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A55486
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Christophagia, The mystery of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ and the modus or manner thereof discovered / by Edm. Porter ...
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Porter, Edmund, 1595-1670.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing P2983; ESTC R4670
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79,869
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188
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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
flesh some other way and not from Man or Woman as sometimes he did in the days of the Patriarchs in the Old Testament as namely when he appeared to Jacob of which it is said There wrestled a Man with Gen. 32. 24. Josh 5. 13. him till the breaking of the day And a man of War appeared to Joshua with his sword in his hand who is called the Captain of the Lords host whom Joshua called Lord and fell on his face to the earth and worshipped Exod. 3. 5 him and pulled off his shoes from his feet as Moses was commanded before by God Surely this was an apparition of God the Son in the assumed body and shape of Man who appeared most evidently before to the Patriarch Abraham of whom it is written that the Lord appeared to Abraham Gen. 18. Three Men stood by him they talked with him they eat with him and travelled toward Sodom one of the Three certainly was the person of the Son of God whoever the other two were I will not dispute who being here called a Man no doubt but he had then taken a body of Flesh upon him howbeit that flesh and body was not derived or propagated from any man or woman as Tertullian observeth Christus cum Angelis Tert. adv Marc. lib. 3. n. 42. tunc apud Abraham in veritate quidem apparuit sed nondum natae quia nondum moriturae Christ with the other two Angels did verily appear at Abrahams Tent in true and real flesh yet not in flesh born or derived from Mankind because he was not to suffer or die in that Flesh Therefore he could not by reason of that assumed flesh be called the Son of Man although he was like to a real Son of Man and but only like and if the Son of God had still retained and continued in that assumed body or flesh in which he then prefented himself to Abraham and had not taken his human Nature otherwise from his Virgin Mother and so from the first Man he could not have been our Redeemer Such another apparition we find in the Prophet Daniel who in his Vision saw one like the Son of Man who came with the Dan. 7. 13 clouds of Heaven This was meant of the Son of God who in Daniels time was not the Son of Man or Ben-David being then not incarnate of the Virgin and is therefore said to be only like the Son of Man or as it is said in another place of that Prophet One like the similitude of the Sons of men and One like the appearance of the Sons Dan. 10. 16 18. of Men. But the Redeemer must be not in similitude or appearance only but truly and really the Son of Man before he could be compleatly qualified for our Redeemer because the Redeemer and the Redeemed must be necessarily united in flesh mutually and must be considered and looked on by Divine Justice as if they were but one man or one Person which was wrought and performed by the union of Christ with all Mankind in the loins of Adam from whom all our bodies and souls are derived For the Law of God must be performed by that human Nature upon which it was imposed which law never hath been and never will be perfectly kept by any meer man therefore the Son of God made himself the Son of man and so to be under and subject to the Law and a Performer of the Law in the behalf of all the Sons and Daughters of men as both the Old and New Testaments declare Sacrifices and offerings Hâ—b 10 5 thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared for me And In the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God then said he Lo I come to do thy will O God And I delight to do thy will O my Ps 40. 8. God yea thy Law is within my heart and by the which will we are sanctified or designed for Redemption by the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all And You now hath he reconciled in the body of his Heb. 10. 10. Col. 1. 21 22. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree CHAP. VII THe Redeemer of Mankind must needs have been both the Son of God and also the Son of Man and therefore is called Emmanuel or Theanthropos because the Son of God as only so could not die and therefore not redeem us Nor could the Son of Man as only so satisfie Divine Justice for the sins of the World None can be in a condition and state redeemable by Christ but only Adamites that is Adam and his off-spring Eve and their Posterity because they only are united with the Redeemer in the first Man The Apostate Angels can have no Redemption nor any benefit by the Incarnation or death of Christ for want of this Vnion because as the Apostle observeth He took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. We find several addresses in the Gospel made to Christ by the title of Son of David and we perceive by the events of them that Christ did well approve of that Appellation as by the two blind men Mat. 9. Thou Son of David have mercy on us Mat. 9. 27. 20. 3. 15. 22. and by two other blind men Mat. 20. Have mercy on us O Lord thou Son of David and by the woman of Canaan Mat. 15. for all of them obtained of Christ what they so desired The Church of England so prayeth O Son of David have mercy upon us and St. Matthew begins his Gospel with Jesus Christ the Son of David St. Luke derives Christ through many Generations of men through Adam and Christ himself very rarely and but secretly calls himself the Son of God but very often and openly and mostly the Son of Man because by Joh. 9. 35. 37. this Sonship he became Jesus the Saviour and Redeemer The Athanasian Creed declares that it is necessary to everlasting salvation to believe rightly in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Hymn of St. Ambrose and St. Austin dayly repeated in our Churches thus declareth the way and means used by the Son of God to qualifie his Divine Person so as to be a fit Redeemer When thou tookest upon thee to deliver Man thou didst not abhor the Virgins Womb by all these expressions it appeareth that the Redeemership of Christ did consist not only in his Godhead but also in his Manhood in neither singly but in both jointly Both Christ himself and all Generations of men must have proceeded from one Original otherwise Christ could not be the Redeemer of all the World And if any one Man in the World can be found that descended not from Adam Christ cannot be the Redeemer of that man There were divers Heresies raised