Christus in corde, or, The mystical union between Christ and believers considered in its…

Were that of the Socinians true, That Christ was not in being till he was conceived of the Virgin, this objection might be something; but before the Incarnation he was a Divine person; after it, he was the very same person in our assumed flesh; so the union of the Ancients was not to a nonentity, or to one not in being.

Christs humane nature, though not in actual being in those times, was yet present ⟨p. 148⟩in such sort, that the Ancients were capable of being united to him; it was present with their Faith; though it had not an absolute existence, as a thing put forth out of its causes; yet it had a relative existence in the promise, so as to be an object of their Faith; which, being the hypostasis or subsistence of things hoped for, could not but presentiate the Messiah to them, he being one of the prime things they looked for, and upon that account called the hope of Israel, Acts 28.20. It was also present with God in his Decree, as sure to be as the eternal Rolls could make it. Its satisfactory and meritorious blood did operate before it was shed; upon the account of it, Pardons and the Holy Spirit were communicated unto the ancient believers. That presence, which made them capable of the bonds of union, made them capable of the union it self.

There is a difference between the natural body and the mystical; in the natural body the members are simultaneous; but in the mystical one they are successive. Some members are before others, yet they are all but one body; some were before Christ incarnate, yet were they united unto him as their Head. St. Austin elegantly sets forth this from Jacob, whose hand came out first, ⟨p. 149⟩