then the Temples of Venus Flora Cupid mounting vp into the highest heauens where are perfect pleasures pure delights immortall ioyes and euerlasting contentment But Christ loueth his Church truely expressing his loue to her by laying downe his life for her He was so desirous to clense her that he spared not his owne bloud his best bloud his heart bloud but washt her in it Here was loue indeed Hee did not loue her because she was faire or rich for she was of her selfe till he came preuented her with his grace and made loue to her poore naked polluted wretched and inglorious but by his loue he hath made her louely and louing by his ornaments hee hath made her shining by his purity he hath made her cleane by his beautie he hath made her gracious and with his blessednesse shee is made an happy woman She was once as blacke as pitch but shee is now as white as the driuen snow The Kings daughter is all glorious within her clothing is of broydred gold She is so faire and louely in his eye as that his loue will suffer him to spie no blemish in her as it is written He seeth no iniquitie in Iacob nor transgression in Israell For indeed he hath couered all her sinnes and washt her from all her foulenes ridding her of all her wrinckles freckles and deformities by the merit and vertue of his owne blood Behold his owne speeches of her praises which he speakes vnto her and mockes her not Thou art all faire my Loue and there is no spot in thee Who is she that looketh foorth in the morning faire as the Moone and pure as the Sun How beautifull are thy goings with shooes thou Princes daughter How faire are thou and how pleasant art thou O my loue in pleasures Yea to expresse his full contentment in her hee speakes somewhere to her like a man rapt out of himselfe and ouercome of loue My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded mine heart thou hast wounded mine heart with one of thine eies and with a chaine of thy necke My Sister my Spouse how faire is thy loue How much better is thy loue then wine and the sauour of thine ointments then all spices Thy lips my Spouse drop as hony-combes hony and milke are vnder thy tongue and the sauour of thy garments is as the sauour of Lebanon It is certaine that the power of ruling appertaines vnto the Husband but yet sometimes hee wants wit to rule himselfe and some wiues are now and then sicke of the vnruly euill being very thwart and foolish But Christ being the Wisedome of God and the very fountaine of goodnesse and commiserations performes the office of a wise and tender-hearted Husband alwaies to his Church his Spouse which is not morose scornefull and vnruly but humble gentle and obedient And therefore the Apostle exhorting women to be submissiue to their Husbands propoundes vnto them the example of the Spouse of Christ Therefore saith hee as the Church is subiect vnto Christ so let the wiues bee to their owne husbands euery thing And when he would perswade the men to loue their wiues and to vse them tenderly hee prouokes them to it by the practise of Christ who loues the Church and nourishes and cherishes it as a man his owne flesh It is allowed to one man to haue one wife at once and no more then one For God gaue Adam but one Though he had abundance of spirit yet he made but one but one woman of one ribbe for the helpe comfort and contentment of one man Therefore he saith by his Prophet keepe your selues in your spirit that is bridle your affections and keepe your selues within your compasse and let none trespasse against the wife of his youth Our Lord likewise hath but one wife or Spouse our Head hath but one Body For though euery godly man bee vnited vnto Christ and bee a member of his body yet all the godly in the world that either haue beene are or shal be being all ioyntly considered together doe make that one and onely Spouse or wife of Christ who shall raigne at his right hand with him in all honour and glory for euer and euer This is she that is his and his onely and no others with him This is his Doue his Loue his louing Hinde and pleasant Roe Her eies doe hold him her breasts doe satisfie him her loue contents him in her and in her loue hee delights continually Yet truely may euery true Belieuer say Christ is my Head Christ is my Husband for he is vnited to him But yet is Christ husband and head to one so as he is Head and Husband to the rest as Iacob was a father equally to all his sonnes as a mans head is the head of all his members the feet as well as the hands or as a King is head and husband ciuill vnto all his Subiects indifferently without respect of persons But Christ doth much more to the Church then the Husband can vnto his Wife A man may as our Seruice-booke speakes worship his wife with his body that is hee may honour her with his body which hee doth in that hee doth appropriate it to her making her the Mistris of it for as the Apostle sheweth the Husband hath not the power of his owne bodie but the wife But no man is able to giue his wife his spirit or soule Though a man and his wife may liue so louingly and peaceably together specially a time as that a body would almost thinke and say there were but one soule in both their bodies yet in truth each of them haue their owne priuate spirits the mans soule is not in the woman nor the womans in the man His animates and possesses him and hers animates and possesses her one of them truely differing from the other not in kinde but in number not in substance but in accidents But our Lord Iesus Christ hath bestowed his Spirit on his Church She liues not by her owne life but by his life She is not ruled by her owne spirit but by his Spirit Yes euery man vnited to Christ hath the Spirit of Christ The very soule of man is not more common to all his members then the holy Ghost is to all the godly And whereas some mens wiues haue beene and I would none were now possessed with an euill Spirit being very torments and trouble houses the Spouse of Christ is possessed with the good Spirit of God which is the Spirit of peace gentlenesse and loue who susteines comforts instructs leades her and dwelleth with all those that can truly call her Mother There is a certaine transcendent and strong coherence betwixt Christ and his Church He cleaueth to her as an husband to his wife and shee to him as a wife to her husband but yet so as that one of them cannot be broken from the other one of
wee may yet further our knowledge of the Coniunction that is betwixt Christ and vs it will not be amisse to consider of three other similitudes vsed in the holy Scriptures to set it foorth vnto vs. The first is of a Vine the second of a Body the third of a Building And this I will do with the help of Christ I am faith Christ the Vine yee are the Branches Now wee know that the Vine and her Branches are ioyned fast together by nature and not as boards are in a shippe with pinnes and nayles by Arte but a great deale closer For the branches shoot forth of the Vine are animated with the spirit of the vine liue the life of the vine are fed nourished and susteined of the vine and abiding in the vine bring foorth fruits according to the nature of the vine out of which they grow and in which they liue Euen so are we coupled and ioyned vnto Christ and so fast that wee cannot be rent or broken in peeces from him by violence as branches may be from a vine We grow out of Christ as an heauenly root from whom by the fauour of God and influence of his grace we doe all as new creatures or heauenly branches arise and spring foorth Adam is the root of all men as men and when God created Adam he created vs. And as many as are sprung from Adam haue in themselues the root out of which they spring Euen so the children of God haue Christ as a second Adam from heauen for a certaine celestiall and blessed root whose progenie and branches they are by regeneration or heauenly birth And the good Spirit of Christ is from Christ deriued to them all who doth animate consolate and susteine them And from Christ they receiue food and nourishment by the which they are refresht and cheered and preserued from death by the worke of the Spirit True it is that life and all good gifts and graces are from the father as from the originall or beginning of them all but they come not to vs but by the Sonne in whom Life is and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge who is the Sunne of righteousnesse with healing in his wings and hath gold rayment and eye-salue and all other medicines to enrich vs cloth vs and cure vs of all our soule-diseases But yet none of all these things come vnto any of vs in particular but by the holy Ghost and therefore the Apostle saith The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the loue of God and the fellowshippe of the holy Ghost And being now indued with the holy Spirit of Christ they liue a spirituall and Christian life They liue indeed and yet not they but Christ and his Spirit liue within them Christ is in his Spirit and his Spirit is in him And where the Spirit of Christ is there is liberty They liue then and liue free deliuered and out of feare And for because Christ is in them and they in him and for that the spirit of Christ is not idle in them euen as the soule is not idle in the body or as a vigilant Prince is not idle in his kingdome but is busie as a Bee working like a carefull and prudent husbandman his holy workes within them therefore also they are not barren and take vp roome in vaine but beare and bring forth fruite as God by the influence of his grace doth giue increase For neither is he that planteth any thing neither that watereth but God that giueth the increase Whence it is that our Sauiour spaith Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot beare fruit of it selfe except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth foorth much fruite And the fruits they yeeld are such as become the vine Christ Iesus whose branches they are and whose spirit makes them beare For vine-branches bring foorth vine-fruites vine-berries grapes and not soure slowes crabbes or hawes Euery tree brings foorth fruit according to his owne kind euen as euery man beast bird and fish begetteth and produceth according to his owne species kinde and image But although the faithfull bee in Christ and Christ in them yet they do not all equally draw vertue from Christ but as one branch receiueth more from the vine then another and as some are stronger fairer and fuller of fruits then some others are euen so one Belieuer receiues more grace and vertue from Christ then another and as Christ doth more or lesse impart himselfe vnto vs so we sucke more or lesse vertue from him and so also are more or lesse fruitfull in good workes Sure it is that God doth giue all his children his spirit and that this spirit resideth in them but this spirit worketh not equally in them all nor alike at all seasons but in some more and in some lesse and at one time more sensibly then at an other as the Sun doth in the heauens or a workeman in his shoppe God dwelleth in all his children they in him and they are all truely one as well as another partakers of the diuine nature but yet God doth not manifest and expresse himselfe in the same degree vnto all as neither Parents to their children not that hee could not but because he will not for causes iust but best knowne vnto himselfe and hereupon it comes to passe that one is more vertuous and better then another fuller of good workes and more like vnto himselfe as that childe is vnto his father into whom his father hath more fully and more happily powred foorth of himselfe into him in generation tending him like wife afterwards with a more carefull ingenuous education Whence is it saith S. Austin that some bee holier then others are but because that God doth dwell in some more plenteously then in others Christ is the Sunne the light that giueth light of nature grace and glory vnto the world Euery Christian man is a starre receiuing light from Christ who shineth into his soule now as one starre is brighter then another according as it receiueth more light from the Sunne then another euen so one Christian excells another in the light of grace and good workes according as hee receiues more plentifully from Christ and is more neerely ioyned with him and partaker of his light and spirit And thus of the first similitude I come to the second Christ and the Catholique Church are a certaine Mysticall or spirituall bodie Christ himselfe is the Head of that bodie And euery true Belieuer is a member of it Wee are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones saith S. Paul And this is a great mysterie The Head is not a perfit body of it selfe alone For no mans body is all head Neither is
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
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
but Christs Christ will so order the matter that they shall but wreath garlands of immortality for vs though sore against their wils and increase our glory And whereas many men forget the honour of their wiues and are regardlesse of their decency as Sergus that Scottish King who so basely neglected his Wife and held her so penurious that shee was driuen to serue other Noble women for her liuing Christ Iesus is so carefull ouer his Spouse who stands at his right hand in gould of Ophir that rather then shee shall want attendance and honour he will moue euen Kings to be her nourishers Queens her nurses who shall bow downe vnto her with their faces towards the earth and licke vp the dust of her feete The coniunction of Man and Wife doth not necessarily cause eyther or both of them to bee piously disposed For as hee that toucheth pitch is vsually defiled with it and as sweet riuers running through fennish grounds are thereby corrupted so the company of a wicked man doth oftentimes corrupt the manners of a good natured woman And although a man may take a woman to his wife yet it is not in his hands to make her eyther a good Woman or a good Wife if he finde her naught But our coniunction with Christ doth chaunge vs all ouer and turnes vs vpside downe hee contaminates and infects no man hee cannot but he purifies and makes good al that come vnto him and bestow themselues vpon him And albeit the Wife doth in some sort depend vpon her Husband seeing she is vnited to him and is his yet if that knot were dissolued either by iust diuorce or death it might fall out that shee might liue still as well and bee as godly as she was before For neither her Vertues nor her life depends on him nor vpon his life neither yet her happinesse alway nor her good successe it 'h world She may find better friends then her Husband was or shee may be married to a second Husband in whom shee may be happier by far then in her first But the Church and all her children doe so depend on Christ that without him they cannot continue a moment for by him we liue moue and haue our being and all our well-being both as wee be men and as wee are Christian men From him we haue our selues our iustice holinesse and all our happinesse In him wee are elected in him created by him redeemed and preserued Without me saith Christ ye can doe nothing and so also without Christ wee can be nothing If something yet that something that 's worse then nothing for nothing cannot sinne and nothing cannot suffer for sinne Nothing can doe no wrong and nothing can feele no paine It were more profitable for a man not to bee then to be a man out of Christ Though hee were married to the best woman in the world though hee were coupled with the best friends i' th world though he were ioyned in bloud or alliance to the cheefest Monarchs in the world though hee were possessed with the greatest and richest kinngdomes of the world yet if hee were not vnited to Christ Iesus if hee were not possest of him he were nothing he had nothing hee were more miserable then the dust he treads on For Christ is all things he that hath Christ lacks nothing he that wants Christ hath nothing A man were better be nothing then something hauing nothing Who is able to expresse the worthinesse of Christ Iesus He is our life and our light our comfort and our crowne our grace our glory he is our all things he that hath him hath life saies Saint Iohn but hee that hath not him hath not life But had I the tongues of Men and Angels I could not declare the praises due to Christ Iesus my Lord and Sauiour If all the water in the Maine were incke yet all that incke were not enough to write downe his worthy praises Common experience teacheth that women feed their children yea out of their owne bodies as Sarah did Isaak with her owne milke And I haue read of a woman who gaue her owne mother sucke of her owne body when she being in prison was kept from meat and after such a sort a woman may preserue the life of her husband a while at least but did I neuer eyther see heare or read of a man that fedde and nourished his wife of himselfe He may bring her meat but he is no meat hee makes not himselfe a dish to feede on he giues his wife his heart but not as Hawkes-meat to prey on not rosted to liue on But Christ Iesus the Husband of the Church is also the very food of our soules I am that bread of life saith Christ I am the liuing bread The bread which I will giue is my flesh He which eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud abideth in mee and I in him Here is a louer indeed the globe we tread on beares not a husband halfe so kinde nor all the Markets in the world can afford such meat as here If there were but a Baker which could make such bread for the body to keep it from death men would to him if he were in the farthest angle of the earth Countries would goe together by the eares to get and enioy him I suppose that if he had his choyce hee would rather chuse to dye then to liue For sure men would weare his flesh to the bones with labour and would scarce suffer him eyther to eate or sleepe But what gaines a man by long life without this Bread of Life Christ Iesus The Iudgement will come at length and shall not bee put off and the longer a sinner hath liued the more sinnes hee hath committed the greater accounts he must make the greater torments hee must indure And what pleasure thinke wee will the soule then take to be kept in the body like a Prisoner in a strong Goale vnder much pain want and sorrow against her will and not to be able to get out through she would begge it with flouds of teares continually streaming from the eyes and would giue euen all the world if shee had it if shee could but die and come to nothing Our Lord our Husband is better bread then so He is the bread of eternall life to all that are vnited to him and which feede vpon him They whom he feeds vpon himselfe are safe from staruing sure enough from destruction And. whereas other Bread is turned and concocted in vs the truth is This bread of life is not turned in vs not turned into the substance of our soule or body but it turnes and transforms vs rather into it For Christ doth so metamorphise and alter a man whom he couples to himselfe that he doth put a new life into him hee giues him another kinde of spirit and doth so furnish him with his owne things that
whom hee doth himselfe beget by the power of his Spirit There is none ioyned to God but he that is borne of God The Spirit which regenerates vs and giues vs a new life is the same by which we are coupled vnto Christ and by whose holy inspirations faith and loue are created in vs whereby we belieue in Christ embrace him and are transformed into him The soule is the life of the body and Christ is the true life of the soule euen the soules Soule take away the soule from the body and the bodie dies euen so take away the soule from Christ or Christ from the soule and the soule will die In this case the body is but a liuing and breathing Sepulchre of a dead soule a breathlesse soule the breath whereof is the very breath of Christ Eue may be some light herein vnto vs. For Eue was made of Adam who seeing her said This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and so also we are of Christ of his flesh and of his bones as the Apostle speaketh God hath framed his Church out of the very flesh the very wounded and bleeding side of the son of man To all thinges liuing Christ is life and to men light as hee is the sonne of God to the Church both light and life eternall by being made the son of man for vs by being our Surety and Sauiour whether we respect him as God or as Man His body crucified and his bloudshed for the life of the world are the true elements of our Christian and heauenly being which maketh vs truely aliue and holy as he is of whom wee come And as by nature we are in our first parents Adam and Eue so by grace we are euery one of vs that are truely spirituall in Christ and in his Church As men we are all originally in Adam as Christians or new men we are all originally in Christ As men wee haue the nature and bloud of Eue as new men or Saints wee are partakers of the Spirit of the Church in her ministery by the gift of Christ As we are men Adam and Eue were our Parents but as we are regenerate so Christ is our father and the Church which sprang out of his holy side opened vpon the crosse is our holy and honorable mother And as Eue made not her selfe neither was made or begotten by a man but by the hand of God euen by the hand of Christ by whom all things were created so the Church is not the workemanshippe of any creature nor of her owne making and moulding but is made and fashioned by God whose workemanship wee are created in Christ Iesus vnto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walke in them Indeed Adam had no stroke in Eues making she was made out of him but yet without his helpe of him not by him of his ribbe not by his hand But Christ hath a great stroke in the framing of the Church Shee is both taken out of him and made vp by him and without him shee could not be formed For by his will she is by his holy breath shee 's quickned his finger fram'd her and his merits are her making Nay not her selfe alone but all she hath that is good she hath receiued from him of his fulnesse There is not an ornament about her but is a fauour shee hath had of him There is not a pinne of her sleeue but hee hath giuen it her And tho God made Eue neither witting nor willing yet he quickens vs restores and reformes vs both witting and willing He made vs without vs but hee doth not sanctifie and saue vs without vs. But it is hee that makes vs willing and obedient being without his grace vnwilling inough of our selues dead in our sinnes and trespasses voide of a true spirituall life and being He both giues vs feete and makes vs runne He giues vs hearing eares and seeing eyes and makes vs heare and see He opens our mouthes and makes vs speake Hee vnties our bands and makes vs moue We worke and worke willingly but he giues vs hands to worke and makes vs worke Hee workes all our workes for vs. Hee giues vs both the will and the worke and that of his owne good will without our deserts But whereas not the soule of Adam but her owne did quicken susteine and gouerne Eue and whereas neither of their soules in number doe inhabit or animate any of their children but that very personall soule that euery one of them hath receiued of God who is the Father of spirits and who giues vnto euery man his owne proper spirit the truth is that Christ bestowes his Spirit vpon his Church which holy Spirit is deriued from Christ into euery true Christian man and woman who are his seede and children the issues of his Ioynes Who are not borne as meere naturall and sinfull men of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God who of his owne will begets them not of corruptible seede but of incorruptible with the word of truth as the holy Scriptures shew vs. And therfore also the holy A postle saith expresly that if any man haue not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his And againe because yee are sonnes God sent foorth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts Which Spirit no sooner comes into the heart and inhabits it but hee giueth life spirituall euen as the soule no sooner is in the body and is vnited to it and dwelleth in it but it affordeth the life that is naturall or corporall And as the soule worketh in the body and mainteines the naturall life thereof and makes a man shew himselfe to be a man and indeede to bee a man and not a beast or some senseles or liuelesse lumpe of flesh so the spirit of Christ worketh in the soule of a Christian and preserues the spirituall life thereof and makes him to be and to shew himselfe to be a Christian and not a meere carnall or naturall man and childe of the Diuell And whereas many Parents are grieued to see their children increase so thicke vpon them and some more vnnaturall through diffidence in the prouidence of God are euen glad when they are rid of them by death or almost any way else the Lord Iesus Christ and the Catholique Church his Spouse our Mother take great delight and pleasure in their children are neuer grieued for the numbers of them or troubled with their fellowshippe But she rather takes it kindly and with all thankefulnesse of heart when her Lord doth visit her and giue her children both sonnes and daughters of all sorts and nations and is very carefull in their breeding when she hath them that they may be fit Instruments of his glory may doeseruice to his name in all ages and places of the world wherein and whilst they liue But that
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
great courtesie to bee taken into some Corporation or Society amongst men in some Towne City or Colledge and esteeme it a great aduancement when a poore Mayden is married to a Prince or to some mighty rich man what fauour then hath God shewen vs how highly hath hee graced vs how great is our happinesse seeing hee hath giuen vs vnto his one eternall and only Sonne to whom wee are fast vnited with whom wee are clothed whose spirit grace and merits we do participate and from whom nothing shall be able to disioyne and part vs no not the gates of hell What shall wee render vnto the Lord for his loue vnto vs what praises shall wee sing vnto him O Lord what is man that thou shouldst so regard him or the son of man that thou shouldst so aduance him Man is a worme the son of man is a worme dust and ashes sin shame and confusion What are we all euen the best of vs all but vapors shadowes dreames glasses and very vanity yet as base as wee be the great God of heauen hath lookt downe vpon vs and not scorn'd vs. O Lord how shall we praise thee where shall wee beginne or how shall we make an end The Angels which transgressed thou hast passed by and wouldst not giue thy Son vnto them Thou dost punish their pride against thee and their enuie at our felicity They fell without a Tempter and they perish without a Sauiour But man poore man distressed wretch who being fallen by Sathans subtiltie had no strength left him to rise againe and with himselfe ouerthrew all his issue thou hast out of pure pity relieued and raised vp againe and a many also of his children euen as many as thy grace made choyce of On him thou didst bestow thy Son thy deare and onely childe Thou hast espoused and knit vs to him His we are who once were Satans hee is our life our crowne our hope our happinesse In him we haue all things and he is all things in and to vs. Wee poore wretches are sicke and wounded but he is our phisique and Phisician in him we find perfit health and soundnesse We are weake and feeble but he is our fortitude and strength We are naked hauing nothing on vs but rotten ragges and stinking patches but he is rayment for vs and doth aray vs and preserue vs from cold and nakednesse We are hungry and thirsty empty and hollow yea euen famished for lacke of meate but hee is meate and drinke Pabulum Pastor our food and feeder our nurriture and our nurse Esca mentis non ventris meate indeed for the soule not for the belly Meates are for the belly and the belly for meates and God will destroy both it and them but this foode is for the soule and the soule for it and the soule shall besaued by it if it doe receiue it and shall not be destroyed All refections are in him if we haue him we can lacke no meat to strengthen vs no drinke to coole vs no wine to cheere vs no dainties to content vs no waters to reuiue and comfort vs. All the aqua vitae aqua caelestis aurum potabile all the waters wines drinks in the world cannot quicken a dead man or preserue a liuing man that he see not death much lesse then are they able to reuiue a dead soule and to saue soule and body from hell fire and raise a dead body from his dust But our Lord Iesus Christ in whom we are and he in vs whose flesh wee eate whose bloud we drinke he he is able fully able to do all this for vs. He is the Fountaine of the gardens the well of liuing waters the Leader of captiuity captiue the death of death the destruction of the graue and the Author of life grace and immortalitie to all his body When we were cast forth in our nakednes and bloud and lay as forlorne and dead he I say he came to vs took pity vpon vs and clothed vs and said vnto vs liue and we are become aliue He hath crucified our sinnes washed our soules reconciled vs to God quieted our mindes saued vs from hel giuen vs his Spirit the Spirit of life and comfort of grace and holinesse and when the fulnesse of time is come he will raise vp our dead bodies and make vs triumph ouer death and hell and sin and all our infernall enemies in eternall and euer-blessed glory with him his holy Name be praised for euer and for euer Amen The Time wherein we are first ioyned vnto Christ actually the time I say in which he is first actually in vs so as hath been said and wee actually in him is at our effectuall calling and turning vnto God then when wee are first actually incorporated by the Spirit into his body As concerning Gods eternall counsell and fore-knowledge and purpose of adoption and incorporation wee were in Christ and Christ in vs before the foundations of the world were laide but we are not actually knit vnto him he is not actually giuen to vs and we to him vntill we be actually regenerated or called Euen as Eue was not actually vnited to Adam till God made her and gaue her to him and hee receiued her And our being in Christ by eternall foreknowledge saues vs not without our actuall calling and adoption and our reall incorporation in time into his body which is perfit in him the head whence all the body by ioints and bands hauing nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God The time when our Vnion and Contract with Christ shall be solemnly celebrated is at the latter day then when our dead bodies are restored aliue and glorious vnto vs and when all our enemies shall bee actually troden vnder our feete and for euer Against which day hee prepare and fit vs for himselfe who hath prepared it for himselfe and vs. Come ô Lord Lord Iesus come quickly take vs to thee The man that is vnited vnto Christ and is partaker of him and of his benefits that man I say may discerne this his blessed vnion with Christ and Christs abode within him by these notes ensuing Our blessed Lord and Sauiour saith if a man loue me he will keepe my wordes and my father will loue him and wee will come vnto him and make our abode with him He therefore that loueth Christ and keepeth his word hath Christ in him and is in Christ Againe behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come into him and sup with him and he with me He therefore that heares Christ speaking to him in the ministery of the word and good motions of the Spirit and opens the doore of his heart that this glorious King may come into him for hee will not breake in like a Theife or Murderer by
affect the righteousnesse of Christ Oh that we could feele our heauy sinnes our sinnes that oppresse our soules and haue swallowed vs vp that Christ might deliuer vs from them and giue vs ease Oh that we could feare that we might come to hope and sorrow that wee might reioyce in Christ They that would haue much ioy must first haue much sorrow there is no way to sound ioyes but by bitter sorrow and a little sorrow will sustaine but a little ioy Of short sorrow arises but short ioy of counterfet sorrowes but counterfet ioyes He that would hope must feare the true way to hope is by true feare and they that would hope much must fear much they that would build high must digge low the tallest trees haue the deepest roots a little feare will support but a little hope a little distrust but a little confidence Oh that we could and at last would distrust our selues that wee might repose all trust in Christ He that beleeueth in him shall not be ashamed Oh that wee could sorrow lament and howle for our vilenesse and weepe bitterly for our sinnes with Peter and euen wash our Sauiours feete with our teares as that poore penitent woman did Oh that the fountaines of sorrow were broken vp within vs that whole flouds of teares might gush out from vs then all our sorrowes should be turned into ioyes our mourning into merriment and our teares into songs O that we could goe downe into the deepes the deepest deepes and cry out as Ionah did out of the belly of hell Then our feares would be chang'd inhope and our sighes would end in solace Oh that our soules did faint within vs and that wee were euen brought vnto true despaire of our own strength and valour that wee might onely trust in Christ and seeke to him for succour For all other helpes are but as a sliding foote a rotten tooth and a silly reede And they that waite vpon lying vanities forsake their owne mercie Behold we the spirit of S. Paul who was able to say for himselfe as much as another yet seeing his owne necessities and the perfections of Christ hee was content to cast off himselfe to put on Christ to cast downe himselfe to build vp himselfe in Christ to vilifie himselfe to be made glorious in Christ to become nothing in himselfe to bee something euen that whole thing which he is in Christ and euen to lose himselfe in himselfe that hee might finde himselfe safe in Christ What things saith hee were gaine to me those I counted losse for Christ Yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Lord. For whom I haue suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may winne Christ and be found in him not hauing mine owne righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellow-ship of his sufferings being made conformable vnto his death if by any meanes I might attaine vnto the resurrection of the dead Secondly to gaine Christ Iesus and his graces and gracious blessings wee ought to apply our selues to the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments For these are the golden pipes through which the oyle of the spirit is conuayed and brought vnto vs and by which we become enriched with the merits and vertues of our Sauiour For as concerning the Word it is the word of truth by which we are begotten in Christ to God by the Spirit who worketh by it It is the good word of God a word that conuerteth the soule and giueth wisdome to the simple It is the word of grace the word of life the word of faith an wholesome word the word of peace the word of saluation able to saue the soule in which it is engrafted It is a word that shewes vs our poornesse nakednesse blindnesse and wretchednesse and is withall that happy organ of grace and glory in the which God shewes vs his Sonne in whom we may haue remedy and holds him out vnto vs willing vs to take him of him and by receiuing of which word we may come to enioy that substantiall and thrice-blessed Word who is our life and glory And as touching the Sacraments they are not onely memorials signes and testimonies but effectuall meanes and instruments not naturall but morall not humane but diuine by the which God when wee take the Sacraments deliuereth vnto vs Christ Iesus and his merits and that grace that is needefull to saluation By these wee are put into possession of Christ of his spirit and grace both imputatiue and inhesiue In these our Lord Iesus Christ God and Man comes vnto our soules and applyes himselfe vnto vs and worketh in vs as he pleaseth Yet to speake properly by Baptisme wee receiue but the beginning of those graces the increase and confirmation whereof wee receiue afterwards by the often receiuing of the Lords Supper Wee receiue Christ Iesus in Baptisme once as the Author and first Beginner in the Communion often as being by continuall degrees the Finisher and Perfecter of our life When wee receiue this Sacrament the spirit is sent a new into vs not as if he mooued place for he is euery where whole all the world ouer but because he is now to beginne some new grace or to confirme and augment some formerly begun or to raise vp some languishing or to giue some ioy some comfort where either none was or was scarcely felt or is decayed So then that healing and sauing grace which Christ originally is or hath as the fountaine of life and grace for the good of the whole Church hee doth seuerally by Sacraments diuide and deriue into euery particular member thereof Neither doth hee ordinarily bestow the grace of Sacraments on any but by Sacraments But yet this grace which wee receiue by the Sacraments organically wee receiue not from them energetically but from him as they that looked vpon the brazen serpent were not healed by that they saw but by the Lord their Sauiour But yet it is very iust and more then probable that they which contemne or neglect the Sacraments should bee without the grace of the Sacraments Christ is the kernell of the word and Sacraments they that would eat the kernell must cracke the shell These are the vestiments in which hee comes vnto vs. They are worthy to goe without him that will not vse the meanes to get and keepe him Without doubt it is either ignorance or worldlinesse or wantonnes and presumption or something that is naught that makes men contemne and passe by these holy ordinances of Christ I assure my selfe their stomackes are full their hearts a sleepe and their mouths out of taste something doubtlesse is amisse that they haue so small desire to them and feele so