Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	prove_v	sense_n	true_a	4,551	5	6.4241	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30411	A relation of a conference held about religion at London, the third of April, 1676 by Edw. Stillingfleet ... and Gilbert Burnet, with some gentlemen of the Church of Rome.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1676 (1676)	Wing B5861; ESTC R14666	108,738	278

ever Christs flesh is eaten and his blood is drunk which is most signally done in the Sacrament there eternal life must accompany it and so these words must be understood even in relation to the Sacrament only of the spiritual Communicating by Faith As when it is said a man is a reasonable Creature though this is said of the whole man Body and Soul yet when we see that upon the dissolution of Soul and Body no reason or life remains in the body we from thence positively conclude the reason is seated only in the Soul though the body has organs that are necessary for its operations So when it is said we eat Christs flesh and drink his blood in the Sacrament which gives eternal life there being two things in it the bodily eating and the spiritual Communicating though the eating of Christs flesh is said to be done in the worthy receiving which consists of these two yet since we may clearly see the bodily receiving may be without any such effects we must conclude that the eating of Christs flesh is only done by the inward Communicating though the other that is the bodily part be a divine Organ and conveyance of it And as reason is seated only in the Soul so the eating of Christs flesh must be only inward and spiritual and so the mean by which we receive Christ in the Supper is faith All this is made much clearer by the words that follow my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed Now Christs flesh is so eaten as it is meat which I suppose none will question it being a prosecution of the same discourse Now it is not meat as taken by the body for they cannot be so gross as to say Christs flesh is the meat of our body therefore since his flesh is only the meat of the Soul and spiritual nourishment it is only eaten by the Soul and so received by faith Christ also says He that eateth my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in him and he in him This is the definition of that eating and drinking he had been speaking of so that such as is the dwelling in him such also must be the eating of him the one therefore being spiritual inward and by faith the other must be such also And thus it is as plain as can be from the words of Christ that he spake not of a carnal or corporal but of a spiritual eating of his flesh by faith All this is more confirmed by the Key our Saviour gives of his whole Discourse when the Iews were offended for the hardness of his sayings It is the spirit that quickneth or giveth the life he had been speaking of the flesh profiteth nothing the words I speak unto you are spirit and they are life From which it is plain he tells them to understand his words of a spiritual life and in a spiritual manner But now I shall examine N.N. his reasons to the contrary His chief Argument is that when eternal life is promised upon the giving of Alms or other good Works we must necessarily understand it with this proviso that they were given with a good intention and from a good principle therefore we must understand these words of our Saviour to have some such proviso in them All this concludes nothing It is indeed certain when any promise is past upon an external action such a reserve must be understood And so S. Paul tells us if he bestowed all his goods to feed the poor and had no Charity it profited him nothing And if it were clear our Saviour were here speaking of an external action I should acknowledge such a proviso must be understood but that is the thing in question and I hope I have made it appear Our Saviour is speaking of an internal action and therefore no such proviso is to be supposed For he is speaking of that eating of his flesh which must necessarily and certainly be worthily done and so that objection is of no force He must therefore prove that the eating his flesh is primarily and simply meant of the bodily eating in the Sacrament and not only by a denomination from a relation to it as the whole man is called reasonable though the reason is seated in the soul only What he says to shew that by faith only we are not the Sons of God since by Baptism also we are the Sons of God is not to the purpose for the design of the argument was to prove that by Faith only we are the Sons of God so as to be the Heirs of eternal life Now the baptism of the adult for our debate runs upon those of ripe years and understanding makes them only externally and Sacramentally the Sons of God for the inward and vital sonship follows only upon Faith And this Faith must be understood of such a lively and operative faith as includes both repentance and amendment of life So that when our Saviour says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved that believing is a complex of all evangelical graces from which it appears that none of his reasons are of force enough to conclude that the universality of these words of Christ ought to be so limited and restricted For what remains of that which he desired might be taken notice of that we ought to prove that Christs body and blood was present in the Sacrament only spiritually and not corporally by express Scriptures or by arguments whereof the Major and Minor were either express words of Scripture or equivalent to them it has no force at all in it I have in a full discourse examined all that is in the plea concerning the express words of Scripture and therefore shall say nothing upon that head referring the Reader to what he will meet with on that subject afterwards But here I only desire the Reader may consider our contest in this particular is concerning the true meaning of our Saviours words This is my body in which it is very absurd to ask for express words of Scripture to prove that meaning by For if that be'setled on as a necessary method of proof then when other Scriptures are brought to prove that to be the meaning of these words it may be asked how can we prove the true meaning of that place we bring to prove the meaning of this by and so by a progress for ever we must contend about the true meaning of every place Therefore when we enquire into the sense of any controverted place we must judge of it by the rules of common sense and reason of Religion and Piety and if a meaning be affixed to any place contrary to these we have good reason to reject it For we knowing all external things only by our senses by which only the miracles resurrection of Christ could be proved which are the means God has given us to converse with and enjoy his whole creation and the evidence our senses give being such as naturally determines our

it or so much as a probable account how it could be done If men were as Machines or necessary Agents a certain account might be given of all the events in all Ages but there are such strange Labyrints in the minds of men that none can trace them by any rational computation of what is likely There is also such a diversity between men and men between Ages and Ages that he should make very false accounts that from the tempers and dispositions of men in this Age should conclude what were possible or impossible many years ago In this Age in which Printing gives notice of all things so easily and speedily and by the laying of Stages for the quick and cheap conveying Pacquets and the publishing Mercuries Gazettes and Iournals and the education of almost all persons to read and write Letters and the curiosity by which all people are whetted to enquire into every thing the state of Mankind is quite altered from what it was before when few could read or write but Clergy-men so that they must be the Notaries of all Courts who continue from that to be called Clerks to this day and that some Crimes otherwise capital were not punished with death if the guilty person could but read When people were so ignorant of what was doing about them when neither Printing nor Stages for Pacquets were in being at least in Europe and when men were fast asleep in their Business without amusing themselves what was doing about them in the world it is the most unjust and unreasonable thing in nature to imagine that such things as are now next to impossible were not then not only possible but easie So that all such calculations of Impossibilities from the state and temper of this Age when applied to the Ages before ours is the most fallacious way of reckoning that can be For instance how improbable or next to impossible is this following story That the Bishops of the Imperial City of the Roman Empire whose first true worth together with the greatness of that City which was the Head and Metropolis of the Roman Empire got them much esteem and credit in the world should from small and low beginnings have crept up to such a height of power that they were looked on as the Head of all Power both Civil and Spiritual and that as they overthrew all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction the Bishops of that See engrossing it to themselves so they were Masters of almost all the Crowns of Europe and could change Governments raise up and assist new pretenders call up by the preachings of some poor beggarly Friars vast Armies without pay and send them whither they pleased That they could draw in all the Treasure and Riches of Europe to themselves that they brought Princes to lie thus at their feet to suffer all the Clergy who had a great interest in their Dominions by the vast endowments of Churches and Abbeys beside the power they had in all Families and Consciences to be the sworn Subjects of these Bishops and to be exempted from appearing in Secular Courts how criminal soever they were That all this should be thus brought about without the expence of any vast Treasure or the prevailing force of a conquering Army meerly by a few tricks that were artificially managed of the belief of Purgatory the power of absolving and granting Indulgences and the opinion of their being S. Peter's Successors and Christ's Vicars on earth And that all this while when on these false colours of Impostures in Religion those designs were carried on the Popes were men of the most lewd and flagitious lives possible and those who served them in their designs were become the scandal and scorn of Christendom and yet in all these Attempts they prevailed for above seven or eight Ages Now if any man will go about to prove this impossible and that Princes were alwayes jealous of their Authority and their Lives people alwayes loved their money and quiet Bishops alwayes loved their Jurisdiction and all men when they see designs carried on with colours of Religion by men who in the most publick and notorious instances shew they have none at all do suspect a cheat and are not to be wheedled Therefore all this must be but a fable and a forgery to make the Popes and their Clergyodious Will not all men laugh at such a person that against the faith of all History and the authority of all Records will deny a thing that was set up over all Europe for many Ages If then all this change in a matter that was temporal against which the Secular Interests of all men did oppose themselves was yet successful and prevailed how can any man think it unreasonable that a speculative opinion might have been brought into the Church by such Arts and so many degrees that the traces of the change should be lost We find there have been many other changes in sacred things which will seem no less strange and incredible but that we are assured whatsoever really has been may be and if things full as unaccountable have been brought about it is absurd to deny that other things might not have run the same fate It is known that all people are more uneasie to changes in things that are visible and known to every body than in things that are speculative abstracted and known and considered but by a few they are likewise more unwilling to part with things they are in possession of and reckon their Rights than to suffer new Opinions to be brought in among them and let their Religion swell by additions For it is undoubted that it is much more easie to imagine how a new Opinion should be introduced than how an ancient Practice and Right should be taken away If then it be apparent that there have been great changes made in the most visible and sensible parts of Religious Worship by taking away some of the most ancient Customs and Rights of the people over the whole Western Church then it cannot be thought incredible that a new speculative Opinion might have by degrees been brought in This I shall instance in a few particulars The receiving the Chalice in the Sacrament was an ancient constant custom to which all the people had been long used and one may very reasonably on this Hypothesis argue that could not be for would the people especially in dark Ages have suffered the Cup of the Blood of Christ to be taken from them if they had not known that it had been taken from their Fathers Upon which it is easie to conceive how many speculative Impossibilities an ingenious man may devise and yet we know they were got to part with it by degrees first the Bread was given dipt in the Cup for an Age or two and then the people judged they had both together This step being made it was easie afterwards to give them the Bread undipt and so the Chalice was taken away quite from the Laity without any