necessarily to have been united in soul as well as in body otherwise he could be but an Half-Redeemer and we but Semiredempti i. e. redeemed but in one part or half-redeemed for it would prove but a Redemption of our Bodies only and not of our Souls Gregory Nazianzen in an Epistle to Cledonius Naz. Orat 51. a Priest which goes under the title of the 51 Oration thus writeth The Son of God took upon him the Nature of Man and all that of Man which needed help and recovery therefore he must needs have taken the Soul as well as the flesh from Man for otherwise he would be like to a Man who having a sore eye and a sore foot and should apply a Medicine to the foot only and quite neglect the eye Thus he so that although our bodies were well provided for by having a Redeemer yet the souls would want a Redemption for themselves and so the sentence of God would be executed on them The Soul that sinneth it shall die Eze. 18. 4 But the Mercifull Godhead took care both of our bodies and of our Souls and therefore sent God the Son as the Apostle saith in the likeness of sinfull Flesh and Rom. 8. 3. for sin condemned sin in the flesh So likewise did he send the same Son of God in the likeness of a sinfull Soul thereby to condemn sin in the Soul the Lord Jesus is a Saviour not only of bodies but of souls also and is therefore called by the Apostle the Sheepherd and Bishop of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. as Moses and Aaron had formerly stiled him The God of the Spirits or Souls of all Num. 16. 22. Flesh The Son of God was the Creator not only of bodies but also of souls and the Son of Man was and is the Redeemer of both For this gracious purpose only God did unite himself with Mankind not only in Flesh but in Soul also and thereby he became a Compleat Emanuel And this union or conjunction of God with Man was effected by the Propagation or Traduction of the Flesh and Soul of Christ from the flesh and soul of the first Man as all our Bodies and Souls have been and now are and will be to the end of the World Of the Traduction of our bodies no Man boubteth but of the Original and Traduction of Souls great disputes have been and yet are of which we are next in order to consider CHAP. XX. THE Doctrine of the Original of the Soul of Christ and of all human Souls and consequently the Doctrine of the Redemption of our souls by the Soul of Christ hath been much obscured by the vain and trifling Arguments of some natural Philosophers and as much by the frivolous Queries of some late Theologues whereas some learned Physicians to whom Jacobus Horstius Geor. Horstius Animas propagari ab animabus parentum putat Keckerman Phys p. 630. Truth is more beholding in this point have with great judgment and by their Experiences shewed and proved that our Souls are derived by Traduction from the Souls of our Mothers in the Womb as the Soul of Christ certainly was and as one of them saith Instar surculi ex trunco as a young grift sucketh life from the stock And the Souls of all Mothers as is beforesaid are derived from the Soul of the first Man unto which Doctrine all men who do rightly apprehend and understand the order and method of Redemption to consist in the Vnion of Christ with Mankind will be driven at last to consent Those Men that oppose the Traduction of Souls from the Soul of Adam demand how it is possible that such an innumerable company of Souls can be derived from one single Soul seeing the Soul is a Spirit and indivisible and therefore not to be parted by Decisions and mincings into such several parcels for so in time it would have nothing left to it self but would be utterly annihilated But these Men may as reasonably doubt how so many thousands of Bodies could proceed from that one single Body of the first Man during the 930 years of his life without any diminution of the quantity or dimensions of his Body seeing they were all Originally in his Loyns Or how the Sun communicates his light to every star in Heaven without any diminution or lessening his Light nothing is more like the Soul than light The Philosophers called the Soul of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter cognationem cum lumine as Plutarch saith because it is Plut. con Colot so like to light and Christ is said to Enlighten every Man because he hath given a John 1. 9. reasonable Soul to all Men as Expositors agree St. Austin resembles the traduction of the Soul to the Light of a lamp Ignis Aug. cont Pelag. T. 7. n. 63 lucernae integer manet licet altera de illa accendatur Millions of Tapers may receive light from one single Taper without diminishing the light of that one Taper and so our Souls are propagated from that one Original Soul without any division or diminution thereof Let it be considered that the Soul of the first Man was created immediately by God of which it is said God breathed into his Gen. 2. 7. Bucan p. 86. 88. nostrils the breath of Life or of Lives this Breath of God was Spiraculum Omnipotens of which the Psalmist saith By the Breath Psal 33. 6 of the Lord the Heavens were made and all the Host of them by the Breath of his mouth The human Soul hath a prerogative of its Original above other inferiour Animals of whom it is never said that God breathed into them the Breath of life That first Soul of Man especially was like unto Fire as one saith of all Human souls Igneus est Ollis Virg. Aen. 6. vigor It surely had the vigour of fire and did extend it self into the grand Corporation of all Mankind as one spark of fire may enflame a whole City The brute Creatures ever since their first Creation did propagate their Souls to their kind and to this day those Creatures do receive their souls by Traduction from their Dams The greatest Sciolists in Natural Philosophy cannot reasonably prove any other Original of those brute Souls but only by propagation which yet they deny to human Souls It must be confessed by Christians that the souls of brute Creatures were at the beginning created by God as the reasonable Soul of Adam was yet the souls of Brute Creatures are mortal but the reasonable Souls of Men are immortal the reason is because the Divine Nature did personally unite it self with our whole human Nature which is the only reason why human Souls do not die and that human Bodies after death shall rise again to Life at the general Resurrection But the Divine Nature did not so unite it self with the nature of those other inferiour Creatures which are therefore left to perish utterly Of which something
a common Man and that afterwards God the Word united himself with his flesh for that was done in the Virgins Womb his Flesh was never existing alone but ever was the Flesh of God his Body always was Corpus Dei the Body of God as the Scripture calls his Blood the Blood of God Acts 20. 28. And Acts 20. 28. 1 John 3. 16. his Death the Death of God as St. John saith Hereby we perceive the love of God because he hath laid down his life for us The laying down of the life of Christ is called the laying down the life of God The vertue and efficacy of the Flesh of the Son of Man and that which makes his flesh so benificial to Mankind consisteth in this Vnion viz. Because his Flesh is joyned and personally united with the Word or Son of God for his Flesh if it were nothing else but only flesh it could not profit us as Christ said the Flesh profiteth nothing for it is the Union of his Divine Spirit with his Flesh that maketh his flesh Vivifical or Quickening as Christ said It is Joh. 6. 63 the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing the Words that I speak they are Spirit and they are Life the meaning is that the whole efficacy of his Flesh consisteth only in and by the conjuction of his Divine Spirit with it who is not only Vivifical but also Life it self therefore the Apostle saith the last Adam was made a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit The last Adam signifies Christ who is called Adam only because his Human nature was derived from Adam which human Nature was made Vivifical by being united with the Divine quickning Spirit and because this last Adam and the Divine Spirit or Godhead were personally united in Christ therefore he saith of him The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven The flesh Vers 47. of Christ thus being sweetned by his Divine Spirit is like that Leaven mentioned Mat. 13. 33. in the Gospel wherewith the whole lump of Mankind is seasoned the efficacy power and operation whereof may more easily be apprehended by this similitude As wood or a dead coal or iron do noâ— of themselves alone burn or heat a man but if they be joyned with fire and made red hot thereby they will heat and burn The flesh of the Son of Man alone is like the wood and iron and the Divine Spirit united with the flesh is like the fire as he once appeared in Cloven tongues like as of Acts 2. fire by which Spirit only the flesh is actuated and made operative hence proceed those effects and productions mentioned in the Gospel where Christ said I am the Bread which came down from Heaven and John 6. 33 41 51 giveth life to the World we know that only his Divine Spirit came from Heaven not his flesh of which effects we shall say more in their due place CHAP. XII ANother Question to be disputed concerning the Modus the way or manner of this mysterious Eating is how Men can be truly said to eat the Flesh of Christ And this because those that disavow and abhor the Dream of Transubstantiators of a gross carnal and Oral eating have conceived another way which they call Eating Spiritually which word is used in this question by the Church of England declaring to the penitent and faithfull Communicants that They Spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood They dwell in Christ and Christ in them They be One with Christ and Christ with them which is true By those words of Dwelling in Christ and being One with him and Eating his Flesh this Church declareth 1. First a true and real Union of our flesh with his very Flesh although she utterly denieth the gross and Oral eating and tearing of his Flesh 2. Secondly she declareth by the word Spiritually That this Eating is to be understood only Mystically or Spiritually and not carnally or Orally for Oral eating is only of the Sacrament but not of the very real Substance which is signified by that Sacrament So we are now to enquire what is meant by the Eating the flesh of Christ spiritually To this we Answer That this word Spiritually hath a double signification for D. Vshers Serm. ad Parl. 1620. 1. First It is by many Learned Men thought to signifie only the Receiving the Spirit of our Lord Jesus by which we are united with him because the same Spirit which is in Jesus is from him the Head derived and communicated to his Members Of this Union of the Spirit or spiritual Union of us with Christ the great Apostle often speaketh He that is joyned to the Lord 1 Cor. 6. 17. 12. 13. Eph. 4. 4. is one Spirit and By one Spirit ye are all bapzed into one Body and There is one Body and one Spirit By vertue of this one Spirit so communicated the whole multitude of the Church or Members of Christ are accounted but one Mystical Body But this Spiritual Vnion or Union in Spirit although it is true and real yet this alone may not be thought to be so plenary or so sufficient an Union as is necessarily required for expediting that great Work for which the Blessed Godhead designed Mans Union with Christ as may appear by the Reasons following 1. First If to eat Spiritually should signifie to receive the Spirit of Christ only and no more and be only so by us apprehended utterly disowning the eating or the real Union of his Flesh with our flesh in truth and reality we shall thereby disturb and null the Order of the grand and mercifull work of Redemption which could not be wrought only by an union or conjunction of the Spirit of the Son of God with us but also with the Union of his blessed Flesh and Blood with our flesh and blood because the Spirit alone is not a Redeemer for the Spirit could not suffer and die for us as a Redeemer must it was the vital blood and death of the Redeemer that was necessarily required for Mans Redemption 2. Secondly The Son of God as only so was a Spirit from Eternity for God is a Spirit But if the Son of God will vouchsafe to become a Redeemer he must needs be first the Son of Man and Emanuel as the Church in her Hymn confesseth When thou tookest upon thee to deliver Man thou didst not abhorr the Virgins Womb. For if God the Son or God the Word had so continued in his pure Divinity and had not assumed our Human nature so as to be the Son of Man and the Word made Flesh he could not have been Christ nor Jesus nor Priest nor Sacrifice nor Redeemer for otherwise we might as well say that the Person of the Father or the Person of the Holy Ghost were our Redeemers although neither of those Persons assumed our nature as Austin or rather Gennadius observed Aug. T. 3. n. 72. Nec Pater nec Spiritus
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
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