A12167:1191
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.
Observ.
And we have need of feeding as well as breeding: where dost thou feed? that is,1 build up thy children, and go on with the work begun in them. We have need to be fed after we are bred, and Christ (answerable to our exigence and necessity) he feeds as well as breeds,2 and that Word which is the •eede to beget us, is that which feeds too. What is the seed of the new Birth, the Word of God, the holy Promises they are the seed, the Spirit mingling with them, whereby a Christian is borne, and being borne is cherished and bred, therefore, As new borne babes, saith the Apostle, 1. Pet. 2. 1. desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. So that the same thing is both the seed of a Christian, and that ⟨p. 486⟩which breeds him, the blessed truth and promises of God.
And we have need of feeding as well as breeding: where dost thou feed? that is,1 build up thy children, and goe on with the worke begun in them. We have need to be fed after wee are bred, and Christ (answerable to our exigence and necessity) he feeds as well as breeds,2 and that Word which is the •eede to beget us, is that which feeds too. What is the seed of the new Birth, the Word of God, the holy Promises they are the seed, the Spirit mingling with them, whereby a Christian is borne, and being borne is cherished and bred, therefore, As new borne babes, saith the Apostle,