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
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
Bread and Wine so as that after Consecration to that Spiritual use they are to be considered not as only Bread and Wine or only as Elements so far we assent because of meer Elements they are made Sacraments Thus Theodoret very judiciously Theod. in Eranist Dial. 1. observeth that Christ in the Holy Supper changed the names of the Elements Non mutans naturam sed adjiciens gratiam viz. that he graced those signs or Sacraments with the title or appellation of his own Body and Blood although they still retained their former substance figure and form for so he expresly declares in his third Dialogue Manent in priore Id. Ibid. Dial. 3. substantia figura forma In like manner the words of St. Austin Aug. Psal 33. hom 1 on the 33. Psalm are to be understood where he saith Christus in manibus suis ferebatur quando dixit hoc est Corpus meum i. Christ was carried in his own hands when he said This is my Body That which he then bare in his hands was only the Sacrament of his Body which yet he called his Body although the Sacrament is but the sign thereof signum rei but as other signs often are it is called by the name of the thing signified Res signi The former is mentioned and meant in the Institution of that Sacrament Mat. 26. 26. The latter is mentioned Mat. 26. 26. John 6. 53. John 6. 53. which is the very reality of the thing it self for by those words of Eating and Drinking Christ declared the necessity of an Union or Conjunction of our flesh and blood with His in order to our Redemption and so to Life saying Except ye Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man c. ye have no life in you It may reasonably be thought that many learned Romanists do not really believe that impossible Doctrine of Transubstantiation who yet either for fear or hope of profit do profess and teach the same for great are the privileges and profits that arise from it and as the Prophet saith the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets Mich. 3. 11. divine for money The Fathers often observed that evil spirits used to speak from the belly of Pythonists who are therefore called Ventriloqui upon those words of Isaias Quaerite ventriloquos Isa 8. 19. Orig. in Loc. Origen saith that the Prophet pointed at such Ecclesiasticks as would teach for their own belly or profit for ever since the Curse was laid on the Serpent That he should go Gen. 3. 14 Phil. 3. 19. on his belly Satan hath got advantage by such of his Instruments whose god is their belly Surely if that doctrine were not profitable to the Teachers thereof it would soon be as despicable at Rome as it is now with us One Cassius a Roman Judge when Tul. Orat. pro Roscio Amer. n. 4 any Man was accused at his Tribunal for some heinous fact he would first enquire Cui bono what profit might accrue thereby to the accused if his accusation were true And when Rullus a Tribune very earnestly urged for the Lex Agraria i. for power to make sale of all the Roman Provinces he was first required to quit himself from suspicion of his own Covetousness Si Populo Consulis remove Id. Orat contra Rullum te à suspitione commodi tui If the Roman Priests would faithfully instruct the People in this gracious and comfortable Mystery they should forbear making such gain as they do by the consequences of their Doctrine thereof which otherwise may be thought to be the Diana of Rome like that other of Ephesus a craft by which they have their wealth for of Acts 19. 25. all their Legend of Romances none are so profitable to them as this as Pope Leo the Tenth profanely said of the whole History of Christ Quantas opes nobis peperit illa fabula de Plat. Christo We that are but By-standers or Lookers on may wonder at their Priests as Cato sometimes did at the old Aruspices how one of Tul. de Divinat lib. 2. them meeting with another can forbear laughing in their sleeves considering how grosly they have abused the People This little Essay concerning the Flesh and Blood of Christ is like to find such entertainment with them as himself had on Earth To be for a Sign that shall be spoken against and possibly it may find as little acceptance with some among us particularly in that part hereof wherein the propagation or traduction of our Souls is asserted the denial whereof I esteem to be a Philosophical Heresie as much disturbing the Doctrine of our Church concerning Vniversal Redemption for so Epiphanius accounts Epiph. Haer. 8. the errors of Epicureans Stoicks and Pythagoreans among his Heresies But yet because our Church doth not expresly define that or limit and declare the Modus or Way of Eating the Flesh or Drinking the Blood of Christ therefore the pious and diligent Disquisition of the truth and manner thereof without gainsaying the Doctrine established herein I conceive should be freely permitted neither should any mans private Opinion although of another Judgment prescribe to us or hinder this our Inquisition seeing it is not Magisterially dictated but humbly offered as an Essay And also because many of the right Pious and Learned Fathers have with great judgment and industry described and directed us in this very way as will appear to the Reader of this Book THE PREFACE IN order to the profitable Perusal of this Book we are first to consider how the Son of God came to be concerned and interested in the Affairs of Mankind especially in the grand work of Redemption and Salvation This Work was resolved and concluded before the Creation either of Mankind or of the World by vertue of a Secret but a most Gracious Covenant transacted between the Father and the Son from Eternity which Covenant is often mentioned in the Gospel under the title of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 2. Eph. 3. 11 Rev. 14. 6 and is called the Eternal Purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord and the Everlasting Gospel In all which places the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used We cannot apprehend any other Conditions in this Covenant but only that the Godhead in the Person of the Eternal Father required performance of the future Laws to be imposed on Mankind the intended Creature with promise of Life to the Performer and the penalty of Death to the Transgressor To these covenanted Conditions the same Godhead in the Person of the Eternal Son restipulated and agreed that Mankind should either perform the said Laws or so suffer This we conceive to be that Covenant and also to be attested by the same Godhead in the Person of the Eternal Spirit of the Father and the Son who also untill this day as the Apostle speaketh beareth witness with Rom. 8. 16. our Spirit And so do all the
Three Divine Persons all of them being but One God of Truth as St. John saith There are Three 1 John 5. 7. that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these Three are One. Vpon these premised Reasons it is as I conceive that the Apostle calls Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Surety or Fide-jussor Heb. 7. 22. In order to the performance of this Covenant we are next to consider that God the Son assumed our Human Nature and became perfect Man and in that Human Nature did actually and perfectly perform that whole Law or Covenant for which he was engaged in the behalf of Mankind whereupon it is said of the Son In the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy Heb. 10. 7. will O God in Capite libri that is in notitia Praedestinationis aeternae saith the Dionys Car. in loc Expositor The Writing in the Volume of the Book signifies that he was preordained or predestinated from Eternity so to do He had said before Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body thou hast prepared for me then said I lo I come all which words were taken out of the 40th Psalm From hence it is that God the Son is called the Angel or Messenger of the Mal. 3 1. Govenant because he was interested and sent for performance of the said Covenant And therefore the whole Flock of Mankind was committed to him as his Sheep to be ordered and governed for so it is expresly said that the Father gave them to him John 10. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 25. and He is therefore called by St. Peter the great Shepherd of the Sheep This Engagement of the Son as Surety for Mankind occasioned those words of the two great Apostles for thus St. Paul writeth of God He hath chosen us in him Eph. 1 4. Christ before the Foundation of the World and He hath saved us according 2 Tim. 1. 9. to his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began And In hope of Eternal Tit. 1. 2. life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began Just so St. Peter saith upon the same reason You were not 1 Pet. 1. 18. redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious Blood of Christ who 19. 20. was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World These expressions of Chosing us in Christ and of Grace given us in Christ and of Christ fore-ordained and of Life promised and that before the Foundation of the World And all these only in and for Christ must needs relate to that aforesaid Eternal purpose Covenant or Agreement beeween God the Father and God the Son before the Creation For to whom could the Promise be made before either Man or Angel or Archangel or any Creatures were made but only to the Eternal Word or Son of the Father And why to him but only because the Son entred into that Covenant and thereby became the Surety and Vndertaker for Mankind Therefore to him only was this Promise made and in him and for him to Mankind And by vertue of this Covenant the Lord Jesus became necessarily obliged both to perform the Law and also to under go his bitter passions of death as himself often acknowledged Mat. 16. 21. and all the four Evangelists have recorded Mar. 8. 31 Luke from his mouth that He must suffer many things and be killed 24. 46. Joh. 3. 14 All this being presumed and granted there is yet one thing more of the greatest concernment to us to be considered viz. how his Obedience in performing the Law and his Death for the transgressions thereof can be satisfactory to Divine Justice for us seeing God hath often declared that one shall not be punished for another especially an Innocent for a malefactor which seems to be our case for we are the Transgressors but Christ is innocent yet he is punished and we quitted Our Answer is that Christ and Mankind are not to be looked on as Two but as One. Nor is his death the death of one for another but of the same He as a Surety and we as the principal Debtor He as the Head and we as the Members of the same Body The Surety and the principal are but one Person in Law and the Head and the other parts are both one and the same Body in Nature Therefore that the proceedings of the Godhead concerning the work of Mans Redemption might appear to be contrived not only with infinite Mercy but also with exact Justice God at the beginning so ordered that the Redeemer and the Redeemed should be united in One original Fountain who to that end planted all the Bodies and Souls both of Christ and of all Mankind in that One First Man from whose Flesh and Soul both Christ and all Mankind have derived their Bodies and their Souls In this consisteth our Union with Christ and hence it is that Christ and we are accounted but One and this is that Union which was meant and described by Christ under those figurative words of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood The clear demonstration and proof whereof is the whole and only design of this ensuing Treatise The learned Romanists I conceive do perfectly understand that the benefits which come by Christ cannot otherwise with justice be communicated to Mankind but only by the Vnion of Christ with us viz. of his Flesh with our flesh and of his Soul with our souls And therefore they have phansied this Vnion to be effected by an Oral and carnal Eating of his living Flesh and Drinking his Blood in the Sacred Eucharist by their way of Transubstantiation For the learned French Cardinal of Perron in his Book of the Eucharist written in French affirmeth that the real natural Presence of Christ in the Sacrament is to greatest purpose because the Residence of Christs Natural Body in our bodies doth really and substantially joyn us unto God establishing a true and real Vnity between God and Men. Thus far he which is observed by Dr. Jer. Taylor in his Book intitled The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Sacrament pag. 50. We also confess the necessity of this Vnion but by another way which is plain evident and comfortable as it is described in this Book as I trust will appear to the Reader So that no need will be of that Roman Subterfuge and pretence of their horrid unreasonable and impossible Mode by an Oral gross carnal and literal Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood with which Imposture a great part of the Christian World hath been a long time abused but by the cool and sober perusal of this Discourse the Ingenuous Romanist may happily in some measure be undeceived The most compleat and perfect Vnion of Christ with Man consisteth in five things 1. Carne in Flesh 2. Anima in Soul 3. Spiritu in Spirit 4. Vadimonio
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
hath been Cap. 11. said before and more will be said in its due place The prime cause of the propagation of Human souls is the gift of God by his Benediction recorded in these words God blessed them and said unto them be fruitfull Gen. 1. 28. and multiply and replenish the Earth Can we imagin that this Benediction of fruit-fulness and multiplying should extend to flesh or bodies only and not to Souls Whereas the like blessing of fishes and fowls enabled them to produce and propagate not only bodies but the whole Creatures viz. both the bodies and the souls of their Kinds of which Benediction we thus read God created Whales and every living creature Gen. 1. 21. which moveth and every winged fowl and God blessed them and said be fruitfull 22. and multiply c. By vertue of this Benediction those Creature are enabled unto this day to produce their kinds both in bodies and in souls This gift and blessing of fruitfulness both of fowl and of cattle is also again renewed after the Flood and repeated Gen. 8. 17. and also of Mankind Gen. 8. 17. 9. 1. Gen. 9. 1. God blessed Noah and his Sons and said unto them be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the Earth It may seem strange that those Divines who confess the Traduction of our bodies with the Body of Christ from the loyns of the first Man as being necessary for Redemption of our bodies yet that they should deny the Traduction of our Souls with the Soul of Christ from the first Man which is altogether as needfull for the Redemption of our Soul In the Holy Scripture care is taken to declare the derivation of our souls from our Parents rather than of our Bodies because that of Souls is more secret than the other of Bodies Gen. 46. 26. it is said Gen. 46. 26. All the souls which came with Jacob into Egypt which came out of his loyns or thigh all the Souls were sixty and six How Souls can be truly said to come from the loyns or thigh of the Man without a Figure or Metonymy is hard to be understood except we will thus apprehend it viz. that although the Souls of Mankind being in the Womb are immediately and truly derived from the souls of the Mothers yet they are here said to come from the loyns of the Man because the seed of Conception which came from the Man hath it it self Potentiam receptivam a power or capacity of receiving the soul or life though it hath not Potentiam productivam any power of it self to produce or introduce the Soul And because the Womb alone without that seminal conception from the Man cannot produce a soul or life therefore are the Souls said to come from the loyns of the Man for there never was nor ever will be a Child-bearing Woman without the Cooperation of Man or Malekind except only that miraculous Childbirth of Christ by his blessed Virgin-Mother which was wrought by the Holy Ghost Nor was there ever any Soul derived immediately from Man but only the soul of Eve which accompanied her flesh The reports of Buddas Plaeto are Fables Hier. n. 14. at her Production out of the side of the Man But ever since Eve all her Posterity have received their lives or souls in the Womb from the lives or souls of their Mothers as may appear probably by the time when the Conception is first animated in the Womb which is next to be considered CHAP. XXI COncerning the time when the said Conception in the Womb is first animated or enlivened with a Soul which is called Quickning both Philosophers and learned Physicians and also our experienced Matrons who have born and brought forth many children have informed us That some Conceptions are not quickned but about the end of 20 Weeks others at 15 Weeks and some at 10 Weeks and surely at the first instant or beginning of the Conception the Soul is not presently Infused So Aristotle acknowledgeth that the soul is not Arist de Gen. Ani. l. 2. c. 3. then Actually in the conceived Seed but only Potentially so as is before said Now if it be granted that our souls come from the Souls of our Parents and also that they are not transmitted with the Seed from the Father it will follow that they cannot in reason be thought to be propagated from the Father because no Man will believe that after so long a time whilst the Conception remains in the womb without life or soul and also the Man being absent in a far remote distance of place from the Woman as it may and doth many times happen I say it cannot be imagined that at the instant of Quickning the Soul or Life should wander from the Father by a kind of Metempsychosis or Transmigration unto the mothers Womb. This being impossible it must follow that the Soul necessarily doth proceed and is derived only and immediately from the Soul of the mother wherein if she fail by reason of some continued Indisposition of the Womb she is called Barren and because the Animation of the Conception is only from the Woman therefore because of her failing therein Barrenness is imputed only to the Jer. 22. 30. Woman and not at all to the Man though Childless It is so with the Seed of Man which is conceived in the Womb as it is with meat received into the stomach which hath no life in it self Actually but it hath a power or capacity to receive life which life it will afterwards actually receive when it shall be really united with the former parts of the Body for then the life and soul will enter into it as they did before into all the additional parts of our Bodies for we see that our bodies have been augmented by our food and have grown into so great a bulk from our so small dimensions at our Birth This being evidently true why should it seem less credible that the Soul of the mother entreth into and enliveneth her Conception in the womb then it is to believe and acknowledge that the Soul doth enter into and enliven the new acquired parts of our Bodies which have been added by our food The time and manner of the Soul 's entring into the Conception is thus described by that learned Physician before mentioned when saith he the parts of the Embryon are once shaped formed and perfected Jac. Horstius to that use in the womb then doth the life or soul of the Mother together with the Vital Spirit proceed from her heart and enter into that fruit of her womb This is the time when we receive our Souls by traduction from the souls of our Mothers and this is the time of the Vnion of our souls with the Soul of Christ which Christ himself called Drinking his Blood That common saying concerning the Original of the Soul Creando infunditur infundendo creatur if it be meant of every particular human Soul is very
as those Errors of the abovesaid Ancient Hereticks were seeing these Men affirm that human Souls are by thousands dayly and newly Created whereby they busie the Godhead with new Creations of Souls upon the quickning of every Conception whereby they manifestly declare that they deny the Union of our Souls with the Soul of Christ in the first Man and consequently deprave and nullifie the doctrine of the Redemption of our souls by his Soul Certainly there must be a real Union of our Souls as well as of our bodies with the Body and Soul of Christ for otherwise he could not be a Redeemer of our bodies and souls Yet in this Doctrine concerning the Union of the Soul of Christ with the Souls of us Men which we have here asserted we are not so to be understood as if we meant or affirmed that there is but one particular Soul of all Men which was the error of Averroes an Ethnick Philosopher about 1150 Years of Christ as Tolet reporteth Tolet. in 3. Phy. neither do we approve of the Opinion of some Ancient Platonicks who said there was but one universal Soul of all Creatures in the World which they called Animam Euseb de Prae. Naz. Orat. 37. Aust de de Temp. Ser. 143. Mundi which error is taken notice of by Eusebius Nazianzen and Austin who said that those Heathens having a glimmering apprehension of the Ubiquity and general Cooperation of the Divine Spirit with all Creatures called it a Soul But our Assertion doth not in the least gainsay the Plurality of the Souls of Men more than the Plurality of their Bodies for as multitudes of fruits and flowers may grow and proceed from one Tree or one Stalk and yet we say not that they are but One fruit or but one Flower So although all our Bodies and all our Souls sprang from that One Body and that One Soul of the first Man yet there are and will be innumerable particular Bodies and Souls We affirm only this that all human Bodies are but the off-spring of that One first Body and all human Souls are but as the Daughters of that One Original Soul of Adam neither doth the Plurality of particular Souls hinder the Union of that multitude in their prime Original Fountain wherein they were radically joyned The Jews used to say that Adams Soul was in David and the Scripture saith that The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul 1 Sam. 18. 1. Acts 4. 3◠of David and that the multitude of Believers were of one Soul These sayings may be rightly understood of Union not only in regard of mutual Love Concord and Affection but also in consideration of that one Original Soul from whence all of them sprang for the Soul of Adam branched out not only to David but to Christ and also to all Men in the World and in this consideration the Soul of Jesus our Redeemer is One with our Souls being so knit and united with ours as is said therefore the holy Man Macarius thus writeth Macar Hom. 14. thereof Vna anima est Ecclesia apud Deum quia habet Communionem cum Sponso coelesti The Church is as one Soul with God having Communion with her Heavenly Spouse or one Soul is a Church as St. Paul saith of the Husband and Wife as the resemblance of Christ and his Church They two shall be one flesh and I speak of Christ and his Church and Nazianzen calls Basil Dimidium Eph. 5. 31 Naz. Orat 19. animae As for those speeches concerning Union of Souls which fell from Heathen Writers I take to be meant only of the amity and concord of Friends as that of Horace and Virgil Hor. Od. 3. Pers Sat. 5. Animae dimidium meae And of Persius Quant aque nostrae Pars tua sit cornute animae And of Ovid Qui duo corporibus mentibus unus erant Ovid de Trist And of Aristotle concerning two Friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these Heathens Diog. in Vit. Arist did not understand the mystery nor the great concernment of the Union of our souls with the Soul of Christ our God Incarnate CHAP. XXIII WE have shewed before that by reason of the Union of the flesh of Christ with our flesh Christ and his Church are looked on and considered as one Body and are so called by the Apostle Ye are the Body of Christ Much rather may we 1 Cor. 12. 27. be said to be One with Christ by reason of the Union of his Soul with our Souls for otherwise the great Mystical Body or Church of Christ wanting the life or soul of her Head would be but as a Carcass or lifeless Body neither could we be perfectly and compleatly so as the Apostle saith of the Galatians Ye are all one in Christ Jesus except Gal. 3. 28 our souls be united with his Soul nor can this Union of Souls be any other way apprehended or possibly effected but only by the Propagation of His and our Souls from the Original Soul of the first Man The Doctrine of the Propagation of all human Souls from that one and only created Soul of Adam is not new but was anciently taught and received very early in the Primitive Church although it was not fully established by general consent Tertullian in his Book de Anima clearly Tert. de Anima Cap. 27. declareth Animas ab Adamo esse that our Souls are derived from Adam and again in the same Book he saith Omnis Anima in Adamo Id. ibid. Cap. 40. censetur donec in Christo recenseatur Every Soul is censed or accounted in Adam untill it is new enrolled and accounted in Christ St. Jerome acknowledgeth this to be the Doctrine and judgment of Tertullian and he farther addeth Animas Hier. ad Marcellinum Ep. 82. To. 2. p. 254. ex traduce maxima pars Occidentalium autumant ut quomodo corpus ex corpore sic anima nascatur ex anima c. The greatest part of the Western Church holdeth that as our body was derived from the Body so our souls do spring from Souls St. Austin also disputeth very eagerly for the Traduction of Souls yet neither he nor St. Hierome Aug. Epist 28. would then presume to determine that difficult question Pelagius the Heretick was one of them Aug Epist 157. who denied the Traduction of Souls from the first Man and presuming thereon used that denial as a principle Argument against Traduction of Original sin from our Parents for surely if our Souls be not derived from them and so originally from Adam we should not be liable to the guilt of his sin because the Soul only is the seat of sin as is before shewed They that affirm and believe that God doth yet dayly create new Souls may consider whether they do not thereby manifestly fall into the Heresie of Pelagianism Aug. To. 3. n. 72. for by denying the propagation of the Soul which they