that ye abstain from Blood This Decree was directed to the Gentiles for the Jews were then and before zealous enough in abstaining from Blood by vertue of the old Law and the Christian Gentiles by vertue of this Apostolical Decree did absolutely forbear Blood for some Ages of the Church and it became one of the common Disciplines of Christians and was so esteemed in the days of Tertullian and after him Thirdly It being granted that the Christians upon this reason did abstain from the blood even of beasts which is true and easily proved how can it be imagined that they should eat or drink the blood of Man or which is less credible the Blood of that Man whom they believed and knew to be their most High and only Lord God Fourthly If it were possible for us Men now to drink the very Blood of Christ orally and literally understood it could not in the least advantage us in order to our Redemption because it was not the meer Blood of Christ literally taken that was the price of our Redemption although one drop of his precious Blood was worth more than the whole World for he shed his Blood at his Circumcision but that Blood was not Redemptive suppose he had opened a vein and presented or offered that Blood yet this could not have redeemed us neither could that Blood which issued out of his Body in Agony and bloody Sweat or at his Scourging or Crowning with thorns or that at the piercing of his Hands and Feet all these Bloodsheddings together could not redeem Mankind but the Blood of Christ which was really redemptive was his Vital Blood whereof the words of St. Peter are rightly to be understood Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 1 Pet. 1. 18. things but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb and St. John declareth that it was of a Lamb considered as a Lamb slain and we know that the Paschal Rev. 13. â— Lamb slain was the Type or figure thereof It was not then his meer Blood-shedding that redeemed us but it was the pouring out of his Life and Soul that was the ultimate act and consummation thereof of which all the four Evangelists have carefully informed us St. Matthew St. Mark St. Luke after the narration of all his grievous Sufferings adds this as the principal and most concerning and beneficial to us that he gave up the Ghost for Christ himself had said before The good Shepherd layeth John 10. 11 17 down his life for the Sheep and Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life for the Redeemer was engaged not only to perform the Law actively in his life time but also passively by his death to undergo the penalty due to the Transgressors of the prime Original Law which was In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt Gen. 2. 17. surely die The great Apostle often mindeth us of this great Truth saying We are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Ro. 5 10. 8. 34. Phil. 2. 8. and Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died and He became obedient to death And for our remembrance and acknowledgment thereof the holy Sacrament was set up as the same Apostle saith Ye shew the Lords death till he come and Christ had before 1 Cor. 11. 26. John 15. 13. declared Greater love than this hath no Man than to lay down his Life for his friend surely his own love was the greatest love CHAP. XV. THe Law of abstaining from Blood was enacted by God in a typical reference to the Blood of Christ which was to be shed in after times upon the altar of the Cross for Expiation of the sins of Mankind which Expiation was before the death of Christ typically represented by the death and blood of certain Creatures appointed by God whereby the legal or ceremonial Atonement was to be performed for which purpose God did except and reserve the blood of those Sacrifical Creatures from being eaten by Men which reason is declared by God himself evidently as to me seemeth in these words I will set my face against that Soul that eateth Blood and Lev. 17. 10 11. will cut him off from among his People for the life of the flesh is the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an atonement for your Souls for it is the Blood that maketh an Atonement for the Souls this was the law for the Blood of the Sacrifical Creatures And as for the blood of other Creatures which were profane and not to be used for Sacrifices their blood was also forbidden to be eaten by Men but by another Law Lev. 17. 13. Deut. 12. 16. was commanded to be poured out upon the earth as water and to be covered with dust this Law being but a ceremonial and Typical law must be confessed to become void and antiquated when the Type was fulfilled by the blood-shedding and death of Christ and that fully declared and published But then we are to enquire what moved Quest. the Apostolical Council to revive that Antiquated law of abstaining from Blood more than the other Ceremorials of Sacrifices Circumcision Paschal Lamb Sabbatizings c. And why they imposed this Decree or Canon upon the converted Gentiles 1. To this we answer First That the Answ Apostles directed by the Holy Ghost did impose this Abstinence on the converted Gentiles in the Pedagogy of the Church on purpose for compliance with the converted Jews least they should be soandalized or offended with Christianity it self when they should see Christians eating Blood from which themselves in the time of their Judaism were by their law debarred and could not suddenly be withdrawn from so old a Custom untill they were more fully instructed in Christian Religion for it might seem to them a disparagement and a contempt of Moses and his Laws which reason is intimated by St. James in that he said Moses is read in the Synagogues every Acts 15. 21. Sabbath day which he spake in that very Council so we our selves at our Tables forbear the setting on of certain meats which our selves like because they would be offensive to some of our invited Guests as Swines flesh Cheese and such like Yet this Discipline of abstaining from Blood was not intended to be a continual and standing Law in Christianity but only a temporary Ordinance and to last no longer than there was danger apparent of occasioning a Schism or Division between the Converted Jews and the Christian Gentiles 2. This Discipline did as well become the mildness of Christianity as that old Law did the Religion of the Jews whereby they were restrained from using such cruelties to Creatures as possibly might be practised by Eating some parts of the bodies of Beasts whilst other parts were preserved alive which kind of cruelty was acted by the Romans upon the bodies of the captive Jews at the last destruction of
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
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
our Souls can be by him redeemed I will not at present engage or meddle with the doctrine or meaning of the words in the mystery of the holy Supper of our Lord which was but the sign of the grand and real mystery of the Eating the flesh of Christ of which only I am now to treat in relation to those Words of Christ in the 6. Chapter of St. John before the Holy Supper was instituted of which words my purpose and earnest endeavour is to find out and to discover the meaning and true sense and my hearty desire and prayer that my Labours herein may in some measure conduce to an agreement between dissenting Parties The Roman and also the Reformed Church-Writers men of great wisdom Learning and sobriety have spent their precious time and labours something as I humbly conceive besides the matter purpose and intent of those words of Christ 1. The Romanists have laboured too much to assert and prove a carnal gross and literate eating of the very flesh of Christ orally grounding their Doctrine of Transubstantiation upon those two Speeches of Christ before mentioned but with ill success having so much been perplexed in answering and excusing the impossibilities and the unprofitableness of such an Exposition that they were forced to flie to the old Poetical refuge of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or miracles whereof they say there are eleven in effecting their Transubstantiation we may ad a twelfth which to me seemeth the greatest of all viz. that so many wise and learned men should profess and believe such unnecessary and manifest impossibilities 2. The Writers of the reformed Church have imployed their time and labour in a negative way principally in confuting the impossibility of that Roman Doctrine and in proving that we do not Orally eat the very flesh of Christ for although they acknowledge that Speech of Christ to be true when he said Except ye eat the Flesh c. yet they truly affirm that they are not to be understood of a gross carnal and oral Eating This negative Doctrine occasioned a pretence to the adverse Party to accuse them of an attempt to confute and gainsay the words of Christ These practices on both sides I conceive have bin the cause of hiding or obscuring the most gracious and comfortable doctrine of our Union with the body or flesh of Christ and consequently of the doctrine of our Redemption by him both of them being certainly implyed in those words of Eating and Drinking It is therefore to be wished that such Learned men for the future would imploy their studies in a positive Way in shewing how those Mysterious Words of Christ are true and to be rightly understood rather than in a negative confutation of a wrong Sense which work solidly performed would clear the darkness of that Mystery and be exceedingly comfortable to pious Souls and evidently declare the Wisdom Righteousness and Mercy of our ever Blessed Redeemer CHAP. II. IN order to the opening of this Mystery we are first to enquire what our Redeemer meant by those words of Eating and Drinking my Flesh and Blood which certainly are not to be understood literally but figuratively The Reader may observe that the grand Mysteries of our Religion in the Holy Scripture are represented and exemplified darkly as under a cloud or veiled with the similitude of Eating 1. The Tree of life in Paradise was planted to be eaten of it was the figure or type of Christ who called himself a Tree Luk. 23. 31. and a Vine John 15. 5. and the Life John 14. 16. and is called Rev. 2. 7. The Tree of Life The typical Tree was ordained to preserve and continue a worldy life as Christ the substantial Tree to procure an Eternal and heavenly Life Although that Tree of life was permitted by the Godhead to be eaten of by our first Parents yet they never did eat of it because in the state of their Innocency they perceived not any need thereof being in a condition of not dying as Divines say Potuit Adam non mori nor was any malady upon them so as to need any medicine to cure them of any disease But afterward when by their transgression they had incurred the curse of Mortality they were excluded from that Tree of life least they should take of the Tree of Life and live Gen. 3. 22. Gen. 2. 17. for ever whereby the Commination of God should have failed who had said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die There was another Tree in Paradise called the Tree of Knowledge of which the Gen. 2. 9. Man was forbidden to eat although it is said that the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye and to be desired to make one wise So though they abstained from the Tree permitted yet Gen. 3. 6. they did eat of the Tree forbidden The Tree of Life represented Christ the Tree of knowledge represented the Law as Tertullian very judiciously affirmeth and proveth That law concerning the Tree Tert. adv Judaeos was Primondialis Lex the first Law that was imposed on Man and had been large enough saith he if it had been obeyed Lex data Adae Aevae est quasi matrix omnium Id. ibid. praeceptorum Dei quae pullularunt postea data per Mosem It was as the Womb out of which sprang the Ten Commandments given by Moses and in that first Law all those Moral laws are couched and implied As the Tree of Life signifieth Christ with all his Evangelical mercies And the Eating of that Tree signified the Union conjunction and inherence of Mankind in him So the Tree of knowledge signified the Law with all its strictness rigour and penalties And the forbidding to Eat of that Tree signified that we should not trust to or rely on it or expect to obtain life by performance of the law or justification and Salvation by the works thereof This I conceive to be the meaning of forbidding the Tree of knowledge as relating to the Law because I find divers passages concerning the said law even in the Gospel which to me signifie the same as by the works of the Rom. 3. 20. Law shall no flesh be justified and The Law worketh Wrath it is called also Rom. 4. 15. The Ministration of death and the Ministration 2 Cor. 3. 7 9. of condemnation Therefore we are to depend on and feed and nourish our hope and faith only by Christ who is the only true Tree of Life and not to confide in the Law because we cannot possibly by our own selves perform it nor by any other way but only in by and through Christ and this by that interest which we have in him by our union with his Flesh and Soul 2. The Manna every one knows signified Christ The eating of Manna signified the union of Manna with the Bodies or flesh of the Israelites which was a type of the necessity of
Mouth-eating The Psalmist saith They eat up my People as bread and They have devoured P. 14. 4. Jacob that is saith Austin upon that place Gentes multos in suum malignum corpus Aug. in Ps 78. seu Societatens transire terrendo coegerunt the Heathens have forced many into their malignant body and association by terrifying them yet not by Oral eating Ezekiel is commanded to eat the Roll and Ezâ—k 3. 3 10. Rev. 10. 9 so is St. John commanded to eat the Book which signified that they should deeply take the words thereof into their consideration to consider and ponder them in their hearts and minds Peter one of the brothers of Lombard is commonly called Petrus Comestor and another great Writer was called Jacobus de Voragine Peter the Eater and James the Gulf or devourer not for gormondizing of meat but because of multitude of Books which by their Readings they had devoured and digested as Cato was called heluo librorum a very Glutton Tull. de Fin. lib. 3. of Books by Tully But above all the former Eatings that Divine Extasie or Trance or Rapture of St. Peter recorded Acts 10. doth clearly Acts 10. 13. shew that there is another way and meaning of Scriptural Eating which is not Oral for in that Vision there was presented to St. Peter a vessel descending from Heaven wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fouls of the air and a Voice came to him rise Peter kill and eat By these several creatures the Nations or Gentiles are signified as formerly in the vision of Daniel the four Monarchies were Dan. 7. presented to him in the shapes and resemblances of four Beasts The first as a Lion the second as a Bear the third as a Leopard the fourth as a dreadfull Beast with iron teeth both these apparitions of those creatures signified People and Nations It is a very mean conceit and a low gloss of some late Expositors put upon that mysterious Vision of St. Peter by which was signified the calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel But those Writers would have no more meant thereby but only a permission to eat of such Creatures as were formerly forbidden as unclean by the ceremonial Law yet we find not mention of any fish in the Vessel although some sorts of fish are mentioned amongst forbidden meats as unclean viz. such as have not fins Levit. 11. 10. or scales whereby we may reasonably conclude that the Vision had a farther reach and project than Eating the mention of wild beasts signified the mission of the Gospel to such People as were not then civilized such as are now called sylvestres Populi Savages barbarous and lawless some as yet are called the wild Irish Surely the vision under the apparition of Beasts and fowls pointed at Men only who are conversant on the Earth and in the Air as beasts and fouls are but live not in the Water St. Peter was commanded to kill and eat the Gentiles which if literally understood would be most barbarous and also impossible But to kill signified to mortifie them to convert or turn them from their Idolatry to kill their Heathenism in them as St. Austin saith upon those words Occiduntur cum Christiani fiunt ex Paganis Aug. in Ps 149. The Heathens are said to be kill'd when of Pagans they are made Christians and again upon the word kill he saith Macta Id. Ps 30. id est occide quod fuerant fac quod tu es Kill in them what they were and make them such as thou art Neither is Peter commanded only to kill or convert them but also to take the Gentiles so mortified and converted into the Body Fellowship and Communion of the Church and so the same Father expounds the word Eat Petrus recipit Gentes in communionem Id. lib. 50. homiliarum hom 45. to 10. Ecclesiae quasi escam ut incorporentur By Eating Peter is required to receive the Gentiles into the mystical body of the Church and to incorporate them as meat is concorporated with our natural bodies This Exposition is evidently confirmed by St. Peter himself for after this Vision he went forthwith to Cornelius a Roman and Gentile he preached Christ to him and converted him and baptized him and thereby received and incorporated him in the Corporation of the Church The Eating of the flesh of Christ in those mysterious words of Christ is in like manner to be understood so as to signifie an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is our Incorporation or Concorporation with Christ or the union or conjunction of our bodies with his Body and so doth the forenamed Father expound those very words of Christ Except ye eat c. Nisi incorporentur Aug. in l. c. Christo and Qui venit ad Christum incorporatur ei to eat the flesh of Christ signifieth to be incorporated in him as every one must be that cometh to him Peter did not Orally eat the Nations neither is it required by those words that we should Orally eat the flesh of Christ what frantick Fanatick will so understand those word of Christ If thy right hand offend Mat. 5. thee cut it off c. as actually to the Letter to cut off his own hand or pull out his own eye From the grounds and reasons premised my Conclusion is and ever will be that the Eating of the flesh of Christ is meant and to be understood only of the union or conjunction of our flesh with his Flesh or our concarnation with him so as to be flesh of his Flesh as the Apostle saith without Gal. 5. 30. which Union there will be no possibility of Redemption of our bodies by the bitter passions and death of his blessed Body But how this conjunction and union of his Body and our bodies was contrived and effected is next to be enquired CHAP. IV. IT is certainly necessary for our Redemption and in order thereto that first there must be a true real and corporal union or conjunction of our flesh with the Flesh of our Redeemer which corporal union was contrived and effected by the most Wise Just and Mercifull Godhead and was by him designed and plotted before the Creation on purpose to put Mankind into a capacity of Redemption his Providence foreseeing the fall of Man and his goodness and mercy providing the cure of Redeemableness by God the Son to be in time coincarnate with us and to become Emanuel For if it may appear that the flesh or body of Christ was made of the same Materials of which our flesh and bodies are made and if both he and we have derived our Flesh from the self-same lump of the first Man who then can deny an Union and conjunction of him with us in that first Lump The first Man was made of a piece of Earth and the first Woman was derived
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
a common Man and that afterwards God the Word united himself with his flesh for that was done in the Virgins Womb his Flesh was never existing alone but ever was the Flesh of God his Body always was Corpus Dei the Body of God as the Scripture calls his Blood the Blood of God Acts 20. 28. And Acts 20. 28. 1 John 3. 16. his Death the Death of God as St. John saith Hereby we perceive the love of God because he hath laid down his life for us The laying down of the life of Christ is called the laying down the life of God The vertue and efficacy of the Flesh of the Son of Man and that which makes his flesh so benificial to Mankind consisteth in this Vnion viz. Because his Flesh is joyned and personally united with the Word or Son of God for his Flesh if it were nothing else but only flesh it could not profit us as Christ said the Flesh profiteth nothing for it is the Union of his Divine Spirit with his Flesh that maketh his flesh Vivifical or Quickening as Christ said It is Joh. 6. 63 the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing the Words that I speak they are Spirit and they are Life the meaning is that the whole efficacy of his Flesh consisteth only in and by the conjuction of his Divine Spirit with it who is not only Vivifical but also Life it self therefore the Apostle saith the last Adam was made a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit The last Adam signifies Christ who is called Adam only because his Human nature was derived from Adam which human Nature was made Vivifical by being united with the Divine quickning Spirit and because this last Adam and the Divine Spirit or Godhead were personally united in Christ therefore he saith of him The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven The flesh Vers 47. of Christ thus being sweetned by his Divine Spirit is like that Leaven mentioned Mat. 13. 33. in the Gospel wherewith the whole lump of Mankind is seasoned the efficacy power and operation whereof may more easily be apprehended by this similitude As wood or a dead coal or iron do noâ— of themselves alone burn or heat a man but if they be joyned with fire and made red hot thereby they will heat and burn The flesh of the Son of Man alone is like the wood and iron and the Divine Spirit united with the flesh is like the fire as he once appeared in Cloven tongues like as of Acts 2. fire by which Spirit only the flesh is actuated and made operative hence proceed those effects and productions mentioned in the Gospel where Christ said I am the Bread which came down from Heaven and John 6. 33 41 51 giveth life to the World we know that only his Divine Spirit came from Heaven not his flesh of which effects we shall say more in their due place CHAP. XII ANother Question to be disputed concerning the Modus the way or manner of this mysterious Eating is how Men can be truly said to eat the Flesh of Christ And this because those that disavow and abhor the Dream of Transubstantiators of a gross carnal and Oral eating have conceived another way which they call Eating Spiritually which word is used in this question by the Church of England declaring to the penitent and faithfull Communicants that They Spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood They dwell in Christ and Christ in them They be One with Christ and Christ with them which is true By those words of Dwelling in Christ and being One with him and Eating his Flesh this Church declareth 1. First a true and real Union of our flesh with his very Flesh although she utterly denieth the gross and Oral eating and tearing of his Flesh 2. Secondly she declareth by the word Spiritually That this Eating is to be understood only Mystically or Spiritually and not carnally or Orally for Oral eating is only of the Sacrament but not of the very real Substance which is signified by that Sacrament So we are now to enquire what is meant by the Eating the flesh of Christ spiritually To this we Answer That this word Spiritually hath a double signification for D. Vshers Serm. ad Parl. 1620. 1. First It is by many Learned Men thought to signifie only the Receiving the Spirit of our Lord Jesus by which we are united with him because the same Spirit which is in Jesus is from him the Head derived and communicated to his Members Of this Union of the Spirit or spiritual Union of us with Christ the great Apostle often speaketh He that is joyned to the Lord 1 Cor. 6. 17. 12. 13. Eph. 4. 4. is one Spirit and By one Spirit ye are all bapzed into one Body and There is one Body and one Spirit By vertue of this one Spirit so communicated the whole multitude of the Church or Members of Christ are accounted but one Mystical Body But this Spiritual Vnion or Union in Spirit although it is true and real yet this alone may not be thought to be so plenary or so sufficient an Union as is necessarily required for expediting that great Work for which the Blessed Godhead designed Mans Union with Christ as may appear by the Reasons following 1. First If to eat Spiritually should signifie to receive the Spirit of Christ only and no more and be only so by us apprehended utterly disowning the eating or the real Union of his Flesh with our flesh in truth and reality we shall thereby disturb and null the Order of the grand and mercifull work of Redemption which could not be wrought only by an union or conjunction of the Spirit of the Son of God with us but also with the Union of his blessed Flesh and Blood with our flesh and blood because the Spirit alone is not a Redeemer for the Spirit could not suffer and die for us as a Redeemer must it was the vital blood and death of the Redeemer that was necessarily required for Mans Redemption 2. Secondly The Son of God as only so was a Spirit from Eternity for God is a Spirit But if the Son of God will vouchsafe to become a Redeemer he must needs be first the Son of Man and Emanuel as the Church in her Hymn confesseth When thou tookest upon thee to deliver Man thou didst not abhorr the Virgins Womb. For if God the Son or God the Word had so continued in his pure Divinity and had not assumed our Human nature so as to be the Son of Man and the Word made Flesh he could not have been Christ nor Jesus nor Priest nor Sacrifice nor Redeemer for otherwise we might as well say that the Person of the Father or the Person of the Holy Ghost were our Redeemers although neither of those Persons assumed our nature as Austin or rather Gennadius observed Aug. T. 3. n. 72. Nec Pater nec Spiritus
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
was put down by K. Hen. 8. they had certain Signs painted on the walls of those Houses to be known by whereof one was a Cardinals Hat as J. Stow reports Now let us return to the signification of Blood CHAP. XVI IT will not I suppose be denied that the Apostolical Council did forbid the Eating of Blood so as is said And that the Apostles and the Converted Jews and the Christian Gentiles did abstain from blood by vertue of this Decree Add yet notwithstanding that Apostolical Constitution the Apostles themselves and other Christians did drink the Blood of Christ in that sense which Himself meant before the Sacrament John 6. And also in the Sacrament of which he said This is my Blood and Drink ye all of this All this being true and confessed we are next to enquire diligently what our Redeemer meant by this word Blood which certainly did not signifie his own very natural Blood literally and grammatically taken but some other thing which for some weighty reason he was pleased to call Blood That other thing which he meant by Blood we confidently affirm to be his Soul his Human or reasonable Soul and this we doubt not to make clear and apparent with Gods Assistance by the Holy Scripture because we find by many overtures and plain expressions that the Life or Soul in Holy Writ by the Mouth of God is called Blood At the Creation of Man God appointed to Adam and so to the Ante-diluvian Patriarks for their food only the herbs bearing seed and every tree in which is the Gen. 1. 29. fruit of a tree yielding seed But after the Flood he gave to the Patriark Noah and his Sons every Moving thing that liveth to be Gen. 9. 3. meat for them and although he gave them the flesh of his Creatures yet so early he forbad the Eating of the blood with the flesh giving this reason Flesh with the life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall you not eat V. 4 The Blood we see is there called Life although we know that Blood in propriety of speech is not the Life or Soul of Man or Beast but only signifieth the Life or Soul for one may loose some Blood by a wound or otherwise yet the life may continue and because the Soul it self is invisible therefore that which is visible is named for the Soul and because the blood is the companion and also the chariot of the Soul and because the letting out or spilling the Vital blood carrieth out with it the life and Soul therefore God presently after called Mans Blood the Blood of our lives which V. 5 he will require at the hand of every Beast and at the hand of every Man who shall commit homicide at the hand of every mans Brother will he require the life of Man by which words it appeareth that Blood and Life here signifie only the Soul In another place where Blood is forbidden it is said The life of the flesh is in the Blood and The life of all flesh is the Blood Lev. 17. 11 14 thereof and more plainly God saith The blood is for the life thereof whereby it may appear that Blood was not esteemed to be really the life or Soul but only to represent or signifie or to stand for the life or Soul St. Austin considering that place in Deut. Deut. 12. 23. where it is said Be sure thou eat not the blood for the Blood is the life saith Sanguis Cont. Adimant C. 12. T. 6 pecoris ejus anima sc in signo The blood of the creature is the Soul but only in sign he addeth Our Lord doubted not to say this is my body when he gave the sign of his Body The same Father on the like words Lev. 17. 14. saith Anima est sanguis non Aug. con Adv. legis L. 2. c. 6. quia hoc erat sed quia significabat sicut dicitur Petra est Christus Blood is the Soul not that blood is really the Soul but because blood signifieth the Soul even as St. Paul speaketh the Rock was Christ and it is usual 1 Cor. 10. 4. in Heathen Writers to put blood for the Soul and the Soul for blood as in Virgil. Purpuream vomit ille animam And Virg. Aen. 9. Sanguine quaerendi reditus Animâque litandum As Hugo Grotius hath observed to be frequent Grot. de Satisf n. 10. 14. that because that Blood is instead or place of the Soul often put therefore it is called the Soul so that by offering the blood of Beasts they meant the life or Vital blood of those Creatures killed and sacrificed When the Scripture saith Whoso sheddeth Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed Gen. 9. 6. every one knows that by shedding of Blood in that place is meant the taking away a Mans life Est animae non parcere Isych in Lev. saith Isychius upon these words Judas said I have sinned in betraying Innocent Mat. 27. ◠Blood he meant his betraying his Masters life to death The Jews said His Blood be 25. upon us and our children that is let his death or murther be laid to our charge The Apostle saith to his Hebrews Ye have not yet Heb. 12. ◠risisted unto Blood that is to Martyrdom or loss of your lives So when Christ spake of drinking his Blood he spake of his Soul for so his Blood signified and must necessarily be so understood But how we can be truly said to drink a Soul seeing the soul of Man is a meer Spirit and incorporeal and therefore not literally drinkable and yet that these words of Christ must really be performed How both these can stand together is next to be enquired CHAP. XVII THat the Blood of Christ in those words signifieth the human Soul of Christ I nothing doubt and to drink his Soul orally is as impossible as it is for us to drink his Blood literally taken which is now in Heaven therefore as I have shewed before that the Eating of his Flesh signifieth only the Union of his Flesh with our flesh so the Drinking of his Blood or Soul signifieth only the union of his Soul with our Souls which two Unions viz. of our flesh and souls with his Flesh and Soul are so necessary in order to the redemption of our bodies by his Body and of our souls by his Soul that otherwise we could not with Justice be redeemed by him This Union which seemeth so secret and mysterious is declared to us by Christ in this Figurative or Metaphorical speech of Drinking his Blood which is all one as if he had said except my Soul be united with your Souls so as that wine which you drink for your food and nourishment is turned into your Blood and then is joyned and united with your Persons and becomes One with you otherwise your Souls cannot be redeemed by me for the word Blood signifies the Soul of Christ and drinking his Blood
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
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
not their breasts or faces or hands and this they did because in those Parts their lust or concupiscence appeared for before their Fall lust had not entred into them neither had the Man known the Woman till after the Fall which is noted first Gen. 4. 1. where it is first said Adam knew Eve his Wife and she Gen. 4. 1. conceived and bare Cain who was the First-fruit of their Concupiscence Afterwards it is said Adam begot a Child in his own likeness Gen. 5. 3. and called his name Seth that is in a condition of sin like unto his Father for although Seth was a good Son yet he as much as his brother Cain was begotten in sin in lust and concupiscence wherein also all the succeeding Generations from Adam and Eve unto this day are begotten viz. in lust and concupiscence And this Concupiscence is that Original sin whereof the Psalmist saith I was shapen in iniquity Psal 51. 5 and in sin did my Mother conceive me The Apostle saith the same of all Men in consideration of this Original sin Death passed Ro. 5. 12. on all Men for that all have sinned Divers Expositors put this gloss upon those words excepto Christo they meant that all have sinned except only Christ which is true and may thus be cleared The Generation of Christ was far different from all other Generations of Mankind for it was without Copulation and carnal Concupiscence because he was born of a Virgin without the Cooperation of Man which was so designed by the Godhead on purpose to preserve the most holy Body and Soul of the Redeemer without sin which being of so great concernment for our comfort to be known was foretold by God himself first then by his Prophets then by his Angel The Seed of the Woman must bruise the Serpents head no Gen. 3. 15 mention of a Man Behold a Virgin shall conceive Isa 7. 14. Jer. 31 22. and bear a Son And The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth a Woman shall compass a Man 1. A Woman only without a Man 2. Created therefore it was the Extraordinary and Omnipotent work of the Creator 3. A new thing for it never was so before with any Woman nor will ever be so again 4. To compass a Man 1. to inclose a Man-child in the womb of a Woman and she a Virgin utterly unknown by Man this is the peculiar Work of the Godhead Although Turks say they have always such Births among them therefore Christs Birth of the Virgin was no Balaeus n. 54. Hier. con Jovinian n. 14. Mat. 1. Luke 1. marvel So Buddas the Indian was falsly said to be the Son of a Virgin This Prophetical Woman was the blessed Virgin Mary who was declared by the Heavenly Angel Gabriel to be a pure Virgin after her Espousals and after the Conception and after the Birth of her Son Jesus And because the Mother of the Redeemer was necessary to have been a Virgin therefore all our Church Creeds declare the same That Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary That he was Incarnate by the Symb. Apostol Nicaen Athanas Ambros Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary That he was Man of the Substance of his Mother and in the Symbolical Hymn of S. Ambrose and St. Austin it is said of him When thou tookest upon thee to deliver Man thou didst not abhor the Virgins Womb. In all these notice is given of the Woman and Virgin without any mention of Man the Redeemer was to be answerable to Melchisedech Heb. 7. 3. Aug. To. 7. n. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Austin saith Sine Matre Deus sine Patre Homo he was God from Eternity of the Substance of the Father but Man of the Substance of his Virgin Mother only from whom he received both his Fesh and Soul CHAP. XXV IT being granted or presumed that Christ received both his Flesh and his Soul from the blessed Virgin Mother and she hers from our first Parents We are yet farther to enquire how his Flesh and Soul Dominicani Franciscani differunt in hac r◠could be free from that Original sin except we will also grant that his Mother was conceived without sin which I suppose no Learned or but Intelligent Divine will affirm it being accounted by St. Austin one of the Pelagian Herisies who yet refused Aug. cont Pelag. T. 7. n. 50. to dispute against her in that Question Propter honorem Domini as he saith Our Answer is that although Christ derived both his Flesh and his Soul from the Virgin and although his Virgin Mother was certainly conceived in sin and therefore not without Original sin during her whole life yet Christ did not with his Flesh and Soul derive any sin from her because he was not by her conceived in sin viz. in lust or concupiscence For Original sin is Aug. T. 3. N. 73. not derived into us by receiving our Flesh and our Souls from our Mothers but only by concupiscence and lust whereby ordinary Conceptions are produced But Christ was conceived of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost without man and so without lust and therefore without any sin which is the reason rendred by S. Austin Nulla concupiscentia carnali Aug. in Enchir. T. 3. n. 58 seminatus est Christus ergo nullum peccatum Originaliter traxit i◠That because Christ was not begotten or conceived in carnal lust therefore his Conception was without sin so Isychius answereth Christi humanitas munda est ut quae non genita est ex Viri Isych in Levit. Cap. 14. immunditia Christs whole human Nature was clean because not begotten in uncleanness so that although both the Flesh and the Soul of the Virgin Mother were stained with Original sin yet the Flesh and Soul of Christ sprang from her without her sin because he was conceived without carnal Copulation and Lust Sometimes we know worms are bred in mens Bodies and derive their flesh and bulk from them yet it would be ridiculous to say or imagin that these worms draw original sin from those Human bodies because they are therein bred without any copulation or carnal concupiscence Herod was eaten of worms which were bred Acts 12. 23. in his own body yet those worms by that Generation did not derive any sin from Herod And if now any Man should be miraculously produced and formed out of another mans Body he should not thereby attract any sin because such a Production would be without copulation and lust as Aquin. 1. 2 9 81. Art 4. Orig. T. 2. N. 44. Aug. in Psal 21. Aquinas determined Origen in his 14 Homilie on St. Luke and St. Austin on the 21 Psalm and in other places both of them do expound those words of David Psal 22. 6. I am a worm and no Man to be meant of the Conception of Christ Quia vermis non aliunde sed in corpore Origo est because
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