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
that ye abstain from Blood This Decree was directed to the Gentiles for the Jews were then and before zealous enough in abstaining from Blood by vertue of the old Law and the Christian Gentiles by vertue of this Apostolical Decree did absolutely forbear Blood for some Ages of the Church and it became one of the common Disciplines of Christians and was so esteemed in the days of Tertullian and after him Thirdly It being granted that the Christians upon this reason did abstain from the blood even of beasts which is true and easily proved how can it be imagined that they should eat or drink the blood of Man or which is less credible the Blood of that Man whom they believed and knew to be their most High and only Lord God Fourthly If it were possible for us Men now to drink the very Blood of Christ orally and literally understood it could not in the least advantage us in order to our Redemption because it was not the meer Blood of Christ literally taken that was the price of our Redemption although one drop of his precious Blood was worth more than the whole World for he shed his Blood at his Circumcision but that Blood was not Redemptive suppose he had opened a vein and presented or offered that Blood yet this could not have redeemed us neither could that Blood which issued out of his Body in Agony and bloody Sweat or at his Scourging or Crowning with thorns or that at the piercing of his Hands and Feet all these Bloodsheddings together could not redeem Mankind but the Blood of Christ which was really redemptive was his Vital Blood whereof the words of St. Peter are rightly to be understood Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 1 Pet. 1. 18. things but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb and St. John declareth that it was of a Lamb considered as a Lamb slain and we know that the Paschal Rev. 13. â— Lamb slain was the Type or figure thereof It was not then his meer Blood-shedding that redeemed us but it was the pouring out of his Life and Soul that was the ultimate act and consummation thereof of which all the four Evangelists have carefully informed us St. Matthew St. Mark St. Luke after the narration of all his grievous Sufferings adds this as the principal and most concerning and beneficial to us that he gave up the Ghost for Christ himself had said before The good Shepherd layeth John 10. 11 17 down his life for the Sheep and Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life for the Redeemer was engaged not only to perform the Law actively in his life time but also passively by his death to undergo the penalty due to the Transgressors of the prime Original Law which was In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt Gen. 2. 17. surely die The great Apostle often mindeth us of this great Truth saying We are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Ro. 5 10. 8. 34. Phil. 2. 8. and Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died and He became obedient to death And for our remembrance and acknowledgment thereof the holy Sacrament was set up as the same Apostle saith Ye shew the Lords death till he come and Christ had before 1 Cor. 11. 26. John 15. 13. declared Greater love than this hath no Man than to lay down his Life for his friend surely his own love was the greatest love CHAP. XV. THe Law of abstaining from Blood was enacted by God in a typical reference to the Blood of Christ which was to be shed in after times upon the altar of the Cross for Expiation of the sins of Mankind which Expiation was before the death of Christ typically represented by the death and blood of certain Creatures appointed by God whereby the legal or ceremonial Atonement was to be performed for which purpose God did except and reserve the blood of those Sacrifical Creatures from being eaten by Men which reason is declared by God himself evidently as to me seemeth in these words I will set my face against that Soul that eateth Blood and Lev. 17. 10 11. will cut him off from among his People for the life of the flesh is the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an atonement for your Souls for it is the Blood that maketh an Atonement for the Souls this was the law for the Blood of the Sacrifical Creatures And as for the blood of other Creatures which were profane and not to be used for Sacrifices their blood was also forbidden to be eaten by Men but by another Law Lev. 17. 13. Deut. 12. 16. was commanded to be poured out upon the earth as water and to be covered with dust this Law being but a ceremonial and Typical law must be confessed to become void and antiquated when the Type was fulfilled by the blood-shedding and death of Christ and that fully declared and published But then we are to enquire what moved Quest. the Apostolical Council to revive that Antiquated law of abstaining from Blood more than the other Ceremorials of Sacrifices Circumcision Paschal Lamb Sabbatizings c. And why they imposed this Decree or Canon upon the converted Gentiles 1. To this we answer First That the Answ Apostles directed by the Holy Ghost did impose this Abstinence on the converted Gentiles in the Pedagogy of the Church on purpose for compliance with the converted Jews least they should be soandalized or offended with Christianity it self when they should see Christians eating Blood from which themselves in the time of their Judaism were by their law debarred and could not suddenly be withdrawn from so old a Custom untill they were more fully instructed in Christian Religion for it might seem to them a disparagement and a contempt of Moses and his Laws which reason is intimated by St. James in that he said Moses is read in the Synagogues every Acts 15. 21. Sabbath day which he spake in that very Council so we our selves at our Tables forbear the setting on of certain meats which our selves like because they would be offensive to some of our invited Guests as Swines flesh Cheese and such like Yet this Discipline of abstaining from Blood was not intended to be a continual and standing Law in Christianity but only a temporary Ordinance and to last no longer than there was danger apparent of occasioning a Schism or Division between the Converted Jews and the Christian Gentiles 2. This Discipline did as well become the mildness of Christianity as that old Law did the Religion of the Jews whereby they were restrained from using such cruelties to Creatures as possibly might be practised by Eating some parts of the bodies of Beasts whilst other parts were preserved alive which kind of cruelty was acted by the Romans upon the bodies of the captive Jews at the last destruction of
eat bread therefore the mother doth first digest and so incarnate the bread and uniteth it with her own body and of it by her mild and tender Breast she produceth milk by which the Infant is mediatly so fed with the said bread Such is the Union of the Flesh of Christ with our flesh because both he and we received our flesh from that one Original lump of the first Man wherein both he and we were united and thereby he and we became one Body just as our food becomes one flesh and one body with that Body of ours which we had before any new Addition was made to it by any new food which is the reason why the Scripture accounteth Christ and his Members to be but one Body as the Apostle saith We being many are one Ro. 12. 5. 1 Cor. Body in Christ and We are the Body of Christ and Members in particular and Ye are all one in Christ Jesus and We are Members 12. 27. Gal. 3. 28 Eph. 5. 30 of his body of his flesh and of his bones By vertue of this Union the obedience of Christ both Active and Passive is and justly may be accounted ours because Christ and his Members are One. And for this consideration only and for this resemblance only Christ said of the Sacramental Bread This is my Body which is given for you Likewise of the Wine Christ said This is my Blood Drink ye all of this We know that by Blood the life or soul is signified as is before proved therefore the Sacramental Wine represented his Soul the Wine which we drink as well as the Bread which we eat becomes our nourishment and so unites it self with our Persons and grows into one bulk with us and is really one with us and thereby it becomes to us such as the Soul of Christ is already to us for our souls and the Soul of Christ are really united because his Soul and our souls and the souls of all our Ancestors and Posterities ever were and still will be derived and propagated from that one Original Soul of the first Man in whose Soul at its very Creation and Insufflation the Soul of Christ and all our Souls are virtually included and united Therefore surely the meaning of those words of Christ must be this that his Soul and our Souls must have been so united as well as his Flesh and our flesh that so he may be fitly the Redeemer both of our Bodies and of our Souls for certainly no man can have Redemption by him except as a necessary Preparative thereunto he be really united with him both in Flesh and in Soul which is that very thing which Christ called the Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood This Doctrine is not new but hath been long ago taught by the School in those times when Truth might be declared without danger of the Fagot For Pet. Lombard Sent. 4. Dist 11. about the year of Christ 1150. which was before Transubstantiation was established in the Church of Rome thus writeth Christ saith he took on himself the whole Nature of Man that he might redeem the whole Man therefore his Assumption is celebrated in the Holy Supper by the two Elements of Bread and Wine Panis ad carnem refertur Vinum ad Animam ut animae carnis susceptio in Christo utriusque liberatio in nobis significetur The Bread representeth the Flesh and the Wine the Soul that thereby the Assuming of a Body and a Soul by Christ and the Deliverance or Redemption of our Bodies and Souls by him may be signified So Clemens Romanus long before Christus dedit carnem suam pro carne nostra animam suam pro anima nostra vid. f. n. 3. in Clem. Rom. Those that imagin that the Sacramental Chalice representh only the Blood of Christ and that those words of Christ This is my Blood signified only the meer natural Blood of Christ Grammatically properly and literally taken such do greatly err and mistake the Mystery for this cannot possibly be the meaning thereof because as is before said his meer Blood was not Redemptive for the Act of Redemption consisted Sup. cap. 14. only in the powring out his precious Life and Soul for us so that by the Blood the Soul must needs be meant and the Sacramental Wine must needs relate to the Life or Soul of Christ Those likewise that teach the withholding of the Sacramental Chalice from the People or Lay-Communicants do misunderstand the meaning thereof they pretend that after the pronouncing of the words of their Consecration the Wine is not Wine for that the substance of Wine is quite gone and annihilated leaving nothing behind but only the meer Accidents viz. the colour taste and quantity of the Wine but not the Wine it self and that the Chalice doth contain only the Blood of Christ instead of the Wine and because they make the People believe that in their little Wafer-Host the whole Christ is contained viz. his Body and Blood therefore in Receiving the Host they receive both the Flesh and the Blood by Concomitancy But herein they err in that they think that by the word Blood only meer blood is meant which indeed doth signifie not literally Blood but the Soul of Christ in which Soul if the People do not really Communicate that is if their Souls be not really united with the Soul of Christ they cannot be in a full capacity of the Redemption of their souls by his Soul Besides what need was there that Christ should require with the Eating of his flesh particularly as another thing the Drinking of his Blood if by Blood he had meant only meer Blood seeing that the living Flesh of Christ must needs include his Blood as themselves acknowledge The laborious and tedious Disputes of Divines of contrary Persuasions in Religion concerning the presence of Christ in the Sacrament whether it be a carnal and corporal Presence or only a Spiritual Presence I conceive with submission to Superiors to have been as needless as we have found them to be fruitless and endless their various glosses upon the Scriptural words in that business have more obscured the question as Origen said of the Exposition of a passage of St. Paul Hic sermo non sui nanatura Orig. in Ro. 12. 16 sed interpretatione obscurior fact us est And Maldonate a learned Jesuit of Mald. in Lu. 2. 34. late observed concerning a place in St. Luke Nescio an facilior hic locus fuisset si nemo eum exposuisset They both conclude that some Scriptures would be more easily understood if Expositors had not too much tampered with them and so verily I think of those words which mention the Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ The real and true Presence of the Flesh and Blood or Soul of Christ is not to be thought to be in the Elements or Sacramental signs of Bread and Wine neither is there
erroneous and untheological and will appear anon to be Heretical because it is destructive of the Doctrine of Redemption except we will confine it and understand it to be spoken only of the Soul of Adam which was the first and the only human Soul that ever could truly and properly be said to be so created and infused Neither is the time of Drinking the Blood of Christ to be confined or thought to be first performed when we receive the Sacrament thereof because the Blood of Christ is not really in the Sacramental Chalice neither is his Soul there but his blood or Soul are in the Communicants for this drinking of his Blood which is really intended by those words must have been performed although the Sacrament had never been set up for we drink the Blood of Christ at our quickning in the Womb because then our blood or souls are united with the Blood or Soul of Christ when we are not in any capacity of Receiving the Sacrament thereof Therefore all the Latine Fathers and all later Theological Writers although they are of several and opposite Persuasions in Religion yet they generally Read those words of Christ Nisi Biberitis which I conceive to signifie a Tense of the time past Except ye have drank as is observed before of the word Eat The flesh and blood of Christ is not now to be eaten and drank really for that was actually performed before even at our Union with his Flesh and Soul in our Mothers Wombs St. Austin upon those words Psal 22. Aug. in Psal 21. 10. Thou art my God from my Mothers belly observeth that although God the Father was the Father of God the Son before his Incarnation and from Eternity Yet that he could not be called the God or the Lord of the Son but only in consideration of his intended Incarnation And because the Son in the womb of the Virgin assumed the whole Human Nature and not only Flesh nor only a Soul but both therefore God the Father became his God and his Lord the God and the Lord both of his Body and of his Soul This the same Father divers times observeth as namely on the 136 Psalm and also in his To. 6. n. 17. 19. Polemicks against the Arians The Church of England evidently declareth the same Doctrine in the 2 Article of Religion in these words Christ took Mans Nature in the Womb of Art Rel. 2. the Blessed Virgin of her Substance so that two whole and perfect Natures that is to say the Godhead and the Manhood were joyned together in one Person It being granted that Christ took the whole and perfect Human Nature upon him in the Womb it must needs be consequently granted that he there received his Human Soul because neither the Flesh alone nor the Soul alone can be truly and severally called the Perfect Human Nature We know that the Ancient Church accounted Athan. de Incar n. 22. Epip haer 77. them to be Hereticks who taught that Christ assumed only his Flesh but not his Human Soul in the Womb of the Virgin The Athanasian Creed also declareth Athan. Symb. that Christ was Man of the Substance of his Mother Perfect God and Perfect Man He could not be Perfect Man of the Substance of his Mother except he had received both his Flesh and his Soul from her otherwise by her he could have been but Semivir i. an imperfect or half-man The true and real Union of the Son of God with Mankind consisteth in the assumption of his Flesh and Soul from Mankind by which assumption the Son of God became the Son of Man and by it only he is stiled Emanuel And the Union of Mankind with Christ which is called Eating the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drinking his Blood consisteth only in the propagation or derivation of our Bodies and Souls with the Body and Soul of Christ from that one Original Mass and Fountain of all Human Bodies and Souls viz. from Adam in whose loyns and Soul all Mankind with Christ himself were in the beginning United CHAP. XXII THE Doctrine of this Vnion is so necessarily to be joyned and considered with the grand Doctrine of our Redemption by Christ that it cannot reasonably be by us apprehended how our bodies or our souls can with Divine Justice be redeemed by him without the mutual Union of his Body and Soul with our bodies and souls For if Christ must necessarily have taken his Flesh of Man because he might not otherwise destroy or condemn sin in the flesh the like reason will hold concerning the Soul that he might not condemn sin in the Soul but by assuming his Rom. 8. 3 Soul from Man The Soul by sin fell as much as the Body or rather much more for the transgression of Gods Command was principally or soly the act of the Soul the body did but only execute that which the Soul prescribed and dictated The body by it self could not sin more than a sword by it self can wound or a pen alone can write St. Austin often tells us and truly Non peccat nisi Anima only the Soul Aug. de Gen. lib. 10. c. 11. sinneth The same kind of Arguments by which the Fathers answered and confuted those Hereticks who denied the traduction of the Body of Christ from the body of the first Man are as firm and strong to confute the other sort of Hereticks who denied the propagation of the Soul of Christ from the Soul of the first Man both which Heresies depraved and indeed destroyed and nulled the Doctrine of Redemption of our Bodies and Souls by the Body and Soul of Christ Epiphanius and after him St. Austin report this as the Heresie of Apollinarius Epip haer 77. Aug. in Joh. Tract 47. that he affirmed that Christ had no Human or Intellectual Soul but that his Godhead supplied all the Offices and actions of a reasonable Soul in his Body St. Jerome and St. Austin charge Origen Hier. n. 42. Aug. Epist 27. that he had taught that the Souls of Men were more Ancient than their Bodies and that they were created before their Bodies and that they came from Heaven this error of Origen appeareth in his Third Book Orig. Per. Arch. l. 3. c. 3. Lib. 4. c. ◠Perj Archoon in which he agreeth with the Opinions of Plato and Aristotle who had said that the Souls of Men were not derived from their Ancestors but came from without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These erroneous Opinions disturbed the doctrine of our redemption by Christ which Redemption necessarily presupposeth an Union of our souls with the Soul of Christ which Union cannot otherwise be found but only in the Original Fountain of all our Souls viz. in the Soul of the first Man Let it now be considered whether the present vulgar Opinions and the Doctrines of some Divines and Neoterick Writers be not altogether as destructive of the doctrine of Redemption
Christ was bred in the Body of his Mother without Copulation as worms are in other Bodies and therefore without sin Eve her self was made of Adam's Body and Soul without any Copulation or lust and therefore without any derivation of sin indeed her Extraction was before the Fall and before Concupiscence was entred into the Man which yet I conceive would have so been although the Woman had not been so made till after the Fall of the Man For certain then the blessed Mother of our Redeemer was a pure Virgin untill the Birth of her Son Jesus but whether she continued and persevered in her Virginity untill her death is not necessary or much pertinent to be considered in this Question it being a full and sufficient argument of the pure and sinless Conception and Birth of Christ that he was born of the Virgin Mary during her Virginity Mariam Joseph concubitu nec cognoverat nec cogniturus erat August To 7. N. 52. Yet in the Primitive Church both Eastern and Western it was generally received as a Truth that she persisted in her Virginity to her death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks said and the Latines as Austin declares Aug. de Catechi Rudib. c. 22. Tc. 4. Maria Virgo concipiens pariens moriens It was so near an Article of their Faith that such as denied her perpetual Virginity as Helvidius in St. Jerome and Jovinian Hier. con Helv. Au. To. 7. n. 55. Epiph. Haer. 78. in St. Austin were accounted Hereticks and such are out by Epiphanius in his Catalogue of Heresies under the title of Antidicimarianitae with us since her departure she is called to this day the Virgin Mary There is a Prophetical Allegory recorded Isa 29. 11. by the Prophet in these words The Vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which Men deliver to one that is Learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is sealed This Allegory is thus unriddled by St. Chrysostome Chry. n. 59 Greg. Neo. n. 2. and before him by Gregory Neocaesaria except one of them or his Scribe borrowed it from the other they expound it of the Virgin Mary and Lyranus saith it was indeed Lâ—ra in Ice meant of the secret Coming of Christ The Book signifieth the Virgin Mother the Sealing of it was the design of God to preserve her in a Virgin Estate to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living Palace and Temple to entertain God the Man to whom this Book was delivered signified Joseph who is said to be Learned sciens literas because he had a former Wife and also Children by her as some say yet he could not or might not open or read this new Book because it was sealed or kept shut for a great and Heavenly purpose such as is before said Thus they just so St. Ambrose and St. Austin expound that Vision of Ezechiel concerning tâ—e shut Gate by which Ezek. 44. 2. no Man might enter because the God of Israel hath entred in by it This Gate signified Mary who was semper intacta Joseph vir non Ambr. n. 49. Aug. T. 10. n. 51. transit per eam Deus Israel ingressus est eam The Virgin Mother is often called by the Fathers Porta Coeli and a Book hath the name of the Writer as the Eunuch read Isaias Acts 8. 28. And Moses is read every Sabbath-day Acts 15. 21. Aug. Ps 121. St. Austin calls himself a Book Nos sumus Codex eorum qui legere non noverunt So the Virgin Mary is that Book This I trust is enough to shew the meaning of those Mysterious words of Christ concerning the Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood The CONCLVSION HItherto we have shewed the Real Vnion of Christ with Mankind both in Flesh and in Soul and the Modus or manner how it is brought to pass And that it doth not consist in Eating and Drinking the Sacramental Bread and Wine for without that Men may be Redeemed and Saved but not except they Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood Now for Conclusion I shall only enquire what effects and issues are produced by this Vnion which is signified by Eating and Drinking And these I find to be Two 1. Immortality of all Human Souls whatsoever because all Men good and bad are united with Christ in Soul 2. The Resurrection of all Human Bodies both of holy and unholy Persons because all are united with Christ in Flesh Both the effects may clearly appear by the words of Christ For First he saith Except ye Eat the Flesh John 6. 53. c. ye have no life in you therefore they that have so eaten his Flesh c. have life in them Secondly In the very next words he saith Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood 54. hath Eternal Life and I will raise him up at the Last day 1. Eternal Life is meant of the Immortality of all Human Souls 2. Raising up at the Last day signifieth the Resurrection of Human Bodies at the last Judgment From these Premises we may easily collect that because all Men both Good and Bad are really united with Christ both in Soul and Flesh as hath been proved before therefore all Men both good and bad shall have Eternal life viz. Immortality of Souls and Resurrection of Bodies If it be questioned whether the Damned may be said to have Eternal life because they have been united with Christ so as is said We answer Yes For their Souls are Immortal as really as the Souls of the Blessed and their Bodies shall be raised to Life at the general Resurrection as truly as the Bodies of the Saints both the Blessed and the Damned in Bodies and in Souls shall then have Everlasting life the one in happiness the other in Misery And although the Miserable State and condition of the Damned as Beza saith Bez. Cat. p. 31. is not worthy to be called Life and is therefore called Eternal Death and Everlasting Damnation yet it is such a death as is called Mors sine morte 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it Aug. T. 13. n. 31. Letan Longa sic morte necabat Virg. Aen. l. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 26. is a living death and endless living in misery it is a life though worse than death or annihilation and such an everlasting life as Devils have The mention of Everlasting fire implieth everlasting Bodies and in that it is said that Death is to be destroyed this argues that then there will be no more Dying and therefore it is said The Dead shall be raised incorruptible And this mortal shall put on Immortality and this is true both of the Good and of the Bad for all must stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ and Rom. 14. 10. Apost Nicaen Athan. this is confessed in all our Church Creeds The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting and
that we look for both and that all Men shall rise with their Bodies and shall give an account All therefore Good and Bad. This being evident we are further to enquire what is the efficient or true cause of the Immortality of Human Souls and of the Resurrection of Human Bodies more than of the souls and bodies of other inferior Creatures although their bodies and souls were at first Created by God as ours were and therefore the Mahumetans say that there shall be a Resurrection of Brute creatures as Armachanus reporteth and Arm. f. 161. Heathens said that in their Elysium a place was for Birds as Ovid. Amorum L. 2. Eleg. 6. Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus illice frondet Ovid. Amorum li. 2. El. 6. Vdaque perpetuo gramine terra viret Si qua fides dubiis volucrum locus ille piarum Dicitur obscoenae quo prohibentur Aves To this our Answer is That because Human bodies and Souls are united with the Body and Soul of Christ in the first Original Soul and Body therefore our Souls are Immortal and our Bodies shall rise immortal but so shall not the other Creatures because they are not so united The reason is clearly declared by Christ himself in these words He that eateth me even he shall live John 6. 57. by me For as the Body and Soul of Christ are now Immortal because united with the Divine Spirit as himself saith I live by the Ibid. Father so our Souls are and our Bodies shall be Immortal because they are united with the Body and Soul of the Son of God and this not by vertue of his meer Soul and his meer Flesh both of them being of themselves but Creatures but because his Soul and Body are and ever were personally united with the Divine Spirit or Godhead that is it only which caused this kind of Vitality in all Mankind for of his meer Flesh alone Christ saith The Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6. 63 But of the Spirit or Godhead united with his Flesh he saith It is the Spirit that quickneth the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life and therefore the Apostle saith of the whole Person of Christ The last Adam was made a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit that is He was made so by Union with the Godhead for the Flesh of Christ alone was mortal but by this Union it became both Vital and Vivifical They that say that our Souls are Immortal only by Creation being Reasonable Souls and should have been Immortal though God the Son had not united himself with our Nature These to me seem to gainsay the words of Christ for it is not by the Reasonabless but their Union with the Soul of Christ that makes them immortal I suppose they will not say that our Bodies shall rise from death only because they are human Bodies No for both these are the effects of this Union which Christ called the Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood and nothing else and therefore St. John saith God hath given to us Eternal Life and this 1 John 5. 11. 12. Life is in his Son he addeth He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life To this most Holy Son of God and Son of Man our ever blessed Redeemer and Saviour together with the Eternal Father and the Divine Spirit of both Benediction Honour and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS Chapter 1. THE Vnion of Christ with Mankind in Adam in order to our Redemption signified by the Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ the different understanding thereof by Romanists Lutherans and Zuinglians from the Church of England 2. The signification of eating of the Tree of Life of the Tree of Knowledge of Manna of Sacrifices and of the Paschal Lamb. 3. That Eating the Flesh of Christ is not meant of Oral Eating of St. Peters Eating parallel'd with our Eating of Christ 4. That the necessity of our real Vnion with the Flesh of Christ is called Eating how we are united with his Body and the benefit thereof 5. The Doctrine of the Fathers concerning our Vnion with the Body of Christ of his Body natural mystical Of the Subjection of Christ 6. Why this Vnion is described by eating the Flesh of the Son of Man and not rather of the Son of God 7. That the Redeemer was necessarily to be the Son of Man and also the Son of God 8. Why this Vnion is expressed by such Tragical words of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood Why the Primitive Church mingled water with Wine in the holy Chalice 9. The practice of some Hereticks in eating Human flesh in their Sacrament compared with the Doctrine of Transubstantion The calumny of Anthropophagy charged upon Christians and removed 10. That this Eating the Flesh of Christ is now to be done for that it was performed at our first Conception in the Womb that the Fathers and all other Latin Translators render those words of Eating the Flesh of Christ otherwise then we do 11. How our Vnion with the Flesh of Christ is more beneficial to us than our Vnion with the flesh of the Patriarks Prophets and Apostles 12. Of Eating the Flesh of Christ Spiritually what is meant by it and whether such an Eating be sufficient to the right end 13. Of Eating by Faith whether believing the Articles of Faith be that Eating which is thereby meant Of those words of St. Austin Crede Manducasti how to be rightly understood The three states of Mankind 14. Of the Blood of Christ that it is not literally to be understood nor to be drank Orally 15. Of the forbidding of Blood by the Law and the Gospel that it was but a Temporary Discipline Why Fornication was forbidden to the Gentiles converted by the Apostolical Council 16. That the Blood of Christ signifieth the Life or Soul of Christ 17. That Drinking the Blood of Christ signifieth only the Vnion of our Souls with his Soul Of the 3 Ingredients in Christ The Godhead Flesh and Soul 18. To what end and special purpose the Holy Supper was instituted the abuse by witholding the Chalice from the People that the corporal Presence of Christ is not in the Saments but in the Communicants 19. That the Soul of Christ and all other Human Souls are derived from the Original soul of Adam that the Doctrine of daily Creation of new Human Souls is erroneous that our Souls proceed immediately from our Mothers and in the Womb. 20. Of the Traduction or Propagation of the Soul of Christ and of all other Human Souls from Adam Some doubts and objections cleared The true cause of the Immortality of Human Souls and of the Resurrection of our Bodies more than of brute Creatures 21. Of the time when Conceptions receive life and soul in the Womb which is called Quickning Of Barrenness That the Vnion of our souls with the Soul of Christ is at our Quickning in the Womb the Doctrine of the Church of England therein 22. That the Soul of Christ must as necessarily have proceeded from Adam as his Flesh Of some Heresies which gainsayed the Traduction of Souls The Doctrine of daily Creation of new Souls examined 23. The judgment of the Fathers concerning Traduction of Souls The error of the Pelagians therein and the evil consequences thereof 24. That Christ was free from Original sin although his Soul and Body were derived from Adam 25. That although the Mother of Christ were conceived in sin yet her Son Jesus was free from her Sin and how That she was a pure Virgin at the Birth of Christ That her perseverance in Virginity to her Death though it is true yet it is not necessarity pereinent to this question Conclusion The Effects of our Vnion with Christ viz. 1. The Immortality of all Human Souls 2. The Resurrection of all Human Bodies which are called Eternal Life and Raising at the last Day FINIS
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
in Covenant or Suretyship 5. Fide in Faith The Vnion which I shall chiefly endeavour to describe in this Tractate consisteth in the two first of these which I firmly believe to be intended and meant in that Speech of Christ Joh. 6. 53. Except ye Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood c. THE Flesh of Christ CHAP. I. HE that attempteth to discover the grand mystery of Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ must begin his Work very early even at the Creation of our first Parents or rather before the foundation of the World Because the most wise mercifull and just Godhead had designed the redemption of Mankind from Eternity by God the Son And did lay the foundation and the frame order and method thereof in the first Man and the first Woman from whom every man and woman that are were or hereafter shall be born with Christ himself also have derived both their Flesh and their Souls that so an Union and conjunction might be made of the Redeemer with the Redeemed without which Union the Son of God could not be fitly qualified to perform with Justice the great Work of Redemption of Mankind Concerning this Union those words of Christ are to be understood John 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and Joh. 6. 53. Mat. 26. 26. drink his blood and those other words Mat. 26. 26. This is my Body and This is my Blood both must needs be true because Truth hath spoken them The former were meant of the real and substantial Union and conjunction of our flesh with his Flesh and of our souls with his Soul the latter were meant of the Representation or similitude of our true real and substantial union with Christ in his whole humane Nature signified to us by the Sacramental eating and drinking of Bread and Wine as it was before represented to the Israelites in eating the flesh of the Paschal Lamb. For as with them and with us The Lamb and Bread and Wine were really to be taken into our bodies and do really nourish us and unite themselves with our bodies and grow into one bulk with us So Christ with Mankind must be united and be One with us otherwise he cannot with the strictness of Divine Justice be the Redeemer of Mankind neither could man be capable of redemption by him Concerning the truth and reality of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ the Redeemer the Reformed Chruches and also the Vnreformed do both agree and yet exceedingly differ and disagree in the manner and way thereof 1. The Roman Transubstantiators would have us believe that Christ is eaten in the Sacrament really pretending that the Bread and Wine are transubstantiated or rather annihilated and that the whole Christ is brought into the room thereof and so eaten But this cannot be the mode or way of eating Christ because the eating and drinking by him meant must have been in all former and past Generations and must still stand firm and true although the Sacrament or Eucharist had never been instituted for Abraham Isaac Jacob Noah and Adam himself must have eaten so as is here meant else they could not be redeemed by Christ And this Eating of Christ was true and real before he was actually Born or Incarnate St. Paul saith Our Fathers did eat the same meat and drink of the same Rock that 1 Cor. 10. 3. followed and that Rock was Christ therefore they did eat Christ so as he meant 2. The Lutheran Consubstantiators would have men believe that the Flesh and Blood of Christ literally understood are really carnally and grosly received in and with the Sacramental bread and wine But neither can this way be true because the Eating here meant must have been and still is without the Sacrament thereof for the flesh of Christ is now and hath been eaten by those that never heard of nor ever did receive or communicate in the Sacrament for Children Heathens Turks and Jews and the most profane Christians must have eaten Christ otherwise they could have no possibility or be in any capacity of Redemption Yet the Scriptures the primitive Fathers and the Church of England do clearly declare that the benefit of Redemption belongeth and is offered to God the Son hath redeemed me and all Mankind the whole World to all and every Man and Woman as our Church Catechism teacheth 3. The Zuinglians who are called Sacramentarians would have men believe thatf Eating the flesh and Drinking the blood o Christ is meant only of receiving the signs figures or Sacraments thereof viz. by bread and wine in the Eucharist But neither can this way be the right meaning thereof because we must truly and really receive the very thing it self for we must corporally be united with the flesh of Christ and really and truly must our Souls be united with the Soul of Christ else no redemption can possibly be either of our bodies or of our Souls by him Calvin upon those words This is my Body very truly Calvin n 1 Cor. 11. 24. affirmeth Neque fallax est Christus qui vacuis figuris nos ludat Mihi extra controversiam est Veritatem hic cum suo signo conjunctam esse 1. Christ did not delude us with empty figures I doubt not at all but that the truth was joyned with the sign 4. The Church of England doth not to my apprehension clearly determine of the Modus or manner of Eating the Flesh or drinking the blood of Christ either in the Sacrament or out of the Sacrament yet thus far this Church proceedeth in the mystery Art Relig 28. of the holy Supper and saith in the 28th Article that it is the Sacrament of Redemption just so as St. Cyprian had before written of the same thing in an Epistle to Coecilius wherein he calleth the Lords Supper Sacramentum Redemptionis because Cyp. 2. epist 3. thereby as by an holy sign we are taught the manner way and method used by Christ in the work of our Redemption The Church of England again declareth in the Office of the Eucharist that the faithfull and penitent Receivers do spiritually eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of Christ that they dwell in Christ and Christ in them that they be One with Christ and Christ with them the meaning is that the holy Supper is the Sacrament or mysterious sign of our Union with the flesh of Christ and with the blood or Soul of Christ just as both S. Austin and Aug. in John 26. Ansel in Mat. 26. after him S. Anselm called it Sacramentum Vnitatis 2. The Sacrament of Union and the very word Communion as this Sacrament is called signifieth the same Communio is all one with counio or unio cum because the sacramental Eating and Drinking representeth the Union or conjunction of the flesh and soul of Christ with our flesh and soul without which neither our bodies nor
our Souls can be by him redeemed I will not at present engage or meddle with the doctrine or meaning of the words in the mystery of the holy Supper of our Lord which was but the sign of the grand and real mystery of the Eating the flesh of Christ of which only I am now to treat in relation to those Words of Christ in the 6. Chapter of St. John before the Holy Supper was instituted of which words my purpose and earnest endeavour is to find out and to discover the meaning and true sense and my hearty desire and prayer that my Labours herein may in some measure conduce to an agreement between dissenting Parties The Roman and also the Reformed Church-Writers men of great wisdom Learning and sobriety have spent their precious time and labours something as I humbly conceive besides the matter purpose and intent of those words of Christ 1. The Romanists have laboured too much to assert and prove a carnal gross and literate eating of the very flesh of Christ orally grounding their Doctrine of Transubstantiation upon those two Speeches of Christ before mentioned but with ill success having so much been perplexed in answering and excusing the impossibilities and the unprofitableness of such an Exposition that they were forced to flie to the old Poetical refuge of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or miracles whereof they say there are eleven in effecting their Transubstantiation we may ad a twelfth which to me seemeth the greatest of all viz. that so many wise and learned men should profess and believe such unnecessary and manifest impossibilities 2. The Writers of the reformed Church have imployed their time and labour in a negative way principally in confuting the impossibility of that Roman Doctrine and in proving that we do not Orally eat the very flesh of Christ for although they acknowledge that Speech of Christ to be true when he said Except ye eat the Flesh c. yet they truly affirm that they are not to be understood of a gross carnal and oral Eating This negative Doctrine occasioned a pretence to the adverse Party to accuse them of an attempt to confute and gainsay the words of Christ These practices on both sides I conceive have bin the cause of hiding or obscuring the most gracious and comfortable doctrine of our Union with the body or flesh of Christ and consequently of the doctrine of our Redemption by him both of them being certainly implyed in those words of Eating and Drinking It is therefore to be wished that such Learned men for the future would imploy their studies in a positive Way in shewing how those Mysterious Words of Christ are true and to be rightly understood rather than in a negative confutation of a wrong Sense which work solidly performed would clear the darkness of that Mystery and be exceedingly comfortable to pious Souls and evidently declare the Wisdom Righteousness and Mercy of our ever Blessed Redeemer CHAP. II. IN order to the opening of this Mystery we are first to enquire what our Redeemer meant by those words of Eating and Drinking my Flesh and Blood which certainly are not to be understood literally but figuratively The Reader may observe that the grand Mysteries of our Religion in the Holy Scripture are represented and exemplified darkly as under a cloud or veiled with the similitude of Eating 1. The Tree of life in Paradise was planted to be eaten of it was the figure or type of Christ who called himself a Tree Luk. 23. 31. and a Vine John 15. 5. and the Life John 14. 16. and is called Rev. 2. 7. The Tree of Life The typical Tree was ordained to preserve and continue a worldy life as Christ the substantial Tree to procure an Eternal and heavenly Life Although that Tree of life was permitted by the Godhead to be eaten of by our first Parents yet they never did eat of it because in the state of their Innocency they perceived not any need thereof being in a condition of not dying as Divines say Potuit Adam non mori nor was any malady upon them so as to need any medicine to cure them of any disease But afterward when by their transgression they had incurred the curse of Mortality they were excluded from that Tree of life least they should take of the Tree of Life and live Gen. 3. 22. Gen. 2. 17. for ever whereby the Commination of God should have failed who had said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die There was another Tree in Paradise called the Tree of Knowledge of which the Gen. 2. 9. Man was forbidden to eat although it is said that the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye and to be desired to make one wise So though they abstained from the Tree permitted yet Gen. 3. 6. they did eat of the Tree forbidden The Tree of Life represented Christ the Tree of knowledge represented the Law as Tertullian very judiciously affirmeth and proveth That law concerning the Tree Tert. adv Judaeos was Primondialis Lex the first Law that was imposed on Man and had been large enough saith he if it had been obeyed Lex data Adae Aevae est quasi matrix omnium Id. ibid. praeceptorum Dei quae pullularunt postea data per Mosem It was as the Womb out of which sprang the Ten Commandments given by Moses and in that first Law all those Moral laws are couched and implied As the Tree of Life signifieth Christ with all his Evangelical mercies And the Eating of that Tree signified the Union conjunction and inherence of Mankind in him So the Tree of knowledge signified the Law with all its strictness rigour and penalties And the forbidding to Eat of that Tree signified that we should not trust to or rely on it or expect to obtain life by performance of the law or justification and Salvation by the works thereof This I conceive to be the meaning of forbidding the Tree of knowledge as relating to the Law because I find divers passages concerning the said law even in the Gospel which to me signifie the same as by the works of the Rom. 3. 20. Law shall no flesh be justified and The Law worketh Wrath it is called also Rom. 4. 15. The Ministration of death and the Ministration 2 Cor. 3. 7 9. of condemnation Therefore we are to depend on and feed and nourish our hope and faith only by Christ who is the only true Tree of Life and not to confide in the Law because we cannot possibly by our own selves perform it nor by any other way but only in by and through Christ and this by that interest which we have in him by our union with his Flesh and Soul 2. The Manna every one knows signified Christ The eating of Manna signified the union of Manna with the Bodies or flesh of the Israelites which was a type of the necessity of
Gentiles said that Christians in their Sacrifices committed Homicide Origen Orig. n. 36 saith that the Jews accused Christians to be eaters of Humane flesh Tertullian reports Tert. Apolog n. 2. that they were accused as murtherers of Infants And Athenagoras that they Athenagoras n. 72. 75. were charged with Thyestian Feasts Thyestes was maliciously trapan'd to the eating of the flesh of his own Children unawares Minutius Foelix confirmeth that in his time Minut. in Octavio n. 99. Christians generally were accused falsly as Murtherers and Eaters of the flesh and blood and members of Infants mingled and wrought up with Meal In later times Huldericus Zuinglius the Zuing. Sup. n. 11. younger in his Supplement of the Chronology of Pet. Pictaviensis reporteth of Averroes a great Philosopher and an Heathen who lived about the year of Christ 1149. hearing of the Doctrine of real and carnal Eating the very flesh of Christ as it was in his time taught by some Christians as now it is by Transubstantiators said that Summaest insania adorare quod comeditur Theod. in Gen. quaest 55. of all Religions that he had seen he thought there was none worse than Christianity because Christians Deum quem colunt devorant They professed to eat him whom they worship and acknowledge to be their God To these calumnies and false aspersions of Christians the Fathers and the above-named Apologists have left us true satisfactory and undeniable Answers by any man that is judicious and uninterested in the Herisie of carnal Eating 1. The Christians affirmed that their very Accusers confessed that they never saw any such thing done by any Catholick Christian 2. That the true Christians suffered patiently stripes wounds torments losses yielding themselves patiently to all injuries and also in the midst of their sufferings prayed for their very Afflictors therefore unlikely to be Manslayers 3. That they could not reasonably be imagined to eat the flesh and blood of Men except they first killed those that were so to be eaten but Christians were so far from either killing or eating human Flesh which was unlawfull that they abstained from eating the flesh of other Creatures which was lawfull 4. That their Christian Discipline restrained them from being so much as but spectators only of the bloody conflicts of Gladiators and even of the Baytings and slaughters of Beasts which usually were presented in the Roman Theaters by the Roman Emperours and Consuls and by other heathen Princes nor might they go to see the Execution of men condemned to die 5. That Christians accounted those Women guilty of Homicide and liable to answer to God for murther who used medicinal Drinks or Druggs to destroy Conceptions or cause Abortions Surely they would not murther Children born and perfect who were carefull to preserve unborn Conceptions 6. That Christians accounted those to be Infanticides or Parricides who did but on-only expose their own Infants 7. That they who firmly believe a Resurrection of their bodies cannot reasonably be thought to make those bodies sepulchres of other Bodies by eating them who also shall certainly so rise again at the last day These and many more Allegations we find in the ancient Christian-Writers to confute the slander of Anthropophagy The Transubstantiators of our time may upon more evident reasons be charged justly with such Accusations than the Primitive Christians were because those do not only acknowledge but with all the cunning and subtilties and arguments that Mans wit and brain can invent pertinaciously and obstinately assert the real carnal corporal and Oral eating of the Body and drinking the Blood of Man even of the best Man that ever was the Man Jesus whom they dare not deny to be to this day and forever to continue Perfect Man as well as Perfect God and more also they affirm that in the Blessed Eucharist they eat and drink not only his Body and Blood but also his Soul and his very Godhead although Christ had said before to his Jewish Disciples that so to eat his Flesh as then the Capernaitans and our Transubstantiators now apprehended those words profiteth Joh. 6. 63 nothing And as to the Eating or drinking his Soul and Godhead that is altogether impossible St. Austin in his Polemicks against the Aug. cont Marc. l. 2. T. 6. Marcionites considering those words of Eating and Drinking the flesh and blood of Christ saith figuratè dictum that those words are figurative And sapienter intelligamus we are warily to understand them for saith he Horribilius videatur humamanum sanguinem potare quam fundere To drink Human blood seemeth to be more abhorred than to spill it for the same Father had written before Si Scriptura videtur Id. de Doct. Christ l. 3. c. 15. To. 3. n. 55. flagitium aut facinus jubere figurata locutio est ut nisi manducaveritis carnem Filii Hominis when the Scripture seemeth to command any heinous or mischievous act it is figuratively meant as those words are Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man And in that Sermon de Coena which goes under the name of St. Cyprian which Cyp. de Coen n. 95 was not his but written about the Year 1150. not long before Transubstantiation was first established Upon those words Except ye Eat c. it is said If the flesh of that Person were divided into pieces it would not suffice all Mankind it would be consumed and with it our Religion would cease Therefore certainly that Eating which Christ spake of is not to be understood of Oral eating as may appear also by that which follows CHAP. X. THe learned Reader may be pleased to observe with me that those words of Christ John 6. Except ye Eat being in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are far otherwise read and rendred by all the Latin Fathers generally than as they are now Translated with us in England for Tertullian Cyprian Hierome Austin Prosper and other Fathers thus read them Nisi manducaveritis which words signifie the time past as if he had said Except ye have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man just so doth the Translation of Sixtus and Clemens render those words Nisi manducaveritis and biberitis So doth Bellarmine and generally all the Roman Writers and the Lutheran Writers and Calvin and Beza and so do the Translators of the Greek Fathers as of Origen and Epiphanius indeed Orig. in Levit. c. 10. n. 7. all though they be of divers Persuasions in Religion yet they agree in the said rendring of those Words and our own right Learned Grammarians consent unto and approve of this Reading and St. Austin Aug. in Joh. Tract 25. seems to intimate the same saying Crede manducasti From whence we may observe that Eating the Flesh of Christ in their sense or by their Interpretation at least is not to be understood of any present Oral Eating or if it were to be done only in the future or in
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
certainly signifies the conjunction or union of his Soul with our Souls in order as a necessary way or method to put us into a capacity of redemption of our souls by his Soul For we cannot be capable of the benefits of the Passions death and Obedience of Christ except we be One with him both by the union of our flesh with his Flesh and of our souls with his Soul because God doth neither punish nor reward one for another as is at Chap. 4. large shewed before Therefore that the Son of God might be every way fitly qualified to be a Redeemer of Mankind he assumed human Flesh from the same Original that we had our flesh that thereby he might be a Redeemer of our flesh or bodies and he assumed an human Soul from the same Fountain from which all our Souls sprang that thereby he might be a Redeemer of our souls as Athanasius hath observed in his Athan. T. 3. n. 23. Book of the Incarnation In Redemptione corpus pro corpore anima pro anima reddenda fuit integrum aliquid pro integro homine He was to give his Body for the redemption of our bodies and to yield up his Soul for our Souls and his whole Man for our whole Man There are three Ingredients to be considered in the Redeemer 1. His Divinity or Godhead for he was and is God the most High and the only God 2. His human Flesh or Body 3. His human Soul By the two latter by him so assumed as is said he became Perfect Man as by the former he was and is Perfect God His pure Godhead alone and considered without his Human nature assumed could not be a Redeemer because the law was not imposed upon God or the Son of God as only so but upon Mankind or Sons of Men Nor could the pure Godhead suffer death which was to be suffered by the Redeemer Or if the Godhead had assumed only an human Body or Flesh without an human Soul this could have been but a Redeemer of the Body at most if that but not of the Soul Or if the Godhead had assumed only an human Soul without a Body it could not have redeemed our bodies nor our whole Man as the Axiome of Divines teacheth us Divisus Christus non est Salvator viz. Beza Cat. Part. 2. p. 18. If Christ had not united all these Ingredients in his one Person his Godhead his Flesh and his Soul we could not have him for our Saviour Or if Christ had been only a meer Man consisting of Soul and Body as we all do and had not been God he could not have been our Redeemer because it was only his Divinity joyned with and united personally with his Flesh and Soul that gave lustre worth and infinite value to his human Nature so that for the great work of mans Redemption it was necessary that the Redeemer should be not only Perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and Human flesh subsisting but also with them Perfect God Or if Christ being very God had really assumed a Body and also a Soul otherwise and not from his Virgin Mother but had made a Body and also created a Soul for himself which had not been derived from Mankind and so not united with our bodies and souls or if his Body or Soul had come down from Heaven as some Hereticks said and passed through the Virgins Womb only as water doth through a pipe and had been only for a time an Inhabitant or Inmate of the Womb and had not been really the Seed of the Woman and the Son of the Virgin and the very Fruit of the Womb both in Soul and in Body and derived from the first Man and the first Woman as we all are he could not have been our Redeemer because he could not be united otherwise with all Mankind in flesh and soul nor we with him For as our Union with his Flesh which is called the Eating of his flesh must needs be with it as it is the flesh of the Son of Man which signifieth that it must be with that Flesh or Body of his which he assumed and derived from Mankind by being conceived in the Womb and not from any other flesh or body which the Son of God had sometime taken on him otherwise than by Conception and Birth as is before observed in his Apparition and converse with the Patriark Abraham so likewise the union Gen. 18. Suprac 6 7. of our Souls with his Soul which is called the Drinking of his Blood must be with that Soul of his which was so derived from the first Man and the first Woman by Propagation as all our Souls are otherwise we cannot be united in our Souls with his Soul neither could he be a Redeemer of our Souls This Doctrine of our Union with Christ both in our Bodies and also in our Souls was intimated though something darkly as to me seemeth at the Institution of his holy Eucharistical Supper which is next to be very briefly touched CHAP. XVIII WHen our Saviour had a long time concealed the Mysterious way or manner how our Redemption was to be effected by him and how his own proper and personal Death might be satisfactory to Divine Justice for and instead of the deserved deaths of all Men Yet that he Might not leave his Disciples altogether ignorant in so weighty a Concernment he was pleased a little before his death in some measure to reveal that Secret to his Apostles and by them to his succeeding Church for which purpose only he instituted his last Holy Supper to be a visible Sign or Sacrament and also a Memorial thereof in all Generations untill his Coming again First therefore He took Bread and gave it to them and said Take Eat This is my Luke 22. 19. Body which is given for you as if he had said my Body is already to you such as this Bread will be to you for by Eating and Digesting it the Bread will be your nourishment it will be joyned and united with your Bodies and grow into one flesh with your flesh and be one Body with you Christ calleth himself Bread Ego sum John 6. Panis because as bread being eaten and digested becomes incorporate or incarnate with us so is Christ Incarnate or rather Concarnate with us We receive our Flesh from our Mothers the bread which the Mother eateth is converted into milk with which the Infant is nourished and thereby is fleshed and groweth so that the Bread and the Child become united and grow into one Body St. Austin saith concerning this very thing Quod manducat mater hoc manducat Aug. Psa 33. Ser. 1. Infans sed quia minùs idoneus est Infans qui pane vescatur ipsum panem Mater incarnat per humilitatem mamillae lactis succum de ipso pane pascit Infantem That which nourisheth the Mother the same nourisheth the Infant but because the Infant is not able to
any need of or benefit by such a Presence but the true and concerning and beneficial Presence of Christ is in and with the Communicants which Presence is effected by the Union of his Flesh and Soul with our flesh and soul so as hath been before shewed Wherefore if we will be content and rest satisfied with this plain and easie Exposition of those words of Christ which I firmly believe to be true viz. that the Eating and Drinking of His flesh and blood signifieth only the union or conjunction of his Flesh and Soul with our flesh and soul all difficulties and obscurities will be cleared without any violence to those words of Christ And the order and method in which the just and mercifull Godhead proceeded in preparing and in making a way to the Redemption of our lapsed Nature will be to our great Consolation made manifest to us We have seen before how our flesh and the Flesh of Christ have been united in the next place we are now to show how the Union of our souls with his Soul hath been wrought and really performed CHAP. XIX IN order to the understanding of the Union of our Souls with the Soul of Christ which is mysteriously vailed by an obscure description under a Figurative Speech of Drinking his Blood we are first to enquire of and to find out the Original or Spring whence both Christ and we have derived and received our Souls For if it may appear that the human Soul of Christ did proceed from the very same Fountain from which all Men in the world have received their Souls then it cannot be denied that his Soul and our souls were joyned and united in that one Original Fountain which is the Soul of the first Man For why should it seem less credible or harder to conceive that all Human Souls are derived and have proceeded from that one Soul of the first Man than to believe and acknowledge that all Human Bodies Christs and all are derived and propagated from the body or lump of the said first Man Surely no Learned or but Intelligent Christian will deny that Christ and all Men were united in the Loins of Adam Now if it be enquired whence or from whom Christ immediately received his Soul We answer that he received it from his Blessed Virgin Mother and in her Womb and that it was derived and propagated from her Virgin Soul for he had no Earthly Father from whose Thigh his Soul could be propagated If it be again enquired whence the blessed Virgin received her Soul We answer that she also received it from her Mothers Soul and in the Womb and so we affirm of all the souls of Men and Women that they are propagated from the souls of their Mothers and that this Propagation ascendeth ultimately unto Eve the first Woman from whose Soul the Soul of Christ and the Souls of all her Posterity are descended If it be farther enquired when Eve had and received her Soul We answer that she received her Soul with her Body also from the first Man her Body from his Body and her Soul from his Soul and whence Adam received his Soul the Scripture evidently declareth that his Soul was immediately Created and Inspired by God in these words God breathed into his nostrils the Gen. 2. 7. breath of Life and Man became a living Soul We farther affirm that the Soul of Adam was the only Soul that was created by God and also that from that one Soul all human Souls from that time till now and also untill the end of the World are and will be derived and propagated We read not of any other particular Soul in the Holy Scriptures that was immediately created by God because indeed all Human Souls were Originally couched and virtually included in that one Prime Soul of the first Man Inspired by God Good Reader observe with me that Bucan p. 86. 88. Woolnor p. 77. which hath been formerly observed by other Writers that those words which our English Translation renders the breath of Life Gen. 2. 7. might and should more fitly and truly have been rendred the breath of Gen. 2. 7. Chaiim of Lives Lives Spiraculum Vitarum Because in the Original the word which is translated Life is a word Plural and signifieth Lives it may therefore reasonably be conceived that the most wise Spirit of God intended to signifie by that Plural word that the whole multitude of human Lives and Souls were potentially and virtually residing in that one created Soul of Adam and were to be derived and propagated from thence to all Mankind Christ and all as being the Spring and Fountain of all future Souls for of him only and of none other it is said that God breathed into him the Breath of life or lives We know that the first Woman had a Soul proper to her self but we find not that God did newly Create or Breath into her a new and several Soul because she did receive her soul from the Man and so it must have been produced for weighty Reasons and not any other way her soul was derived from his soul the Godhead did not create two Originals or Fountains of souls nor of bodies for both the flesh and the soul of Eve and of all Men with Christ also were necessarily to be derived from the flesh and soul of Adam for otherwise although the first Man and the first Woman were united in flesh yet they had not been united in Soul except Eve's soul had been derived from the soul of Adam nor could the soul of Christ by any other way have come from Adams soul and consequently he could not have been the Redeemer of the souls of Adams Posterity Certainly all Men in the World are Adamites both in respect of their bodies and also of their souls so is Christ himself Ben-Adam therefore the Apostle calls him the Last Adam because he was the Son of 1 Cor. 15. 45. Adam therefore he is called by his Fathers name By reason of the Union of our bodies with Christs Body in the loyns of Adam the Apostle saith we are members of his Flesh and by reason of the Union of all Mens souls in that one Original Soul of Adam the same Apostle said to the Athenian Philosophers that God hath made of one Blood Acts 17. 26. all Nations of Men. Blood in Scripture signifieth the soul as hath been proved before and so I believe it doth in that place and so the meaning must be that God hath made of one Soul all the souls of all nations of Men which surely is true For if their was a necessity in order to the Redemption of our Bodies that the Redeemer must have received his flesh by Propagation from the first Man the like necessity must needs be for the Redemption of our Souls that the Redeemer must have received his Soul by Traduction from the Soul of the same first Man in whom the Redeemer and the Redeemed were
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
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