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book_n	church_n	old_a	testament_n	6,574	5	8.1314	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52433	Reflections upon the conduct of human life with reference to the study of learning and knowledge : in a letter to the excellent lady, the Lady Masham / by John Norris ... ; to which is annex'd a visitation sermon, by the same author.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Masham, Damaris, Lady, 1658-1708.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Sermon preach'd in the Abby Church of Bath ... July 30, 1689.	1690 (1690)	Wing N1267; Wing N1270_PARTIAL; ESTC R15880	61,350	204

and Heighth if there be any Love that passes Knowledge if there be any love that is stronger than Death and dearer than Life if there be any lastly that is truly wonderful and that passes love not only of Women but of the whole Creation 't is this Love of our Lord to his Church We have no line long enough to fathom so vast a Depth nor can Mortality furnish us with Ideas to conceive or with words to utter so deep a Mystery If there be any words that can reach it they must be such as St. Paul heard in his Rapture strange words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that cannot be pronounced by an Human Tongue and that would be meer Barbarism to a Mortal capacity But however that we may take some Measure of that which really has none and be able to frame some Notion of this Love of Christ which as the Apostle tells us passes knowledge we will exhibit a Prospect of it in a Double Light First in those verbal Representations which the Scripture gives of it and Secondly in those real and actual Proofs whereby Christ himself has exprest this his most excellent and otherwise Incredible Love As to the First the Scripture we know is full of great things and those set forth with as great and magnificent Expressions The Rhetoric and Stile of Scripture runs incomparably high beyond that of any other writings in whatever it treats of But there are three things more especially in the description of which the Holy Spirit seems to Labour and be at a Stand for Expression And these are the Glories of Heaven the Miseries of Hell and the Love of Christ to his Church These the Scripture represents under all the variety of Symbols Figures and Images that can be supplied either from the Intellectual or Material World that so what is wanting in each single Representation might be made up from the Multitude and Combination of them that if one should miss another might strike us to make if possible some impression of so strange and so concerning Truths upon the minds of Men. But the last of these as 't is most wonderful and Mysterious it being a greater wonder that God should Love Man than that either there should be so much Happiness in the Enjoyment of God or so much misery in the Loss of him so is it more frequently inculcated and more strongly represented So frequently inculcated is it that were it not for the Mystery of the thing and that there is no Tautology in Love the Scripture would seem Chargeable with vain Repetitions Every Page almost in Holy writ breathes forth this Mystery of Divine Love and besides that there is one whole Book particularly imploy'd in the representation of it by all the Flowers and Delicacies of the most exalted Poetry it may be said of the whole Sacred Volumn that 't is but one continued Expression of Love from Christ to his Church one Larger Canticles And as 't is thus frequently inculcated so is it no less strongly represented 'T is represented by that which is the most proper Effect and the last End and Accomplishment of all Love by Vnion For there are three most admirable Unions proposed to our Faith in the Christian Religion The Unity of Essence in the Trinity the Unity of Person in Jesus Christ and the Union that is between Christ and his Church The First of these is an Example and Prefiguration as it were to the Second and the Second to the Third For we cannot better represent the Union of Christ with his Church than by the Hypostatic Vnion or the Union of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Human Nature For First as in this Mystery the Plurality of Nature is consistent with the Unity of Person so does Love effect the same Miracle in the Union between Christ and his Church For here also we meet with a new Theanthropy a strange Composition of God and Man two vastly different Substances which without Confusion of either Natures or Properties make up one and the same Body For if Christ be Head of the Church he is also one Body with it And so St. Austin Totus Christus secundam Ecclesiam Caput Corpus est Again as in the Mystery of the Hypostatic union there is a Communication of Idioms or Properties whereby what primarily and abstractly belongs to one may secondarily and concretely be attributed to the other as that God is man and man is God so has Love introduced the like Communication between Christ and his Church which may be said to be happy and glorified in Christ as he is said to suffer in his Church Again as in the Mystery of the Hypostatic union the Word uniting it self to Human Nature adorn'd and exalted it not only by the Priviledge of so sacred a Confederacy but also with many distinct Graces and Excellencies whereby it was necessarily tho not forcibly determin'd to love the Divinity and highly fitted to be loved by it so is it also in this Union between Christ and his Church He has not only innobled her by so sacred an Alliance but is ever conferring upon her his Gifts and Graces and will never cease to do so till at length he present her to himself a Glorious Church without spot or blemish and make her in some measure worthy of so great a Love and so intimate an Vnion For 't is observable that in Scripture Jesus Christ is set out as the Author and Dispencer of all Grace to him is ascribed the Work of the Second as well as of the First Creation from his fulness we all receive and the Apostle says expresly that to every one of us is given grace according to the Measure of the gift of Christ. But not to pursue this Metaphysical Parallel any further let us return to consider this Union as 't is represented in Holy Scripture Now there are but two sorts of Union in the World Natural and Moral And the Holy Spirit has made Choice of the Closest of each whereby to Figure out to us the Union between Christ and his Church The closest of Natural Unions is that between the Head and the Body and the closest of all Moral Unions is that between the Husband and the Wife And both these are by the Holy Spirit applied to this Mystery Thus is Christ oftentimes call'd the Head of the Church and the Church the Body of Christ. Thus again is he stiled the Bridegroom and the Church honour'd with the Name of his Spouse And because this Latter Figure carries in it more of sensible endearment therefore is it of more frequent use and withal of more Antient Date For besides that Adam first open'd this Mystery and by his Miraculous Marriage typified to us that of Christ with his Church which came out of the Wounded Side of our Lord as Eve was taken out of Adam's the Prophets have also given our Lord the title of Bridegroom in the Old Testament The

45th Psalm is a plain Spiritual Epithalamium and so is the whole Book of Canticles and the Holy Baptist in whom both Types and Prophesie expire calls him expresly by the Name of Bridegroom Strange Miracle of Humility and Love That ever God should come down to seek a Spouse upon Earth was it not enough O Blessed Jesu that thou wast one with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Eternal Trinity was it not enough that thou hadst made thy self one with our Mortal Flesh by assuming our Nature but that thou must yet heap Mystery upon Mystery and as if thou wert not yet near enough allied to us must also make thy self one with thy Church But such is thy Love to man as not to be contented with one single union with him And so great thy Condescention as if thou need'st a Partner to compleat thy Happiness and as if it were no more good for the second than 't was for the first Adam to be alone These are the two Principal Figures under which the Scripture Pictures out to us the Love of Christ to his Church and his union with it Not that they rise up to the heighth of the Mystery but because they come the nearest of any to it For indeed they fall vastly short and give but a faint shadowy resemblance of what they are intended to represent And therefore as we have hitherto represented the dearness between Christ and his Church by that between the Head and the Members and the Husband and Wife so we may and with better reason invert the Order and propose the Former as an Example and Measure for both the Latter And 't is observable that St. Paul does so For says he Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church And again No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but Nourishes and Cherishes it even as the Lord the Church Where you see the Love of Christ to his Church is not as before set out by that of Married Persons and that of a Man to his own Flesh but these are set out and illustrated by the other So great and transcending all Love yea even all Knowledge is this Love of Christ to his Church But 't will appear yet greater if we take a Prospect of it in the Second Light namely in those Real and Actual Proofs whereby Christ himself has exprest this his most excellent and otherwise incredible Love And certainly they are such as never were will or can be given by any other Lover For to make the Prospect as short as maybe was it not an amazing instance of Love for the great and ever Blessed God who could neither be advantaged by our Happiness nor damaged by our Misery to come down and assume our Nature in its meanest Circumstances to live a needy and contemptible Life and dye a painful aud execrable Death and all this to reconcile a Rebel to restore an Apostate Indeed the work of Man's Redemption if we deeply consider the whole Method and Contrivance of it is such an Heroic instance of Love and so much exceeding that of his Creation that 't is well Man was Created and Redeem'd by the same good being since otherwise his obligations to his Redeemer being so much greater than those to his Creator he would be very much divided and distracted in his returns of Love and Gratitude But let us reflect a little upon the Life before we further consider the Death of our Redeemer It was one constant Argument one continued Miracle of Love He lived as one purely Devoted to the good of Mankind All his Thoughts all his Words all his Actions were Love His whole business was to Glorify his Father and which was his greatest Glory to express his Love to Man which tho at all times exceeding wonderful yet toward the Evening of his Life it thicken'd and grew stronger like Motion within the Neighbourhood of the Center and as then he Prayed so he Loved yet more earnestly For 't was then that he wept over Condemn'd Ierusalem and bedew'd with Tears the Grave of Lazarus 'T was then that with desire he desired to Eat the Passover with his Disciples instituted a perpetual Monument of Love his Holy Supper and left another of Humility by condescending to wash their Feet 'T was then that he comforted his Disciples with the variety of the Heavenly Mansions with a Declaration that he himself was the way the Truth and the Life with an assurance that their Prayers in his Name should be effectual with a Promise of the Holy Spirit and with a Legacy of his own Peace to compensate for the Tribulation they should meet with in the World 'T was then lastly that he recommended the state of his Apostles together with his own Glorification in one and the same Solemn Prayer to his Father that he would preserve them in Unity and Truth and at length Glorify them with the whole Body of true Believers with himself in Heaven And all this at a time when one would have thought his own concern should have been his only Meditation and Fear his only Passion for now was he within view of his amazing sufferings and the shade was just ready to point at the dreadful hour and yet even now his Love was truly stronger than Death and the Care of his Disciples prevailed over the Horrors of his approaching Agony Which he further shewed by giving up himself to a cruel and shameful Death for the Life and Salvation of the World A Death to say no more of it of such strange Sorrow and Anguish that the very Prospect of it put him into a Sweat of Blood and the induring it made him complain of being deserted of his Father And then that his Redemption might prove effectual after his Resurrection he gives Commission to his Disciples to go and publish it with its conditions throughout the world and orders them all as he does here St. Peter to feed his Sheep And lest the the Benefit of his Death should be again frustrated for want of Power to perform the conditions presently after his Ascension he sent down the Spirit of consolation upon his Apostles and does continually confer Grace upon and make Intercession for his Church So tenderly affected was he toward this his Spouse that even the felicities of Heaven could not make him forget her as he further shew'd by complaining in behalf of his Church when from the midst of his Glory he said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Which words shew him as much concern'd for the wounds given to his Mystical as for those he felt in his Natural Body And now since the Love of our Lord to his Church is so exceeding great it certainly concerns all Christians especially those whom he has intrusted with the Care of his Church to be alike minded Which leads me in the Second place to consider the command here given and to shew the great Obligation that lies upon all spiritual Pastors