeing really there is but one thing could secure us which is if the King would lodge so much of his Power in the Hands of some Great Men whom He and his People both durst Trust as when an Act for Accommodation shall Pass might capacitate them to be effectual Guardians of it In the mean time this being a thing not likely I apprehend the Condition of the Dissenter to be much at one with that of the Lepers at Samaria If the Penal Laws continue of Force they perish if the Test be Repeal'd they may perish too upon the Account mention'd If they stay in the City the Episcopalian will Famish them if they go out the Papist may knock them on the Head. What they will do God knows it is but being Persecuted to Death whether it be by the one or the other This is the Objection thus set down wherein are these Things to be consider'd Here is one Argument against the Taking off the Tests drawn from the Nature of Human Laws another from the State and Constitution of the Popish Religion with an Insinuation that nothing but one unlikely Expedient can be found out for the securing us against our Fears and in the close a forced Acknowledgment that such are the Circumstances of the Dissenters that whose Interest soever it may be to Resolve on the Establishing the Test Act yet it 's theirs to be for the Repealing it To begin then with what is said in regard to the Nature of Human Laws I grant that in the composing all Laws the good of Private Men is to give place to the good of the Public for it is a Principle at the root of all Politics that Vniversi praesunt singulis singuli universis subduntur But I deny that to be good here which is supposed Here is certainly a Mistake and a dangerous one in the Case The Good supposed is that the King must be thought to intend the Ruin of all his Subjects but they that are or will turn Papists and to prevent this Ruin the Rights of the Lords and Commons which depends on the very Constitution of the Realm must be subverted I will answer therefore that such a Thought of the King as this is a wicked Thought for it is against Charity It is an Injurious Thought for it is against the King's constant Profession both in his Declaration and to every body that he will not have Conscience to be constrained and to say he is not of that Principle which he avouches is to make the most stedfast and faithful Prince to be the deepest Dissembler in the World. It is also a Foolish Thought as if the King had a Purpose like to that in the Apologue of the Sea determining with it's Waves to invade the Trees upon the Hills If the main Body of the Nation were Papists there were some Sense in these Fears but when it is so exceeding contrary in that regard there is no reason for them On the other side it is to be thought rather and verily to be believed that there are many worthy Gentlemen and Lords that are Roman Catholics in the Land and as they are English Subjects they have English Hearts and English Estates who being sensible of the Frailty of Human Life are willing to provide for themselves and their Posterity by doing that to their Fellow-Dissenters now under the Reign of a Catholic King as they would have done to them under the Reign of a Successor who is like to be a Protestant And an Act for