Diuells haue a tyrannizing power when God permits But besides this vnion of vniuersall Dependance there is also another kind of Coniunction whereby not onely all Christians but all other men also yea and all the creatures in the world are vnited or ioyned vnto Christ as God For the Deity by reason of the immensitie and subtilty thereof is most fully and most inwardly totally present in and to and throughout all creatures corporall and spirituall comprehending all things but comprehended of nothing piercing all things but pierced of nothing and is farre more thoroughly present and more fully then either light or heate is in the aire or then the soule is in the body So that if that should bee which yet cannot be that is to say if the creature did not depend on Christ yet by reason of the all-piercing subtilnesse and vnmeasureablenesse of his Godhead he should penetrate and fill all things it selfe being fill'd of nothing and be most inwardly and thoroughly present vnto them and so be in some sort conioyned with them But this Coniunction is common that of true dealing Christians and Christ Iesus is speciall and proper to them This Coniunction is of the Creature to Christ as God but the other is of man to Christ God-Man or Man-God Mediator betwixt God man Here Christ is present by a most inward and thorough penetration his very Deity inclosing touching and piercing all things But there hee is present by the presence of supernaturall grace yea and his very flesh is not away or wanting but present as I will declare hereafter The Coniunction which is by penetration and omni-presence makes no man happy as the other doth with the which whosoeuer is vnited vnto Christ he is certainely in the state of grace and liues in sure hope of the state of glory And whereas the vnion of Christ and a Christian is indeed a true and certaine vnion and may properly bee so called this Coniunction by penetration and presence doth not properly conteine any vnion but onely vbiquity indistancy and an insensible but thorough repletion of all things There are not two Christs but one and this one Christ hath two distinct natures in him one Diuine the other Humane and both these names are vnited together in one and the same person by a personall vnion But we are not so vnited to Christ as our nature is to the nature of God in Christ I call Christs humane nature ours because it is indeed ours not in number the same with any mans but in kinde the same with all mens indued with a true humane soule and body not being created a new of nothing or from another peece of clay but made of a woman who came from the loynes of Adam For by the vertue of this vnion which is Hypostaticall God is man man is God But if Christians were vnited personally to Christ then the very name of Christ and God should be giuen to them which were absurd to think And which were very grosse and horrible then also God might bee as truely and as orthodoxally said to sinne when a Christian man sinned as it is said that God died was crucified and rose againe because the man who is true God in one person our Lord Iesus Christ was crucified died rose againe Though it be true that Iesus the Sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary be the true and eternall Son of the eternall and true God yet it were false and impious to say that the Church is the eternall and true naturall Daughter of God or that euery true belieuer were Gods naturall Son or God which yet were so if wee were personally vnited to the Godhead There are many Maries mothers but only the Virgin Mary was the mother of God I doubt not but that Christ is formed and is in forming in many a Ladies heart but yet hee was onely formed in that Ladies wombe as a childe Her childe onely is the naturall Sonne of God he onely is the Word the substantiall the consubstantiall and coeternall Word But if we were personally vnited to the Word or to the God head or to both Godhead Manhead in the Word then might we be called the Word of God and God yea and the Virgin Mary might bee said to be our mother as well as the mother of God yes and wee could not but be full of merits power and vertue euen as Christ But what pious eare can indure to heare such blasphemies Moreouer though it be most true which our Sauiour saith I am in my Father and you in mee and I in you yet wee must not thinke that wee are hypostatically vnited vnto Christ nor that we are so in Christ as Christ is in his Father This speech therefore of Christ must bee taken with a graine of falt For Christ is in his father as being of one and the selfe-same substance and nature with his Father being indeede the brightnesse of his glory and the very character of his Person and his true naturall Sonne and substantiall image but he is in vs as an helper ayder and susteiner by whom we haue our spirituall being life breath sense and motion and who beares vs vp and feeds vs as the roote doth the body and branches of a tree Furthermore there is a certaine vnion of the workeman and his toole of the hand and the instrument in it And thus by way of similitude Christ and all faithfull Christians who are instruments of his praises and whom he holdeth in the right hand of his power and protection bearing them as an Eagle doth her yong ones may be said to be conioyned And as in an instrument of musique tho one winde giue a generall sound yet by the diuersity and disequality of the pipes and organes all which the wind filleth the tones are varied so though one Christ be in all true Christians one spirit be inspired as a celestiall and liuing winde into them all yet they differ in their tunes actions motions and iubilations according to their owne personall and particular capacities and as the Spirit who workes not as a naturall but as a voluntary agent doth impart and diffuse his grace But whereas a sword lute trumpet and other instruments of Art are voide of life Christians are liuing and breathing Organs intellectuall spirituall and voluntary instruments for Christ to worke with and are liker a mans hand or other liue-member of his body then a sword of steele or other senselesse and dead instrument voide of reason sense life and will able to do no more then it is made to do by plaine force And whereas the workeman doth not nor cannot alwaies make or mend his toole Christ doth alwaies both make and mend his tooles For wee are his workemanship Hee hath made vs and not we our selues He that makes himselfe is alwaies marr'd in the making And he that teaches himselfe hath a foole for his master And whereas a workeman and his tooles
faile him Nature springs from Adam as Gods liuing instrument And sin also comes from Adam and from sinne death Euen so also grace is from Christ iustice and holinesse imputatiue and inhesiue true life and liberty victory ouer death at last victory ouer the world in this life and all future felicity proceede from Christ as from their Authour or Spring-head from whence they flow There is much liberty in the world there is a peace of worldlings many honours and outward fauours giuen them by GOD but not through Christ Many men haue had victories from God as Nebuchadnezzar Caesar Pompey Tamerlane the great Turkes and many moe vnbeleeuers but not through Iesus Christ But spirituall peace liberty life health ioy victory and saluation no man hath but by Iesus Christ or Lord. So then if we were not of Adam and had not Adams nature in vs and sinne which doth defile it we should neither be men nor sinnefull men and so not men subiect vnto death Euen so if we were not members of Christ sprung from him as our head and had him not in vs and with vs we could not bee Christian men we could not bee spirituall and holy we could not bee vnder grace but vnder the Law we could not bee free but bond-men wee could not be iustified we could not be saued A man therefore that would haue life light grace and glory and so become a true blessed man must needes haue Christ his head hee must needes be his member he must needs be coupled with him and issue from him as well as sinners to make them men and sinners haue their father Adams nature in them and that which doth infect and poyson it Now Christ is the head of the Church as hee is both God and Man Euen so wee who are his members are vnited to him as hee is both God and Man Christ God and Man dwelleth in vs and we dwell in Christ who is God and man We are partakers of both his natures diuine and humane Christ is in vs as touching both and wee are in him as touching both hee in vs and wee in him and both fast knit together But this must be wisely vnderstood and for the cleering heereof I will speake a little yet more fully and punctually by the helpe of Christ who is abundantly able beyond all to vnfolde and define what this vnion is and to answer all the questions that may bee put about it First it is readily granted that the diuine nature of Christ filleth heauen earth and is essentially all the world ouer present whole in all places and at all times Secondly that very Man Iesus Christ the Virgins Sonne hath the diuine nature by hypostaticall vnion so that in the person of the eternall Sonne of God which is not double but single the two natures diuine and humane are vnited fast together and for euer the humane beeing receiued into God hauing neuer had any personall subsistence out of the person of the Sonne of God A certaine similitude thereof is in the Misselto which as Pliny writeth growes not but in a Plant of another kinde Indeed wheras the Misselto may be pluckt by force or stubbed vp out of the plant it grows in the humane nature of Christ cannot be seuered from the Word Thirdly the Coniunction of the flesh with the Deity is extended as far as the Deity it selfe For the Deity is no where seuered from the Man-head but yet the actuall Position of the flesh is restrained and tied to a certaine place Doubt not sith Saint Austin but that the man Christ Iesus is now in that very place from whence hee shall come in the same for me and substance of flesh which he carried thither and from which he hath not taken nature but giuen thereunto immortality According to this forme hee spreddeth not out himselfe into all places For it behooueth vs to take great heede lest while wee goe about to maintaine the glorious Deity of him which is man wee leaue not the true bodily substance of man So then tho the flesh bee actually seated there or there not euery where yet it is euery where ioyned to the Godhead which filleth the whole world and no place no not hell it selfe doth hinder that Coniunction But though wee cannot say that the Man-head of Christ is euery where present yet we may truely say that the man Christ is euery where present because that person is euery where present from whose God-head the Man-head is no where separated or because this man is very God and so by his Deity he is omni-present tho in his humanity hee bee but in one particular space or place at once So by reason of the hypostaticall vnion wee may say the man Iesus is eternall is omnipotent is God is Mediatour betweene God and Man But wee cannot so speake of his mans nature Fourthly the flesh or humane nature of Christ or Christ as he is a true man consisting of soule and body now knit together may bee rightly sayd to hee euery where present as touching co-operation with the God-head and that in all things For the diuine nature of Christ which before his incarnation wrought all things without the man-head doth now worke nothing wherein the man-head which he hath assumed is either absent from it or idle He which came downe from heauen and descended into hell is ascended into heauen that sitting at the right hand of God inuested with all maiesty might power honour and glory hee might from thence gouerne and dispose all things and fill his Church with the gracious and blessed fruites of his sauing presence His humane nature before his glorious Ascension and Session was not without the possession of this power but the full vse and exercise thereof was suspended till his humiliation which had before vailed Maiesty was ended and laide aside For the Session at the right hand of his Father is the actuall exercise of that power and regency wherein his Man-head was ioyned and matched with his Godhead This regencie and dominion hee now exerciseth both as God and man as God by essentiall presence with all things as Man by cooperation with his Godhead which is essentially all the world ouer I say then that the Manhead of Christ cooperates with his Godhead to which it is personally ioyned For the humane will of Christ assenteth to althings which his diuine will affecteth and willeth what the diuine dislikes And from his humane vnderstanding nothing which his Deity worketh is concealed so that by knowledge and assent the soule of Christ is present with all things which his Deiry worketh And as concerning his very bodie of flesh seeing it is the Body of God and personally vnited to the Godhead of the Sonne of God by whom it was also made a propitiatorie Sacrifice for the sinnes of the whole world it therefore receiueth a Presence of force and efficacie by reason of the said
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
may part how good or deare so euer vnto him hee may yet bee depriued of them and separated from them flat and full against his will or may loose some one of them or spoile it through negligence or forgetfulnes or may throw them by as being wearied with the vse or bearing of them no such mischance and accident can come to Christ against his will hee cannot loose vs against his will neither is hee weary of vs or carelesse of our good Those which are his he loues cherishes delights in preserues and keepes fast and safe for euer But this is not all There is also a certaine Coniunction betweene brothers and sisters and such as are Coheires or Partners in some office but this is either naturall or else legall and politicall or ciuill But our Coniunction with Christ is not naturall or ciuill nor of humane institution but ghostly heauenly inuisible and aboue nature either as it was created or as it is corrupted And Though wee be the Heires of God and heires annexed with Christ and be called his Brethren and therefore must needes be coupled together and haue fellowship with him yet we must not imagine our vnion or communion to be the same that naturall brothers in bloud haue or which are partners of the same office or inheritance For he is a naturall Heire we are adopted by grace Indeed as he is man he is heire by the grace of hypostaticall vnion And that we are heires we are beholding vnto him For wee are Heires in him and by him and not without him nor by our owne personall merits Yea whatsoeuer we either are or haue which is spirituall celestiall supernaturall and Christian or hereafter shall haue we are and haue it all and wholly by Iesus Christ our Lord. Adoption vocation iustification sanctification peace hope victorie ouer death and the purchase of eternall life are all of them by the merits and grace of Christ as the holy Scriptures shew vs. And albeit wee haue an office and high calling for Christ hath made vs Kings and Priests vnto God his Father yet are we no such Kings and Priests as he is but as wee haue receiued our honour from him so we should returne it to him and glorifie him with it and not bee like those captious spirits who because they heare they bee Kings and Priests heires of GOD and heires annexed with Christ their Brother thinke it a disparagement forsooth of their honour as some of them scribble and other of them babble and weakning in shew of their fellowship with him if they shall receiue the blessed Sacrament vpon their knees bended to him either as it seemes forgetting or not knowing that they are the Heires of God through Christ by whose onely merits they doe receiue all their honours and happinesse their life and lustre their grace and goodnesse Brothers and sisters may die shall die heires may fall out and vndoe one another or others may spoile their inheritance and where many are heires their portions are the lesse some of them may lacke and complaine of neede But Christ and his brethren cannot be parted their portions cannot be destroied nor taken from them their inheritance cannot faile nor discontent them but euery one of them shall haue enough and shall enioy it for euer But there is yet a neerer coniunction then this of Brothers or Partners which is the holy honourable and inuiolable coniunction of man and wife By this matrimoniall coniunction they that were two before are now become One They are no longer twaine but one flesh saith our Master And they are tuely one and not two because GOD the Author of man and marriage hath sayde it For this cause shall a man leaue his father and his mother and shall cleaue vnto his wife and they two shall bee one flesh So that though all men should say that they are not one but two yea though they themselues should say so too yet they are not therefore two because man sayes so but one because God hath sayd it For Non nostrum dicere dat veritatem rebus sed conforinit as eius cum mente diuinâ things are not so and so because men say they are so but because they are so with God in Gods ordinance and appoyntment Though all men should say golde were not golde yet it is golde And though all the Gold-smiths in the world should say copper is gold yet it is not golde for all their saying but copper still because it agrees not with the diuine minde God hath not sayd it is gold it is not gold in his decree and iudgement and therfore it is not gold Well then man and wife are but one and not two Yes they are two distinct persons and not one They haue two soules and not one two bodies and not one two distinct wils and not only one They are of two different sexes and haue their owne personall vertues and infirmities He his and She hers Yet neuerthelesse these two are made one matrimoniall creature the man being as head and the woman as the body or if you will he being as the Soule and she the Body For as Christ is the head of the man so man is the head of the woman And this is in respect of authority and dominion in which regard Christ is not the wiues head but the husbands neither is shee the image of Christ but he onely As Christ is the head of the Church so the husband is the head of his wife And as the soule and body though things greatly differing in themselues are yet coupled together by God and doe liue and worke together and as two distinct riuers meeting together doe now mingle and blend themselues and become as one common water or riuer so man and wife are indeede not confounded but vnited together liue together vnder one roofe draw together in one yoke take care mutually of one another and become by Gods ordinance one foundation and fountaine of generation So that here is more then a coniunction of affections as vses to bee among friends as was betwixt Damon and Pythias there is also a coniunction of bodies for the propagation and perpetuation of mankinde and that there might also be a way made for the fulfilling of the number of Christs mysticall members Gods adopted sonnes and daughters For generation must goe before regeneration and nature before grace Yes sanctification must follow sinne For Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance neither did hee die for the iust but for the vniust There must first bee a man and then a Christian first a sinner and then a Saint filius soli before there be filius poli one of Adams planting before there be one of Christs transplanting one of Eues breeding before there be one of the Churches bearing Now without doubt our Lord God and Sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ
Emperour Albonius King of Lumbardie Sergus a King of Scotland Arden of Feuersham and many others But the Church of Christ and Christ her head are free from either doing or suffering such barbarous cruelty betwixt themselues The Diuell and the World may preuaile against some married couples and sometimes doe to the destruction of their soules no doubt but hell-gates shall not ouercome the Church the World cannot preuaile against faithfull Christians My sheepe heare my voyce saith Christ and I know them and I giue vnto them euerlasting life and they shall neuer perish neither shall any plucke them out of my hands If Christ himselfe cannot be damned then not they that are ioyned to him who died for them and rose againe for their iustification And therefore wee may boldly say There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus who walke not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Euery godly Christian is endued is inuested is clad with Christ and weares him as a wedding garment For so many of you saith St. Paul as are baptized into Christ that is as are regenerated and borne a new of water and the Holy Ghost by whom wee are * baptized and incorporated into the body of Christ haue put on Christ as a rich precious and glorious garment whereby their naked filthinesse and filthy nakednesse is couered and are themselues accepted of God as beautifull and gracious in the beauty and grace of Iesus Christ in which they stand and appeare most sweet and amiable Now if such a man can bee damned being lapped and wrapped vp in Christ who couers him from top to toe them must Christ needes bee damned with him which cannot bee as a man that is flung in the fire with his clothes on is burnt together with them Many men in marrying make very dangerous aduentures They venture their name their peace their goods their soundnesse yea and sometimes their soules too for which respect God forbad his people to marry with the Heathen for feare they should turne them from God to Idols And this is the case of many women also who by their marriages doe buy themselues repentance and sorrow that whereas it is sayd of Iepthaes daughter that she went out to bewaile the daies of her virginity they may goe out and bewaile the daies of their mariage and that not for two moneths only but perchance as long as they liue It is good for them therfore to look before they leap and to sound before they saile But men by ioyning themselues to Christ venture nothing lose nothing or if they doe lose they gaine by their losses and are enriched by their calamity Whosoeuer shall forsake houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name sake saith Christ hee shall receiue an hundred fold more and shall inherit euerlasting life Many sore vnkindnesses heart-burnings and quarrels doe now and then fall out betwixt many men and their wiues that sometimes they euen loth one another and forsake one another But Christ neuer forsakes his Spouse nor shee him Hee is with her to saue protect assist and guide her to day and for euer He loueth all those which are his vnto the end he loueth them His couenant with them is euerlasting He will neuer turne away from them to do them good but he will delight in them to do them good and will put his feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from him Hee will giue them one heart and one way that they may feare him for euer And if at any time they shall fall hee will lift them vp againe as he did Dauid and Peter and though hee doe sometimes chastize them yet hee will not remooue his louing kinduesse from them Men and their wiues are sometimes clouen-hearted hypocrites vnto God and hollow-hearted one towards another inconstant vneuen and like the beast called Onocentaurus whose vpper part resembleth a man and the nether an asse But Christ and his Spouse are true-hearted and holy All the essentiall and true members of the true Church are true Saints iustified and sanctified Euery person married is not a member of the Church hath not the Church for a mother but euery one whether wedded or single that is truely ioyned vnto Christ may iustly call the true Church Mother and the true God Father Euery man and his wife are indeed partakers of the nature of man but euery true Christian who is borne of God and is the Sonne of God and is espoused and vnited vnto Christ is partaker of the Diuine nature which many a man and his wife too are void of being not the children of God but the sonnes of Belial not the members of Christ but the very limmes of the Diuell But yet the Churches true children true Christian belieuers are not so in that manner and measure partakers of the diuine nature with Christ as women are partakers of the humane nature with men as I haue sufficiently before declared And besides the differences of a man and a woman if we regard nature are not specificall and substantiall but numericall and accidentall Homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is a name as common to women as to men But Deus God is a name proper to Christ who is essentially God and in whom the Diuinitie dwelleth personally and doth not commonly belong to all Christians who are partakers of the diuine nature as concerning consolation assistance and holy happy and sauing operations and are indeed indued with a new nature which may be call'd diuine because it is from Gods speciall grace and is for his honour and glory is according to his will and is opposite to that vicious and sinfull worke of the Deuill which hath corrupted the nature of man deforming the image of God according to which he was created For sure it is if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature a diuine creature the worke of Heauen The diuell who raignes in moe then in vnmarried people is expulsed out of him the spirit of God is inspired into him and a new spirit another heart a better heart is giuen him which spirit a woman hath not because this or that man hath married her but because shee is ioyned vnto Christ who hath giuen himselfe vnto her There are some men that neuer truely loued their wiues but their wiues wealth not Them but Theirs For their riches they tooke them and when once they became Masters of them they cared no longer for them And such vsually proue those young sprigges that are grafted into olde stockes Vnhappy women who loue but are not loued againe But they more vnhappy who in their elder daies when their wombes are dead doe giue the reines to lust dreaming and doting after youthes when they should rather bee preparing and trimming themselues for Christ their thoughts being ascended higher
her marke vpon them and allowed them but the Catholique Church of Christ neyther did nor doth nor will euer owne them for her owne beeing indeed meere Counterfets and Bastard Plants And so I leaue them to them that coyned them and so proceede This Body this Catholique congregation of Saints and all the true naturall and essentiall parts and members thereof are all of them vnited and coupled to their Head and one vnto another euen as we see a naturall body and all the parts thereof to be ioyned and knit vnto their naturall head But whereas the head and body of a man may be pul'd torne or cut asunder as it fared with S. Iohn Baptist who was beheaded the truth is that Christ and his members cannot be parted or torneasunder The Church which is the body of our Lord perseuering firmely in the faith Nulla res separare potest a Christo Nothing is able to separate from Christ lesus as Saint Cyprian speaketh truly For why Christ shed his bloud for the Church and all her children Therefore sure Hee will not that those should perish for whom hee payed so dearely as Saint Austin somewhere speaketh Charity faileth not from the Church saith Saint Bernard The Church is founded vpon a Rocke and the Rocke is Christ And therefore wee neyther could nor can at any time heereafter be souered from the loue of Christ neither by the verbosity and babling of Philosophers nor by the cauils and Sophistry of Heretiques nor by the swords of Persecutors For indeed they that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion which cannot be remooued but remaineth for euer As the mountaines are about Ierusalem so is the Lord about his people from henceforth and for euer And that Annoynting which the members of the true Church haue receiued of Christ dwelleth in them and the seede of God remaineth in them whereby he hath begot them they shall remaine in that annoynting that is in the Holy Ghost Seeing therefore the Lord is alwaies about his people Guarding them by his power through faith vnto saluation seeing also the Spirit of Christ Iesus dwelleth and remaineth in them and they in him it is impossible that they should be separated or cut off from Christ or that they should drop off from him as drie and withered leaues or rotten springs and branches from a tree or fall like olde rotten teeth out of a mans head But when I say that all holy and righteous men being the naturall and onely liue-members of the Church are vnited vnto Christ my meaning is not as I haue touched before that they are holy righteous and spirituall before the vnion but then when they are vnited They are not holy without the vnion but by the vnion The coniunction doth not finde them iust but makes them iust They are not holy till they be conioyned For all our holinesse iustice wisedome and goodnesse is from the Lord Iesus partly by imputation and partly by inspiration which we would not haue vnlesse first we haue Christ himselfe and be vnited to him euen as a man cannot haue comfort from his clothes vnlesse hee put them on and buckle them about him or as the hungry and sicke or wounded person cannot haue the vertue of meates and medicines salues vnlesse he haue the very things themselues first and that they he applied to him And therefore Saint Iohn hauing sayde that Life is in the Sonne inferreth thence that he that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Now who hath the Son but he that is vnited to him who hath the Husbands fellowship but the Wife Who inioyes the loue of a friend and his loue tokens but his friend What hath sense or motion from the head but that which is vnited to the Head as are the members of the body Who hath the payment of a surety euen he that hath the surety himselfe And who hath the surety but he whose person the surety is pleased to vndertake and put on vpon himselfe and with and for whom hee stands in bands or couenants to see the debt discharged Now the Lord Iesus Christ is our friend our surety our head and husband when once we are vnited to him but not before except in predestination then we come to enioy him his benefits and graces which are more worth then the grace of all Princes the gifts of all rich men and the prizes of all things that can bee prized in the world They say of Venice shee must bee seene before shee can bee prized But though a man cannot tell what shee is worth yet he may tell what shee is not worth Shee is not worth all the Cities of Italy She is not worth all the towns in Europe Shee is not worth all the earth besides is shee But the Citie of God the Citie of the great King Hierusalem which is aboue the spirituall body of Christ the Mother of vs all is worth all the Cities in the world is woorth all the world besides Her foundations are in heauen her wals are Iasper her building gold pure golde her streete such also her gates pearle and her shining like abstone most precious Shee is wonderfully rich glorious Christ is her King and her Temple and her Sunne shee sees by She may well say Come see mee and then esteeme mee But who can see her yet who can prize her I see her not I cannot see her but I doe beleeue her being and her beauty and I count it aboue all earthly happinesse to be her sonne If I forget thee ô Ierusalem let my right hand forget her dexterity If I doe not remember thee let my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth if I preferre not Hierusalem to my cheefest ioy But I haue beene ouer carried Adam is the Head of men of all men both good and euill saints and sinners so farre as either nature or vice of nature reacheth euen as Gehezi was head of all his issue as touching their humane their sinnefull and their leprous nature and disposition but with some difference For hee was but a subordinate and secondary Head to them as they were men and sinners guilty of originall corruption for heere Adam hath the primacie But he was indeede the first head and originall of their leprosie For he was by the singular and sudden iudgment of God first himselfe a leper then they afterwards by him So Christ Iesus is the head of godly Christians of all godly Christians and of none but such of all blessed men in the world and but of such Adam is to he found yea and felt in euery man euen so Christ is to bee found in euery Saint There are prints of Adams setting in euery mortall man and there are likewise certaine markes of Christs imptinting in the soule of euery godly man who is immortall in hope which shall not
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