Three Divine Persons all of them being but One God of Truth as St. John saith There are Three 1 John 5. 7. that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these Three are One. Vpon these premised Reasons it is as I conceive that the Apostle calls Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Surety or Fide-jussor Heb. 7. 22. In order to the performance of this Covenant we are next to consider that God the Son assumed our Human Nature and became perfect Man and in that Human Nature did actually and perfectly perform that whole Law or Covenant for which he was engaged in the behalf of Mankind whereupon it is said of the Son In the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy Heb. 10. 7. will O God in Capite libri that is in notitia Praedestinationis aeternae saith the Dionys Car. in loc Expositor The Writing in the Volume of the Book signifies that he was preordained or predestinated from Eternity so to do He had said before Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body thou hast prepared for me then said I lo I come all which words were taken out of the 40th Psalm From hence it is that God the Son is called the Angel or Messenger of the Mal. 3 1. Govenant because he was interested and sent for performance of the said Covenant And therefore the whole Flock of Mankind was committed to him as his Sheep to be ordered and governed for so it is expresly said that the Father gave them to him John 10. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 25. and He is therefore called by St. Peter the great Shepherd of the Sheep This Engagement of the Son as Surety for Mankind occasioned those words of the two great Apostles for thus St. Paul writeth of God He hath chosen us in him Eph. 1 4. Christ before the Foundation of the World and He hath saved us according 2 Tim. 1. 9. to his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began And In hope of Eternal Tit. 1. 2. life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began Just so St. Peter saith upon the same reason You were not 1 Pet. 1. 18. redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious Blood of Christ who 19. 20. was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World These expressions of Chosing us in Christ and of Grace given us in Christ and of Christ fore-ordained and of Life promised and that before the Foundation of the World And all these only in and for Christ must needs relate to that aforesaid Eternal purpose Covenant or Agreement beeween God the Father and God the Son before the Creation For to whom could the Promise be made before either Man or Angel or Archangel or any Creatures were made but only to the Eternal Word or Son of the Father And why to him but only because the Son entred into that Covenant and thereby became the Surety and Vndertaker for Mankind Therefore to him only was this Promise made and in him and for him to Mankind And by vertue of this Covenant the Lord Jesus became necessarily obliged both to perform the Law and also to under go his bitter passions of death as himself often acknowledged Mat. 16. 21. and all the four Evangelists have recorded Mar. 8. 31 Luke from his mouth that He must suffer many things and be killed 24. 46. Joh. 3. 14 All this being presumed and granted there is yet one thing more of the greatest concernment to us to be considered viz. how his Obedience in performing the Law and his Death for the transgressions thereof can be satisfactory to Divine Justice for us seeing God hath often declared that one shall not be punished for another especially an Innocent for a malefactor which seems to be our case for we are the Transgressors but Christ is innocent yet he is punished and we quitted Our Answer is that Christ and Mankind are not to be looked on as Two but as One. Nor is his death the death of one for another but of the same He as a Surety and we as the principal Debtor He as the Head and we as the Members of the same Body The Surety and the principal are but one Person in Law and the Head and the other parts are both one and the same Body in Nature Therefore that the proceedings of the Godhead concerning the work of Mans Redemption might appear to be contrived not only with infinite Mercy but also with exact Justice God at the beginning so ordered that the Redeemer and the Redeemed should be united in One original Fountain who to that end planted all the Bodies and Souls both of Christ and of all Mankind in that One First Man from whose Flesh and Soul both Christ and all Mankind have derived their Bodies and their Souls In this consisteth our Union with Christ and hence it is that Christ and we are accounted but One and this is that Union which was meant and described by Christ under those figurative words of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood The clear demonstration and proof whereof is the whole and only design of this ensuing Treatise The learned Romanists I conceive do perfectly understand that the benefits which come by Christ cannot otherwise with justice be communicated to Mankind but only by the Vnion of Christ with us viz. of his Flesh with our flesh and of his Soul with our souls And therefore they have phansied this Vnion to be effected by an Oral and carnal Eating of his living Flesh and Drinking his Blood in the Sacred Eucharist by their way of Transubstantiation For the learned French Cardinal of Perron in his Book of the Eucharist written in French affirmeth that the real natural Presence of Christ in the Sacrament is to greatest purpose because the Residence of Christs Natural Body in our bodies doth really and substantially joyn us unto God establishing a true and real Vnity between God and Men. Thus far he which is observed by Dr. Jer. Taylor in his Book intitled The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Sacrament pag. 50. We also confess the necessity of this Vnion but by another way which is plain evident and comfortable as it is described in this Book as I trust will appear to the Reader So that no need will be of that Roman Subterfuge and pretence of their horrid unreasonable and impossible Mode by an Oral gross carnal and literal Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood with which Imposture a great part of the Christian World hath been a long time abused but by the cool and sober perusal of this Discourse the Ingenuous Romanist may happily in some measure be undeceived The most compleat and perfect Vnion of Christ with Man consisteth in five things 1. Carne in Flesh 2. Anima in Soul 3. Spiritu in Spirit 4. Vadimonio
in Covenant or Suretyship 5. Fide in Faith The Vnion which I shall chiefly endeavour to describe in this Tractate consisteth in the two first of these which I firmly believe to be intended and meant in that Speech of Christ Joh. 6. 53. Except ye Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood c. THE Flesh of Christ CHAP. I. HE that attempteth to discover the grand mystery of Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ must begin his Work very early even at the Creation of our first Parents or rather before the foundation of the World Because the most wise mercifull and just Godhead had designed the redemption of Mankind from Eternity by God the Son And did lay the foundation and the frame order and method thereof in the first Man and the first Woman from whom every man and woman that are were or hereafter shall be born with Christ himself also have derived both their Flesh and their Souls that so an Union and conjunction might be made of the Redeemer with the Redeemed without which Union the Son of God could not be fitly qualified to perform with Justice the great Work of Redemption of Mankind Concerning this Union those words of Christ are to be understood John 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and Joh. 6. 53. Mat. 26. 26. drink his blood and those other words Mat. 26. 26. This is my Body and This is my Blood both must needs be true because Truth hath spoken them The former were meant of the real and substantial Union and conjunction of our flesh with his Flesh and of our souls with his Soul the latter were meant of the Representation or similitude of our true real and substantial union with Christ in his whole humane Nature signified to us by the Sacramental eating and drinking of Bread and Wine as it was before represented to the Israelites in eating the flesh of the Paschal Lamb. For as with them and with us The Lamb and Bread and Wine were really to be taken into our bodies and do really nourish us and unite themselves with our bodies and grow into one bulk with us So Christ with Mankind must be united and be One with us otherwise he cannot with the strictness of Divine Justice be the Redeemer of Mankind neither could man be capable of redemption by him Concerning the truth and reality of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ the Redeemer the Reformed Chruches and also the Vnreformed do both agree and yet exceedingly differ and disagree in the manner and way thereof 1. The Roman Transubstantiators would have us believe that Christ is eaten in the Sacrament really pretending that the Bread and Wine are transubstantiated or rather annihilated and that the whole Christ is brought into the room thereof and so eaten But this cannot be the mode or way of eating Christ because the eating and drinking by him meant must have been in all former and past Generations and must still stand firm and true although the Sacrament or Eucharist had never been instituted for Abraham Isaac Jacob Noah and Adam himself must have eaten so as is here meant else they could not be redeemed by Christ And this Eating of Christ was true and real before he was actually Born or Incarnate St. Paul saith Our Fathers did eat the same meat and drink of the same Rock that 1 Cor. 10. 3. followed and that Rock was Christ therefore they did eat Christ so as he meant 2. The Lutheran Consubstantiators would have men believe that the Flesh and Blood of Christ literally understood are really carnally and grosly received in and with the Sacramental bread and wine But neither can this way be true because the Eating here meant must have been and still is without the Sacrament thereof for the flesh of Christ is now and hath been eaten by those that never heard of nor ever did receive or communicate in the Sacrament for Children Heathens Turks and Jews and the most profane Christians must have eaten Christ otherwise they could have no possibility or be in any capacity of Redemption Yet the Scriptures the primitive Fathers and the Church of England do clearly declare that the benefit of Redemption belongeth and is offered to God the Son hath redeemed me and all Mankind the whole World to all and every Man and Woman as our Church Catechism teacheth 3. The Zuinglians who are called Sacramentarians would have men believe thatf Eating the flesh and Drinking the blood o Christ is meant only of receiving the signs figures or Sacraments thereof viz. by bread and wine in the Eucharist But neither can this way be the right meaning thereof because we must truly and really receive the very thing it self for we must corporally be united with the flesh of Christ and really and truly must our Souls be united with the Soul of Christ else no redemption can possibly be either of our bodies or of our Souls by him Calvin upon those words This is my Body very truly Calvin n 1 Cor. 11. 24. affirmeth Neque fallax est Christus qui vacuis figuris nos ludat Mihi extra controversiam est Veritatem hic cum suo signo conjunctam esse 1. Christ did not delude us with empty figures I doubt not at all but that the truth was joyned with the sign 4. The Church of England doth not to my apprehension clearly determine of the Modus or manner of Eating the Flesh or drinking the blood of Christ either in the Sacrament or out of the Sacrament yet thus far this Church proceedeth in the mystery Art Relig 28. of the holy Supper and saith in the 28th Article that it is the Sacrament of Redemption just so as St. Cyprian had before written of the same thing in an Epistle to Coecilius wherein he calleth the Lords Supper Sacramentum Redemptionis because Cyp. 2. epist 3. thereby as by an holy sign we are taught the manner way and method used by Christ in the work of our Redemption The Church of England again declareth in the Office of the Eucharist that the faithfull and penitent Receivers do spiritually eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of Christ that they dwell in Christ and Christ in them that they be One with Christ and Christ with them the meaning is that the holy Supper is the Sacrament or mysterious sign of our Union with the flesh of Christ and with the blood or Soul of Christ just as both S. Austin and Aug. in John 26. Ansel in Mat. 26. after him S. Anselm called it Sacramentum Vnitatis 2. The Sacrament of Union and the very word Communion as this Sacrament is called signifieth the same Communio is all one with counio or unio cum because the sacramental Eating and Drinking representeth the Union or conjunction of the flesh and soul of Christ with our flesh and soul without which neither our bodies nor
certainly signifies the conjunction or union of his Soul with our Souls in order as a necessary way or method to put us into a capacity of redemption of our souls by his Soul For we cannot be capable of the benefits of the Passions death and Obedience of Christ except we be One with him both by the union of our flesh with his Flesh and of our souls with his Soul because God doth neither punish nor reward one for another as is at Chap. 4. large shewed before Therefore that the Son of God might be every way fitly qualified to be a Redeemer of Mankind he assumed human Flesh from the same Original that we had our flesh that thereby he might be a Redeemer of our flesh or bodies and he assumed an human Soul from the same Fountain from which all our Souls sprang that thereby he might be a Redeemer of our souls as Athanasius hath observed in his Athan. T. 3. n. 23. Book of the Incarnation In Redemptione corpus pro corpore anima pro anima reddenda fuit integrum aliquid pro integro homine He was to give his Body for the redemption of our bodies and to yield up his Soul for our Souls and his whole Man for our whole Man There are three Ingredients to be considered in the Redeemer 1. His Divinity or Godhead for he was and is God the most High and the only God 2. His human Flesh or Body 3. His human Soul By the two latter by him so assumed as is said he became Perfect Man as by the former he was and is Perfect God His pure Godhead alone and considered without his Human nature assumed could not be a Redeemer because the law was not imposed upon God or the Son of God as only so but upon Mankind or Sons of Men Nor could the pure Godhead suffer death which was to be suffered by the Redeemer Or if the Godhead had assumed only an human Body or Flesh without an human Soul this could have been but a Redeemer of the Body at most if that but not of the Soul Or if the Godhead had assumed only an human Soul without a Body it could not have redeemed our bodies nor our whole Man as the Axiome of Divines teacheth us Divisus Christus non est Salvator viz. Beza Cat. Part. 2. p. 18. If Christ had not united all these Ingredients in his one Person his Godhead his Flesh and his Soul we could not have him for our Saviour Or if Christ had been only a meer Man consisting of Soul and Body as we all do and had not been God he could not have been our Redeemer because it was only his Divinity joyned with and united personally with his Flesh and Soul that gave lustre worth and infinite value to his human Nature so that for the great work of mans Redemption it was necessary that the Redeemer should be not only Perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and Human flesh subsisting but also with them Perfect God Or if Christ being very God had really assumed a Body and also a Soul otherwise and not from his Virgin Mother but had made a Body and also created a Soul for himself which had not been derived from Mankind and so not united with our bodies and souls or if his Body or Soul had come down from Heaven as some Hereticks said and passed through the Virgins Womb only as water doth through a pipe and had been only for a time an Inhabitant or Inmate of the Womb and had not been really the Seed of the Woman and the Son of the Virgin and the very Fruit of the Womb both in Soul and in Body and derived from the first Man and the first Woman as we all are he could not have been our Redeemer because he could not be united otherwise with all Mankind in flesh and soul nor we with him For as our Union with his Flesh which is called the Eating of his flesh must needs be with it as it is the flesh of the Son of Man which signifieth that it must be with that Flesh or Body of his which he assumed and derived from Mankind by being conceived in the Womb and not from any other flesh or body which the Son of God had sometime taken on him otherwise than by Conception and Birth as is before observed in his Apparition and converse with the Patriark Abraham so likewise the union Gen. 18. Suprac 6 7. of our Souls with his Soul which is called the Drinking of his Blood must be with that Soul of his which was so derived from the first Man and the first Woman by Propagation as all our Souls are otherwise we cannot be united in our Souls with his Soul neither could he be a Redeemer of our Souls This Doctrine of our Union with Christ both in our Bodies and also in our Souls was intimated though something darkly as to me seemeth at the Institution of his holy Eucharistical Supper which is next to be very briefly touched CHAP. XVIII WHen our Saviour had a long time concealed the Mysterious way or manner how our Redemption was to be effected by him and how his own proper and personal Death might be satisfactory to Divine Justice for and instead of the deserved deaths of all Men Yet that he Might not leave his Disciples altogether ignorant in so weighty a Concernment he was pleased a little before his death in some measure to reveal that Secret to his Apostles and by them to his succeeding Church for which purpose only he instituted his last Holy Supper to be a visible Sign or Sacrament and also a Memorial thereof in all Generations untill his Coming again First therefore He took Bread and gave it to them and said Take Eat This is my Luke 22. 19. Body which is given for you as if he had said my Body is already to you such as this Bread will be to you for by Eating and Digesting it the Bread will be your nourishment it will be joyned and united with your Bodies and grow into one flesh with your flesh and be one Body with you Christ calleth himself Bread Ego sum John 6. Panis because as bread being eaten and digested becomes incorporate or incarnate with us so is Christ Incarnate or rather Concarnate with us We receive our Flesh from our Mothers the bread which the Mother eateth is converted into milk with which the Infant is nourished and thereby is fleshed and groweth so that the Bread and the Child become united and grow into one Body St. Austin saith concerning this very thing Quod manducat mater hoc manducat Aug. Psa 33. Ser. 1. Infans sed quia minùs idoneus est Infans qui pane vescatur ipsum panem Mater incarnat per humilitatem mamillae lactis succum de ipso pane pascit Infantem That which nourisheth the Mother the same nourisheth the Infant but because the Infant is not able to
eat bread therefore the mother doth first digest and so incarnate the bread and uniteth it with her own body and of it by her mild and tender Breast she produceth milk by which the Infant is mediatly so fed with the said bread Such is the Union of the Flesh of Christ with our flesh because both he and we received our flesh from that one Original lump of the first Man wherein both he and we were united and thereby he and we became one Body just as our food becomes one flesh and one body with that Body of ours which we had before any new Addition was made to it by any new food which is the reason why the Scripture accounteth Christ and his Members to be but one Body as the Apostle saith We being many are one Ro. 12. 5. 1 Cor. Body in Christ and We are the Body of Christ and Members in particular and Ye are all one in Christ Jesus and We are Members 12. 27. Gal. 3. 28 Eph. 5. 30 of his body of his flesh and of his bones By vertue of this Union the obedience of Christ both Active and Passive is and justly may be accounted ours because Christ and his Members are One. And for this consideration only and for this resemblance only Christ said of the Sacramental Bread This is my Body which is given for you Likewise of the Wine Christ said This is my Blood Drink ye all of this We know that by Blood the life or soul is signified as is before proved therefore the Sacramental Wine represented his Soul the Wine which we drink as well as the Bread which we eat becomes our nourishment and so unites it self with our Persons and grows into one bulk with us and is really one with us and thereby it becomes to us such as the Soul of Christ is already to us for our souls and the Soul of Christ are really united because his Soul and our souls and the souls of all our Ancestors and Posterities ever were and still will be derived and propagated from that one Original Soul of the first Man in whose Soul at its very Creation and Insufflation the Soul of Christ and all our Souls are virtually included and united Therefore surely the meaning of those words of Christ must be this that his Soul and our Souls must have been so united as well as his Flesh and our flesh that so he may be fitly the Redeemer both of our Bodies and of our Souls for certainly no man can have Redemption by him except as a necessary Preparative thereunto he be really united with him both in Flesh and in Soul which is that very thing which Christ called the Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood This Doctrine is not new but hath been long ago taught by the School in those times when Truth might be declared without danger of the Fagot For Pet. Lombard Sent. 4. Dist 11. about the year of Christ 1150. which was before Transubstantiation was established in the Church of Rome thus writeth Christ saith he took on himself the whole Nature of Man that he might redeem the whole Man therefore his Assumption is celebrated in the Holy Supper by the two Elements of Bread and Wine Panis ad carnem refertur Vinum ad Animam ut animae carnis susceptio in Christo utriusque liberatio in nobis significetur The Bread representeth the Flesh and the Wine the Soul that thereby the Assuming of a Body and a Soul by Christ and the Deliverance or Redemption of our Bodies and Souls by him may be signified So Clemens Romanus long before Christus dedit carnem suam pro carne nostra animam suam pro anima nostra vid. f. n. 3. in Clem. Rom. Those that imagin that the Sacramental Chalice representh only the Blood of Christ and that those words of Christ This is my Blood signified only the meer natural Blood of Christ Grammatically properly and literally taken such do greatly err and mistake the Mystery for this cannot possibly be the meaning thereof because as is before said his meer Blood was not Redemptive for the Act of Redemption consisted Sup. cap. 14. only in the powring out his precious Life and Soul for us so that by the Blood the Soul must needs be meant and the Sacramental Wine must needs relate to the Life or Soul of Christ Those likewise that teach the withholding of the Sacramental Chalice from the People or Lay-Communicants do misunderstand the meaning thereof they pretend that after the pronouncing of the words of their Consecration the Wine is not Wine for that the substance of Wine is quite gone and annihilated leaving nothing behind but only the meer Accidents viz. the colour taste and quantity of the Wine but not the Wine it self and that the Chalice doth contain only the Blood of Christ instead of the Wine and because they make the People believe that in their little Wafer-Host the whole Christ is contained viz. his Body and Blood therefore in Receiving the Host they receive both the Flesh and the Blood by Concomitancy But herein they err in that they think that by the word Blood only meer blood is meant which indeed doth signifie not literally Blood but the Soul of Christ in which Soul if the People do not really Communicate that is if their Souls be not really united with the Soul of Christ they cannot be in a full capacity of the Redemption of their souls by his Soul Besides what need was there that Christ should require with the Eating of his flesh particularly as another thing the Drinking of his Blood if by Blood he had meant only meer Blood seeing that the living Flesh of Christ must needs include his Blood as themselves acknowledge The laborious and tedious Disputes of Divines of contrary Persuasions in Religion concerning the presence of Christ in the Sacrament whether it be a carnal and corporal Presence or only a Spiritual Presence I conceive with submission to Superiors to have been as needless as we have found them to be fruitless and endless their various glosses upon the Scriptural words in that business have more obscured the question as Origen said of the Exposition of a passage of St. Paul Hic sermo non sui nanatura Orig. in Ro. 12. 16 sed interpretatione obscurior fact us est And Maldonate a learned Jesuit of Mald. in Lu. 2. 34. late observed concerning a place in St. Luke Nescio an facilior hic locus fuisset si nemo eum exposuisset They both conclude that some Scriptures would be more easily understood if Expositors had not too much tampered with them and so verily I think of those words which mention the Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ The real and true Presence of the Flesh and Blood or Soul of Christ is not to be thought to be in the Elements or Sacramental signs of Bread and Wine neither is there
necessarily to have been united in soul as well as in body otherwise he could be but an Half-Redeemer and we but Semiredempti i. e. redeemed but in one part or half-redeemed for it would prove but a Redemption of our Bodies only and not of our Souls Gregory Nazianzen in an Epistle to Cledonius Naz. Orat 51. a Priest which goes under the title of the 51 Oration thus writeth The Son of God took upon him the Nature of Man and all that of Man which needed help and recovery therefore he must needs have taken the Soul as well as the flesh from Man for otherwise he would be like to a Man who having a sore eye and a sore foot and should apply a Medicine to the foot only and quite neglect the eye Thus he so that although our bodies were well provided for by having a Redeemer yet the souls would want a Redemption for themselves and so the sentence of God would be executed on them The Soul that sinneth it shall die Eze. 18. 4 But the Mercifull Godhead took care both of our bodies and of our Souls and therefore sent God the Son as the Apostle saith in the likeness of sinfull Flesh and Rom. 8. 3. for sin condemned sin in the flesh So likewise did he send the same Son of God in the likeness of a sinfull Soul thereby to condemn sin in the Soul the Lord Jesus is a Saviour not only of bodies but of souls also and is therefore called by the Apostle the Sheepherd and Bishop of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. as Moses and Aaron had formerly stiled him The God of the Spirits or Souls of all Num. 16. 22. Flesh The Son of God was the Creator not only of bodies but also of souls and the Son of Man was and is the Redeemer of both For this gracious purpose only God did unite himself with Mankind not only in Flesh but in Soul also and thereby he became a Compleat Emanuel And this union or conjunction of God with Man was effected by the Propagation or Traduction of the Flesh and Soul of Christ from the flesh and soul of the first Man as all our Bodies and Souls have been and now are and will be to the end of the World Of the Traduction of our bodies no Man boubteth but of the Original and Traduction of Souls great disputes have been and yet are of which we are next in order to consider CHAP. XX. THE Doctrine of the Original of the Soul of Christ and of all human Souls and consequently the Doctrine of the Redemption of our souls by the Soul of Christ hath been much obscured by the vain and trifling Arguments of some natural Philosophers and as much by the frivolous Queries of some late Theologues whereas some learned Physicians to whom Jacobus Horstius Geor. Horstius Animas propagari ab animabus parentum putat Keckerman Phys p. 630. Truth is more beholding in this point have with great judgment and by their Experiences shewed and proved that our Souls are derived by Traduction from the Souls of our Mothers in the Womb as the Soul of Christ certainly was and as one of them saith Instar surculi ex trunco as a young grift sucketh life from the stock And the Souls of all Mothers as is beforesaid are derived from the Soul of the first Man unto which Doctrine all men who do rightly apprehend and understand the order and method of Redemption to consist in the Vnion of Christ with Mankind will be driven at last to consent Those Men that oppose the Traduction of Souls from the Soul of Adam demand how it is possible that such an innumerable company of Souls can be derived from one single Soul seeing the Soul is a Spirit and indivisible and therefore not to be parted by Decisions and mincings into such several parcels for so in time it would have nothing left to it self but would be utterly annihilated But these Men may as reasonably doubt how so many thousands of Bodies could proceed from that one single Body of the first Man during the 930 years of his life without any diminution of the quantity or dimensions of his Body seeing they were all Originally in his Loyns Or how the Sun communicates his light to every star in Heaven without any diminution or lessening his Light nothing is more like the Soul than light The Philosophers called the Soul of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter cognationem cum lumine as Plutarch saith because it is Plut. con Colot so like to light and Christ is said to Enlighten every Man because he hath given a John 1. 9. reasonable Soul to all Men as Expositors agree St. Austin resembles the traduction of the Soul to the Light of a lamp Ignis Aug. cont Pelag. T. 7. n. 63 lucernae integer manet licet altera de illa accendatur Millions of Tapers may receive light from one single Taper without diminishing the light of that one Taper and so our Souls are propagated from that one Original Soul without any division or diminution thereof Let it be considered that the Soul of the first Man was created immediately by God of which it is said God breathed into his Gen. 2. 7. Bucan p. 86. 88. nostrils the breath of Life or of Lives this Breath of God was Spiraculum Omnipotens of which the Psalmist saith By the Breath Psal 33. 6 of the Lord the Heavens were made and all the Host of them by the Breath of his mouth The human Soul hath a prerogative of its Original above other inferiour Animals of whom it is never said that God breathed into them the Breath of life That first Soul of Man especially was like unto Fire as one saith of all Human souls Igneus est Ollis Virg. Aen. 6. vigor It surely had the vigour of fire and did extend it self into the grand Corporation of all Mankind as one spark of fire may enflame a whole City The brute Creatures ever since their first Creation did propagate their Souls to their kind and to this day those Creatures do receive their souls by Traduction from their Dams The greatest Sciolists in Natural Philosophy cannot reasonably prove any other Original of those brute Souls but only by propagation which yet they deny to human Souls It must be confessed by Christians that the souls of brute Creatures were at the beginning created by God as the reasonable Soul of Adam was yet the souls of Brute Creatures are mortal but the reasonable Souls of Men are immortal the reason is because the Divine Nature did personally unite it self with our whole human Nature which is the only reason why human Souls do not die and that human Bodies after death shall rise again to Life at the general Resurrection But the Divine Nature did not so unite it self with the nature of those other inferiour Creatures which are therefore left to perish utterly Of which something
that we look for both and that all Men shall rise with their Bodies and shall give an account All therefore Good and Bad. This being evident we are further to enquire what is the efficient or true cause of the Immortality of Human Souls and of the Resurrection of Human Bodies more than of the souls and bodies of other inferior Creatures although their bodies and souls were at first Created by God as ours were and therefore the Mahumetans say that there shall be a Resurrection of Brute creatures as Armachanus reporteth and Arm. f. 161. Heathens said that in their Elysium a place was for Birds as Ovid. Amorum L. 2. Eleg. 6. Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus illice frondet Ovid. Amorum li. 2. El. 6. Vdaque perpetuo gramine terra viret Si qua fides dubiis volucrum locus ille piarum Dicitur obscoenae quo prohibentur Aves To this our Answer is That because Human bodies and Souls are united with the Body and Soul of Christ in the first Original Soul and Body therefore our Souls are Immortal and our Bodies shall rise immortal but so shall not the other Creatures because they are not so united The reason is clearly declared by Christ himself in these words He that eateth me even he shall live John 6. 57. by me For as the Body and Soul of Christ are now Immortal because united with the Divine Spirit as himself saith I live by the Ibid. Father so our Souls are and our Bodies shall be Immortal because they are united with the Body and Soul of the Son of God and this not by vertue of his meer Soul and his meer Flesh both of them being of themselves but Creatures but because his Soul and Body are and ever were personally united with the Divine Spirit or Godhead that is it only which caused this kind of Vitality in all Mankind for of his meer Flesh alone Christ saith The Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6. 63 But of the Spirit or Godhead united with his Flesh he saith It is the Spirit that quickneth the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life and therefore the Apostle saith of the whole Person of Christ The last Adam was made a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit that is He was made so by Union with the Godhead for the Flesh of Christ alone was mortal but by this Union it became both Vital and Vivifical They that say that our Souls are Immortal only by Creation being Reasonable Souls and should have been Immortal though God the Son had not united himself with our Nature These to me seem to gainsay the words of Christ for it is not by the Reasonabless but their Union with the Soul of Christ that makes them immortal I suppose they will not say that our Bodies shall rise from death only because they are human Bodies No for both these are the effects of this Union which Christ called the Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood and nothing else and therefore St. John saith God hath given to us Eternal Life and this 1 John 5. 11. 12. Life is in his Son he addeth He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life To this most Holy Son of God and Son of Man our ever blessed Redeemer and Saviour together with the Eternal Father and the Divine Spirit of both Benediction Honour and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS Chapter 1. THE Vnion of Christ with Mankind in Adam in order to our Redemption signified by the Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ the different understanding thereof by Romanists Lutherans and Zuinglians from the Church of England 2. The signification of eating of the Tree of Life of the Tree of Knowledge of Manna of Sacrifices and of the Paschal Lamb. 3. That Eating the Flesh of Christ is not meant of Oral Eating of St. Peters Eating parallel'd with our Eating of Christ 4. That the necessity of our real Vnion with the Flesh of Christ is called Eating how we are united with his Body and the benefit thereof 5. The Doctrine of the Fathers concerning our Vnion with the Body of Christ of his Body natural mystical Of the Subjection of Christ 6. Why this Vnion is described by eating the Flesh of the Son of Man and not rather of the Son of God 7. That the Redeemer was necessarily to be the Son of Man and also the Son of God 8. Why this Vnion is expressed by such Tragical words of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood Why the Primitive Church mingled water with Wine in the holy Chalice 9. The practice of some Hereticks in eating Human flesh in their Sacrament compared with the Doctrine of Transubstantion The calumny of Anthropophagy charged upon Christians and removed 10. That this Eating the Flesh of Christ is now to be done for that it was performed at our first Conception in the Womb that the Fathers and all other Latin Translators render those words of Eating the Flesh of Christ otherwise then we do 11. How our Vnion with the Flesh of Christ is more beneficial to us than our Vnion with the flesh of the Patriarks Prophets and Apostles 12. Of Eating the Flesh of Christ Spiritually what is meant by it and whether such an Eating be sufficient to the right end 13. Of Eating by Faith whether believing the Articles of Faith be that Eating which is thereby meant Of those words of St. Austin Crede Manducasti how to be rightly understood The three states of Mankind 14. Of the Blood of Christ that it is not literally to be understood nor to be drank Orally 15. Of the forbidding of Blood by the Law and the Gospel that it was but a Temporary Discipline Why Fornication was forbidden to the Gentiles converted by the Apostolical Council 16. That the Blood of Christ signifieth the Life or Soul of Christ 17. That Drinking the Blood of Christ signifieth only the Vnion of our Souls with his Soul Of the 3 Ingredients in Christ The Godhead Flesh and Soul 18. To what end and special purpose the Holy Supper was instituted the abuse by witholding the Chalice from the People that the corporal Presence of Christ is not in the Saments but in the Communicants 19. That the Soul of Christ and all other Human Souls are derived from the Original soul of Adam that the Doctrine of daily Creation of new Human Souls is erroneous that our Souls proceed immediately from our Mothers and in the Womb. 20. Of the Traduction or Propagation of the Soul of Christ and of all other Human Souls from Adam Some doubts and objections cleared The true cause of the Immortality of Human Souls and of the Resurrection of our Bodies more than of brute Creatures 21. Of the time when Conceptions receive life and soul in the Womb which is called Quickning Of Barrenness That the Vnion of our souls with the Soul of Christ is at our Quickning in the Womb the Doctrine of the Church of England therein 22. That the Soul of Christ must as necessarily have proceeded from Adam as his Flesh Of some Heresies which gainsayed the Traduction of Souls The Doctrine of daily Creation of new Souls examined 23. The judgment of the Fathers concerning Traduction of Souls The error of the Pelagians therein and the evil consequences thereof 24. That Christ was free from Original sin although his Soul and Body were derived from Adam 25. That although the Mother of Christ were conceived in sin yet her Son Jesus was free from her Sin and how That she was a pure Virgin at the Birth of Christ That her perseverance in Virginity to her Death though it is true yet it is not necessarity pereinent to this question Conclusion The Effects of our Vnion with Christ viz. 1. The Immortality of all Human Souls 2. The Resurrection of all Human Bodies which are called Eternal Life and Raising at the last Day FINIS
Mans union with the flesh of the Redeemer 3. The Paschal Lamb signified the Lamb of God And the Eating thereof signified the conjunction or union of the flesh of the Redeemer with the Redeemed 4. The legal Sacrifices represented Christ to be sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross And they were to be eaten except Holocausts The eating of them signified mans union with the Antitype that is Christ even as that which we eat becomes one with us it grows into one bulk with our bodies and is united with us and is animated with the same life and soul with our bodies it lives it dies and is buried and riseth again with us and continueth with us after the Resurrection everlastingly in like manner the flesh of Christ is united with our flesh without which Union there can be no Redemption of us by him nor indeed any resurrection of our Bodies nor Immortality of our Souls more than of the bodies and souls of brute Creatures as will appear hereafter therefore Christ said Except John 6. ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man c. you have no life in you And in the Sacramental sign of this real Mystery he said Take eat this is my Body that is my Mat. 26. Body is to you such a thing as this Bread which you eat is to be which will be concorporated and joyned in One and united with your bodies and will be animated with the same life and soul wherewith all the parts of your body were formerly endued and informed If it be enquired why the very individual flesh of Christ should not be in truth and reality and propriety of speech confessed to be eaten in full correspondence with the Type viz. the flesh of the Paschal Lamb which was really eaten Our Answer is That if there were no other way or signification of Eating the flesh of Christ but only Orally or as the Letter soundeth then of necessity it must be so meant and understood and must be so eaten as the Paschal Lamb and the Sacrifices were But there is another way and meaning thereof wherein the flesh of Christ is truly said to be eaten both before he was incarnate or born and also after his Ascension into Heaven in both which times it was and is impossible to be 1 Cor. 10. 3. eaten Orally For when his Disciples were offended at the mentioning of Eating his Flesh he said What and if you shall see the Son of man ascend Joh. 6. 62 up where he was before as if he had said my flesh must have been eaten so as I mean even before I took human flesh upon me And also after my assumed flesh shall be ascended locally into Heaven and not be any more upon Earth or out of Heaven untill my return at the last Judgment and therefore far out of the reach of any mortal hand or mouth therefore it cannot be meant literally of any oral o◠gross carnal Eating If we shall rest satisfied and seek no farther into this Mysterious Eating than only to believe that Christ doth daily in the Sacrament thereof vouchsafe and condescend to exhibit his very true Body in or under the species or appearance of Bread or Wafer-cakes and that his very Body is so really existant in many thousand distant places in the same minute of time which to human Reason is incredible and contrary to Philosophy and even to our senses If we can swallow this vain impossible and unprofitable Camel it would be a quick expedient and an easie or lazy gloss to unriddle this grand mystery by which hath a long time perplexed and posed the Christian World Concerning which good Christian Reader I do here tender my poor Meditations in humility not Magisterially but with due submission to the judgment of my Superiors most earnestly begging of God instruction illumination and a right understanding herein and wholly trusting and relying upon him who by his Apostle hath thus directed and promised that If any want wisdom Jam. 1. 5. let him ask it of God and it shall be given him in hope therefore of his assistance I proceed to examination of the particulars of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of our Redeemer CHAP. III. THe words of Christ from whose lips never any guile or untruth fell are these Verily verily I say unto you except Joh. 6. 53 ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you here are two Verilies or Amens which are often used by S. John only whereas the other Evangelists never use but one Amen in the weightiest narrations this double Assertion falling from the mouth of Christ argueth a certain and undeniable truth which because it is hard and mysterious yet necessarily to be received and believed therefore it is thus strongly and vehemently affirmed and must be believed although i◠be not at first understood for this is a character of Christian Faith to confess the Words of God to be true although we do not understand them as Prosper saith Magna fortitudo est consentionis cui ad sequendam Prosp de Voc. Gen. l. 2. c. 2. veritatem autoritas sufficit latente ratione The valiantness of Christian Faith is in consenting to Truth by authority of Gods Word when the reason thereof doth not appear The Jews asked whilest Christ was John 6. 52. with them on earth How can this Man give u◠his Flesh to eat We may now much rather ask the same question seeing his Flesh is now in Heaven far remote from us and certainly his Flesh since his Ascension never was on Earth to this day Therefore to eat his Flesh orally grosly and literally understood is both unpossible and as Christ affirmed unprofitable The Flesh profiteth nothing or if to eat his Flesh orally John 6. 63. were necessary and profitable how can we come at it The Apostle adviseth Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Ro. 10. 6. Heaven that is to bring Christ down That which is meant by Eating his Flesh is done already and brought home to us Eating in Scripture phrase doth not always signifie Oral eating nor doth it so signifie in those Words of Christ David Abraham and the Antediluvian Patriarchs must so have eaten Christ as Eating here signifieth else they could not have been redeemable by him Christ said Blessed Mat. 5. 6. are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness upon which words S. Austin asketh Quis dilaniat justitiam and addeth nè putetis morsibus fieri Who can eat Righteousness think not that this Eating is done by morsels So Pharisees devoured widows Mat. 23. 14. houses yet they did not Eat them Men are often said to feed their eyes Pascere oculos Virg. Aen. 1. and Animum pictura pascit inani in the Poet yet neither our Eyes nor our Souls can eat The Church exhorteth to feed on Christ in our hearts this is done without a
out of the Man and not made of another piece of Earth for the Woman could not have been in union with Christ except she had been taken out of the Man as Christ and all Mankind are nor could she or we have been capable of Redemption by Christ without this union with Christ in the first Man Hence it is that the Apostle saith We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Eph. 5. 30 31 32 Bones The like he saith of Christ and his whole Church They two shall be one Flesh but I speak concerning Christ and his Church This is said because all Men and Women with Christ also were originally joyned and united in Adam and therefore Prosper Prosp ad Cap. Gallorum observeth Nullus est hominum cujus natura non erat suscepta à Christo there is not any Man in the world whose Nature was not assumed by Christ Ipse Adam toto terrarum orbe sparsus est Aug. Ps 95. And St. Paul saith God hath made of one Blood all Acts 17. 26. nations of Men it is meant of the blood of the first Man by which word Blood something more is implied than only Flesh as will appear hereafter and more than Blood literally taken In the Old Testament where we read of Filius Hominis or Son of Man the same words in the Original are Ben-Adam often The Genealogy of St. Luke derives Christ from Adam and St. Paul calls Christ the Last Adam as children are called by the 1 Cor. 15. 45. names of their Progenitors therefore St. Austin to shew the original of all Men with Christ himself saith Omnis homo terrenus Aug. Retract l. 1. c. 16. est Adam every Man of the Earth is Adam for it is as easie to apprehend Christ to be the Son of Adam as to be the Son of David and of Abraham and as easie Mat. 1. 1. to understand that Christ was united with Mankind in the loins of Adam as to apprehend that Levi was in the loins of Abraham Heb. 7. 10 when Melchisedech met him which was long before Levi was begotten Moreover even when Adam was formed there was an original corporal union of all Mankind in that one parcel of Earth of which Man was made which is the reason why not only Adam but all his Posterity are called Earth and Dust O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord. Gen. 3. 19 Jer. 22. 29. The reason why I have said that the Redeemer must be united and be one with the Redeemed is because God doth not punish or reward eternally one for another but the same that performeth or transgresseth his Laws is punished or rewarded The Wise man saith He that justifieth the Prov. 17. 15. wicked and condemneth the just are both abominable to the Lord. The Jews had a cursed and murmuring Proverb among them The Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the Eze. 18. 2 Jer. 31. 29. Childrens teeth are set on edge their meaning was that their Fathers had committed that sin for which their Children were punished but God did controll that false imputation saying Every one shall die for his own sin And He that eateth sour grapes his teeth shall be set on edge and the Soul that sinneth it shall die So it is said in the Gospel Every man shall bear his own burthen Gal. 6. 5◠1 Pet. 1. 17. and God judgeth according to every Mans work Therefore the Redeemer must be really united and be as one man with the Redeemed otherwise the passions and Death of Christ the Redeemer cannot in the exact Justice of the Godhead satisfie for the sins of the People Christ said to a young man If thou wilt Mat. 19. 17. enter into life keep the Commandments This must be confessed to be true that no man can be saved except he perform the Law If it be enquired how any meer man can enter into Life seeing every one transgresseth the Law We answer that every true and faithfull Member of Christ fulfilleth the Law because Christ hath performed it who is One with his Members This weighty and necessary Doctrine of the union of Christ with Mankind is evidently and plentifully declared both in the Holy Scriptures and also in the Writings of the Fathers which I have elsewhere shewed at large in the Gospel Christ said I am the Vine ye are the branches the root stock and branches of the Vine are Joh. 15. 5 but one Tree St. Paul saith of Christ and of men that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow Plants or planted together planted in Adam and we being many are one body in Christ and Rom. 6. 5 Rom. 12. 5. as the Body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ And your 1 Cor. 12. 12. 1 Cor. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 12. 27. Gal. 3. 28 bodies are the members of Christ and ye are the Body of Christ and members in particular and therefore the same Apostle saith of the Galatians Ye are all one in Christ Jesus The union or Oneness of men with Christ doth not consist only in this that Christ communicateth his Spirit to us men but also in that Christ and all Mankind were originally together in the first Man and are all derived from the flesh and blood of him as I noted before from the words of St. Paul Acts 17. 26. that God made of one blood all Nations of men and that one Blood was the blood of Adam For although we never were in the loins of Christ nor derived from him yet because Christ and we and all Generations of men were originally in the loins of Adam therefore in him we were then all united CHAP. V. IN the next place we are to enquire what was the Doctrine of the Fathers concerning the Body of Christ and also concerning the Union of the Head with the members thereof 1. The Body of Christ in Scripture hath a double signification 1. It signifieth the natural proper and individual or personal Body of Christ of which it is said a woman poured ointment on his Body and Joseph begged Mat. 26. 12 27 58 the Body of Jesus 2. The Body of Christ signifieth his Body Mystical that is the whole Corporation of Christ and his Members of which it is said He is the Head of his body the Church Col. 1. 18 Christs Natural body is but a part of his Mystical body as our head is but a part of our natural body And as the head and other parts of our natural body are visibly united so Christ and all his Members are united and joyned by an invisible Tie or knot both in Flesh and Soul as will hereafter appear as also in one Spirit proceeding from Christ the Head and communicating it self to every particular member of that great Mystical Body as it is said of the precious Ointment upon the
any need of or benefit by such a Presence but the true and concerning and beneficial Presence of Christ is in and with the Communicants which Presence is effected by the Union of his Flesh and Soul with our flesh and soul so as hath been before shewed Wherefore if we will be content and rest satisfied with this plain and easie Exposition of those words of Christ which I firmly believe to be true viz. that the Eating and Drinking of His flesh and blood signifieth only the union or conjunction of his Flesh and Soul with our flesh and soul all difficulties and obscurities will be cleared without any violence to those words of Christ And the order and method in which the just and mercifull Godhead proceeded in preparing and in making a way to the Redemption of our lapsed Nature will be to our great Consolation made manifest to us We have seen before how our flesh and the Flesh of Christ have been united in the next place we are now to show how the Union of our souls with his Soul hath been wrought and really performed CHAP. XIX IN order to the understanding of the Union of our Souls with the Soul of Christ which is mysteriously vailed by an obscure description under a Figurative Speech of Drinking his Blood we are first to enquire of and to find out the Original or Spring whence both Christ and we have derived and received our Souls For if it may appear that the human Soul of Christ did proceed from the very same Fountain from which all Men in the world have received their Souls then it cannot be denied that his Soul and our souls were joyned and united in that one Original Fountain which is the Soul of the first Man For why should it seem less credible or harder to conceive that all Human Souls are derived and have proceeded from that one Soul of the first Man than to believe and acknowledge that all Human Bodies Christs and all are derived and propagated from the body or lump of the said first Man Surely no Learned or but Intelligent Christian will deny that Christ and all Men were united in the Loins of Adam Now if it be enquired whence or from whom Christ immediately received his Soul We answer that he received it from his Blessed Virgin Mother and in her Womb and that it was derived and propagated from her Virgin Soul for he had no Earthly Father from whose Thigh his Soul could be propagated If it be again enquired whence the blessed Virgin received her Soul We answer that she also received it from her Mothers Soul and in the Womb and so we affirm of all the souls of Men and Women that they are propagated from the souls of their Mothers and that this Propagation ascendeth ultimately unto Eve the first Woman from whose Soul the Soul of Christ and the Souls of all her Posterity are descended If it be farther enquired when Eve had and received her Soul We answer that she received her Soul with her Body also from the first Man her Body from his Body and her Soul from his Soul and whence Adam received his Soul the Scripture evidently declareth that his Soul was immediately Created and Inspired by God in these words God breathed into his nostrils the Gen. 2. 7. breath of Life and Man became a living Soul We farther affirm that the Soul of Adam was the only Soul that was created by God and also that from that one Soul all human Souls from that time till now and also untill the end of the World are and will be derived and propagated We read not of any other particular Soul in the Holy Scriptures that was immediately created by God because indeed all Human Souls were Originally couched and virtually included in that one Prime Soul of the first Man Inspired by God Good Reader observe with me that Bucan p. 86. 88. Woolnor p. 77. which hath been formerly observed by other Writers that those words which our English Translation renders the breath of Life Gen. 2. 7. might and should more fitly and truly have been rendred the breath of Gen. 2. 7. Chaiim of Lives Lives Spiraculum Vitarum Because in the Original the word which is translated Life is a word Plural and signifieth Lives it may therefore reasonably be conceived that the most wise Spirit of God intended to signifie by that Plural word that the whole multitude of human Lives and Souls were potentially and virtually residing in that one created Soul of Adam and were to be derived and propagated from thence to all Mankind Christ and all as being the Spring and Fountain of all future Souls for of him only and of none other it is said that God breathed into him the Breath of life or lives We know that the first Woman had a Soul proper to her self but we find not that God did newly Create or Breath into her a new and several Soul because she did receive her soul from the Man and so it must have been produced for weighty Reasons and not any other way her soul was derived from his soul the Godhead did not create two Originals or Fountains of souls nor of bodies for both the flesh and the soul of Eve and of all Men with Christ also were necessarily to be derived from the flesh and soul of Adam for otherwise although the first Man and the first Woman were united in flesh yet they had not been united in Soul except Eve's soul had been derived from the soul of Adam nor could the soul of Christ by any other way have come from Adams soul and consequently he could not have been the Redeemer of the souls of Adams Posterity Certainly all Men in the World are Adamites both in respect of their bodies and also of their souls so is Christ himself Ben-Adam therefore the Apostle calls him the Last Adam because he was the Son of 1 Cor. 15. 45. Adam therefore he is called by his Fathers name By reason of the Union of our bodies with Christs Body in the loyns of Adam the Apostle saith we are members of his Flesh and by reason of the Union of all Mens souls in that one Original Soul of Adam the same Apostle said to the Athenian Philosophers that God hath made of one Blood Acts 17. 26. all Nations of Men. Blood in Scripture signifieth the soul as hath been proved before and so I believe it doth in that place and so the meaning must be that God hath made of one Soul all the souls of all nations of Men which surely is true For if their was a necessity in order to the Redemption of our Bodies that the Redeemer must have received his flesh by Propagation from the first Man the like necessity must needs be for the Redemption of our Souls that the Redeemer must have received his Soul by Traduction from the Soul of the same first Man in whom the Redeemer and the Redeemed were
erroneous and untheological and will appear anon to be Heretical because it is destructive of the Doctrine of Redemption except we will confine it and understand it to be spoken only of the Soul of Adam which was the first and the only human Soul that ever could truly and properly be said to be so created and infused Neither is the time of Drinking the Blood of Christ to be confined or thought to be first performed when we receive the Sacrament thereof because the Blood of Christ is not really in the Sacramental Chalice neither is his Soul there but his blood or Soul are in the Communicants for this drinking of his Blood which is really intended by those words must have been performed although the Sacrament had never been set up for we drink the Blood of Christ at our quickning in the Womb because then our blood or souls are united with the Blood or Soul of Christ when we are not in any capacity of Receiving the Sacrament thereof Therefore all the Latine Fathers and all later Theological Writers although they are of several and opposite Persuasions in Religion yet they generally Read those words of Christ Nisi Biberitis which I conceive to signifie a Tense of the time past Except ye have drank as is observed before of the word Eat The flesh and blood of Christ is not now to be eaten and drank really for that was actually performed before even at our Union with his Flesh and Soul in our Mothers Wombs St. Austin upon those words Psal 22. Aug. in Psal 21. 10. Thou art my God from my Mothers belly observeth that although God the Father was the Father of God the Son before his Incarnation and from Eternity Yet that he could not be called the God or the Lord of the Son but only in consideration of his intended Incarnation And because the Son in the womb of the Virgin assumed the whole Human Nature and not only Flesh nor only a Soul but both therefore God the Father became his God and his Lord the God and the Lord both of his Body and of his Soul This the same Father divers times observeth as namely on the 136 Psalm and also in his To. 6. n. 17. 19. Polemicks against the Arians The Church of England evidently declareth the same Doctrine in the 2 Article of Religion in these words Christ took Mans Nature in the Womb of Art Rel. 2. the Blessed Virgin of her Substance so that two whole and perfect Natures that is to say the Godhead and the Manhood were joyned together in one Person It being granted that Christ took the whole and perfect Human Nature upon him in the Womb it must needs be consequently granted that he there received his Human Soul because neither the Flesh alone nor the Soul alone can be truly and severally called the Perfect Human Nature We know that the Ancient Church accounted Athan. de Incar n. 22. Epip haer 77. them to be Hereticks who taught that Christ assumed only his Flesh but not his Human Soul in the Womb of the Virgin The Athanasian Creed also declareth Athan. Symb. that Christ was Man of the Substance of his Mother Perfect God and Perfect Man He could not be Perfect Man of the Substance of his Mother except he had received both his Flesh and his Soul from her otherwise by her he could have been but Semivir i. an imperfect or half-man The true and real Union of the Son of God with Mankind consisteth in the assumption of his Flesh and Soul from Mankind by which assumption the Son of God became the Son of Man and by it only he is stiled Emanuel And the Union of Mankind with Christ which is called Eating the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drinking his Blood consisteth only in the propagation or derivation of our Bodies and Souls with the Body and Soul of Christ from that one Original Mass and Fountain of all Human Bodies and Souls viz. from Adam in whose loyns and Soul all Mankind with Christ himself were in the beginning United CHAP. XXII THE Doctrine of this Vnion is so necessarily to be joyned and considered with the grand Doctrine of our Redemption by Christ that it cannot reasonably be by us apprehended how our bodies or our souls can with Divine Justice be redeemed by him without the mutual Union of his Body and Soul with our bodies and souls For if Christ must necessarily have taken his Flesh of Man because he might not otherwise destroy or condemn sin in the flesh the like reason will hold concerning the Soul that he might not condemn sin in the Soul but by assuming his Rom. 8. 3 Soul from Man The Soul by sin fell as much as the Body or rather much more for the transgression of Gods Command was principally or soly the act of the Soul the body did but only execute that which the Soul prescribed and dictated The body by it self could not sin more than a sword by it self can wound or a pen alone can write St. Austin often tells us and truly Non peccat nisi Anima only the Soul Aug. de Gen. lib. 10. c. 11. sinneth The same kind of Arguments by which the Fathers answered and confuted those Hereticks who denied the traduction of the Body of Christ from the body of the first Man are as firm and strong to confute the other sort of Hereticks who denied the propagation of the Soul of Christ from the Soul of the first Man both which Heresies depraved and indeed destroyed and nulled the Doctrine of Redemption of our Bodies and Souls by the Body and Soul of Christ Epiphanius and after him St. Austin report this as the Heresie of Apollinarius Epip haer 77. Aug. in Joh. Tract 47. that he affirmed that Christ had no Human or Intellectual Soul but that his Godhead supplied all the Offices and actions of a reasonable Soul in his Body St. Jerome and St. Austin charge Origen Hier. n. 42. Aug. Epist 27. that he had taught that the Souls of Men were more Ancient than their Bodies and that they were created before their Bodies and that they came from Heaven this error of Origen appeareth in his Third Book Orig. Per. Arch. l. 3. c. 3. Lib. 4. c. ◠Perj Archoon in which he agreeth with the Opinions of Plato and Aristotle who had said that the Souls of Men were not derived from their Ancestors but came from without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These erroneous Opinions disturbed the doctrine of our redemption by Christ which Redemption necessarily presupposeth an Union of our souls with the Soul of Christ which Union cannot otherwise be found but only in the Original Fountain of all our Souls viz. in the Soul of the first Man Let it now be considered whether the present vulgar Opinions and the Doctrines of some Divines and Neoterick Writers be not altogether as destructive of the doctrine of Redemption
as those Errors of the abovesaid Ancient Hereticks were seeing these Men affirm that human Souls are by thousands dayly and newly Created whereby they busie the Godhead with new Creations of Souls upon the quickning of every Conception whereby they manifestly declare that they deny the Union of our Souls with the Soul of Christ in the first Man and consequently deprave and nullifie the doctrine of the Redemption of our souls by his Soul Certainly there must be a real Union of our Souls as well as of our bodies with the Body and Soul of Christ for otherwise he could not be a Redeemer of our bodies and souls Yet in this Doctrine concerning the Union of the Soul of Christ with the Souls of us Men which we have here asserted we are not so to be understood as if we meant or affirmed that there is but one particular Soul of all Men which was the error of Averroes an Ethnick Philosopher about 1150 Years of Christ as Tolet reporteth Tolet. in 3. Phy. neither do we approve of the Opinion of some Ancient Platonicks who said there was but one universal Soul of all Creatures in the World which they called Animam Euseb de Prae. Naz. Orat. 37. Aust de de Temp. Ser. 143. Mundi which error is taken notice of by Eusebius Nazianzen and Austin who said that those Heathens having a glimmering apprehension of the Ubiquity and general Cooperation of the Divine Spirit with all Creatures called it a Soul But our Assertion doth not in the least gainsay the Plurality of the Souls of Men more than the Plurality of their Bodies for as multitudes of fruits and flowers may grow and proceed from one Tree or one Stalk and yet we say not that they are but One fruit or but one Flower So although all our Bodies and all our Souls sprang from that One Body and that One Soul of the first Man yet there are and will be innumerable particular Bodies and Souls We affirm only this that all human Bodies are but the off-spring of that One first Body and all human Souls are but as the Daughters of that One Original Soul of Adam neither doth the Plurality of particular Souls hinder the Union of that multitude in their prime Original Fountain wherein they were radically joyned The Jews used to say that Adams Soul was in David and the Scripture saith that The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul 1 Sam. 18. 1. Acts 4. 3◠of David and that the multitude of Believers were of one Soul These sayings may be rightly understood of Union not only in regard of mutual Love Concord and Affection but also in consideration of that one Original Soul from whence all of them sprang for the Soul of Adam branched out not only to David but to Christ and also to all Men in the World and in this consideration the Soul of Jesus our Redeemer is One with our Souls being so knit and united with ours as is said therefore the holy Man Macarius thus writeth Macar Hom. 14. thereof Vna anima est Ecclesia apud Deum quia habet Communionem cum Sponso coelesti The Church is as one Soul with God having Communion with her Heavenly Spouse or one Soul is a Church as St. Paul saith of the Husband and Wife as the resemblance of Christ and his Church They two shall be one flesh and I speak of Christ and his Church and Nazianzen calls Basil Dimidium Eph. 5. 31 Naz. Orat 19. animae As for those speeches concerning Union of Souls which fell from Heathen Writers I take to be meant only of the amity and concord of Friends as that of Horace and Virgil Hor. Od. 3. Pers Sat. 5. Animae dimidium meae And of Persius Quant aque nostrae Pars tua sit cornute animae And of Ovid Qui duo corporibus mentibus unus erant Ovid de Trist And of Aristotle concerning two Friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these Heathens Diog. in Vit. Arist did not understand the mystery nor the great concernment of the Union of our souls with the Soul of Christ our God Incarnate CHAP. XXIII WE have shewed before that by reason of the Union of the flesh of Christ with our flesh Christ and his Church are looked on and considered as one Body and are so called by the Apostle Ye are the Body of Christ Much rather may we 1 Cor. 12. 27. be said to be One with Christ by reason of the Union of his Soul with our Souls for otherwise the great Mystical Body or Church of Christ wanting the life or soul of her Head would be but as a Carcass or lifeless Body neither could we be perfectly and compleatly so as the Apostle saith of the Galatians Ye are all one in Christ Jesus except Gal. 3. 28 our souls be united with his Soul nor can this Union of Souls be any other way apprehended or possibly effected but only by the Propagation of His and our Souls from the Original Soul of the first Man The Doctrine of the Propagation of all human Souls from that one and only created Soul of Adam is not new but was anciently taught and received very early in the Primitive Church although it was not fully established by general consent Tertullian in his Book de Anima clearly Tert. de Anima Cap. 27. declareth Animas ab Adamo esse that our Souls are derived from Adam and again in the same Book he saith Omnis Anima in Adamo Id. ibid. Cap. 40. censetur donec in Christo recenseatur Every Soul is censed or accounted in Adam untill it is new enrolled and accounted in Christ St. Jerome acknowledgeth this to be the Doctrine and judgment of Tertullian and he farther addeth Animas Hier. ad Marcellinum Ep. 82. To. 2. p. 254. ex traduce maxima pars Occidentalium autumant ut quomodo corpus ex corpore sic anima nascatur ex anima c. The greatest part of the Western Church holdeth that as our body was derived from the Body so our souls do spring from Souls St. Austin also disputeth very eagerly for the Traduction of Souls yet neither he nor St. Hierome Aug. Epist 28. would then presume to determine that difficult question Pelagius the Heretick was one of them Aug Epist 157. who denied the Traduction of Souls from the first Man and presuming thereon used that denial as a principle Argument against Traduction of Original sin from our Parents for surely if our Souls be not derived from them and so originally from Adam we should not be liable to the guilt of his sin because the Soul only is the seat of sin as is before shewed They that affirm and believe that God doth yet dayly create new Souls may consider whether they do not thereby manifestly fall into the Heresie of Pelagianism Aug. To. 3. n. 72. for by denying the propagation of the Soul which they
confess of the Body they consequently disbelieve the Traduction of Original sin which cannot be derived by the body alone because only the Soul is the seat and subject of sin Let them also consider whether by affirming that God doth dayly create new Souls they do not thereby charge God to be the Author of sin seeing sin is only in and by the Soul Those Scriptures which they use to alledge for the dayly creation of Human Souls will in no wise serve their turn As God giveth life to all and In him we live Acts 17. 25. 28. and move and We are his off-spring for it is true that God giveth life although it be by Propagation of life and we live by his gift and we are his off-spring because the first Soul was created by Him immediately from which first Soul all succeeding Souls were are and still will be derived That Saying in Ecclesiastes the Spirit or Soul shall return to God who gave it This Eccles 12. 7. doth not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of Propagation of souls from Adam's Soul nor doth it at all prove a daily Creation of new Souls We confess that God gave the first Soul to the first Man immediately by himself and we affirm that God daily gigiveth Souls but this daily Gift is not by way of any new Creation but only by way of Propagation from that First Soul which Propagation is effected by his daily Concurrence and Divine Cooperation with his Creatures and not otherwise And so also God daily is Operative in making Human bodies although not by way of Creation but by his Concurrence and Assistance with the ordinary means of Generation So that if we be asked who made us We may truly answer God These are the ways whereby God hath wrought from the Beginning untill this Day and this upon a most Mercifull design viz. To make us capable of Redemption by the Union of our bodies and Souls with the Body and Soul of the Redeemer Hitherto Good Reader we have endeavoured to shew the Vnion of Christ with Mankind which we have said to consist in this that Christ hath assumed both his Body and his Soul from that One and the same Root and Fountain from which all Men with Him received their Bodies and Souls and wherein He and we were originally united Now we are necessarily to enquire how Christ can be quitted more than we from that stain of corruption which is propagated from the loyns of the First Man and is called Original sin of which we are next to consider CHAP. XXIV CHrist being the Redeemer must necessarily be untainted and free from all sin not only Actual which no Christian will deny him to be but also from Original sin otherwise he cannot take away the sins of others but would require another to take away his sin The legal Type of the Redeemer was a Lamb without blemish and himself being Ex. 12. 5 the Evangelical Antitype is just so described by St. Peter A Lamb without blemish 1. Pet. 1. 19. or spot he is described by the Prophet to be lead like a Sheep to the slaughter Sheep Isa 53. 7. 2 Cor. â— 21. 1 John 3. 5. have no sin St. Paul saith he knew no sin St. John saith In him was no sin And that it was needfull for us that he should be so we are taught by the Apostle Such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless Heb. 7. 26. John 8. 46. undefiled Christ challenged his most malitious Censurers the Jews Which of you convinceth me of sin But how it came to pass that Christ could be free from that Universal contagion wherein all the other whole Race of Mankind are involved is now our Question To this Question I have answered at large in one of my former Books and I trust Satisfactorily which I shall not need Lib. 3. c. 11. De Incarn to rehearse fully in this place but only to point at the most concerning and principal Passages thereof summarily and as briefly as I can The First sin that was charged on our first Parents was their eating of the forbidden fruit but that sin was not by them transmitted to their Posterity for we did not eat thereof nor can their Posterity be charged with the Sin but only with the Curse For that first sin made them and all their Off-spring Christ and all liable and subject to the Curse denounced upon sin which was Mortality In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Hence Gen. 2. 17. it is that not only we but Christ also by taking his Flesh and his Soul from them became liable to death yet He without sin therefore the Apostle saith Christ was made Gal. 3. 13 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. a Curse for us and by Man came death and in Adam all die The Curse was Death and that Curse fell not only upon us but also upon Christ as St. Austin very truly observeth that Christ derived mortality from the substance and mortality of his Aug. cont Julia. Pelag. l. 5. Ro. 6. 23. Mother but not sin The Apostle saith The wages of sin is Death the Death of Christ was the wages of the sin of Adam and Eve but not of the sin of Christ for he had no sin therefore the Apostle very warily declareth That God sent his Son in the likeness Rom. 8. 3 of sinfull flesh he doth not say in the likeness of flesh for his Flesh was real and true flesh not only a bare similitude thereof as the Manichees said but he saith Aug. Epist 74. in the likeness of sinfull flesh that is although the Flesh of Christ was not sinfull yet it was like the flesh of other Men which is sinfull in them He was in all parts tempted Heb. 4. 15. like as we are yet without sin The second sin of our first Parents which is properly that Original sin which is from them propagated and transmitted into all their Posterity which have proceeded from the loyns of Adam and the womb of Eve by the ordinary natural way of Copulation and Generation is that sin which the Scripture calleth Concupiscence or Lust in which lust or concupiscence all children are begotten and the lust wherein they are begotten is transmitted into them from their Parents and remaineth in them as long as they live He that will carefully peruse the History of our first Parents both before and after their fall may discern what sin of theirs that was which they left as an inheritance entayled upon all their Posterity which naturally proceeded from them We find that before the Fall they were both naked Gen. 2. 25. and were not ashamed but after the Fall they were ashamed and affraid because they were naked and hid themselves and to cover that of which they were most ashamed they made them Aprons of fig-leaves Perizomata which served to cover Gen. 3. 7 10. only their Secret parts
Christ was bred in the Body of his Mother without Copulation as worms are in other Bodies and therefore without sin Eve her self was made of Adam's Body and Soul without any Copulation or lust and therefore without any derivation of sin indeed her Extraction was before the Fall and before Concupiscence was entred into the Man which yet I conceive would have so been although the Woman had not been so made till after the Fall of the Man For certain then the blessed Mother of our Redeemer was a pure Virgin untill the Birth of her Son Jesus but whether she continued and persevered in her Virginity untill her death is not necessary or much pertinent to be considered in this Question it being a full and sufficient argument of the pure and sinless Conception and Birth of Christ that he was born of the Virgin Mary during her Virginity Mariam Joseph concubitu nec cognoverat nec cogniturus erat August To 7. N. 52. Yet in the Primitive Church both Eastern and Western it was generally received as a Truth that she persisted in her Virginity to her death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks said and the Latines as Austin declares Aug. de Catechi Rudib. c. 22. Tc. 4. Maria Virgo concipiens pariens moriens It was so near an Article of their Faith that such as denied her perpetual Virginity as Helvidius in St. Jerome and Jovinian Hier. con Helv. Au. To. 7. n. 55. Epiph. Haer. 78. in St. Austin were accounted Hereticks and such are out by Epiphanius in his Catalogue of Heresies under the title of Antidicimarianitae with us since her departure she is called to this day the Virgin Mary There is a Prophetical Allegory recorded Isa 29. 11. by the Prophet in these words The Vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which Men deliver to one that is Learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is sealed This Allegory is thus unriddled by St. Chrysostome Chry. n. 59 Greg. Neo. n. 2. and before him by Gregory Neocaesaria except one of them or his Scribe borrowed it from the other they expound it of the Virgin Mary and Lyranus saith it was indeed Lâ—ra in Ice meant of the secret Coming of Christ The Book signifieth the Virgin Mother the Sealing of it was the design of God to preserve her in a Virgin Estate to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living Palace and Temple to entertain God the Man to whom this Book was delivered signified Joseph who is said to be Learned sciens literas because he had a former Wife and also Children by her as some say yet he could not or might not open or read this new Book because it was sealed or kept shut for a great and Heavenly purpose such as is before said Thus they just so St. Ambrose and St. Austin expound that Vision of Ezechiel concerning tâ—e shut Gate by which Ezek. 44. 2. no Man might enter because the God of Israel hath entred in by it This Gate signified Mary who was semper intacta Joseph vir non Ambr. n. 49. Aug. T. 10. n. 51. transit per eam Deus Israel ingressus est eam The Virgin Mother is often called by the Fathers Porta Coeli and a Book hath the name of the Writer as the Eunuch read Isaias Acts 8. 28. And Moses is read every Sabbath-day Acts 15. 21. Aug. Ps 121. St. Austin calls himself a Book Nos sumus Codex eorum qui legere non noverunt So the Virgin Mary is that Book This I trust is enough to shew the meaning of those Mysterious words of Christ concerning the Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood The CONCLVSION HItherto we have shewed the Real Vnion of Christ with Mankind both in Flesh and in Soul and the Modus or manner how it is brought to pass And that it doth not consist in Eating and Drinking the Sacramental Bread and Wine for without that Men may be Redeemed and Saved but not except they Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood Now for Conclusion I shall only enquire what effects and issues are produced by this Vnion which is signified by Eating and Drinking And these I find to be Two 1. Immortality of all Human Souls whatsoever because all Men good and bad are united with Christ in Soul 2. The Resurrection of all Human Bodies both of holy and unholy Persons because all are united with Christ in Flesh Both the effects may clearly appear by the words of Christ For First he saith Except ye Eat the Flesh John 6. 53. c. ye have no life in you therefore they that have so eaten his Flesh c. have life in them Secondly In the very next words he saith Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood 54. hath Eternal Life and I will raise him up at the Last day 1. Eternal Life is meant of the Immortality of all Human Souls 2. Raising up at the Last day signifieth the Resurrection of Human Bodies at the last Judgment From these Premises we may easily collect that because all Men both Good and Bad are really united with Christ both in Soul and Flesh as hath been proved before therefore all Men both good and bad shall have Eternal life viz. Immortality of Souls and Resurrection of Bodies If it be questioned whether the Damned may be said to have Eternal life because they have been united with Christ so as is said We answer Yes For their Souls are Immortal as really as the Souls of the Blessed and their Bodies shall be raised to Life at the general Resurrection as truly as the Bodies of the Saints both the Blessed and the Damned in Bodies and in Souls shall then have Everlasting life the one in happiness the other in Misery And although the Miserable State and condition of the Damned as Beza saith Bez. Cat. p. 31. is not worthy to be called Life and is therefore called Eternal Death and Everlasting Damnation yet it is such a death as is called Mors sine morte 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it Aug. T. 13. n. 31. Letan Longa sic morte necabat Virg. Aen. l. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 26. is a living death and endless living in misery it is a life though worse than death or annihilation and such an everlasting life as Devils have The mention of Everlasting fire implieth everlasting Bodies and in that it is said that Death is to be destroyed this argues that then there will be no more Dying and therefore it is said The Dead shall be raised incorruptible And this mortal shall put on Immortality and this is true both of the Good and of the Bad for all must stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ and Rom. 14. 10. Apost Nicaen Athan. this is confessed in all our Church Creeds The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting and
Head Psa 133. which ran down upon the beard of Aaron and went down to the skirts of his garments the ointment signified the Spirit and its graces In consideration of this Union by those three knots or ligaments just now mentioned the Fathers looked on Christ and his Members and considered them so united as upon one Body or one Man or one universal Person because there is no one man or woman in the World whose nature Christ hath not assumed whereof St. Ambrose saith In Christo summa universalitatis Ambr. de chit Saty. To. 4. p. 146. est portio singulorum Christ is as the total Summ of all men and a portion or parcel of every man To the same purpose Prosper saith Tota Ecclesia cum Christo capite Prosp Ps 102. Id. Ps 131. est unus homo and in another place he saith Tota civitas Dei est unus homo in capite corpore The whole Church with Christ the Head is one Man and the whole City of God is but one Man in the head and body St. Austin is very plentifull and Aug. in Joh. Tra. 108. plain in this matter of Vnion and saith Vnus est Christus caput corpus ipsi sunt ego and in another place Vnus Homo caput Aug. Ps 127. Id. Ps 30. corpus Christi sumus non solum Christiani and again Christus est multa membra unum Corpus The meaning of all is that they are but one Body and are considered as one Person for as the Head and the other parts altogether are but one man so Christ and all his mystical Members are but one whole Christ which whole mystical Body consisting of Christ the Head and Christians the members thereof the same Father often calleth Christum totum and Aug. in Ps 36. 37. alibi Christum plenum and Christum universum and Plenitudinem Christi and Christum diffusum that is the whole full universal diffused Christ or the fulness of Christ St. Paul also useth the same expression concerning Christ and his Members He God Eph. 1. 22 23. hath given him to be head over all things to the Church which is his Body the fulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that filleth all in all So that Christ himself with his Church are here said to be the full Christ or fulness of Ps 82. Christ And as in Scripture many are called 1 Cor. 8. 5. Psal 105. 15. Gods although there is but one God because God distributes his Spirit to them So many are called Christs Nolite tangere Christos meos because Christ hath united himself with them both by his Spirit and by his Flesh of which union of his Flesh himself saith He that eateth my flesh dwelleth John 6. 56. in me and I in him because he hath taken his flesh from the same Original whence our flesh is derived therefore as our flesh dwelleth in him so his Flesh dwelleth in us St. Hilary in his 8. Book de Trinitate Hil. n. 3. declareth the union of the Flesh of Christ with the flesh of Men and those not only holy and spiritual men but also with unholy and carnal men in these words Habemus in nobis carnalibus manentem per carnem Christum we that are but carnal men have Christ by his flesh remaining in us And just so writeth the venerable and blessed Martyr Archbishop Cranmer in his Book against Bish Gardiner That Christ did unite himself with us as Man by his Incarnation But this necessary Doctrine of mutual union of Christ and Mankind hath been too much neglected by late Divines who have but only hinted or lightly touched it whereunto in their Disputes concerning the Eating of the flesh of Christ they have been necessarily driven which Doctrine is of such weighty concernment that it deserveth very serious and diligent inquisition There is a very hard and dark passage of St. Paul concerning Christs delivering up his Kingdom and of his subjection to God in the Exposition thereof many Divines have greatly and dangerously erred in dethroning Christ as if those words did signifie the Period and utter ending of his Kingdom which we are sure must last for ever The words of St. Paul are these When the end cometh he shall deliver up the Kingdom 1 Cor. 15. 24. 28. to God even the Father and then shall the Son himself be subject to him c. These words cannot possibly be rightly understood but only by considering Christ and his Members joyntly as one full and whole Christ for though the Man Christ considered only by himself in his own particular Person and only in his Manhood always was is and for ever will be subject to the Godhead yet the whole Christ that is not only his self alone but his mystical Members even his Saints and his Elect at or after the final Judgment shall be so subject and so perfectly and compleatly obedient to the Godhead as they never yet were nor ever will be during this World of which Subjection and Union I have elsewhere written at large CHAP. VI. BUt why doth Christ require this Eating in these terms and words of the Flesh of the Son of Man Why might he not rather have said Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God For the flesh of Christ was the flesh of God the Son and God the Word St. John saith the Word was made Joh. 1. 14. Flesh and his Blood is expresly called the Blood of God by the great Apostle Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with Acts 20. 28. his own Blood and St. John calls his life and death the life and death of God Hereby we perceive the love of God because he hath 1 John 3. 16. laid down his life for us And his Virgin Mother is often called by the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parent or Mother of God 1. To this we answer First That the Son of God considered only and singly as the Son of God in his pure Godhead and only as God the Word and as he was in the form of God only and without Incarnation could not be our Redeemer and if he had continued so as to be only the Son of God as he was from Eternity and had never taken our human Nature upon him so as to be thereby really the Son of Man he could not be the Christ neither could any obligation or engagement have been upon him to perform the Law which Law was imposed only upon Mankind neither could he have redeemed us because he could not die being not mortal otherwise then by assuming our Mortal nature into Personal union with his Immortal and Divine nature Therefore in order to the office of a Redeemer he must become a Man and his flesh must needs be the flesh of the Son of Man 2. Secondly We say That although the Son of God had really assumed a body and
in the Primitive times of the Church which depraved the Doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ and thereby greatly disturbed even nulled the Doctrine of Redemption and therefore the Fathers took special notice of them and strongly confuted them 1. The ancient Heresie of the Valentinians Epiph. haer 31. was that the Flesh of Christ came from Heaven and only passed through the Womb of the Virgin Mary as water through a conduit pipe But the Angel said to her Thou shalt Lu. 1. 31. conceive in thy womb and her Cozen Elizabeth being then inspired by God said to her Blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb therefore 42. if Christ were Conceived and were the Fruit of the womb he surely was not only a Passenger or only as a Traveller in an Inn or as a Guest or Stranger but he is expresly called a Son which could not be if he were not bred in the Virgins womb 2. Apelles and his Sect said that Christ Epiph. haer 44. made himself a Body of the Elements and that he did not receive his Flesh from the Virgin 3. The Manichees said that the flesh and Aug. epist 74. body of Christ was not a true and real body and flesh but only a similitude or shape thereof and a meer Phantasm They confessed him to be God but denied that he was Man contrary to the blasphemy of the Jews who knew him to be a Man but would not confess or believe that he was God 4. Some Anabaptists also in the former Pat. Symson cent 16. Century sprang up in Germany who said That Christ took not his flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary but brought them with him from Heaven Those Anabaptists fell into this Heresie by misunderstanding som passages of Scripture where it is said The Son of Man Joh. 3. 13 6. 38. came down from Heaven and where Christ said of himself I came down from Heaven And where St. Paul said The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. Apollinarius dixit carnem Christi ab aeterno fuisse de coelo descendisse Soz. l. 6. c. 27. But those sayings which are meant properly of the Godhead of the Son of Man yet are also truly said of the whole Person of Christ by an Antidosis or communication of Properties as Divines call it which consisteth in this That the two distinct Natures in Christ viz. the Godhead and the Manhood do both of them communicate their several properties each to other by reason of the Union of those two distinct Natures in that one Person of Christ Hence it is that the Scripture so speaketh of the Person of Christ They crucified the Lord of Glory And the blood of 1 Cor. 2. 8 Acts 20. 28. Acts 3. 15 Christ is called the Blood of God And the Jews are said to have crucified the Prince of Life And of the Thief Christ said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. yet Christ himself was not then in Paradise as Man but only as God In the same sense the words of Christ above-mentioned are to be understood The Son of Man came from Heaven which is true because the same Son of Man was also the Son of God and the only God who indeed came down from Heaven Not only the Hereticks but the Heathens also depraved and obscured the Doctrine of Redemption by affirming that Men at first sprang out of Trees or grew out of the Earth Rupto robore nati Juvenal Sat. 6. Compositique luto nullos habuere parentes And the Jews also said that God made at first two Women for Adam although we find but one and her taken out of the side of the first Man flesh of his flesh the other must have been otherwise made whereupon the Jews feigned Genealogies as derived from the womb of the second Woman which are those Genealogies which St. Paul called vain as St. Austin thought Aug. To. 6. n. 16. 1 Tim. 1. 4. which Jewish fiction depraved the doctrine of our Union with Christ and consequently of universal Redemption of Mankind because that Work was limited and confined to the Seed of Eve who was that Woman whose Seed should bruise the serpents head who was the only Woman that was taken out of Adams side and all Nations of men with Christ also have proceeded from the loins and womb of that one Man and that one Woman This necessary Vnion was intimated by the Prophets and also by the Apostle by the similitude of earthen Vessels and of bread The Potter hath power over the clay of the same lump to make one Vessel to honour Isa 45. 9. Jer. 18. 6. Ro. 9. 21. 2 Cor. 4. 7. another to dishonour and St. Paul calleth our bodies earthen Vessels Christ also and his Members are resembled to Bread in respect of their Union and communion one with the other The Bread which we break 1 Cor. 10. 16. is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ for we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread The similitude holds in this that as many earthen Vessels are made out of one lump of clay and many Breads or loaves out of one dough or lump of Past wherein they were first united before they were extracted and severally formed just so all Men in the world with Christ himself were at first united in that one lump or mass of the first Man before they were extracted of which Union St. Paul saith that God hath made of one blood whatever blood signifieth all Nations of Acts 17. 26 Men. CHAP. VIII THe Eating of the flesh of Christ certainly signifieth only the Vnion of our flesh with his Flesh which Vnion was from Eternity designed by the Godhead in his mercifull purpose towards Mankind his future and intended Creatures as hath been before shewed But then if so we are next to enquire why it pleased our Redeemer to express and declare this Vnion by such seeming-harsh and tragical Words of Eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which if literally and grosly understood of Oral eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Man are such things as all civilized People both Christians and Heathens abhor and those that have been observed so to do as Pliny writeth of the ancient and rude Plin. hist lib. 7. c. 2. Scythians are branded with a character of barbarous savageness and inhumanity as Plutarch and Salust noted of the Catilinarian Plut. in vit Cicer. Salust de bel Catil conspirators that they entred a wicked Covenant by a bloody ceremony of killing a man and tasting of his flesh and drinking of his blood mingled with Wine and St. Jerom writeth that himself saw Hier. con Jovin l. 2. c. 5. barbarous People in France feeding on human flesh The Answer hereunto is That our Saviour therefore chose this similitudinary way to express our Union with himself because he
would signifie a necessity of our most near conjunction with him so as to be one flesh with his Flesh in order to the Redemption of our bodies by his Body which otherwise could not be as is shewed before for there cannot be a surer Union than such as our food with us which unites it self and grows into one bulk with our Bodies as is before said the whole stature and increase of our magnitude from Cap. 2. our Nativity our augmentation from one cubit at our Birth to five cubits at our full and ripe Age is wholly by our food so that nothing is more ours than that There was a truth in that Epitaph of the voluptuous King Sardanapalus Haec habui Plut. mor. Diod. Sic. quae edi he accounting nothing to be his but what he had eaten for when all other worldly acquirements of lands wealth treasures and honours at our death are utterly lost that only by which our Food is united with us shall be restored and after the Resurrection will continue with us for ever and must he accounted ours Like this union is the Union of our flesh with the Flesh of Christ in the first Man which is the ground of our Redemption and of the Resurrection of our bodies without which neither could be more than the resurrection of brute beasts for in the first Man was the general Atonement of mankind with Christ both in flesh and in Soul by which Vnion Mankind is made capable of claiming the benefits of his Merits and of the Passions of his blessed Body and Soul Christ saith No man hath ascended Joh. 3. 13 into heaven but the Son of Man c. upon which words St. Austin saith Si vis ascendere Aug. in loc esto in Christo whosoever shall ascend into heaven must necessarily be in Christ that is united with Christ for except we so eat the Flesh of the Son of Man c. we have John 6. no life in us This doctrine of Vnion was represented and signified by Christ in the Institution of his Holy Supper by eating and drinking that sanctified Bread and Wine That Sacrament is therefore called by St. Cyprian the Sacrament of Redemption and by St. Austin the Sacrament of Vnion and both Cap. 2. the Scripture and the Church call it the Communion which word clearly signifieth the mutual Union of Christ and Mankind as is before shewed which the Primitive Fathers did so rightly apprehend as may appear by a general usance practised in those times in the office of the Sacrament In the Sacramental Chalice the Fathers for many Ages tempered or mixed water with the Wine although we find neither Precept nor Precedent for it in the holy Scriptures yet de facto it appeareth that so it was by many evidences in the Fathers as in Justin Martyr Cyprian Ambrose Chrysostom and Austin which Custome is to this day continued in many Places and Churches and by reason of the Antiquiry thereof it is pretended to be an Apostolical Tradition and very early instituted as a Canon by Alexander the first who was Bishop of Rome about the year of Christ 118. as Platina reports Of this Usance St. Cyprian renders this Cyp. l. 2. epist 3. reason and plausible account in an Epistle written to Caecilius in the sacred Chalice saith he the Water signifieth the People and the Wine representeth Christ Vinum sine aqua est Christus sine Populo Aqua sine vino est Populus sine Christo Wine alone may signifie Christ without his People and water alone may signifie the People without Christ but both together so mingled in the Chalice was to signifie that Christ and his People were so united concorporated and entwined one with the other as the wine with the water therefore Christ said He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my John 6. Blood dwelleth in me and I in him which is as much as if he had said he that dwelleth in me is he that Eateth my flesh which dwelling is mutual for by this Union the flesh of Christ dwelleth in us and our flesh in him There were a Sect of Hereticks called Theod. haer fab lib. 1. Hydroparastatae or Aquarii set up by one Tatianus mentioned in Theodoret who consecrated water only in the Sacramental Chalice without Wine and are therefore by St. Austin put into his Catalogue of Hereticks under the title of Aquarii because Aug. T. 6. haer 64. water alone did not represent that mutual Union of Christ and his People which the Church intended as is before said by their mixture of Water with Wine CHAP. IX THere were in the Primitive times some Hereticks who thought those words of Christ concerning the eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood were to be understood grosly and literally of Oral eating just as the Transubstantiators at this day pretend and as formerly the Disciples of Capernaum thought when they asked how can this Man give us his flesh to eat Upon which words St. Austin saith Discipuli ejus Aug. in Psal 25. acceperunt id stultè carnaliter cogitantes quòd Dominus praescisurus erat particulas de corpore suo eis daturus Those Disciples apprehended that speech foolishly and carnally thinking that he would cut his Body in pieces and give it them The Manichees said that when men did eat fruits or herbs or other food that then they did eat the parts or Members of God mingled with those creatures As St. Austin Aug. cont Faust l. 13. c. 6. reporteth of them The Gnostick Hereticks used for their Mysteries or Sacraments to bruise the flesh of a new-born Babe in a mortar and to eat it with Honey and Pepper and for this they pretended those words of Christ Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man c. as Epiphanius reporteth Epiph. hâ—â—r 26. Hie. Epi. ad Marcel n. 18. Epip haer 48. The Montanists also cruelly and impiously used to prick the veins of a sucking Child and with it to knead Meal and of both to make their Encharist as Epiphanius reporteth and St. Cyril of Jerusalem nameth Cyril cat 16. a Montanist-Woman one Midra who practised this cruelty in the 16th Catechism of Illuminates if those Catechismes be his Now let the prudent Reader consider whether the Doctrine of the Transubstantiators be not grounded on the same misunderstood Principle on which the above-named Hereticks founded their Errors and cruel practices viz. on those words of Christ Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man c. These practices brought a great suspicion and raised scandalous reports upon the ancient Christians as Epiphanius observes Epip haer 26. 29. for because those Hereticks who did really in their Mysteries so do as is said and called themselves Christians therefore the Jews and the Gentiles and Persecutors thought that all true and Catholick Christians did the same Salvianus tells us that Salv. n. 6. the
believing they tremble and although they believe as we do yet they have not so eaten nor are so united with Christ as Mankind is I may truly say of Angels Credunt sed non edunt because they are not so united they are utterly uncapable of the benefit of Christs Incarnation and therefore of Redemption by him There have been and still are many Millions of People in the World who never believed the Christian Faith as Pagan-Infidels and Jews and such as are above-mentioned Cap. 10. and many barbarous and uncivilized People that still sit in darkness and in the shadow of death who never so much as heard of Christ Yet all these being the Redemtion is as broad as Human nature Bish Bedels Letter pa. 26. race and posterity of Adam have every one so eaten the flesh of the Son of Man as is here meant that is they are united with the flesh of Christ in the loyns of the first Man which Union was actuated at their conceptions in the Wombs of their mothers although they never were or perhaps never will be Believers of all such I may say Edunt sed non credunt therefore this Eating cannot be meant only of Believing St. Austin in his 25. Tractate on St. John Aug. in Joh. writing upon those words in the 6. Chapter This is the work of God that ye believe Joh. 6. 29 on him whom he hath sent saith Quid paras dentes ventrem crede manducasti Why preparest thou thy teeth and thy stomach believe and thou hast eaten by which passage some have thought that St. Austin meant that Believing was the only way of Eating the flesh of Christ But the contrary is proved before and if St. Austin were of that Opinion he is not to be followed therein yet I am confident that he did not so mean because I find that this learned Father hath divers times otherwise expounded those words which mention the Eating and Drinking the flesh and blood of Christ to be meant of our Incorcorporation in him which must signifie the union of our flesh with his Flesh for so he Aug. lib. 3. con Pelagian c. 4. to 7. n. â—9 saith of those words John 6. Nisi manducaveritis carnem nemo potest vitam aeternam habere nisi incorporetur Christo No man can have Eternal life except he be incorporated in Christ And in another place he bringgeth in Christ saying Qui venit ad me incorporatur Id. in Joh. Tract 25. Ibid. Tract 27. mihi he that cometh to me is incorporated in me Again he saith Manducare illam escam est manere in Christo Christum manentem in se habere to eat that Food is to abide in Christ and to have Christ abiding in him And in the same Tractate he thus sheweth the union or conjunction of Christs Flesh with our flesh Siquis liquefactae cerae c. If a man shall Id. ibid. melt wax and then put other melted wax into it he wholly mingleth the one with the other Just so is it with the flesh of Christ and our flesh whereby it comes to be truly said by Christ He that eateth my Joh. 6. 56 Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him for certainly that God the Creator might effect this Union of Mankind with the Redeemer he extracted all out of one as Prosp very judiciously observeth Deus ex uno fecit omnes ut in Christi corpus Prosp de Prov. n. 39. venirent God made men Christ and all out of one Adam that all Men might come into the Body of Christ If now it be granted that St. Austin did intend those words to signifie so as is above said then they will amount no farther than this which to me seemeth a true gloss and as much as if he had said think it not needfull to prepare thy mouth to eat the Flesh of Christ for Crede manducasti thou hast so eaten his Flesh already as he meant by being united with him in the very Conception only believe in him and thereby that Eating or Vnion shall be profitable for thee and not otherwise because the Union or Concarnation of our flesh with his without Faith cannot reach so far as to Salvation for the very worst of men as is said before are united in flesh with the Flesh of Christ The Wisdom of the Godhead with Justice and Mercy designed this our Union with the flesh of God the Son on purpose to qualifie and prepare our foreseen lapsed Nature so as by this way to put Mankind into a condition and capacity of Redeemableness and so of Salvation possibly which could not otherwise be consistent with Divine Justice as neither could it become his Mercy to have created Mankind on purpose to torment us for ever in Hell Our perdition is not from him but from our selves for he would not the death of a Ezek. 18. 32. sinner therefore hath he set us into this way and possibility of Life For the Nature of Mankind hath been in three several conditions which Divines express by these three words 1. Natura Instituta 2. Natura Destituta 3. Natura Restituta By which they mean the state of Innocency the state of our Fall and the state of our Recovery by Christ The first was whilst our first Parents who were created pure and holy continued in that Original Integrity without sin The second was after their Fall or Sin by which they became destitute and were deprived of their prime Graces and Purity and we by them The third condition is our restitution to Grace and Pardonableness by Christ who being the Son of God to effect this Restitution became the Son of Man by assuming the same Nature which we have and in that Nature perfectly performed that Law of God which was imposed upon us in our behalf and for us and moreover bare in his own Body the punishments due for the sins of our lapsed Nature All the wisdom of Men and Angels could not find out a way whereby lapsed Mankind could with justice be restored but the mercifull Godhead effected it by God the Son to become Emanuel this was the Lords doing only Or if any creature had known or discovered the same means what Man or Angel or Archangel durst presume to have suggested it to the Godhead so as to say Thou O God hast imposed a Law on man which Mankind by all its own power being lapsed cannot possibly perform And thou hast threatned death for transgression thereof which no Man possibly by himself can escape therefore do thou O God thine own self perform thine own Law and to this end abase thy self and assume mans Nature on thee and suffer the punishment due to Man for otherwise the whole Generation of Mankind must perish everlasting How unlikely or rather impossible would this suggestion seem to any Creature ever to take effect Yet the mercifull Godhead in great power and wisdom
hath been Cap. 11. said before and more will be said in its due place The prime cause of the propagation of Human souls is the gift of God by his Benediction recorded in these words God blessed them and said unto them be fruitfull Gen. 1. 28. and multiply and replenish the Earth Can we imagin that this Benediction of fruit-fulness and multiplying should extend to flesh or bodies only and not to Souls Whereas the like blessing of fishes and fowls enabled them to produce and propagate not only bodies but the whole Creatures viz. both the bodies and the souls of their Kinds of which Benediction we thus read God created Whales and every living creature Gen. 1. 21. which moveth and every winged fowl and God blessed them and said be fruitfull 22. and multiply c. By vertue of this Benediction those Creature are enabled unto this day to produce their kinds both in bodies and in souls This gift and blessing of fruitfulness both of fowl and of cattle is also again renewed after the Flood and repeated Gen. 8. 17. and also of Mankind Gen. 8. 17. 9. 1. Gen. 9. 1. God blessed Noah and his Sons and said unto them be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the Earth It may seem strange that those Divines who confess the Traduction of our bodies with the Body of Christ from the loyns of the first Man as being necessary for Redemption of our bodies yet that they should deny the Traduction of our Souls with the Soul of Christ from the first Man which is altogether as needfull for the Redemption of our Soul In the Holy Scripture care is taken to declare the derivation of our souls from our Parents rather than of our Bodies because that of Souls is more secret than the other of Bodies Gen. 46. 26. it is said Gen. 46. 26. All the souls which came with Jacob into Egypt which came out of his loyns or thigh all the Souls were sixty and six How Souls can be truly said to come from the loyns or thigh of the Man without a Figure or Metonymy is hard to be understood except we will thus apprehend it viz. that although the Souls of Mankind being in the Womb are immediately and truly derived from the souls of the Mothers yet they are here said to come from the loyns of the Man because the seed of Conception which came from the Man hath it it self Potentiam receptivam a power or capacity of receiving the soul or life though it hath not Potentiam productivam any power of it self to produce or introduce the Soul And because the Womb alone without that seminal conception from the Man cannot produce a soul or life therefore are the Souls said to come from the loyns of the Man for there never was nor ever will be a Child-bearing Woman without the Cooperation of Man or Malekind except only that miraculous Childbirth of Christ by his blessed Virgin-Mother which was wrought by the Holy Ghost Nor was there ever any Soul derived immediately from Man but only the soul of Eve which accompanied her flesh The reports of Buddas Plaeto are Fables Hier. n. 14. at her Production out of the side of the Man But ever since Eve all her Posterity have received their lives or souls in the Womb from the lives or souls of their Mothers as may appear probably by the time when the Conception is first animated in the Womb which is next to be considered CHAP. XXI COncerning the time when the said Conception in the Womb is first animated or enlivened with a Soul which is called Quickning both Philosophers and learned Physicians and also our experienced Matrons who have born and brought forth many children have informed us That some Conceptions are not quickned but about the end of 20 Weeks others at 15 Weeks and some at 10 Weeks and surely at the first instant or beginning of the Conception the Soul is not presently Infused So Aristotle acknowledgeth that the soul is not Arist de Gen. Ani. l. 2. c. 3. then Actually in the conceived Seed but only Potentially so as is before said Now if it be granted that our souls come from the Souls of our Parents and also that they are not transmitted with the Seed from the Father it will follow that they cannot in reason be thought to be propagated from the Father because no Man will believe that after so long a time whilst the Conception remains in the womb without life or soul and also the Man being absent in a far remote distance of place from the Woman as it may and doth many times happen I say it cannot be imagined that at the instant of Quickning the Soul or Life should wander from the Father by a kind of Metempsychosis or Transmigration unto the mothers Womb. This being impossible it must follow that the Soul necessarily doth proceed and is derived only and immediately from the Soul of the mother wherein if she fail by reason of some continued Indisposition of the Womb she is called Barren and because the Animation of the Conception is only from the Woman therefore because of her failing therein Barrenness is imputed only to the Jer. 22. 30. Woman and not at all to the Man though Childless It is so with the Seed of Man which is conceived in the Womb as it is with meat received into the stomach which hath no life in it self Actually but it hath a power or capacity to receive life which life it will afterwards actually receive when it shall be really united with the former parts of the Body for then the life and soul will enter into it as they did before into all the additional parts of our Bodies for we see that our bodies have been augmented by our food and have grown into so great a bulk from our so small dimensions at our Birth This being evidently true why should it seem less credible that the Soul of the mother entreth into and enliveneth her Conception in the womb then it is to believe and acknowledge that the Soul doth enter into and enliven the new acquired parts of our Bodies which have been added by our food The time and manner of the Soul 's entring into the Conception is thus described by that learned Physician before mentioned when saith he the parts of the Embryon are once shaped formed and perfected Jac. Horstius to that use in the womb then doth the life or soul of the Mother together with the Vital Spirit proceed from her heart and enter into that fruit of her womb This is the time when we receive our Souls by traduction from the souls of our Mothers and this is the time of the Vnion of our souls with the Soul of Christ which Christ himself called Drinking his Blood That common saying concerning the Original of the Soul Creando infunditur infundendo creatur if it be meant of every particular human Soul is very