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A55486 Christophagia, The mystery of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ and the modus or manner thereof discovered / by Edm. Porter ... Porter, Edmund, 1595-1670. 1680 (1680) Wing P2983; ESTC R4670 79,869 188

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in the Primitive times of the Church which depraved the Doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ and thereby greatly disturbed even nulled the Doctrine of Redemption and therefore the Fathers took special notice of them and strongly confuted them 1. The ancient Heresie of the Valentinians Epiph. haer 31. was that the Flesh of Christ came from Heaven and only passed through the Womb of the Virgin Mary as water through a conduit pipe But the Angel said to her Thou shalt Lu. 1. 31. conceive in thy womb and her Cozen Elizabeth being then inspired by God said to her Blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb therefore 42. if Christ were Conceived and were the Fruit of the womb he surely was not only a Passenger or only as a Traveller in an Inn or as a Guest or Stranger but he is expresly called a Son which could not be if he were not bred in the Virgins womb 2. Apelles and his Sect said that Christ Epiph. haer 44. made himself a Body of the Elements and that he did not receive his Flesh from the Virgin 3. The Manichees said that the flesh and Aug. epist 74. body of Christ was not a true and real body and flesh but only a similitude or shape thereof and a meer Phantasm They confessed him to be God but denied that he was Man contrary to the blasphemy of the Jews who knew him to be a Man but would not confess or believe that he was God 4. Some Anabaptists also in the former Pat. Symson cent 16. Century sprang up in Germany who said That Christ took not his flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary but brought them with him from Heaven Those Anabaptists fell into this Heresie by misunderstanding som passages of Scripture where it is said The Son of Man Joh. 3. 13 6. 38. came down from Heaven and where Christ said of himself I came down from Heaven And where St. Paul said The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. Apollinarius dixit carnem Christi ab aeterno fuisse de coelo descendisse Soz. l. 6. c. 27. But those sayings which are meant properly of the Godhead of the Son of Man yet are also truly said of the whole Person of Christ by an Antidosis or communication of Properties as Divines call it which consisteth in this That the two distinct Natures in Christ viz. the Godhead and the Manhood do both of them communicate their several properties each to other by reason of the Union of those two distinct Natures in that one Person of Christ Hence it is that the Scripture so speaketh of the Person of Christ They crucified the Lord of Glory And the blood of 1 Cor. 2. 8 Acts 20. 28. Acts 3. 15 Christ is called the Blood of God And the Jews are said to have crucified the Prince of Life And of the Thief Christ said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. yet Christ himself was not then in Paradise as Man but only as God In the same sense the words of Christ above-mentioned are to be understood The Son of Man came from Heaven which is true because the same Son of Man was also the Son of God and the only God who indeed came down from Heaven Not only the Hereticks but the Heathens also depraved and obscured the Doctrine of Redemption by affirming that Men at first sprang out of Trees or grew out of the Earth Rupto robore nati Juvenal Sat. 6. Compositique luto nullos habuere parentes And the Jews also said that God made at first two Women for Adam although we find but one and her taken out of the side of the first Man flesh of his flesh the other must have been otherwise made whereupon the Jews feigned Genealogies as derived from the womb of the second Woman which are those Genealogies which St. Paul called vain as St. Austin thought Aug. To. 6. n. 16. 1 Tim. 1. 4. which Jewish fiction depraved the doctrine of our Union with Christ and consequently of universal Redemption of Mankind because that Work was limited and confined to the Seed of Eve who was that Woman whose Seed should bruise the serpents head who was the only Woman that was taken out of Adams side and all Nations of men with Christ also have proceeded from the loins and womb of that one Man and that one Woman This necessary Vnion was intimated by the Prophets and also by the Apostle by the similitude of earthen Vessels and of bread The Potter hath power over the clay of the same lump to make one Vessel to honour Isa 45. 9. Jer. 18. 6. Ro. 9. 21. 2 Cor. 4. 7. another to dishonour and St. Paul calleth our bodies earthen Vessels Christ also and his Members are resembled to Bread in respect of their Union and communion one with the other The Bread which we break 1 Cor. 10. 16. is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ for we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread The similitude holds in this that as many earthen Vessels are made out of one lump of clay and many Breads or loaves out of one dough or lump of Past wherein they were first united before they were extracted and severally formed just so all Men in the world with Christ himself were at first united in that one lump or mass of the first Man before they were extracted of which Union St. Paul saith that God hath made of one blood whatever blood signifieth all Nations of Acts 17. 26 Men. CHAP. VIII THe Eating of the flesh of Christ certainly signifieth only the Vnion of our flesh with his Flesh which Vnion was from Eternity designed by the Godhead in his mercifull purpose towards Mankind his future and intended Creatures as hath been before shewed But then if so we are next to enquire why it pleased our Redeemer to express and declare this Vnion by such seeming-harsh and tragical Words of Eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which if literally and grosly understood of Oral eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Man are such things as all civilized People both Christians and Heathens abhor and those that have been observed so to do as Pliny writeth of the ancient and rude Plin. hist lib. 7. c. 2. Scythians are branded with a character of barbarous savageness and inhumanity as Plutarch and Salust noted of the Catilinarian Plut. in vit Cicer. Salust de bel Catil conspirators that they entred a wicked Covenant by a bloody ceremony of killing a man and tasting of his flesh and drinking of his blood mingled with Wine and St. Jerom writeth that himself saw Hier. con Jovin l. 2. c. 5. barbarous People in France feeding on human flesh The Answer hereunto is That our Saviour therefore chose this similitudinary way to express our Union with himself because he