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
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
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
certainly signifies the conjunction or union of his Soul with our Souls in order as a necessary way or method to put us into a capacity of redemption of our souls by his Soul For we cannot be capable of the benefits of the Passions death and Obedience of Christ except we be One with him both by the union of our flesh with his Flesh and of our souls with his Soul because God doth neither punish nor reward one for another as is at Chap. 4. large shewed before Therefore that the Son of God might be every way fitly qualified to be a Redeemer of Mankind he assumed human Flesh from the same Original that we had our flesh that thereby he might be a Redeemer of our flesh or bodies and he assumed an human Soul from the same Fountain from which all our Souls sprang that thereby he might be a Redeemer of our souls as Athanasius hath observed in his Athan. T. 3. n. 23. Book of the Incarnation In Redemptione corpus pro corpore anima pro anima reddenda fuit integrum aliquid pro integro homine He was to give his Body for the redemption of our bodies and to yield up his Soul for our Souls and his whole Man for our whole Man There are three Ingredients to be considered in the Redeemer 1. His Divinity or Godhead for he was and is God the most High and the only God 2. His human Flesh or Body 3. His human Soul By the two latter by him so assumed as is said he became Perfect Man as by the former he was and is Perfect God His pure Godhead alone and considered without his Human nature assumed could not be a Redeemer because the law was not imposed upon God or the Son of God as only so but upon Mankind or Sons of Men Nor could the pure Godhead suffer death which was to be suffered by the Redeemer Or if the Godhead had assumed only an human Body or Flesh without an human Soul this could have been but a Redeemer of the Body at most if that but not of the Soul Or if the Godhead had assumed only an human Soul without a Body it could not have redeemed our bodies nor our whole Man as the Axiome of Divines teacheth us Divisus Christus non est Salvator viz. Beza Cat. Part. 2. p. 18. If Christ had not united all these Ingredients in his one Person his Godhead his Flesh and his Soul we could not have him for our Saviour Or if Christ had been only a meer Man consisting of Soul and Body as we all do and had not been God he could not have been our Redeemer because it was only his Divinity joyned with and united personally with his Flesh and Soul that gave lustre worth and infinite value to his human Nature so that for the great work of mans Redemption it was necessary that the Redeemer should be not only Perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and Human flesh subsisting but also with them Perfect God Or if Christ being very God had really assumed a Body and also a Soul otherwise and not from his Virgin Mother but had made a Body and also created a Soul for himself which had not been derived from Mankind and so not united with our bodies and souls or if his Body or Soul had come down from Heaven as some Hereticks said and passed through the Virgins Womb only as water doth through a pipe and had been only for a time an Inhabitant or Inmate of the Womb and had not been really the Seed of the Woman and the Son of the Virgin and the very Fruit of the Womb both in Soul and in Body and derived from the first Man and the first Woman as we all are he could not have been our Redeemer because he could not be united otherwise with all Mankind in flesh and soul nor we with him For as our Union with his Flesh which is called the Eating of his flesh must needs be with it as it is the flesh of the Son of Man which signifieth that it must be with that Flesh or Body of his which he assumed and derived from Mankind by being conceived in the Womb and not from any other flesh or body which the Son of God had sometime taken on him otherwise than by Conception and Birth as is before observed in his Apparition and converse with the Patriark Abraham so likewise the union Gen. 18. Suprac 6 7. of our Souls with his Soul which is called the Drinking of his Blood must be with that Soul of his which was so derived from the first Man and the first Woman by Propagation as all our Souls are otherwise we cannot be united in our Souls with his Soul neither could he be a Redeemer of our Souls This Doctrine of our Union with Christ both in our Bodies and also in our Souls was intimated though something darkly as to me seemeth at the Institution of his holy Eucharistical Supper which is next to be very briefly touched CHAP. XVIII WHen our Saviour had a long time concealed the Mysterious way or manner how our Redemption was to be effected by him and how his own proper and personal Death might be satisfactory to Divine Justice for and instead of the deserved deaths of all Men Yet that he Might not leave his Disciples altogether ignorant in so weighty a Concernment he was pleased a little before his death in some measure to reveal that Secret to his Apostles and by them to his succeeding Church for which purpose only he instituted his last Holy Supper to be a visible Sign or Sacrament and also a Memorial thereof in all Generations untill his Coming again First therefore He took Bread and gave it to them and said Take Eat This is my Luke 22. 19. Body which is given for you as if he had said my Body is already to you such as this Bread will be to you for by Eating and Digesting it the Bread will be your nourishment it will be joyned and united with your Bodies and grow into one flesh with your flesh and be one Body with you Christ calleth himself Bread Ego sum John 6. Panis because as bread being eaten and digested becomes incorporate or incarnate with us so is Christ Incarnate or rather Concarnate with us We receive our Flesh from our Mothers the bread which the Mother eateth is converted into milk with which the Infant is nourished and thereby is fleshed and groweth so that the Bread and the Child become united and grow into one Body St. Austin saith concerning this very thing Quod manducat mater hoc manducat Aug. Psa 33. Ser. 1. Infans sed quia minùs idoneus est Infans qui pane vescatur ipsum panem Mater incarnat per humilitatem mamillae lactis succum de ipso pane pascit Infantem That which nourisheth the Mother the same nourisheth the Infant but because the Infant is not able to
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