Imatges de pàgina
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Say not in thine heart, who shall afcend into
Heaven, that is, to bring Chrift down?
That which is meant by Eating his Flef,
is done already, and brought home to us.

Ro.10.66

Eating in Scripture phrafe doth not always fignifie Oral eating, nor doth it fo fignifie in thofe Words of Chrift; David, Abraham, and the Antediluvian Patriarchs must so have eaten Christ, as Eating here fignifieth, elfe they could not have been redeemable by him. Chrift faid, Blessed Mat.5.68 are they that hunger and thirst after Righteoufness, upon which words S. Auftin asketh, Quis dilaniat justitiam? and addeth nè pu tetis morfibus fieri. Who can eat Righ teousness, think not that this Eating is done by morfels: So, Pharifees devoured widows Mat. 23. bonfes, yet they did not Eat them. Men 14: are often faid to feed their eyes, Pafcere o- virg. culos, and Animum pictura pafcit inani in the n. 1 Poet; yet neither our Eyes, nor our Souls can eat. The Church exhorteth to feed on Chrift in our hearts, this is done without a Mouth-eating. The Pfalmift faith, They eat up my People as bread, and They have devoured Jacob, that is, faith Austin upon that place, Gentes, multos in fuum malignum cor- Aug; in pus, fen Societatem tranfire, terrendo coege- Pl. 78. runt; the Heathens have forced many into their malignant body and affociation by

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P.14.44

terrifying them, yet not by Oral eating. Ez k. 3. Ezekiel is commanded to eat the Roll, and Rev.10.9 fo is St. John commanded to eat the Book,

3, 10.

which fignified, that they fhould deeply take the words thereof into their confideration,to confider and ponder them in their hearts and minds. Peter, one of the brothers of Lombard, is commonly called Petrus Comeftor, and another great Writer was called Jacobus de Voragine, Peter the Eater, and James the Gulf or devourer; not for gormondizing of meat, but because of multitude of Books, which by their Readings they had devoured and digested, as Cato Tull, de was called heluo librorum, a very Glutton Fin.lib.3. of Books by Tully.

Acts

But above all the former Eatings that Divine Extafie, or Trance, or Rapture of St. Peter, recorded Ads 10. doth clearly 10. 13. fhew, that there is another way and meaning of Scriptural Eating, which is not Oral; for in that Vision there was presented to St. Peter a veffel defcending from Heaven,wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beafts,and creeping things, and fouls of the air, and a Voice came to him, rife Peter, kill and eat.

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By these several creatures, the Nations,or Gentiles are fignified, as formerly in the Dan. 7. vifion of Daniel, the four Monarchies were prefen

prefented to him in the fhapes and refemblances of four Beafts. The first as a Lion, the fecond as a Bear, the third as a Leo pard, the fourth as a dreadfull Beast with iron teeth, both these apparitions of those creatures, fignified People and Nations,

It is a very mean conceit, and a low glofs of fome late Expofitors, put upon that mysterious Vision of St. Peter, by which was fignified the calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel. But those Writers would have no more meant thereby, but only a permiffion to eat of fuch Creatures as were for merly forbidden, as unclean by the ceremo nial Law; yet we find not mention of any fish in the Veffel, although fome forts of fish are mentioned amongst forbidden meats as unclean, viz. fuch as have not fins Levit. or fcales; whereby we may reasonably con- 11.10; clude, that the Vifion had a farther reach and project than Eating; the mention of wild beafts fignified the miffion of the Gofpel to fuch People as were not then civilized, fuch as are now called fylveftres Populi, Savages, barbarous and lawless; fome as yet are called the wild Irish. Surely the vifion, under the apparition of Beafts and fowls, pointed at Men only who are converfant on the Earth, and in the Air, as beasts and fouls are, but live not in the Water.

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St. Peter was commanded to kill and eat the Gentiles, which if literally understood, would be most barbarous, and also impoffible. But to kill fignified to mortifie them, to convert or turn them from their Idolatry, to kill their Heathenifm in them, as St. Austin faith upon those words, OcAug. in eiduntur, cum Chriftiani fiunt ex Paganis. Pf. 149. The Heathens are faid to be kill'd, when of Pagans they are made Christians; and 14.Pf.30. again upon the word kill he faith, Macta, id eft, occide quod fuerant, fac quod tu es. Kill in them what they were, and make them fuch as thou art. Neither is Peter commanded only, to kill or convert them, but also to take the Gentiles fo mortified and converted into the Body, Fellowship and Communion of the Church; and fo the fame Father expounds the word 1d.lib.so. Eat. Petrus recipit Gentes in communiorum bom, nem Ecclefia, quafi efcam, ut incorporentur. 45.10.10. By Eating, Peter is required to receive

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the Gentiles into the myftical body of the Church, and to incorporate them, as meat is concorporated with our natural bodies. This Expofition is evidently confirmed by St. Peter himself, for after this Vifion, he went forthwith to Cornelius a Roman and Gentile, he preached Chrift to him, and converted him, and baptized him, and

thereby

thereby received, and incorporated him in the Corporation of the Church:

The Eating of the flesh of Chrift in those myfterious words of Chrift, is in like manner to be understood, fo as to fignifie an ενσάς κωσις, or rather a συνάρκωσις, that is, our Incorporation or Concorporation with Chrift, or the union or conjunction of our bodies with his Body, and fo doth the forenamed Father expound thofe very words of Chrift, Except ye eat, &c. Nifi incorporentur Aug. in Chrifto, and, Qui venit ad Chriftum, incor-1.c. poratur ei, to eat the flesh of Chrift, fignifieth to be incorporated in him, as every one must be that cometh to him.

Peter did not Orally eat the Nations, neither is it required by thofe words, that we should Orally eat the flesh of Chrift; what frantick Fanatick will fo understand those word of Chrift? If thy right hand of Mat. 5. fend thee, cut it off, &c. as actually to the Letter, to cut off his own hand, or pull out his own eye.

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From the grounds and reafons premised, my Conclufion is, and ever will be, that the Eating of the flesh of Chrift is meant, and to be understood only of the union or conjunction of our flesh with his Flesh, or our concarnation with him, fo as to be flesh of bis Flesh, as the Apostle faith; without Gal.5.30. which

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