Now from this union of persons comes a communion of all other things whatsoever,1 I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine, if Christ himself be mine, then all is mine, what he hath done, what he hath suffered is mine, the benefit of all is mine, what he hath is mine, his prerogatives and privileges to be the Son of God and heir of Heaven and the like, all is mine, why • himself is mine, union is the foundation of communion. So it is here with the Church, I am my Beloveds, my person is his, my life is his, to glorify him, and to lay it down when he will, my goods are his, my reputation his, I am content to sacrifice all for him, I am his, all mine is his: so you see there is union and communion mutually between Christ and his Church. The Original and spring hereof is Christs uniting and communicating himself to his Church first, the spring begins to the stream, what hath the stream or cistern in it, but what is had from the spring; first we love him,2 because he loved us first. It was a true speech of Augustine, Quicquid bo•••, &c, whatsoever is good in the world or lovely it is either God or from God, it is either Christ or from Christ, he begins it: it is said in nature, love descends, the father and the mother love the child before the child can love them, love indeed is of a fiery nature, only here is the dissimilitude, fire ascends, love descends, it is stronger descending from the greater to the less, then ascending up from ⟨p. 445⟩the meaner to the greater, and that for this, Amongst other reasons,3 Because the greater person looks upon the lesser as a piece of himself: sees himself in it, the father and mother see themselves in their child: so God loves us more then we can love him, because he sees his image in us; neither is there only a priority of order, he loves us first, and then we love him, but also of causality, he is the cause of our love, not by way of motive only, he loves us, and therefore from an ingenious spirit we must love him again, but he gives us his Spirit,4 circumciseth our hearts to love him: for all the motives or moral persuasions in the world without the Spirit cannot make us love,5 we are taught of God to love one another, our brethren whom we see daily, saith Paul, much more need we to be taught to love him whom we never saw,6 so that his love kindles ours by way of reflection.
Now from this union of persons comes a communion of all other things whatsoever,1 I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine, if Christ himselfe be mine, then all is mine, what he hath done, what he hath suffered is mine, the benefit of all is mine, what he hath is mine, his prerogatives and priviledges to be the Son of God and heire of Heaven and the like, all is mine, why • himselfe is mine, union is the foundation of communion. So it is here with the Church, I am my Beloveds, my person is his, my life is his, to glorifie him, and to lay it downe when he will, my goods are his, my reputation his, I am content to sacrifice all for him, I am his, all mine is his: so you see there is union and communion mutually betweene Christ and his Church. The Originall and spring hereof is Christs uniting and communicating himselfe to his Church first, the spring begins to the streame, what hath the streame or cesterne in it, but what is had from the spring; first we love him,2 because he loved us first. It was a true speech of Augustine, Quicquid bo•••, &c, whatsoever is good in the world or lovely it is either God or from God, it is either Christ or from Christ, he begins it: it is said in nature, love descends, the father and the mother love the child before the child can love them, love indeed is of a fiery nature, onely here is the dissimilitude, fire ascends, love descends, it is stronger descending from the greater to the lesse, then ascending up from ⟨p. 445⟩the meaner to the greater, and that for this, Amongst other reasons,3 Because the greater person lookes upon the lesser as a peece of himselfe: sees himselfe in it, the father and mother see themselves in their childe: so God loves us more then we can love him, because he sees his image in us; neither is there only a priority of order, he loves us first, and then wee love him, but also of causality, he is the cause of our love, not by way of motive onely, hee loves us, and therefore from an ingenious spirit we must love him againe, but he gives us his Spirit,4 circumciseth our hearts to love him: for all the motives or morall perswasions in the world without the Spirit cannot make us love,5 we are taught of God to love one another, our brethren whom we see daily, saith Paul, much more need we to be taught to love him whom we never saw,
- 1That from […] of persons comes communion of […] things what soever.That from 〈…〉 of persons comes commu•nion of 〈…〉 things what soev•r.
- 21 John 4. 19
- 3Why the magnanimity of the greater stoops in love to the lesser.Why the magnanimi•y of the greater stoopes in love to the lesser.
- 4Deut. 30.
- 51 Thes. 4 9.
- 6That in the new covenant God works both parts.
