Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	great_a	holy_a	see_v	3,964	5	3.2444	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10652	Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many yeares since by Edvvard Reynolds then fellow of Merton College in Oxford.	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1638 (1638)	STC 20929A; ESTC S112262	142,663	279

Having thus found out the first necessary quallification of a man for the receiving of the holy Eucharist without which hee is absolutely as uncapable of it as a dead man of food we may the more easily looke into the next more immediate and particular consisting in that preparatory Act of examination or triall of the conscience touching its fitnesse to communicate because the former is to bee the rule and measure by which wee proceed in the latter Some things there are which men learne to doe by doing of them and which are better perform'd and the dangers incident unto them better avoided by an extemporary dexterity than by any premeditation or forecast But yet generally since matters of consequence are never without some perplexed difficulties not discernable by a sudden intuition and since the mindes of men are of a limited efficacy and therefore unfit for any serious worke till first dispossessed of all different notions which might divert and of all repugnant principles or indispositions which might op●pose it in the performance of any great businesse set upon with sudden uncomposed and uncollected thoughts It is very necessary before wee undertake any serious and difficult worke both to examine the sufficiency and to prepare the instruments by which wee may bee enabled to performe it Thus wee see in the workes of Nature those which admit of any latitude or degrees of perfection are seldome done without many previous dispositions to produce them In Plants and vegetables the Earth is to bee opened the seed to bee scattered the raine to moysten the Sunne to evocate and excite the seminall vertue and after all this comes a Fruitfull Harvest and so in generation of all other naturall bodies there are ever some antecedent qualities introduc'd by meanes whereof Nature is assisted and prepared for her last act So in the workes of Art wee finde how wrestlers and runners in races did supple their joynts with oyntments and diet their bodies that by that meanes they might be fit for those bodily exercises how those Romane Fencers in their gladiatory fights did first use presatory or dulled weapons before they entred in good earnest into the Theater and then their custome was first to carry their weapons to the Prince to have his allowance of the fitnesse of them before they used them in fighting The Lacedemonians were wont to have musicall instruments before their warres that thereby their courage might bee sharpned and their mindes raised unto bold attempts And wee reade of Scipio Africanus that ever before hee set himselfe upon the undertaking of any great businesse his manner was to enter the Capitole to submit his projects unto the judgment of the gods and to implore their aid and allowance for the good successe of such his enterprises A thing for the substance of it practised by all the Ethnicks before they addressed themselves unto any worke of consequence whose constant use it was to have recourse unto their gods in prayers for benediction and encouragement And it was a religious observation in the Romane superstitious sacrifices for a servant that stood by to put the Priest in minde what hee was about and to advise him to consider maturely and to doe with his whole mind and endeavour that worke hee was to performe And whatsoever vessells or garments were in those solemnities used were before-hand washed and cleansed that they might bee fit instruments for such a worke Thus farre wee see the light of reason and the very blindnesse of superstition enforceth a necessity of preparation unto any great especially divine worke If wee looke into the holy Scriptures wee may finde God himselfe a patterne of these deliberate preparations In making the world it had beene as easie for him in one simple command to have erected this glorious frame at once as to be six daies in the fashioning of it But to exhibite unto us an example of temperate and aduis'd proceedings he first provides the materialls and then superadds the accomplishment and perfection In the dispensing of his judgments hee first prepares them before hee inflicts them He hath whet his sword and bent his bow and made ready his arrowes before he strikes or shootes his eye comes before his hand He comes downe to see Sodome before to consume it Hee examines before he expells Adam where art thou before he drive him out of Paradise Nay in the very sweetest of all his attributes his mercy we find him first consider his people Israel before he sends Moses to deliver them In like manner our blessed Saviour though having in him the fulnes of the God-head the treasures of Wisdome and Grace without measure he was therefore perfectly able to discharge that great worke unto which the Father had Sealed him was yet pleased to prepare himselfe both unto his propheticall and sacerdotall obedience by Baptisme Fasting Temptation and Prayer That the practise of this great Worke where it was not necessary might be a president unto us who are not able of our selves to thinke or to doe any good thing In the building of Salomons Temple the stones were perfected and hewed before they were brought there was neither Hammer nor Axe nor any toole of Iron heard in the house while it was in building And so should it be in the Temple of which that was a type even in the mysticall body of CHRIST every man should be first hewed and fitted by repentance and other preparatory workes before he should approach to incorporate himselfe into that spirituall and eternall building In the observation of Leviticall ceremonies wee may note that before the celebration of the Passeover the Lambe was to be taken and severed from the flocke three dayes ere it was slaine in which time the people might in that figure learne to sanctifie themselves and to be seperated from sinners And our saviour Christ in the celebration of the last Supper would not have so much as the roome unprovided but he sent his Disciples before hand about it Teaching us that in sacred things there should be first a preparation before a celebration So then we see in generall the necessity of preparing and deliberating before we addresse our selves unto the performance of any holy worke and if any where certainly in this worke of the Sacrament most necessary it is Though Gods commands by his Apostle were bond enough to inforce us the necessity of obedience depending rather on the Author then on the emolument of the Law yet GOD who is not wanting all wayes to winne men unto the observance of what he requires urgeth us thereunto not onely with an argument of debt because we are his servants but with an argument of profit too because the omission of it will not onely nullifie unto us the benefit of his Sacrament but make us guilty of that very bloud which was shed for the Salvation of the World and

by which we fell from it Satan and Death did first assault our eare and then tooke possession of us by the mouth Christ and faith chose no other gates to make a re-entry and dispossesse them Thus as skilfull Physitians doe often cure a body by the same meanes which did first distemper it quench heats with heat and stop one flux of blood by opening another so Christ that he may quell Satan at his owne weapons doth by the same instruments and actions restore us unto our primitive estate by which he had hurried us downe from it That those mouthes which were at first open to let in death may now much more be open not only to receive but to praise him who is made unto us the Author and Prince of life CHAP. XII Inferences of Practice from the consideration of the former Actions THESE are all the holy actions we finde to have been by Christ and his Apostles celebrated in the great mystery of this Supper all other humane accessions and superstructions that are by the policy of Satan and that carnall affection which ever laboureth to reduce Gods service unto an outward and pompous gaudinesse foisted into the substance of so divine a work are all of them that straw and stubble which hee who is a consuming fire will at last purge away Impotent Christ was not that he could not nor malignant that hee would not appoint nor improvident that he could not foresee the needfulnesse of such actions which are by some proposed not as matter of ornament comelinesse and ceremony a thing left ever arbitrary to the Church but are obtruded on consciences swayed with superstitious pompousnesse for matters substantiall and necessary to be observed As if God who in the first Creation of the world from nothing did immediately after the work produc'd cease from all manner of further Creations did in the second creation of the world from sinne not finish the work himselfe but leave it imperfect to be by another consummated and finished Certainly whatsoever humane Inventions doe claime direct proper and immediate subscription of Conscience and doe propose themselves as essentiall or integrall or any way necessary parts of divine mysteries they doe not onely rob God of his honour and intrude on his Soveraignty but they doe farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour who standeth in need of the Churches concurrence to consummate the work which he had begunne Away then with those Actions of elevation adoration oblation circumgestation mim●call gestures silent whisperings and other the like incroachments in the supposed proper and reall sacrifice of Christ in the Masse wherein I see not how they avoyd the guilt of Saint Pauls fearfull observation To crucifie againe the Lord of glory and put him unto an open shame In which things as in sundry others they do nothing else but imitate the carnall ordinances of the Jewes and the Heathenish will-worship of the Ethnicks who thought rather by the motions of their bodies than by the affections of their hearts to wind into the opinion and good liking of their Gods Certainly affectation of Pomp Ceremony and such other humane superstructions on the divine institution I alwaies except Ecclesiasticall observances which being imposed for order and used with decencie Paucity and indifferencie are not lawfull only but with respect to the Authority which requires them obligatory also I say all other pompous accumulations unto the substance of Christs Sacramentr are by Tertullian made the characters and presumptions of an Idolatrous service True it is indeed that the Ancients make mention out of that fervour of Love and Piety towards so sacred mysteries of Adoration at them and of carrying the remainders of them unto the absent Christians but as in other things so here likewise wee finde it most true that things by devout men begunne piously and continued with zeale doe after when they light in the handling of men otherwise qualified degenerate into superstition the forme purpose end and reason of their observation being utterly neglected It being the contrivance of Satan to raise his Temple after the same forme and with the same materialls whereof ●ods consisteth to pretend the practice of the Saints for the enforcement of his owne Projects to transforme himselfe into an Angel of light that hee may the easier mislead unstable and wandring soules and to retaine at least a forme of Godlinesse that he may with lesse clamor and reluctancy with-draw the substance And as in many other things so hath hee herein likewise abus'd the Piety of the best men unto the furtherance of his owne ends That Adoration which they in and at the mysteries did exhibit unto Christ himselfe as indeed they could not choose a better time to worship him in he impiously derives upon the creature and makes it now to bee done not so much at as unto the elements making them as well the terme and object as occasion of that worship which is due only to the Lord of the Sacrament That carrying about and reserving of the Eucharist which the primitive Christians used for the benefit of those who either by sicknesse or by persecutions were with-held from the meetings of the Christians as in those dayes many were is by him now turned into an Idolatrous circumgestation that at the sight of the Bread the people might direct unto it that worship which is due only to the person whose passion it representeth but whose honour it neither challengeth nor knoweth and certainly if wee veiw the whole fabrick either of Gentilisme or Heresie we shall observe the methods and contrivances of Satan most often to drive at this point that either under pretence of divine truth or under imitation of divine Institutions retaining the same materiall Actions which God requires or with the godly have piously or upon temporary reasons observed he may convay into the hearts of men his owne poyson and imprint an opinion of holinesse towards his owne devices for howsoever his power and tyranny have done much mischiefe to Gods Church yet his master-peece is that cunning and deceit which the Scriptures so often takes notice of Secondly we see here what maner of men wee ought to be in imitation of these blessed Actions that we may be conformable unto the death of Christ. First as he when hee took these elements did consecrate them unto a holy use so we when we receive them should first consecrate our selves with thanksgiving and prayer unto a holy life For if not only amongst Christians but even amongst Heathens themselves it hath been by the Law of nature receiv'd for a religious custome not to eat their ordinary food without blessing and prayer with how much more fervency of prayer should we call upon the name of the Lord when we take this Cup of salvation this bread of life wherein we doe not only taste how gratious the Lord is but