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 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
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
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
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
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
did just so perform that great Work Well might St. Paul say We preach Christ crucified the Power of God and 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. the Wisdome of God Christ signifieth God yet not only his pure Godhead but as God is Incarnate and made Man The Wisdom of his Godhead appointed this way of ransoming the whole World from death by the death of one Man and the Power of his Godhead enabled and impowred one Man to perform that Work with full satisfaction to Divine Justice When Christ had miraculously cured a Paralitick St. Matthew tells us that the multitude glorified God Mat. 9. 8. which had given such power unto Men and we for weightier reasons shall be ever obliged to say Glory and honour and thanks be to the Son of God for so enabling and impowering the Son of Man Thus far we have proceeded in shewing the Modus or way which we conceive of the Eating the flesh of Christ If this Exposition be approved which is easily understood it will quit us from the multitude of impossibilities and the Labyrinth of subtilties and intricacies wherein that other way of Transubstantiation hath entangled many Learned men for mine own part I am persuaded that if this way which I have here described be slighted we shall never by any other way attain to any certain or but probable understanding of this Mystery In the next place by Gods assistance we will endeavour to discover the other part and more difficult Mystery which is called the Drinking of the Blood of Christ My whole Design Good Reader in the former Chapters of this Book was to shew and prove the Vnion of our flesh or body with the Flesh or Body of Christ as being necessary to the Redemption of our bodies by his Body In the following Chapters I am to shew the Union of our souls with his Soul to be altogether as necessary to the Redemption of our souls by his Soul which that I may perform truly and plainly I humbly implore the Divine and Illuminating assistance of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus our Blessed Redeemer CHAP. XIV The Blood of Christ THe Words of Christ which concern and import the Drinking of his Blood John 6. are meant and are to be understood in like manner as we said of Eating his Flesh for both those expressions signifie only the Vnion of our flesh and blood with the Flesh and Blood of Christ or with that which is by him called his Blood For the word Blood hath a more high and noble signification in that speech of Christ than the outward and literal sound expresseth for to drink his Blood literally and grosly understood is as impossible as unprofitable for us as hath been before shewed of the Oral eating of his Flesh Besides if we will suppose it possible whilest he conversed with Men on Earth or at the time of his death the real shedding of his Blood we say that in that time the eating or drinking of Blood was forbidden by God in the Jewish Law and afterwards Lev. 17. Acts 15. by the Apostles in the Gospel therefore certainly in those words of Christ some other thing is meant by Blood which liteterall and properly is not very Blood The blessed Virgin Mary and Mary Cleophas and John 19. Mary Magdalen and St. John the Evangelist stood by the Cross when Christ was crucified and although his Blood trickled down from his Hands and Feet and Side yet there was no care taken by any of those holy and zealous Persons to catch or preserve his Blood in any vessel for any present or future use which would not have been so carelesly neglected if the Oral and literal Drinking thereof had been profitable or usefull therefore surely there is some other mystical meaning of Drinking his Blood Mr. Fox reporteth that one Johannes de Mountziger wrote that Christ Act. Mon. sub Edw. 3. n. 38. at his Resurrection resumed to himself all the Blood which he had shed in his Passion the Writer it seems thought that the stock of his Blood needed to be carefully husbanded for if at this day his Blood were literally and orally to be received by Communicants how many Tunn of blood would be sufficient to Communicate the whole Christian World But the word Drink and the word Blood signifie something else and not as they sound as is next to be shewed Of the word Drink We know that this Word hath other significations in the Holy Scriptures besides oral Drinking for Christ himself when he said If any man thirst let him come to me Joh. 7. 37 and drink he did not mean or intend it of any oral Drinking as the same Evangelist immediately thus declareth saying This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe 39. on him should receive Surely no Beleever can orally Drink the Spirit or Holy Ghost So when Christ was apprehended by the Souldiers and St. Peter attempted to rescue him Christ declared that he would not be rescued saying The cup which my John 18. 11. Father giveth me shall I not drink it This cup and this drinking he meant of his Passions and that speech also when he prayed saying O my Father if it be possible Matth. 26. 39. let this cup pass from me and when he foretold some of his Disciples that they should drink of the same cup that he drank of he Mar. 10. 39. meant it of his own and of their Passions we read of drinking Iniquity and of drinking Job 15 16. 21. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wrath of the Almighty The old Greek Poet Anacreon phansied that the Sun drinketh the Sea and that the Moon drinketh the Sun The Sun and Moon properly do not drink neither are Iniquity wrath of God persecutions and passions such things as Men can properly be said to drink Orally therefore surely these speeches are but figurative and by them we are to understand some other way of Drinking which is not Oral Of the word Blood Neither is the word Blood in that speech of Christ to be taken or understood properly and literally according to the meer Grammatical signification thereof as if Christ had intended that Men should drink his very Blood this could not be his meaning as may appear by these Reasons following First Because as is beforesaid Blood was forbidden in the Old Testament Flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof Gen. ◠4. ye shall not eat this inhibition was by God afterwards by Moses being directed by God He that eateth any manner of Blood Lev. 17. 10. I will cut him off from among his People This Judaical and Ceremonial Law was in force at that time when Christ spake those words Secondly Because Blood was forbidden in the New Testament by that holy and unerring Council of the Apostles assisted by the Spirit of their Master Jesus It seemeth Acts 15. 28. good to the Holy Ghost and us