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A91267 A seasonable vindication of free-admission, and frequent administration of the Holy Communion to all visible church-members, regenerate or unregenerate. From the institution, precept, president of Christ himself; the doctrine, practice of the primitive Church, fathers, councils, Christians: the confessions, articles, records, chief writers of our own and other reformed churches: the dangerous consequents, effects, schisms arising from the disusage, infrequency, monopoly of this sacrament, to visible or real saints alone; and suspension of all others from it, till approved worthy upon trial. And that upon meer Anabaptistical, and papistical false principles, practices, (here discovered) unadvisedly embraced, imitated, asserted, exceeded by sundry over-rigid, reforming ministers; to our Saviours dishonour, our Churches great disturbance, their own, their peoples prejudice; and the common enemies, and seducers grand advantage. / By Will: Prynne of Swainswick Esq; a bencher of Lincolns InneĀ· Prynne, William, 1600-1669. 1656 (1656) Wing P4070; Thomason E495_3; ESTC R203285 81,072 108

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this Sacrament shall seal unto thy Soul that all thy sins and the judgements due unto them are fully pardoned and clean washed away by the bloud of Christ For this Sacrament was not ordained for them who were perfect or worthy but to help penitent sinners unto perfection Christ ſ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance And he saith The whole need not a Physician but they that are sick These hath Christ called and when they came them he ever helped witness the whole Gospel which testifieth that not one sinner who came to Christ for Mercy went ever away without his errand Bath thou likewise thy sick soul in this Fountain of Christs bloud and doubtlesse according to his promise Zech. 13. 1. thou shalt be healed of all thy sinnes and uncleannesse Not Sinners therefore but those who are unwilling to repent of their sinnes are debarred from this Sacrament c. t I am in a word a u carnal creature whose very soul is seal'd under sin a wretched man compassed about with a body of death Yet Lord seeing thou x callest here I come and seeing thou callest sinners I have thrust my self in among the rest and seeing thou callest All with their heaviest loades I see no reason why I should stay behind O Lord I am sick and whether should I go but unto thee the Physician of my Soul Thou hast cured many but never didst thou meet with a more miserable Patient c. And why should I doubt of thy Good will c With this further passage y But then thou wilt say It were safer to abstain from comming to the holy Communion than to resort unto it Not so For God hath * threatned to punish the wilfull neglect of his Sacraments with eternal damnation And it is the commandement of Christ z Take eat doe this in remembrance of me and he will have his Commandement under the penalty of his Curse obeyed And seeing this Sacrament was the a greatest token of Christs love which he left at his end to his Friends whom he loveth to the end therefore the neglect and contempt of this Sacrament must argue the b contempt and neglect of his Love Bloudshedding than which no sin in Gods account can seem more haynous Nathing hinders why thou maist not come freely to the Lords Table but because thou wouldest rather want the love of God then leave thy filthy sins O come then but come a Guest prepared for the Lords Table Seeing they are c blessed who are called to the Lambs Supper And when I further observe the several passages of like nature in others of our Writers touching this Sacrament with this Confession of our sinnes in our English Liturgy And this acknowledgement We do not presume to come unto this thy Table O Lord trusting in our own worthinesse but in thy great and manifold Mercies we are unworthy O Lord to gather up the crumbs under thy Table c even then when we approach unto this Supper With those passages prescribed in the Exhortation before this Sacrament to be used by all our Ministers to their People when they see them negligent to come to the Holy Communion When God calleth you be not you ashamed to say I will not come c I for my part am here present and according to mine Office I bid you in the Name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own salvation that ye will be partakers of this Holy Communion c. I can no wayes approve the forementioned Doctrin and Opinion of visible or real worthinesse pre-required by our c New Doctors as the only rule of their admitting men to this Sacrament as Orthodox or solid but reject it as erronious Popish and meer merit of Congruity Disclaim that General received opinion That there is another sublimer Fitnesse Holinesse Examination Preparation required of all men in their addresses to this Sacrament than to any other of Gods Ordinances And cannot but conclude it a most damnable impious dangerous unchristian practice for any Ministers to dehort debar prohibit any of their unexcommunicated Parishioners from it who desire to receive it whiles they freely admit them to all other Ordinances since God himself both thus calls and commands them under pain of the highest sinne contempt and damnation to repair constantly to this Sacrament as the chiefest medicine to cure comfort refresh their sin sick drooping despairing Souls And up●n unpassionate serious second thoughts of what is here premised I doubt not they will all subscribe to my Opinion herin though they may deem it a strange Novelty at first reading and admit all freely to this Sacrament as well as to other Ordinances 12ly Our Reverend f Bishop Jewil the Harmony of Confessions sect. 14. with all Protestant Churches and Divines justly chargeth the Church of Rome and Romish Priests with Grand Sacrilege Church-robbery wickedness injury impiety in the highest degree for denying prohibiting the Cup of the Lord to the Lay people in the administration of this Sacrament contrary to Christs own institution and practice the practice of the Primitive Church Fathers Christians in former ages all other Christian Churches in the world for certain reasons best known to themselves and more especially for this very reason as g Iohn Gerson a principle member of the Council of Constance privy to its secrets records That if Lay-men should communicate under both kinds as Priests Dignitas Sacerdotis non esset super dignitatem Laicorum The Dignity of Priests should not be above the dignity of Lay-men Whence Gabriel Biel extolleth the dignity of the Priest above our Lady and all other Saints because he may communicate under both kinds and they cannot And so have they altered the Sacrament of aequality and unity and made it a Sacrament of difference and dissention as h Bishop Iewel truely observeth Now I appeal to the Judgements Consciences of all judicious Protestants and i Pope Gelasius himself who justly condemned this practice as most wicked injurious impious Sacrilege in the Popes and Priests of Rome whether it be not a farre greater worser execrabler Sacrilege for any of our Protestaut English Ministers contrary to our Saviours precept president the custom doctrine practice of the Apostles Primitive Churches Fathers Christians and all other Churches in the world yea to the Councils Canons Injunctions Articles Liturgies Homilies Writers of our English Church and k Statutes of our Realm obstinately wilfully to detain not only the Sacred Cup but Bread and whole Lords Supper from all their Parishioners for sundry Moneths Years together as no wayes due or belonging to them And that onely upon no other real Ground but this alone l to erect a new Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in themselves and their intended Presbyteries over the Lords Sacrament it self and all their people and to advance their own Sacerdotal or Presbyterial
neglectful of due preparation when they repair to the Lords Table but to stirr all up to a like conscientious holy preparation in all their publike or private approaches to God in other duties to rectifie this common superstitious epidemical errour that most think they are unworthy unprepared for the Lords Supper only even then when they deem themselves not so for all or any other sacred publike duties and thereupon approach not to it when it invited or so frequently as they ought and that henceforth none may deem themselves only worthy to receive the Lords Supper once or twice a year but unworthy at all other seasons they being not worthy to receive it once a year if they be not worthy every day according to St. Ambrose doctrine Who writeth thus of the custom of the Latine Church in his time as d Bishop Jewel records his words e Every week we must celebrate the oblation although not every day unto strangers yet for the Inhabitants yea sometimes twice in the week who then as frequently received the Communion as they heard the Word or prayed and deemed the self-same preparation sufficient for all three Ordinances then conjoyned as unseparable in point of usual practice The reason why Christ instituted the Sacrament of this Supper in the most common daily Elements of Bread and Wine was that so they might be commonly and frequently received by all at his Table for the spiritual nourishment of their Souls as well as daily and frequently received for the nutriment of their bodies at their private Tables 4ly That Christ himself his Apostles the Primitive Fathers Christians with all others who thus pressed practised the daily administring and receiving of the Lords Supper reputed it a converting as well as confirming Ordinance f begetting quickning grace in unregenerate as well as confirming inoreasing Grace in regenerate Christians as the Word read and preached doth This g St. Augustines forecited words For Christs Supper is a Sermon and the Priest therein preacheth and uttereth the death of the Lord with sundry others who stile it a visible Word a means of quickning and begetting Grace c. sufficiently manifest and I have h elsewhere proved at large How dare then any Novellers Ministers or others deny it to any unconverted unregenerated Christians as a meer deadly poyson only to them being the most probable effectual lively means of their humiliation compunction regeneration conversion unto God prescribed as the chiefest balsom cordial to heal their wounded sin-sick Souls and support their despairing languishing Spirits Or how dare any such Souls Spirits Christians though laden heavy laden with the greatest Crimes abstain from this most Soveraign Medicin to effect and perfect their Spiritual cure upon pretence of their own unfitness unworthiness unpreparedness when as the more dangerous more desperate mortal their Wounds Maladies are the more more speedily they need the fitter they are for this Spiritual Basilicon this heavenly Electuary which they i then most deferre neglect when they need it most and would first be healed cured by some other means before they resort to this most precious healing Physick which most effectually applies Christs passion bloud merits to their despairing dying Souls of all other Ordinances whatsoever If all in desperate corporal wounds diseases resort presently to the most effectual healing Medicaments why not then in Spiritual likewise but be enjoyned perswaded enforced under pain of damnation to defer and forbear them 5ly That it k was the constant practice duty of the Primitive Fathers Bishops Pastors and of the Protestant Churches Ministers in the beginning of Reformation to invite excite and stirre up all their people when backward negligent undevout to the frequent constant rec●ption of the Lords Supper reputing all such who neglected this duty to be malapert impudent unworthy of Christian Communion and rebuking censuring excommunicating them as such till they repented of this sinne as the premises largely manifest together with that pathetical Exhortation in our Book of Common Prayer prescribed by the whole Church Parliament of England to be used by all Ministers * and read in Churches when they shall see the people negligent to come to the Holy Communion which I shall desire all our Ministers and Negligent Communicants oft to read ponder at their leisures for their better information and conviction With what consciences reason equity Piety then can any who professe themselves the only true faithful orthodox Ministers of Jesus Christ yea the holiest and devoutest Zealots of all others now make it their chiefest busines their greatest glory praise the argument of their ferventest zeal and devotion by preaching writing disputing not to exhort provoke encourage invite compel their people to but to dehort deter s●quester debar their Parishioners others from the Lords Table and their holy Communion with Christ and one another in this Ordinance for whole moneths yea years together l advising them to abstain fly from it as a most certain deadly poison damnation to their souls and instead of discharging their Pastoral duties in excommunicating all such who prophanely neglect to repair to it seclude excommunicate themselves and all their Parishioners from it though they earnestly importune them to be admitted to it month after month year after year against all Lawes of God and Man and by most absurd unchristian unreasonable whimsical conceits and pervertions of Scriptures endeavour to justifie in Presse and Pulpit this their most sacrilegious unchristian impious Papal Antichristian practi●e before all the world m censuring all others as professed Enemies to Reformation Christs Covenant and Kingdom Prophane Licentious Libertius Erastian Hereticks Men of loose Principles void of piety devotion holinesse c. who either concurre not with or publikely oppose them in these their irreligious Innovations and tyrannous usurpations diametrically contrary to the Doctrine Practice of all former Christian Bishops Pastors Ministers Churches from the Apostles dayes till this day The Lord now convince rebuke humble them for these their scandalous Practices Publications and reclame them for the future for their poor oppressed peoples spiritual welfare and our Churches future peace and settlement in these distracted times 6ly Bishop Jewel and Thomas Beacon in their forecited passages charge these particulars on the Church and Clergy of Rome as antichristian Papal Practices Innovations Errors Crimes contrary to the institution doctrine Practice of Christ his Apostles the Primitive Church Fathers Christians and of all reformed Protestant Churches Ministers in which most of our Anabaptistical and Independent Ministers yea many Presbyterians now imitate equal and farre exceed them 1. That the Custom of the Popes Church and Popish Clergy is usually to administer the Lords Supper to the People but once or twice a year by which means the commandement of Christ is broken the Sacrament of Christ neglected the death of Christ not so earnestly remembred the people become unthankefull dissolute in life vice
all the world preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth the Gospel preached and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned To which he superaddes Mat. 20. 14 15. c. 11. 20. to 25. Mar. 6. 11. And whosoever will not receive you nor hear your words when ye depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in preaching the Word as well as administring the Sacraments in them that are saved as in them that perish To the one we are the savour of death unto death and to the other we are the savour of life unto life By which it is apparent that there is as much danger judgement damnation incurred by every man by his unworthy receiving of Baptism and unprofitable hearing and contemning the Word preached as by his unworthy receiving the Lords Supper as also by his unworthy praying which is an abomination unto the Lord and turned into sinne Psal. 109. 7. Prov. 28. 9. Isa. 66. 3. Upon which account all unregenerate ignorant impenitent scandalous persons should be totally secluded from Baptism preaching hearing of the Word and Prayer as well as the Lords Supper by our Ministers So this Erroneous Popish opinion refuted at large by Dr. Ames in his Bellarminus Enervatus Tom. 3. l. 1. c. 4. De Saramentorum Comparatione hath severed the ordinary daily use of the Lords Supper used in the Primitive times from the ordinary publike Prayers and preaching the Word which it alwaies accompanied in the best and purest times and ingendred a world of unnecessary unchristian Controversies Schisms Sect in the Church of God especially in our own of later times And therefore ought now to be duely considered reformed exploded as well as that Monster of Transubstantiation which originally introduced these fond superstitious Popish Errors that now so much intoxicate the brains perplex the consciences both of Protestant Ministers and People and are like to prove our Churches ruine The Church of England in her 13 Article with our Protestant Writers Divines doe all Generally condemn the Popish doctrine of Merit of Congruity Yet most of them now really embrace justify preach teach print it in their extraordinary Preparations for the Lords Supper They all generally now teach and exact a visible or real worthinesse as absolutely necessary for every Communicant without which he must in no wise approach to the Lords Supper for then it will certainly prove meer poyson to him and he shall only eat and drink thereat his own damnation But if he be so really so visibly worthy and prepared as they prescribe and require hi● to be then he may certainly assure himself that God will accompany this ordinance with his special presence Grace blessing so as he shall assuredly reap much Grace encrease confirmation of his Faith Ioy Peace Assurance and all other Graces by it Whether this be not the Popish Schoolmens meriting Grace of Congruity and tying of Gods Grace Spirit to our Worthinesse Merits Preparations for our own inherent Worthinesse and Preparation sake let all judicious Protestants resolve Verily when I seriously ponder that Memorable Passage of Martin Luther in his Greater Catechism i That this Sacrament was not institnted for those that are worthy and purely clensed from their sins but clean contrary even for miserable and wretched sinners sensible of nothing but their own unworthinesse Therefore let such a one say Lord I would very willingly be worthy of this Supper but yet I come unto it induced by no worthines of mine own but trusting on thy Word alone because thou hast commanded me to come c. For the Sacrament is not to be looked on as an hurtfull thing from which we should run with both our feet but as a saving and wholesome Medicin which may heal thy diseases and give life both to thy Soul and Body Why then do we so shun it as if it were a Poison which being received would bring present death unto us Yea but some may say I am not so sensible of my sins and unworthinesse as I should be To such as are in this condition I can give no better advice than to look into their own hearts and to see whether they be not flesh and blood and may not say with Paul Rom. 7. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no thing that is good In summe by how much lesse sensible thou art of thy sins and defects the more reasons thou hast of comming and frequent seeking Help and Physick And when I consider these Passages in the Practice of Piety so much approved by all our Divines and pious Christians concerning the due manner of Practicing Piety in receiving the Holy Supper of the Lord k That no man living is of himself worthy to be a Guest at so holy a Banquet The Rules there prescribed How to consider and perceive our own unworthinesse by examining our lives according to Gods Commandement With these ensuing Meditations prescribed to every Communicant to ponder both before and at this Sacrament l Ponder then with what face darest thou offer to touch so holy a body with such defiled hands Or to drink such precious blood with so lewd and lying mouths Or to lodge so blessed a Guest in so unclean a Stable For if the m Bethshemites were slain for but looking irreverently to the Ark of the Old Testament what judgement maist thou justly expect who with such impure eyes and heart art come to see and receive the Ark of the New Testament in which n dwelleth all the fullnesse of the Godhead bodily c. If John Baptist the holiest man that was boru of a woman thought himself o unworthy to bear his shooes O Lord how unworthy is such a prophane wretch as thou art to eat his flesh and to drink his precious bloud If the blessed Apostle St. Peter seeing but a glympse of Christs almighty power thought himself p unworthy to stand in the same boat with him How unworthy art thou to sit with Christ at the same Table where thou maist behold the infinitenesse of his Grace and Mercy displayed If the q Centurion thought that the roof of his House was not worthy to harbour so divine a Guest What room can there be fit under thy Ribbs for Christs Holinesse to dwell in If the r bloud-issued sick woman feared to touch the hem of his garment How shouldest thou tremble to eat his flesh and to drink his All-healing bloud Yet if thou comest humbly in Faith Repentance and Charity abhorring thy sins past and purposing unfeignedly to amend thy life henceforth let not thy former sins affright thee for they shall never be laid to thy charge and