A12167:308
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.
My heart waketh.
Gods children never totally fall from grace,1 though they sleep yet their heart is awake. The prophet Isaiah speaking of the Church and children of God, Esa. 6. 13. saith, It shall be as a tree, as an oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves. Though you see neither fruit, nor leaves, yet there is life in the root, The seed remains in them, there is alway a seed remaining, ⟨p. 112⟩it is an immortal seed that we are begotten by. Peter when he denied his Master, was like an Oak,2 that was weather-beaten, yet there was life still in the root.3 For questionless Peter loved Christ from his heart. Sometimes a Christian may be in such a poor case as the spiritual life runneth all to the heart, and the outward man is left destitute, as in wars, when the enemy hath conquered the field, the people run into the City; and if they be beaten out of the City they run into the Castle: the grace of God sometimes fails in the outward action, in the field, when yet it retireth to the heart, in which fort it is impregnable, My heart waketh.
Gods children never totally fall from grace,1 though they sleepe yet their heart is awake. The prophet Esay speaking of the Church and children of God,