may bee a separation made of soule and body yet there shall bee no totall separation of the soule from God Friends may dye must die They are but men and men must die Dust we are and to dust we must returne Wee and our friendships too must perish We are seene a while and after a while wee are seene no more but fall like drops of raine into the sea and are knowne no more And oftentimes friends fall flat out and end their friendshippes before they end themselues But Christ and his faithfull friends doe neuer part the graue cannot part them neither can any such vnkindnesse happen betweene them but that they may and shall bee reconciled And whereas many men will shake of their friends and acquaintance if they grow poore and needy the Lord Iesus tho now at the right hand of the Father farre aboue all Powers and Maiesties doth take great delight in all those whom he hath vnited to him how poore or meane soeuer and is a Cherisher of them in all their wants yes is troubled with them in all their troubles afflicted in all their afflictions and accounts himselfe the receiuer when any of his poore friends are relieued entertained honored But I passe on further The Soule and body of a man are ioyned together to make a true and perfit man For neither the soule alone nor the body alone but the soule and body together doe make a perfit man as neither the King alone by himselfe nor the people alone by themselues doe make the Kingdome but the King and the people ioyntly together But the coniunction of Christ and of Christians is not of the same kinde For the vnion of soule and body is naturall but our vnion with Christ is supernaturall The soule is not giuen a man in the very act or instant of generation but afterwards when there is some organ or organs fitted for it but Christ is giuen a man in the very act and article of regeneration The soule is created by God in the body and to euery particular body there is a particular soule For though all mens soules are one in kinde yet they are not one in number but haue their numericall and particular differences But there are not so many Christs as men There is but one Christ in all belieuers And although Christ may truely in the Apostles sense be said to be formed in vs which is when we are reformed and made conformable to him yet we must beware we do not thinke him to be formed in vs as the soule is which is formed wholy at once and not by degrees and is so formed in vs as that it is not out of vs nor in any other body and did not subsist out of vs before it was created in vs. The soule now framed and being by nature immortal is vnited to a fraile and corruptible body and enters vppon it with condition to depart againe and leaue it when God shall please but Christ comes not into vs vpon the same tearmes but taries with vs and abides in vs for euer Hee takes the soule into an heauenly mansion where it forsakes her earthly Tabernacle and forgets not our dust our lesse then dust which we leaue behinde vs but sees it alwaies is mindfull of it and can distinguish it from the dust of beasts of Reprobates and will againe one day blow vpon it and make it liue againe And whereas the soule and body being knit together make one and the selfe same person so that the soule is not one person and the body another person For in a man there is aliud aliud but not alius alius diuersitie of natures but no distinction or diuision of person Our Lord Christ Iesus is a distinct compleat and absolute person subsisting by himselfe and there are as many distinct and particular persons of Christians as there are Christians euery man being a distinct and perfit person by himselfe as Christ is by himselfe Indeed he and they altogether make but one entire mysticall bodie and wheras euery man susteines himselfe I confesse that Christ doth vp-beare vs all with his grace power as a goodly Oake or Cedar doth her branches or as a foundation and pillars do the building of stones timber and other materialls that are laide vpon them Christ as the Apostles S. Paul and S. Iohn doe teach vs is very God God ouer all blessed for ever Now to Christ as God the great Creator and Vpholder of all things by whom all things were made who vpholdeth all things with the word of his power All things created are vnited vnione depēdantia with the vnion of dependance without the which nothing that is created can last a moment But as the light depends vpon the Sunne and is after a sort ioyned to it so that if any thing should come betweene the light and the Sunne which is the fountaine of light the light would instantly vanish and there would bee nothing but very darkenesse and as in this Microcosme of man the liuer is the source of bloud and the spring by which it is disfused by veines throughout the body and the heart is the fountaine of the vitall spirits which are thence by arteries carried into the body as neede requireth or as the head is the originall of the nerues or sinewes by the which motion is caused so that if any thing should come betweene the liuer and the veines the heart and the arteries the head and the sinewes that they should bee parted of necessitie bloud spirits motion and life it selfe must presently decay and faile euen so all creatures in the world depend on Christ as God and are so vnited to him that they cannot be without him so that if any thing could come betwixt him and them which might hinder their dependance on him and coherence with him they could not but vanish as light and bee brought to nothing The very dust of dead men would not be dust but would presently perish were it not vpheld by the power of his word But the godly are vnited to Christ more blessedly then thus only For euen beasts yea and the Diuels themselues and all damned soules are thus coupled with him and depend vpon him Without this kinde of vnion they were not able to subsist the twinckling of an eye but must needes perish vanish and come to nothing This therefore is not the vnion wee treat of which makes a man that is to be well it presupposes being but causes blessednesse it findes nature but giues grace it meets with a man but it makes a Saint it finds him on earth but brings him to heauen it findes him poore naked wounded sicke and succourlesse but it giues him riches garments soundnesse health and comfort which shall not bee taken away from him whether hee will or no as his body goods good name life liberty and such transitory and glassie things ouer which fire water earth ayre beasts men and
Christ which is his word and true following of him which consists in obedience subiection and conformity to him and finally true Christian charitie are true markes and characters and infallible arguments by which a man indued with them may demonstrate proue himselfe to be a sincere Christian or true disciple and sheepe of Christ lesus who is that good Shepheard euen the Shepheard and Byshop of our souls the great and chiefe Shepheard who gaue his life for his sheepe that they might not die but haue euerlasting life throughhim This true Christian and Christ Iesus God and Man are vnited and coupled together by God so as that they are now no more two but one yet not one flesh but one Spirit or spirituall bodie Before a man bee ioyned to Christ that is before a mans effectuall vocation a man and Christ are at oddes are two are diuided are enemies Te were at that time saith Saint Paul that is in your daies of ignorance and paganisme without Christ and were aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and were strangers from the couenants of promise and had no hope and were without God in the world But after they bee conioyned and knit together after they haue giuen themselues each to other and haue taken and entertained each other they are now like man and wife no more to be reputed two but one Neither is a man to thinke that he is a true Christian and adorned with true Christian faith and charity before hee be vnited vnto Christ But then when he is first truely coupled vnto Christ euen then and not before he is indued with those Christian vertues and is become indeede a Christian For there must be an vnion with Christ before there bee communion or fellowship Wee are knit to Christ before wee draw any vertue from him Before I say not in time but in nature So that faith hope charitie obedience are not vertues had before this vnion is made but then when it is made and after wards They go not before the vnion but they are giuen at the making of the vnion and shew him that is vnited Then when Christ is pleased to come vnto a man and to vnite himselfe actually to him euen then and not before hee breathes into him the breath of life to wit his holy Spirit who creates in him faith and loue and moues him to giue himselfe vnto Christ and workes in him a certaine spirituall hunger and thirst after him and learnes him to feede vpon him as a childe on 's Nurse or as a hungrie man on the meat that 's set before him But more of this hereafter This Coniunction is not imaginary and deceitfull but reall and true The glory which thou gauest me saith Christ I haue giuen them that they may be one euen as we are one I in them and thou in mee that they may be made perfect in one And I haue declared vnto them thy name and will declare it that the loue wherewith thou hast loued mee may be in them and I in them And againe At that day shall ye know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you And yet more If any man loue me my Father will loue him and we will come vnto him and will dwell with him There are some that dreame they eat and drinke yet indeede they neither eate nor drinke but awaking they rise vp hungrie and a thirst Some haue imagined in their dreames they haue beene married and yet in truth were not These marriages are but dreames and phansies but the vnion of Christ and his members is true certaine and demonstrable Indeede as some phrantique men haue thought many things theirs which were not so Hypocrites who are like the flower Granadelle which is very faire to the eye but hath no smell as Ioseph Acosta writeth and other wicked and false hearted Christians who are like the wilde Tunalls in the westerne Indies the which doe cary no fruite or else that which is very pricking and vnprofitable may through a certaine phrensie of spirit imagine and perswade themselues that they are true Christians wedded and vnited vnto Christ and possessed of his grace being in trueth cleane voide of Christ and wedded to their owne Idolls which they dote on and embrace for Christ as Ixion did the cloud for Iuno There is a true Vnion or Coniunction of loue among true friends as betweene Dauid and Ionathan For Amicus est alter ego a man and his friend are both as one either one or none If diuided then no friends But this is the vnion of amity the coniunction of consent Such a like coniunction is vnderstood where it is said the multitude of them that belieued were of one heart and of one soule And behold the communion issuing of this vnion behold the goodly fruit of this their godly coniunction by their Christian charitie an effect indeed of their vnion with Christ himselfe Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his owne but they had all things common For true loue rauishes the louer and transports him out of himselfe into his loue and makes him to communicate and distribute himselfe and his vnto his beloued for his good whence it is truely said that among true friends and louers all things are in common Now sure it is that there is a league of loue and friendship between Christ and all true Christian people I haue called you friends saith Christ and ye are my friends if yee doe whatsoeuer I commaund you And by reason of Christs loue to them and of their loue to Christ springing from him as water from a fountaine Christ and they are vnited and ioyned together in one like louing friends one of them inamored with the other he delighting in them and they in him he seeking their glorie and they his For as hatred parts those that are vnited so true loue vnites them that were diuided it conioyneth soules and causeth true contentment and delight among those that it hath vnited and makes them to seeke one another and not themselues or their owne thinges onely But yet this is not all the Coniunction that is betwixt Christ and his Church and the true members of it A friend cannot do that for his friend that Christ doth for vs who giues vs his very Spirit the Spirit of truth who dwelleth with vs and abideth in vs who himselfe also is in vs as an helper and vpholder and from whose aide and presence no distance of place or fury of the enemie can disioyne vs and from whose very sacred body also we sucke that nurriture which doth not onely refresh and comfort vs as meat doth a mans body but as a true caelestiall and lise-giuing cordiall repaires and preserues the supernaturall sappe of the soule the radicall humour of grace infused into our hearts in our conuersion that tho there
Coniunction throughout all ages and generations of men In so much that no stint or limit can be set to the value vertue and merite of his sacrificed body it knoweth no bounds of efficacie vnto life but is also it selfe infinitely able to purge and saue all in any place or age on whom Christ is pleased to conferre it Wee are then vnited by the vnion of grace to our blessed Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ being locked and ioyned to him by the vnion of a singular and most blessed Dependance as hee is both God and Man For our very being as we are Christians true members of the Church his body doth wholly depend vpon him Our new life and pardon our iustice and holinesse and all our spirituall and celestiall gifts and comforts flow from him as water from a fountaine or as light from the Sunne and altogether depend vpon him so as that if any thing could come betwixt vs and him that could seuer vs from him or from the gracious operations of his Godhead or from the Cooperation and merits of his Manhead we could not wee should not continue new creatures Saints or liuing members of his mysticall body one moment of time but must needes presently become nothing dead cursed slaues fire-brands of hell and perishable I say againe the Godhead of Christ is in vs dwells in vs and we in it not onely because it fills vs as it fills all things else and is present with vs as it is throughout all the world but because cause it worketh mightily in vs and very graciously powring foorth and giuing vs all our new being life ioyes and vertues which we haue and for that it doth also susteine and keepe vs in this good estate it sets vs in In which respect we may truely say that God is absent from the reprobate and that they are separated from him And therefore also Saint Gregorie saith that All we which belieue in Christ are out of doubt his body And because he is become the head of his members by a maruellous dispensation of pietie therefore he is also onely with vs the rout of Reprobates being repulsed The Church of Christ is the chosen inheritance of Christ as Rabanus truely speaketh and therefore the Godhead of Christ visits and tends her onely with the visitation and presence of grace and mercy to saluation passing ouer the vast and drie Desarts and craggy rockes and sterilous mountaines of wicked Cast-awayes which are the heritage of Satan and confusion I say further the very flesh of Christ is in vs and we in it And that not onely Propter identitatem naturee because he hath a true humane soule and body as we haue but without sin like as the head and the body and the vine and her branches haue one kinde of substance or nature nor yet onely Propter conformitatem affectuum for conformity of affections or similitude of vertues or for because hee is in our hearts by loue and we in his which may be among faithfull louers and louing couples but also because wee are his worke and creation his fruite and edifice His very flesh doth sanctifie vs his bloud doth clense vs by the meanes and vertue whereof being the flesh and bloud of God our soules are quickned our hearts are purified our sinnes are washed away and wee nourished refreshed strengthened and preserued to life and glory From this sacred flesh of his our very bodies doe receiue that life which shall make them glorious at the latter day and for the which they are now reputed parcels of his blessed body These corruptible bodies of ours could neuer liue the life they shall liue but that they are here ioyned with his body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a cause of immortality a cause by remouing through the inualuable death and merite of his owne flesh that which hindered the life of ours And if a man may say the fire is in a man when the heat and vertue of the fire is in him as when he is hot burnt scorcht or scalded well then may a man truely say that Christ is in a man who partakes of his merit vertue and operations and who hath his very spirit dwelling and abiding in him who moulds him turnes him fashions him mortifies him quickens him and repaires him scorching drying consuming and burning vp the petulant and luxurious lusts and humors of sin within him Christ then both as God and Man is in vs within vs and is our Head in whom we are compleat And as from the head is conueied sense and motion into all the parts of the body And as the same soule which is in the head is in all the members of the body quickning mouing and directing them Euen so the holy Spirit of Christ is from Christ deriued into all the members of his spirituall body and from him as God and Man wee receiue our godly life and being and all those perfections wherein our godlinesse and happinesse standeth The Godhead indeed is the fountain of all grace and comforts but the manhead is the conduit-pipe by which they are from that fountain or spring-head conueyed and brought vnto vs euen as bloud is diffused by veines throughout the body from the liuer or as the sinewes do minister sense and motion from the braine But whereas sinewes veines and pipes of wood lead or other matter lacke reason iudgement and will the flesh of Christ is furnished with them in all perfections so that indeed neither the Deity without the Humanity nor the Humanity without the Deity but both do work together for our good and worke-out our life and glorie So then we participate whole Christ and the whole of Christ We participate Christ God and Man agent and patient liuing and dying descending ascending abased and exalted Hee that hath the tree hath the fruits he that hath the field hath the corne he to whom the sheep belongs is owner also of the fleece and fruite We participate Christ partly by imputation his obedience holinesse and sufferings being imputed to vs and iudged to be ours For the Suretie being ours his mony is also ours to pay our debts hauing freely vndertaken vpon him so to doe This mony is the iustice of Christ imputed to vs wherewith we buy out our iustification and liberty which we haue in Christ Iesus This as Salomon speakes of mony doth answere all things By it we obteine accesse to God pardon of our sinnes redemption from our enemies and euerlasting saluation And partly also we participate him by habituall and reall infusion as when grace is really wrought within vs and inhereth inwardly in vs true holinesse being ingrauen vpon our hearts by the finger of God whiles we liue on earth and hereafter more fully when both our bodies and our soules shall bee made like vnto his in perfit glory And because Christ worketh by his Spirit therefore hee bestowes his Spirit