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
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
Diuells haue a tyrannizing power when God permits But besides this vnion of vniuersall Dependance there is also another kind of Coniunction whereby not onely all Christians but all other men also yea and all the creatures in the world are vnited or ioyned vnto Christ as God For the Deity by reason of the immensitie and subtilty thereof is most fully and most inwardly totally present in and to and throughout all creatures corporall and spirituall comprehending all things but comprehended of nothing piercing all things but pierced of nothing and is farre more thoroughly present and more fully then either light or heate is in the aire or then the soule is in the body So that if that should bee which yet cannot be that is to say if the creature did not depend on Christ yet by reason of the all-piercing subtilnesse and vnmeasureablenesse of his Godhead he should penetrate and fill all things it selfe being fill'd of nothing and be most inwardly and thoroughly present vnto them and so be in some sort conioyned with them But this Coniunction is common that of true dealing Christians and Christ Iesus is speciall and proper to them This Coniunction is of the Creature to Christ as God but the other is of man to Christ God-Man or Man-God Mediator betwixt God man Here Christ is present by a most inward and thorough penetration his very Deity inclosing touching and piercing all things But there hee is present by the presence of supernaturall grace yea and his very flesh is not away or wanting but present as I will declare hereafter The Coniunction which is by penetration and omni-presence makes no man happy as the other doth with the which whosoeuer is vnited vnto Christ he is certainely in the state of grace and liues in sure hope of the state of glory And whereas the vnion of Christ and a Christian is indeed a true and certaine vnion and may properly bee so called this Coniunction by penetration and presence doth not properly conteine any vnion but onely vbiquity indistancy and an insensible but thorough repletion of all things There are not two Christs but one and this one Christ hath two distinct natures in him one Diuine the other Humane and both these names are vnited together in one and the same person by a personall vnion But we are not so vnited to Christ as our nature is to the nature of God in Christ I call Christs humane nature ours because it is indeed ours not in number the same with any mans but in kinde the same with all mens indued with a true humane soule and body not being created a new of nothing or from another peece of clay but made of a woman who came from the loynes of Adam For by the vertue of this vnion which is Hypostaticall God is man man is God But if Christians were vnited personally to Christ then the very name of Christ and God should be giuen to them which were absurd to think And which were very grosse and horrible then also God might bee as truely and as orthodoxally said to sinne when a Christian man sinned as it is said that God died was crucified and rose againe because the man who is true God in one person our Lord Iesus Christ was crucified died rose againe Though it be true that Iesus the Sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary be the true and eternall Son of the eternall and true God yet it were false and impious to say that the Church is the eternall and true naturall Daughter of God or that euery true belieuer were Gods naturall Son or God which yet were so if wee were personally vnited to the Godhead There are many Maries mothers but only the Virgin Mary was the mother of God I doubt not but that Christ is formed and is in forming in many a Ladies heart but yet hee was onely formed in that Ladies wombe as a childe Her childe onely is the naturall Sonne of God he onely is the Word the substantiall the consubstantiall and coeternall Word But if we were personally vnited to the Word or to the God head or to both Godhead Manhead in the Word then might we be called the Word of God and God yea and the Virgin Mary might bee said to be our mother as well as the mother of God yes and wee could not but be full of merits power and vertue euen as Christ But what pious eare can indure to heare such blasphemies Moreouer though it be most true which our Sauiour saith I am in my Father and you in mee and I in you yet wee must not thinke that wee are hypostatically vnited vnto Christ nor that we are so in Christ as Christ is in his Father This speech therefore of Christ must bee taken with a graine of falt For Christ is in his father as being of one and the selfe-same substance and nature with his Father being indeede the brightnesse of his glory and the very character of his Person and his true naturall Sonne and substantiall image but he is in vs as an helper ayder and susteiner by whom we haue our spirituall being life breath sense and motion and who beares vs vp and feeds vs as the roote doth the body and branches of a tree Furthermore there is a certaine vnion of the workeman and his toole of the hand and the instrument in it And thus by way of similitude Christ and all faithfull Christians who are instruments of his praises and whom he holdeth in the right hand of his power and protection bearing them as an Eagle doth her yong ones may be said to be conioyned And as in an instrument of musique tho one winde giue a generall sound yet by the diuersity and disequality of the pipes and organes all which the wind filleth the tones are varied so though one Christ be in all true Christians one spirit be inspired as a celestiall and liuing winde into them all yet they differ in their tunes actions motions and iubilations according to their owne personall and particular capacities and as the Spirit who workes not as a naturall but as a voluntary agent doth impart and diffuse his grace But whereas a sword lute trumpet and other instruments of Art are voide of life Christians are liuing and breathing Organs intellectuall spirituall and voluntary instruments for Christ to worke with and are liker a mans hand or other liue-member of his body then a sword of steele or other senselesse and dead instrument voide of reason sense life and will able to do no more then it is made to do by plaine force And whereas the workeman doth not nor cannot alwaies make or mend his toole Christ doth alwaies both make and mend his tooles For wee are his workemanship Hee hath made vs and not we our selues He that makes himselfe is alwaies marr'd in the making And he that teaches himselfe hath a foole for his master And whereas a workeman and his tooles
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
may bee a separation made of soule and body yet there shall bee no totall separation of the soule from God Friends may dye must die They are but men and men must die Dust we are and to dust we must returne Wee and our friendships too must perish We are seene a while and after a while wee are seene no more but fall like drops of raine into the sea and are knowne no more And oftentimes friends fall flat out and end their friendshippes before they end themselues But Christ and his faithfull friends doe neuer part the graue cannot part them neither can any such vnkindnesse happen betweene them but that they may and shall bee reconciled And whereas many men will shake of their friends and acquaintance if they grow poore and needy the Lord Iesus tho now at the right hand of the Father farre aboue all Powers and Maiesties doth take great delight in all those whom he hath vnited to him how poore or meane soeuer and is a Cherisher of them in all their wants yes is troubled with them in all their troubles afflicted in all their afflictions and accounts himselfe the receiuer when any of his poore friends are relieued entertained honored But I passe on further The Soule and body of a man are ioyned together to make a true and perfit man For neither the soule alone nor the body alone but the soule and body together doe make a perfit man as neither the King alone by himselfe nor the people alone by themselues doe make the Kingdome but the King and the people ioyntly together But the coniunction of Christ and of Christians is not of the same kinde For the vnion of soule and body is naturall but our vnion with Christ is supernaturall The soule is not giuen a man in the very act or instant of generation but afterwards when there is some organ or organs fitted for it but Christ is giuen a man in the very act and article of regeneration The soule is created by God in the body and to euery particular body there is a particular soule For though all mens soules are one in kinde yet they are not one in number but haue their numericall and particular differences But there are not so many Christs as men There is but one Christ in all belieuers And although Christ may truely in the Apostles sense be said to be formed in vs which is when we are reformed and made conformable to him yet we must beware we do not thinke him to be formed in vs as the soule is which is formed wholy at once and not by degrees and is so formed in vs as that it is not out of vs nor in any other body and did not subsist out of vs before it was created in vs. The soule now framed and being by nature immortal is vnited to a fraile and corruptible body and enters vppon it with condition to depart againe and leaue it when God shall please but Christ comes not into vs vpon the same tearmes but taries with vs and abides in vs for euer Hee takes the soule into an heauenly mansion where it forsakes her earthly Tabernacle and forgets not our dust our lesse then dust which we leaue behinde vs but sees it alwaies is mindfull of it and can distinguish it from the dust of beasts of Reprobates and will againe one day blow vpon it and make it liue againe And whereas the soule and body being knit together make one and the selfe same person so that the soule is not one person and the body another person For in a man there is aliud aliud but not alius alius diuersitie of natures but no distinction or diuision of person Our Lord Christ Iesus is a distinct compleat and absolute person subsisting by himselfe and there are as many distinct and particular persons of Christians as there are Christians euery man being a distinct and perfit person by himselfe as Christ is by himselfe Indeed he and they altogether make but one entire mysticall bodie and wheras euery man susteines himselfe I confesse that Christ doth vp-beare vs all with his grace power as a goodly Oake or Cedar doth her branches or as a foundation and pillars do the building of stones timber and other materialls that are laide vpon them Christ as the Apostles S. Paul and S. Iohn doe teach vs is very God God ouer all blessed for ever Now to Christ as God the great Creator and Vpholder of all things by whom all things were made who vpholdeth all things with the word of his power All things created are vnited vnione depēdantia with the vnion of dependance without the which nothing that is created can last a moment But as the light depends vpon the Sunne and is after a sort ioyned to it so that if any thing should come betweene the light and the Sunne which is the fountaine of light the light would instantly vanish and there would bee nothing but very darkenesse and as in this Microcosme of man the liuer is the source of bloud and the spring by which it is disfused by veines throughout the body and the heart is the fountaine of the vitall spirits which are thence by arteries carried into the body as neede requireth or as the head is the originall of the nerues or sinewes by the which motion is caused so that if any thing should come betweene the liuer and the veines the heart and the arteries the head and the sinewes that they should bee parted of necessitie bloud spirits motion and life it selfe must presently decay and faile euen so all creatures in the world depend on Christ as God and are so vnited to him that they cannot be without him so that if any thing could come betwixt him and them which might hinder their dependance on him and coherence with him they could not but vanish as light and bee brought to nothing The very dust of dead men would not be dust but would presently perish were it not vpheld by the power of his word But the godly are vnited to Christ more blessedly then thus only For euen beasts yea and the Diuels themselues and all damned soules are thus coupled with him and depend vpon him Without this kinde of vnion they were not able to subsist the twinckling of an eye but must needes perish vanish and come to nothing This therefore is not the vnion wee treat of which makes a man that is to be well it presupposes being but causes blessednesse it findes nature but giues grace it meets with a man but it makes a Saint it finds him on earth but brings him to heauen it findes him poore naked wounded sicke and succourlesse but it giues him riches garments soundnesse health and comfort which shall not bee taken away from him whether hee will or no as his body goods good name life liberty and such transitory and glassie things ouer which fire water earth ayre beasts men and
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