assumpsit carnem sed Filius tantúm So all Divines will assent to this Theological Axiom Divina Cassander Fol. 30. natura non est Redemptrix quia pati non potuit the pure and single Divine nature could not be the Redeemer because it could not suffer or die And we know that Redemption was confined and limited so as to be only by the Seed of the Woman but the Spirit or Holy Ghost is not the Seed of the Woman therefore God the Son took on him that Seed and that form of a Servant and therein he became our Redeemer because thereby he became Mortal and could suffer and die Neither could the human Nature of Christ considered singly and alone without his Divine Nature and by it self only have redeemed us because no meer Creature could possibly be of sufficient worth to ransom the World or to satisfie Divine Justice for the sins of Mankind 3. A third Reason is That other Creatures besides Mankind have the Spirit of God which is the same Spirit with the Spirit of Christ yet those other creatures have no benefit by the Incarnation and Passion of Christ For the blessed Angels are plentifully endowed with the Spirit yet because they are not united with the flesh and blood of Christ they cannot be capable of any benefit thereby or of Redemption if need were more than the evil or Apostate Angels are because the Son of God dit not assume the nature of Angels nor Heb. 2. 16. did any Angels assume the nature of Man Besides other inferiour Creatures are not destitute of the Spirit of God which is said to fill Heaven and Earth The Psalmist Jer. 23. 24. Ps 139. 6 Joel 2. 28 could not tell whether he should go from the Spirit and God by his Prophet had said I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh which is truly performed not only on Mankind but also on other inferiour Creatures for by the vertue and vigour of the Spirit they live and move and have their being yet Acts 17. 28. they are not thereby capable of the benefits or effects which come by the Incarnation because they are not so united with Christ as our Nature is For these reasons I conceive it may appear that the Eating or the Union with the Flesh of Christ is not meant of Receiving only the Spirit or of eating his Flesh spiritually in that sense which is abovesaid 2. Secondly Those words of Eating spiritually in the sense of the Church I conceive to signifie such a kind of Eating as is distinct and different from the literal or Grammatical signification thereof and from any gross carnal or Oral eating and that it signifieth to Eat according to the Spirit that is according to the intent purpose and true inward meaning and sense of the Spirit For we know that the word Spirit in Scripture is often opposed to the word Letter as may appear by those words of St. Paul God hath made us able Ministers of the 2 Cor. 3. 6. New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit Upon which words St. Athanasius Athan. To. 3 n. 26 thus writeth to Serapion Vos si sacras literas evolveritis invenietis Spiritus vocabulum in hoc usurpari ut mentem verborum significet If you will peruse the Holy Scriptures you will find that the word Spirit is used to signifie the Mind or meaning Now the spirit mind or meaning of those words is to be really united with Christ yet without any Oral manducation literally taken The Psalmist saith God hath spoken once twice Psal 6◠11. have I heard this Duo haec audivi that is saith Isychius that he considered not only Isych in Levit. the Letter but also the Spirit or meaning of the words for the Letter is but folium Spiritus as the same Father saith like to the leaf which covereth the fruit or like unto the Vail wherewith the shining face of Moses was shadowed or as the shell is to the kernel Origen in his Tractates upon St. Matthew calls the Letter sepulchrum Prophetarum Orig. Tract 3. 26. like a sepulcher in which the prophetical Mysteries are hid but the signification and meaning of the Letter is saith he Regalis dignior intellectus which he calls animam spiritum Literae the more noble and more worthy understanding of the Prophetical Writings and the very life and spirit of them In the Levitical Law those Creatures are Lev. 11. 3 accounted clean which divided the hoof and chewed the Cud which in the Spirit or meaning signified those Persons who in their Meditations on Scriptural Figures did distinguish or divide the outward Letter from the inward Spirit or meaning thereof And St. Austin was bold to say Aug. in Ps 103. Quaedam quasi absurda miscet Spiritus sanctus ut ex eo quod non possumus accipere ad literam cogat nos spiritualiter quaerere It hath pleased the Holy Ghost to mingle some passages with his Word which seems uncomely and absurd that thereby he might compell us to search out the Spirit or meaning of that which we cannot conceive fit or true according to the bare Letter As If thy right eye offend thee c. or Mat. 5. If thy right hand offend thee c. The great Oratour observeth Scriptum sequi Calumniatoris Tul. pro Caecina N. 14. est boni judicis voluntatem scriptoris He is but a Wrangler who urgeth only the bare letter of a Writing but a good Judge will consider the will and meaning of the Writer So say we that because to eat the flesh of Christ literally taken is impossible and unprofitable and undecent therefore we deny that way and acknowledge the other way of Eating spiritually which according to the intent Spirit and meaning of Christ signifieth the real Vnion of us with him both in flesh and soul so as is above shewed and will be more hereafter CHAP. XIII THere are others that think that the Eating and Drinking the flesh and blood of Christ is by Believing in him which they call Eating by Faith without any consideration of any other Vnion with his Flesh and Blood But these men do not rightly weigh and ponder the order and method which our most wise most just and most mercifull God designed for the acquitment of lapsed Mankind that their Redemption might be wrought not only by his Mercy but also with a strict observance of exact Justice which could not be performed without an Union of the Redeemer and the Redeemed as is before shewed This Union which Christ called Eating is not performed only by Faith or Believing for the Blessed Angels believe yet cannot be said to eat his Flesh or to be united so with him as is here required even the Apostate Angels do also believe every Article of the Christian Faith and this upon more certainty and evidence than many good Christians have knowledge of and with their
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
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