the Body a compleate bodie without the head But being both vnited and no part wanting they become one entire and perfit body Euen so Christ and his Church instructed with all her true parts and members make together one compleate body or as it were one perfit spirituall man It pleaseth him in his mercy to count himselfe incompleat and maimed without his Church which is his Body the Fulnesse of him that filleth all in all And we for our parts are most certaine that without him we are iust nothing but that we all receiue of his fulnesse because hee is Iustification to vs and is also in vs as a most free mouing and working cause whence many blessed effects doe come all of them tending to eternall life and glory as all waters vnto the Maine I say Christ is the head the sole head of the catholique church which is his onely body For the Father hath put all things vnder his feete and hath giuen him to be the Head ouer all things to the Church So by way of supereminencie and praedominancie he is our Head alone There is no other man but this man Christ Iesus who is head and Husband to the Church which is his and his alone Truely saith Saint Gregorie Peter the Apostle is the chiefest member of the the Holy Catholique Church Paul Andrew and Iohn what are they else but heads of seuerall or particular people But yet they are all members of the Church vnder one Head Hee saith S. Ambrose is the Bridegroome that hath the Bride that is Hee alone is the Churches Husband The Apostles and other Pastors of the Church Bishops and Presbyters are the seruants or friends of the Bridegroome but none of them haue her for their Spouse none of them is her Husband Saint Bernard thus speakes to Pope Eugenius If thou beest saith he the friend of the Bridegroome doe not call his Beloued thy Princesse but Princesse challenging nothing for thine in her saue onely that thou oughtest to giue thy life for her if it were behoouefull Wee doe therefore all of vs say with Saint Paul Wee preach not our selues but Christ Iesus the Lord and our selues your seruants for Iesus sake Weacknowledge Christ for our Lord and our selues his seruants called and sent by him to wait vpon his Church and children to prepare them for Christ as a Virgin for her Husband to giue them all their portion of meat in due season and to present euery man in Christ Iesus This is our proper office this is our strife and study and this is the voice of vs all all all I say further that the Catholique Church alone is the mysticall Body of Christ The Saints before the Law saith Saint Gregorie the Saints vnder the Law and the Saints vnder Grace All these perfecting the Lords Body are members of the Church Not some of the members but all that are constituent and essentiall venerable Beda speakes the like when he saith All Churches throughout the world make one Catholique This Catholique and mysticall Body of Christ consists of true beleeuers and such as are truely sanctified For the Church of Christ and all her proper members are made clean and holy not hauing spot or wrinkle The Church of Christ is Christs Doue and Faire one but Doues are not Kytes Crowes Vultures Snakes Adders Dragons Lions Beares Leopards His Church is faire and beautifull washed with Water and annointed with Oyle and is very beautifull and perfect through the beauty which God hath put vpon her Yes She is the fairest among Women And therefore neyther shee nor any of her naturall and louing children ought to be reputed foule vile and vgly The members of the Church are Christs sheepe and he is their carefull and good Sheepheard who maketh them to rest in greene Pastures and leadeth them by the still Waters But Sheepe are not Wolues and Foxes Goates and Tygers Dogges Swine nor fatte Buls of Basan To make any such to be members of the Catholicke Church were to make Christ a Neateheard which were a transcendent indignity but let vs heare the Fathers and Doctors of the Church which shined like Lampes in the house of God in ages long agoe They saith Saint Origen which haue not spot or wrinckle or any such thing about them are the true Church And in another place hee shewes the reason why the Church is said to be holy without spot namely because she is reputed pure and sincere In the Church saith S. Chrysostome there is no earthen or wodden vessell but all are of siluer and gold For there is the body of Christ a chast Virgin not hauing spot or wrinckle When we say the Church faith S. Cyrill of Alexandria we meane the most holy multitude of the godly The Church saith Saint Ambrose is the mother of those that are aliue Surely the good Father neuer thought then that men dead in sinnes and inwardly vicious and irreformed though they should make a faire outward profession were to be reputed true members of the Catholique Church The Church of Christ saith S. Hierome is glorious not hauing spot or wrinckle nor any such therefore he which is a sinner or defiled with any filthinesse cannot bee sayd to bee of the Church of Christ nor subiect vnto Christ Prosper accordingly saith that the Catholique Church consists in the Elect foreknowne of God the children of the promise the members of Christs body Rupertus in like manner affirmeth that the vniuersall Church is cleansed in the bloud of Christ from all fault And Bernard What is the Spouse but the congregation of iust ones And what is this congregation but the generation of them that seeke the Lord of them that seeke the face of the bridegroome As for haeretiques hypocrites and other wicked and vngodly men they pertaine not to the holy Church of God as Saint Augustine speaketh although they may seeme to be within it But as Christ is the Head of the Church which is his Body and shall raigne with him in euerlasting glory euen so the Deuill is the Head and Heards-man of the wicked who are after a sort his Bodie as the said holy Father sheweth who shall be punished with him in aternall fire As concerning these three points of Popery to wit That the Bishop of Rome is the Head of the Vniuersall Church on earth to whom euery soule of man must be subiect or else he cannot but be damned Secondiy that the Church of Rome is the vniuersall Church of Christ the onely Catholique Church of Christ. Thirdly that no inward vertue is required to make a part of the Catholique Church but onely an exteriour profession of the faith and followship in Sacraments These three points of Doctrin haue in these latter times crept out of the Alpes like Mise or Rats Rome hath set
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
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
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
euen the holy Ghost who is breathed from him vpon his whole body and euery particular member thereof This Spirit is that odoriferous North-winde and Southwinde which blowes vpon the Garden of Christ Iesus which is the Church that the spices thereof may flow out These wholesome and sweete windes do nip and kill the naughty swelling humours of our spirits and doe also mollifie supple refresh and comfort vs. So that if any man would haue these windes to blow vpon him let him abide in this Garden If any man would inioy this Spirit let him abide in Christs body For as Irenaeus saies well Where the Church is there is the Spirit and where the Spirit of God is there is the Church and euery grace And the spirit is truth So then a godly Christian is more than a man and farre better then a sinner He is become a new Creature a new man a Saint on earth a tree transplanted out of an ill ground out of the world the Diuels territorie and translated into the kingdome of Christ a brand taken out of the fire a Lamb plucked out of the Lions mouth a man taken out of Adam and incorporated into Christ a man baptized that is regenerated and ingrafted into that One Body whereof Christ is Head euen the head of the whole Church Militant Triumphant throughout the World From whom the whole Body fitly ioyned together and compacted by that which euery ioynt supplieth according to the effectuall working in the measure of euery part maketh increase of the Body vnto the edifying of it selfe in loue Euery true Christian therefore is a liue-man a liuing limme of Christs body a man reuiued reformed and as it were transformed into Christ and may say with Saint Paul I am crucified with Christ Neuerthelesse I liue yet not I but Christ liueth in mee and the life which I now liue in the flesh I liue by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loued mee and gave himselfe for me Who now would not be a member of this Body who hath so glorious an head and is indued with such an excellent Spirit Behold all the heads of the world naturall heads politicall heads oeconomicall heads Ecclesiasticall heads what are they all euen dust earth and ashes A learned head is but learned earth a wise head is but wise earth a great head is but a great clot of earth a noble head is but noble earth Emperors and Kings the great commanders and swayers of the world they are but earth imperiall earth royall earth Earth and ashes will one day lay them euen with their Subiects The finest heads it 'h world what are they else but handfuls of dust make the best of them They are but fine dust and ashes For all flesh is grasse all flesh is not one manner of flesh But there is one manner of flesh of men another of beasts another of birds another of fishes But the flesh of all men as well as of all beasts birds and fishes is but grasse very grasse lesse then grasse Yet behold how we admire the persons of men of great men rich men Princes Heads who are but clay but dust but dreames aliue in the morning and dead at night But Christ our head our royall head is aliue and giues life liues and will liue for euer Dust Death Diuels Men and Angels Earth and Heauen and all things are at his becke If hee say to the dead Liue they shall liue If he say to Death it selfe die be not death must die it cannot longer be What he will haue done shall be done there is no resistance Vouchsafe O Lord to looke vpon me as thou vsest to looke on those that are enamoured with thee and doe desire thee My soule thirsteth after thee Come vnto me bring me to thee and let me finde thee and enioy thee Lord Iesus come quickly and let mee feele thy grace and the ioyes of thy Spirit in me But the contemplation of our thrice excellent and most blessed head hath made mee tarry a little longer then I thought I am come at last though long first to the last similitude which I propounded for the illustration of our Vnion with Christ which is of an House of Temple wherein I promise to be plaine and breefe The Catholick Church is the Temple or House of the liuing God Christ is the Foundation thereof He is the Principall and energeticall foundation and chiefe-corner-stone thereof The holy Prophets and Apostles are ministeriall foundations and Pillars thereof For by their ministery and doctrine this house is builded and confirmed Christ also is the chiefest Architect of this building The Apostles and other Pastors of the Church are his Ministers with and by whom hee worketh and with whom hee is present to ayde and prosper them to the ende of the world They are in this House as Seruants and vnder-officers and stewards but he is in it and ouer it as a Maister being the onely begotten Sonne of God and Heyre of all things He also is the light and beauty of it This house of Christ groweth out of Christ and is ruled by the Faith of Christ The rule of the Faith is the holy Scripture The Church is the ground and Pillar of the Truth and the trueth is the ground and Pillar of the Church yea therefore shee is the ground of the trueth because the truth is the ground of her and for because the spirit of Truth inhabits and directs her which spirit because hee spake in the holy men of God is therefore best able to giue the sence of the Scripture accordingly doth teach the Church all truths therein contained needfull to saluation This house is a spirituall house a liuing Temple and Christ is the Life thereof and his Spirit possesses and keepes it All the stones of this Temple are liuing stones growing out of the liuing and life-giuing Rocke on which the Temple standeth They are all made aliue and kept aliue by the Spirit of Christ who is resident alwaies president in them There are in these diuersities of gifts and operations but the same Spirit which worketh all in all Who is seauen yea seauenty times seauen fould not in person for so hee is but one but in variety of gifts and gracious operations Now as the foundation beares vp all the house that is layd vpon it so Christ holds vp and confirmes the Church beeing rooted and built in him and stablished in the Faith And this he doth partly by his prouidence and circumspection and partly by his merits and efficacy through his Spirit And as all the parts of an house are compact together and ioyned to the foundation so are all true beleeuers all deuout and sincere Christians knit together in one ioyned vnto Christ by Faith and Charity as
it were by lime pins nayles and sawder through the holy Ghost who heweth frameth and setteth euery stone in order in Christ In whom all the Building fitly framed together groweth vnto an holy Temple to the Lord. This is a rare and singular house for they that are heereof are Stones and Kings and Priests So then the Church is a liuing Temple a spirituall House and a Royall Priesthood a kingdome of Priests and a Priestlie kingdome And no maruell it is if Christians be stones seeing Christ Iesus out of whom they are cut and grow bee a Rocke or though they haue a certaine Kingdome and Priesthood seeing they be members of him who is a King and Priest They are Christians it is enough they are annoiuted with the oyle of gladnesse that they may be able to ouercome the Deuiil the World and the Flesh as Kings that raigne by Christ and may also haue grace like Priests to offer vp spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ with whose holy oyle they are annointed For as the precious oyntment that was powred vpon Aarons head ranne downe vpon his beard and went down on the border of his garments So the holy oyle the most sweete and sauing oyle which was powred vpon our head Christ Iesus hath runne downe ouer all his body into all his members and be-deawes them all as the deaw of Hermon which falleth vpon the mountaines of Zion And which is no small fauour this precious and holy oyntment tarrieth on vs and dwelleth in vs as St. Iohn doth assure vs. In a word this Temple this House hath a priuiledge aboue all the temples and houses in the world For no winde can driue it downe no water can wash it downe no fire can burne it downe no canon can beat it downe no weight can weigh it downe no might can cast it downe no witchcraft can worke it downe no vnderminer can vndermine it downe no thunder or lightning can teare or fire it downe neither men nor Diuels haue power ouer it For Christ vpholds it against all assaults of enemies whatsoeuer It is built by Christ vpon himselfe who hath also sayd that the gates of hell shall not ouercome it Christ hath spoken this concerning no house that is materiall and earthly but onely of this his owne spirituall Temple and beeing Truth it selfe we may well beleeue him Whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and reioycing of hope to the end as the Apostle speakes vnto the Hebrewes Thus haue we seene our Coniunction with Christ who is in vs and wee in him He is in vs as a cause in the effect wee are in him as the effect is in the cause He is in vs as a worke-man is in his worke we are in him as a worke is in the worke-man We are in him as Eue was in Adam he is in vs as Adams rib and nature was in Eue. Hee is in vs as the Sunne is in the aire or house to illuminate and warme it we are in him as the aire or an house is in the Sunne which is lightned and warmed of it He is in vs as a kernell or seede and the earth it growes in is in the plant we are in him as the plant is in the kernel or seede of which it comes and in the ground in which it is set and by which it is fed He is in vs and we in him as Adam is in his children and his children in him or as the fountaine is in the riuer and the riuer in it or as a roote is in the boughes and they in the root But who is able sufficiently to expresse these things who can declare how hee is fashioned in his mothers wombe or tell how his soule and body are knit together This is a great mystery saith Saint Paul but I speake concerning Christ and the Church I doubt not but that many a poore soule is the Spouse of Christ and one of his true members tho hee be not able to say much about his vnion and incorporation which is by the Spirit of Christ And though a man sayd neuer so much hereof and could speake of heauen as if hee had beene there yet all were but dreames vnlesse hee bee ioyned to Christ and haue his spirit really to possesse and leade him That which quickneth vs is the spirit of Christ and his flesh that wherewith he quickneth vs. That which sanctified our nature in Christ that which made it a sacrifice of reconciliation is the same which quickneth it raised it from the graue and exalted it to glory And therefore if a man haue not the Spirit or God-head of Christ and be partaker of his flesh hee is but a dead man a miserable man a man vnmortified vnsanctified and without hope of glory I am the liuing bread saith Christ which came downe from heauen If any man eat of this bread hee shall liue for euer and the bread that I will giue is my flesh which I will giue for the life of the world Except yee eat the flesh of the Son of man and drinke his blood yee haue no life in you But how can a man eat bread if hee haue it not How can wee eat his flesh and drinke his blood vnlesse wee haue it The truth is hee that giues vs this meat to eat must also giue vs hands to take it and mouthes to taste and eat it and a stomacke to craue and holde it We must needes therefore be vnited to Christ and be truely possessed of him and of his grace or else we cannot liue by him And because no man eats him but by grace and for that no grace is but by the holy Ghost who diuideth to euery man seuerally as he will and seeing by this eating of Christ hee is not turned into vs as bodily food but wee receiue nurriture and confirmation from him and are transmuted into him and grow vp in him and he in vs which neither can bee wrought but by the Holy Ghost it is of absolute necessity that we bee partakers of the holy Ghost and haue him dwelling in vs. So then whatsoeuer men talke of the Spirit all is nothing they doe but beat the aire and make a dinne they are most miserable wretches viler then the dust on their shooe-soles vnlesse they be endued with him Hee it is which annoynted the blessed soule of our Sauiour Iesus Christ and which doth fashion vnite animate and actuate all that spring from him in all the ages and places of the world as if both he and they together were so many members or parts compacted into one body being all possessed and indued with one and the selfe samesoule This Coniunction is most sweet and comfortable and indeed that wherein our blessednesse consisteth whiles we liue on earth and giues vs right vnto the perfect blessednesse of the life to come We count it a