A12167:1104
Bowels Opened
Bowels opened, or, A discovery of the near and deer love, union and communion betwixt Christ and the Church, and consequently betwixt Him and every believing soul Delivered in divers sermons on the fourth fifth and sixth chapters of the Canticles. By that reverend and faithful minister of the Word, Doctor Sibs, late preacher unto the honourable society of Gray's Inn, and Master of Katharine Hall in Cambridge. Being in part finished by his own pen in his life time, and the rest of them perused and corrected by those whom he entrusted with the publishing of his works.Bovvels opened, or, A discovery of the neere and deere love, union and communion betwixt Christ and the Church, and consequently betwixt Him and every beleeving soule Delivered in divers sermons on the fourth fifth and sixt chapters of the Canticles. By that reverend and faithfull minister of the Word, Doctor Sibs, late preacher unto the honourable societie of Grayes Inne, and Master of Katharine Hall in Cambridge. Being in part finished by his owne pen in his life time, and the rest of them perused and corrected by those whom he intrusted with the publishing of his works.
London: printed by George for George Edwards, 1639
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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