A12167:1164
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.
Then again, we see here the nature of Faith in the whole Church, it is the same that is in ⟨p. 471⟩every particular, and the same in every particular, as it is in the whole Church. The whole Church saith, I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine, I appropriate him, there is a spirit of appropriation in the whole, and there is so in each particular. Every Christian may say with Paul, I live by Faith in the Son of God, 1that hath loved me and gave himself for me, and with Thomas, my God and my Lord.
Then againe, we see here the nature of Faith in the whole Church, it is the same that is in ⟨p. 471⟩every particular, aud the same in every particular, as it is in the whole Church. The whole Church saith, I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine, I appropriate him, there is a spirit of appropriation in the whole, and there is so in each particular. Every Christian may say with Paul, I live by Faith in the Sonne of God, 1that hath loved me and gave himselfe for me, and with Thomas, my God and my Lord.
- 1Gal. 2.
The ground hereof is, because they are all one in Christ, and there is one and the same Spirit in the whole Church and every particular Christian, as in pipes, though of different sounds, yet there is the same breath in them. So Christians may have different sounds from the greater or lesser strength of grace that is in the one and in the other, but all comes from the same breath, the same Spirit. The Spirit in the Bride saith come,1