it is maintained by the terrour of Inquisitions and the pomp of a worldly power and the favour of the Great who find their own interests in it It is only the Gospel of the LORD that from its birth had the courage and the force to fly every way penetrating with incredible swiftness all the Regions of the habitable world in less than five and twenty years And let none alledge unto me here the Seduction of Mahomet which infected the East and the South and a part of the West it self in a very little time For there is nothing alike in the progress of the one and the other of these two doctrines I pass by other differences that may be observed I will only touch at one of the most essential namely that Mahomet and his Successours advanced not their impostures but by force of Arms and dint of Sword not Preaching and establishing their Doctrine save in the Countreys they conquer'd and among the Nations they brought under their Yoke To say true it was their Iron and not their Alcoran that ran through and spoiled the World What was strange or supernatural in their success That a Troop of Robbers whom their own need or others cowardice and confusion emboldened to enterprise could seize them of some Towns by fraud or force That puffed up with the good fortune of their first successes and by a multitude of people joyned with them they pushed further on and issuing out of their Arabia should attempt the outmost quarters of the Roman Empire very ill-garded at that time and in a manner exposed to pillage and that gaining ground by little and little they should fall on further and break in on one side and the other as the division and weakness of their enemies gave them opportunity so as in fine in the space of three or four score years they saw by these progresses the East and the South in their hands Sure there was nothing but humane in all this Alexander the Macedonian had yer-while done as much or more in less than fifteen years and Sesostris and divers others both before and after him It is then no Miracle that the Religion of the Saracens born if I may so say upon the wings of their victorious Ensignes saw much of the World by this means in fifty or sixty years If any marvel be it is that of their armes which did so great exploits in so small time and not that of their Alcoran which never entred but into places whose gates fire and sword opened for it But as to the Gospel of the LORD JESUS it is quite otherwise It had not to sustain it and advance it in the world either the aid of force or the favour of armes or the successes of Warr or the exploits of any Conquerour It had not in its service either the charms of Eloquence or the subtilities of Philosophy in one word it had no humane or terrene succour that you can possibly imagine Those that carryed it were twelve or thirteen Fishermen with a little number of others of the same Cloth without Credit without Armes without courage without Experience the off-scouring and sweepage of the world weakness and imbecillity it self who far from enterprising upon ought of other mens had renounced all that was their own who instead of smiting and slaying where whip'd and ston'd at every turn instead of attaquing did not so much as make resistance to them that ill handled them living in an extreme humility and innocence With this poor equipage the Gospel undertook the world and though it met every where with gates shut up and walls garrison'd with all that was terrible to force it back though the Jews persecuted it the gentiles derided it great and small had it in abomination Magistrates banish'd it and put it under the most cruel punishments though all did rend it with injuries and reproaches yet naked as it was it made it self room and in spight of so many dreadful impediments ran from East to West and from South to North and so constantly despised all earthly means as it reigned every where for sixcore years before it had one Magistrate or Captain on its side disarming and despoiling them when it received any so far was it from making advantage of their arms or authority We may affirm therefore that this progress of the Gospel is a thing altogether singular not at any time else seen or hapning in the world and with which neither Mahumetism nor any other Religion hath any community Consequently that this is a mark of the truth and divinity of this holy doctrine those that are humane neither having nor being able to have that admirable force and vertue which appeareth in it But this event proves the same thing yet again after another manner inasmuch as it was a manifest accomplishment of ancient Oracles yer-while given by the LORD to His former people and registred in His Scriptures which foretell in divers places that the Messiah should spread all abroad the knowledge of the true GOD which was before shut up within the strait limits of Judea Isa 60.3 9.1 that the Nations one day should walk in His light and that people sitting in darkness should see a great light which the LORD JESUS explaining in the dayes of His flesh had said upon it Mat. 24.14 that His Gospel should be Preached in all the world These predictions therefore appearing at that time so punctually and so admirably and in so short a space fulfilled who can doubt any more but that the LORD JESUS is the true CHRIST since never any but He revealed the GOD of Israel and His service to the World and that His Apostles were the servants of this same GOD who having foretold these things so many ages before so mightily executed them by their Ministry in the fulness of time But besides the confirmation of the Colossians faith in general I account that the Apostle would more-over by this Elogy he gives the Gospel to be come into all the world fortifie them in particular against the new doctrines which some seducers were sowing in their Church For since other Churches founded here and their in divers parts of the world had heard nothing of them it was a very evident argument that they were not any part of the Gospel that is of what the Apostles Preached Whence we may draw to give you this advice by the way an invincible proof both of the truth of the doctrine we believe and of the vanity of that which we contest about with our adversaries of Rome For as to that we hold it is evident the Apostles Preached it in all the world both by word of mouth and by writing there being none of the necessary positive and assirmative articles of our faith but doth appear in all the Monuments of Apostolique Preaching to wit both in the Books they wrote and in the Churches they sounded As for our adversaries it is no less evident they can
slothfulness No no Christian excuse not your selves by such allegations The affairs of your Family and of your trade are altogether innocent of your faults To say true they rather invite you to honesty and innocency than sollicite you to vice It 's nothing but the rage of your ungoverned passions that causeth this disorder It is nothing but your ambition your covetousness your pride your effeminateness and delicacy that turneth you away from Christian perfection To tend to it there is no need you should retire into a Desert or a Cloister nor that your habits or your food should be different from those of the people among whom you live There needs for this but retiring from vice and sincere renouncing the practice of it plucking up the lusts of it out of your heart changing your life and not your dwelling your carriage and not your clothes And this is it my Beloved Brethren wherein we must labour and combat The design I call you to is great and painful and no less difficult than the conquest of the world the business of S. Paul's Apostleship For there is nothing that is either more harsh to us than to renounce our passions or more difficult than for us to overcome our selves It is much more easie to wear a Cowle or an hair-cloth and blacken the body with blows yea to kill ones self than to put off the desires of the flesh Labour then earnestly and assiduously since you have undertaken so difficult a task Employ all your time in it Let no day pass without putting it on watching and praying mortifying all the members of your old man with a true penitence reading and meditating the word of GOD embracing His promises exercising your selves in the study and practice of those good and holy works which he hath recommended unto us The design is great and you are weak But the LORD JESUS in whom you have believed is allmighty and allmerciful He hath still the same force which heretofore converted the world by the hand of S. Paul If you labour in his work with such zeal as His Apostle did He will also communicate His graces unto you He will display His vertue upon you He will work powerfully in you He will bruise Satan under your feet and crucifie your flesh by the efficacy of His own He will vivifie your spirit by the light of His. He will make you to triumph over your enemies He will comfort you in the afflictions which you shall suffer for so good a cause He will guide you in all your wayes And after the labour and the combat will crown you on high in the Heavens with such glory and immortality as all the pains of the present life are no way comparable to So be it and unto Him as also to the Father and to the Holy Spirit the only true GOD blessed for ever be honour and glory to ages of ages Amen The End of the First Part. SERMONS OF Mr. John Daille UPON THE EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE St. PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS The Second Part Containing an Exposition of the second Chapter in sixteen SERMONS LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst and are to be sold at his Shop at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and at the Bible on London Bridge 1672. TO MONSIEUR Monsieur BIGOT LORD of LAHONVILLE Counsellour of the KING in His Counsels Intendant and Controller General of the Gabels of France SIR AMONG the advantages which the Reformation of the Church embraced by our Fathers in these latter ages hath afforded us we must without doubt ascribe the preheminence to the free use we have of the word of CHRIST which He of His abundant Grace hath recovered for us This Divine Taper lighted up from Heaven in the house of GOD to shine unto His people did remain hid a long time under a Bushel that I may express it Mat. 5.15 in the terms of the Gospel the negligence and fraud of men withholding it in this shameful-state It is now set anew on its Candlestick whence it diffuseth every way its enlivening and saving light among us and that in such abundance as we may truly say in this respect the word of CHRIST dwelleth richly in us Col. 3.6 It reigneth alone in our assemblies where its voice and not any other is continualy heard to resound the Fables and Legends of men being altogether banished thence It is read there in a familiar language which every one understands whereas if it be read elsewhere it 's in a tongue dead and barbarous and unknown to the people It is explained among us with all fidelity sincerity and diligence whereas amid the darkness of former ages it was so unworthily treated by Preachers that to consider their Sermons one would think they had designed to make it openly ridiculous I confess those persons that abide in the erroneous opinions of their Ancestors yet are somewhat ashamed of this gross and prophane licentious practice of theirs and they have reformed it after a sort Yet there remain but too many defects among them still and this one in particular that they explain in publick only some pieces and if it may be said shreads of Scripture sometimes taken from one book sometimes from another never shewing their hearers any complete body For it cannot be denied but that this manner of handling the word of GOD doth deprive the faithful of much edification it being evident that the view and the considering of an entire book giveth us a great deal more of knowledge in it and admiration at it than the view of any part of it alone and taken off from the whole can do This fault is so much the less pardonable in our adversaries for that besides reason it crosseth also the custom and authority of those antient Doctors of the first ages of Christianity whose true sons and legitimate successors these Gentlemen boast they are For it was frequent at that time for Pastors to expound in the Church whole books of Scripture throughout by Sermons continued on upon the chain of the holy Text from the beginning of a volume to the very end that remainder which we have of the writings of those days doth clearly evince so much There are extant still the Sermons of S. John Chrysostom upon Genesis upon the Gospels of S. Mathew and S. John upon the Acts of the Apostles and upon all the fourteen Epistles of S. Paul which were delivered by this great man part of them in the Church of Antioch and part in the Church of Constantinople the greatest and most populous Churches of all the East And among the Latines we have the Tractates of S. Augustin upon the whole Book of Psalms and upon the Gospel of S. John and upon His first Epistle which were in like manner made and delivered in the Assemblies of his people An evident sign that about the beginning of the fifth Century when these two excellent and famous personages did flourish
here that CHRIST is our life doth not simply signifie that He is the cause and author of our life but that it fully and wholly dependeth upon Him that without Him and separate from Him we have not a drop nor spark of life and that it is in Him alone we have all the being all the moving and all the feeling that respects the life of Heaven In very deed it is He that hath merited it for us by His death It is He that hath brought it to light by His Gospel It 's He hath shewed us a most accomplish'd pattern of it in His person at His issuing out of His sepulchre It 's He that hath given us the first-fruits of it by His word and Spirit and conserveth and increaseth them in us by His benediction It is He that keeps the fulness of it for us in His treasury on high as being the true Father of eternity And lastly it is He that taking this glorious life out of His heavenly cabinet one day will put it on us with His own hand Besides we do possess neither the beginnings nor the perfection of it but in Him and by the benefit of our communion with Him in that we are members and branches of His which cannot live but united with their head and incorporated in their vine The Apostle therefore saith that when this soveraign and only author of our life shall appear then we also shall appear in glory He hath appeared once already but in the flesh as the Apostle sayes GOD was manifested in the flesh He shall appear again a second time but in glory It 's this second appearing he doth mean when the LORD JESUS descending from the Heavens with the host of His Angels and seating Himself on a judicial Throne shall openly shew to all the creatures of the World His Glory and Godhead which the Heavens that contain his flesh on high and the weaknesses that cover His mystical body here below do now hide from the earth as we lately said Then saith the Apostle shall you also appear with Him in Glory At the coming of this sweet and happy season you as plants in the spring shall receive your life which from that sacred stock wherein it is now conserved shall be diffused into you and into all the other branches of this vine of GOD and crown you at an instant with its eternal verdure The glory whereof he speaks doth signifie the light the perfections the wonders and the pomp of blissful life perfect knowledge of GOD love and sanctity and joy the immortality of our bodies their beauty their brightness their strength and impassibility and in fine all the pieces of that infinite good the grandeur and excellency whereof we shall never distinctly comprehend untill the time that we possess it We shall then appear in this glory first because beside the first-fruits of it which we have JESUS CHRIST shall give us the fulness of it which we have not this undoubtedly the greatest and most illustrious part of His glory which now remaineth hidden in Him being then to be shed abroad upon us Secondly because the World which now despiseth and treads us under foot shall then see us in this glorious estate And as CHRIST our head shall be seen with astonishment by those that sometime pierced Him so they that now outrage His members shall then see them in their glory and be constrained to change their opinion and to acknowledge those for children of GOD and Saints of His whom in the present World they do deride and make by-by-words of Wisd â— 3 as saith the Book of Wisdome Thus you see Beloved Brethren what kind of life it is which JESUS CHRIST doth promise and communicate unto His faithful ones to wit the fruit of our faith and of that divine food which we have taken this morning the life of Angels the crown of Saints a super-eminent and eternal felicity in conjunction with a super-eminent and immortal glory It 's the rich treasury the living and inexhaustible spring of our consolation and sanctification Judge I beseech you what manner of persons they should be that have so high and so divine an hope and if it be not reasonable we should withdraw our thoughts and our affections from the earth to elevate them unto Heaven since it is there our life is and thence that we expect our chief happiness Christian are you not asham'd to long for earth you that have title for Heaven to labour for the meat that perisheth you that are destinated to a life which perisheth not to run after shadows you that in JESUS CHRIST have the substance of true and solid happiness How much more generous and constant are the children of this generation in their vanity Those of them that are of noble extraction and especially they that are brought up in hope of a Crown would not for any thing have a mechanick trade or foul themselves in sordid actions and even nations there are among whom they totally refrain from commerce with other men and account themselves defiled and profaned by having but touched a plebeian And you that are the issue of Heaven a child of the most High a brother of His Angels and an Heir of His kingdom you that are bred up with divine manna in the hope of an heavenly life and an immortal crown how have you the heart to grope in the mud and heap up dung to intermix with the miserablest bond-men of the earth and the profanest workers of iniquity A King's son heretofore refused to contend in the publick games because he saw no Kings do it Christian remember the dignity of your name separate your self from the exercises and divertisements of the people of the world Leave them the earth out of which they come and unto which they shall return Enter not into so ignoble and fordid a race in which you see none run but children of the earth the race of Mammon and the brood of vipers and serpents Purifie your hearts and your bodies let it never betide you to defile them with base and terrene either thoughts or actions Say not what shall we eat what shall we drink wherewithal shall we be clothed These are the thoughts and cares of bond-men These are the discourses of Pagans This is all they seek You that are Christians and whose life is hid in JESUS CHRIST seek His kingdom and His righteousness Let this be your ambition and all the passion of your souls Let this divine life and the glory wherewith it will one day crown you in the fight of Heaven and earth be night and day the object of your thoughts Take it away even at the present with an holy impatiency Begin betimes to live as you shall live eternally Let the contemplating of GOD let the love of His beauties let the meditating of His mysteries let the considering of and a conversing with His CHRIST be your employment and your refreshment in the present World
sixth To these properly doth the name of Odes or Songs belong It 's with these sacred layes of which the word of CHRIST affordeth us both the matter and the form that the Apostle would have us solace our selves St. James gives us order for it Jam. 5 13. Is any among you merry saith he and in repose of spirit let him sing Psalms The Apostle calleth all these sonnets spiritual both because of their author who is the holy Spirit and also for their matter which concerneth only divine and heavenly things the glory of GOD and our salvation not the vanities and passions and follies of men as carnal Poems do He adds with grace signifying by that expression the sweet and saving effect of these spiritual songs which do profit and refresh both together He would have us in the third place to sing from the heart that is not barely with the mouth as hypocrites but with the attention and affection of the heart In conclusion he intends that we sing unto the LORD that is unto the praise and glory of CHRIST who is ordinarily signified by that term the LORD when it is couched single as here it is This is the rule he gives us for this holy and spiritual melody a rule which Rome hath as little spared as the other which we have seen him prescribe about our being studious of the word of GOD in general For first She hath banished from the Church the faithful peoples singing and that so far as those that be of her communion do down-right declare that to sing the Psalms of David as we do is an huge scandalizing of Christians Strange Christianity which is scandalized at a singing that the Apostle commands a singing that celebrateth the glory of GOD a singing of what was endited by His Spirit composed by His Prophets and tendeth not but to the edification and consolation of faithful souls Certainly beside the authority of the Book of GOD it appeareth also by the writings of men that heretofore in the ancient Church the Christian people bore a part in the singing of Psalms and did it both in publick and in private Again for what our adversaries make their Clergie sing of what conscience can they say that they sing it with the heart since they that hear it and the greater part of them that sing it understand it not all their Anthems being in Latin a tongue long since dead and unknown to the people Consider too whether the pomp and the niceness and the curiosity of their singing and such a many of instruments as they mingle with it and all the other artifices of their musick be not more proper for the pleasing of the ear than the edifying of the spirit But dear Brethren let us lay â—side the defaults of others and mind our selves First bless we our good GOD for that He hath set up the word of His CHRIST again among us in its light and in its genuine use and acknowledging this grace of His from the bottom of our hearts improve His favour Let this word be the only governess of our hearts and lives Hear we its voice in publick consult it in private Let us have these divine Books in which the Holy Spirit hath consign'd its instructions Read them without scruple and without fear of finding ought that 's dangerous or venomous in them They are the Paradise of JESUS CHRIST in which the tree of life grows and whence flow the streams of sanctity of joy and of immortality but a Paradise where the old Serpent never entred where his breath and poison are unknown Fathers and Mothers instruct your children in this wholsome study Young ones addict your selves to it betimes Fill your memories out of this treasury of wisdom Men and women old and young rich and poor learned and unlearned receive ye all this Divine guest whom the Apostle hath now lodg'd at your house Let it dwell there as he hath ordered richly and abundantly in all wisdome If you receive and treat it with the respect it merits it will cure your souls of all their maladies it will inform your understandings of all heavenly truth and purge them of all the errors of earth and superstition It will fill your hearts with love to GOD and charity towards your neighbour and by the efficacy of its truth extinguish all those petty passions that tye you to the World It will comfort you in your troubles it will fortifie you in your weaknesses it will sustain you in your combats it will arm you against all sorts of enemies and guide you in all your waies It will sweeten your adversities and govern your prosperity and to comprise all in few words it will conduct you to the haven of eternal salvation notwithstanding all the storms of this wretched life Employ likewise this word of the LORD to those uses which the Apostle recommends unto you even to those mutual teachings and admonishings which you owe one another giving and receiving them as there is occasion with a sincere and truly Christian charity In fine possess the liberty he gives you of singing from the heart with grace unto the LORD Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs This sole Book of Psalms if ye learn it aright is able to make you for ever happy Oh GOD what a source of blessing and joy do they deprive themselves of who reject it or neglect it It 's a publick magazine of heavenly wisdom in which every one may find what is meet for him the ignorant whereby to be instructed the knowing whereon to be exercised the afflicted wherewith to comfort and the contented to recreate himself There are repentant tears for the guilty and songs of thanksgiving for the faithful preservatives against vice attractives and excitements to piety and lessons for all kind of Vertues And the wonder is that these so high so useful and so necessary things are all presented us there in the delicious sonnets of a graceful and a pleasing poetry as in so many vases of pearl and diamonds and emeralds to induce us to receive them the more easily Oh sage invention of our Great Master wherein we have together pleasure and profit refreshing and instruction of soul at once singing and learning what 's most necessary for us May Himself please to bless this Divine artifice by which He invites and allures us to Himself and so touch our hearts by the efficacy of His Spirit that as He draws us to Him with these holy cords of His sweetness and love we also on our side may freely and chearfully run after Him to the end that having faithfully followed Him in this World He may in the next lodge us with Himself in the Sanctuary of His Glory where bearing our part with the Angels we shall bless and glorifie Him eternally Amen THE FORTY SECOND SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER XVII Verse XVII And whatsoever ye do whether in word or in work do it all in the name of
passeth unto exhortation conjuring these faithful people to live well and holy forming their deportment to a Piety Honesty and Vertue worthy their vocation He endeth with some particular affairs whereof he speaketh to them and with the recommendations he presents them both on his own part and on the part of some other faithful persons that were with Him But you will better understand the whole by the exposition of each of the parts of the Epistle if the LORD grant us to compleat the same For the present we propose to our selves to consider only the five Verses we have read the two first of which contain the Inscription of the Epistle and the other three the joy and the thanksgivings of Paul unto GOD for the faith and charity of these Colossians These shall be GOD willing the two Points that we will treat on in this action The Inscription of the Epistle is couched in these words Paul an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the Will of GOD and the Brother Timothy to the Saints and faithful brethren in CHRIST JESVS that are at Colosse Grace be unto you and peace from GOD our Father and from the LORD JESVS CHRIST Whereas at this day the custom is to put upon Letters the name of those to whom they are written and within after the body of the Letter the Name and Sign of those that write them heretofore the use was otherwise for he that wrote did set both the one and the other Name within at the head of the Letter with a brief salutation in these words Such a one unto such a one health as we learn by a multitude of Greek and Latin Epistles which are left us in the ancient Books of the most renowned Personages of those two Nations The Apostle that lived in those Ages useth the same manner in all his Letters as you know saving that instead of wishing health and prosperity to those to whom he writes He ordinarily wisheth them Peace and the Grace of GOD and of his Son JESVS CHRIST According to this form the inscription of this Epistle containeth First The Names and Qualities both of them that write it and those they write it to and Secondly The good and happy wish wherewith they salute them The Names of those that write it are Paul and Timothy sufficiently known to all that are ever so little versed in the reading of the New Testament They are here described each by certain qualities attributed to them To Paul that of an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the will of GOD. To Timothy that of Brother simply The word Apostle signifies in the Language of the Greeks one deputed a person sent by some one But in the Scripture of the New Covenant it is taken particularly for those first and highest Ministers of the LORD JESUS whom He sent with a Soveraign and Independent Authority to Preach the Gospel and establish His Church in the world The highest and noblest charge GOD ever gave to men And to exercise it it was necessary First To have seen JESUS CHRIST alive after His Death that a good and lawful Testimony might be given of His Resurrection They must Secondly Have received their commission from the LORD himself immediately and in the Third place Have the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary measure with the gift of Tongues and Miracles Whence appears how ill founded they are that attribute the glory of an Apostleship to the Bishop of Rome to whom none of those three conditions do agree It is also clear that this dignity is extraordinary and was not instituted but for the first establishments of the Church the government whereof after its plantation the Apostles put in the hands of another kind of in feriour Ministers which are indifferently called in Scripture either Bishops that is Overseers and Superintendents or Presbyters that is Elders The History of the Acts informeth us that to the twelve Apostles afore ordained our LORD added besides afterward St. Paul having miraculously appeared to Him and sent Him with the same power the rest had to convert the Gentiles He assumeth therefore here this glorious Title at the entrance of this Letter and saith moreover that He is an Apostle by the will of GOD signifying that it was the express Order and Mandate of the LORD which honoured him with this Ministry and not the suffrage and authority of men differencing Himself by this means from those false Teachers and Troublers that had not been sent but by the will of flesh and blood The declaration of this His quality was here necessary for Him First To maintain His honour against the calumnies of Seducers who did disparage and black Him as much as they could under pretence that He had not lived as the other Apostles in the company of JESUS CHRIST during the dayes of His flesh and Secondly To ground the liberty He took of writing to the Colossians and of remonstrating to them their duty as well in faith as manners it being evident that the Apostles had right to use this authority over all and every of the Christian Churches To His own Name he addeth that of Timothy whom he calleth Brother as having one and the same faith and labouring about one and the same work whether it were to authorize His Doctrine the more by the consent of this holy man every word being more firm in the mouth of two or three Witnesses than in that of one alone Or to recommend Him to these believers that if he wrote to them or ever came to visit them they might receive Him as a person worthy of the fellowship of the Apostles and whose Name deserved to accompany that of Paul As for those to whom He directeth this Epistle He describes them next in these words To the Saints and faithful Brethren in CHRIST that are at Colosse I pass by as childish and impertinent the opinion of those whom it listed to say that it is the Isle and City of Rhodes He meaneth and that He calleth it Colosse because of that great and prodigious Statue of the Sun which the Rhodians had erected at the mouth of their Haven and which the Greeks ordinarily called the Colossus What need is there of these frigid and ridiculous subtilities since the Ancients shew that there was yerst in Phrygia a Province of Asia the less a City called Colosse not far from two others to wit Laodicea and Hierapolis whom the Apostle also mentions in this Epistle and recommends expresly to the Colossians the communicating this Letter to the Laodiceans when themselves should have read it Afterward this City of Colosse changed its Name and was called Cone and to it one of the famousest Writers of the latter times of Greece who is called Nicetas Choniates owed his birth taking His Surname from the place where he was born In Th saur l. 4. ch 22. and himself boasteth in one of His Works that it had been to the inhabitants of the City of Cone whence he was
here to the Colossians opposing it to that of the Law the rudiments whereof some endeavoured to re-establish among them Secondly we must observe what is the object of this knowledge the knowledge saith he of the will of GOD. All men naturally desire to know and I avouch that every knowledge is beautiful and grateful and there is none truly such but addeth some ornament to our understanding Yet it must be confessed that they are for the most part incapable of giving us the perfection and happiness we desire and which is necessary for our nature Such are all mundane sciences found out and cultivated by the sages of the World not only their Philosophy about nature and the motions of the Heavens and the Elements and about the properties and effects of things animate and inanimate but also that part of their Doctrine which more neerly respecteth us and explaineth what our carriage should be both in particular and in respect of those that govern us or are governed of us either in the family or in the State For to say nothing of the variety and extream uncertainty of their opinions which change every day and float continually in infinite doubts after having passed an whole life in this study and made the greatest progresses that may be no man is by it either more content or more happy or more assured All the pretended light of their School will not be able to dissipate in us either the horrour of death or the fear of the Judgement of GOD. It is only the knowledge of the LORD that can free us of it and by consequence it alone is necessary for us the rest will not render us either more happy if we have them or more miserable if we have them not It 's then this alone which the Apostle wisheth unto the Colossians But we must yet consider in the Third place that He wisheth them the knowledge not of the nature or the Majesty or the other essential properties of GOD but of His will For as to the essence of this supream and incomprehensible LORD as to the infinite and immense greatness of His power as to the ineffable manner of His understanding and the marvels of His judgement it is not necessary for us to know them clearly It is sufficient for us to adore them and many have lost themselves in lusting to sound them It is His Will that we must know to attain salvation as the true rule of our duty and His judgement He hath fully declared it to us by the Ministry of His Heralds the Apostles and Prophets who have published it by word of mouth and configned it in writing in the Holy Books which they have left us There it is that we must seek it and not in the discourses of vain men There we shall find it manifested as far as is necessary for us to know and do it It hath two principal parts faith and obedience For the will of GOD as the Apostle understands it here is nothing else but that which GOD would have us believe Joh. 6.40 and do to be happy For faith His will is saith our LORD that whoever seeth the Son and believeth in Him have eternal life and be raised up at the last day 1 Thes 4.3 For action This is the will of GOD saith the Apostle even your sanctification These are the two first and principal heads of the will of GOD to which all other instructions in Scripture do referr It 's in the knowledge of these things that St. Paul prayeth GOD the Colossians might be perfect and accomplished He addeth in all wisdom and spiritual understanding We call them Wise men in the world that know how to compass their ends that use means fit for this purpose and skilfully avoid all that might put them from it so dextrously conducting their affairs that of two things the one follows either they finish that which they desire or if they prosper not in it it is some mishap and not their fault that is the cause of such ill success But because they propose unto themselves ends vain and evil and unprofitable to their happiness thence it comes that how wise soever they be esteemed by the world all their industry yet is to say true but folly and errour Those then on the contrary are wise after the Spirit who constantly hold the right course of piety guiding themselves in it with such skilfulness that they beware of scandals and all that might set them off from their mark avoiding what is contrary to it and practising what is useful And though the world commonly account them extravagant yet so it is that their conduct proves to be true wisdom since at the end and after all it will be found that none but they attain unto salvation It is then this skilfulness which the Apostle termeth here a spiritual wisdom both because it respecteth the things of the Spirit that appertain to a Celestial and spiritual life as also for that it is a gift of the Spirit of GOD coming from on high from the Father of lights neither the sense nor the reason of Nature being capable of giving it to any knowledge of the Divine will is as it were the matter and subject of wisdom Wisdom is as it were the use and employing of the knowledge of GOD. For to be wise after the Spirit it is not enough to know what is the will of GOD There must be use of this knowledge first by laying down for a certain and unmoveable maxime that it is in it our bliss consisteth and consequently that therein we must bound our desires Secondly by practising what we know of this Divine will aiming at the mark it sheweth us and employing to attain it the means it prescribeth us watching and labouring continually thereto For certainly that servant in the Parable who knew his Masters will and did it not was nothing less than wise As for the spiritual understanding which the Apostle wisheth in the last place to the Colossians it is a quick and exquisite prudence to judge aright of things that are presented and discern the good from the evil the true from the false and the real from the apparent and this gift as you see is also a fruit of the knowledge of GOD and consisteth only in an exact application of what we know of His will to the doctrines and counsels which the flesh and its Ministers set before us to turn us out of the way of salvation It 's this was wanting to Eve when she was seduced by the Serpent and to the Galathians when they were abused by those impostors the Apostle fearing lest the same should betide the Colossians to divert this fatal blow supplicates the LORD to give them understanding necessary for the happy severing the false colours the paintings and baits of untruth from the simplicity that is in CHRIST Therefore he demandeth not of Him only that they might be filled with the knowledge of His
Apostle addeth namely that the Church is the body of CHRIST this further clearly sheweth that none but CHRIST is the Head of it For if the Pope for example were head of it the universal Church should be the Popes body as it is the LORD's But where is the Christian ear that doth not tingle at so strange so unheard of and so profane language And so we see how vehement and inordinate soever the passion of men hath been for this title of Head of the Church no man hath ever hitherto called the Church His body every one confessing that it is no ones body but JESUS CHRIST's alone They should then grant in like manner that none is its Head but He only Since it cannot have any for Head but Him whose body it is In the next place note I pray in opposition to another error of the same adversaries of ours that CHRIST His being Head of the Church doth not at all infer that the Church toucheth Him corporeally or that the bodies of the faithful are properly and substantially joyned to Him as the members of a natural body are joyned to their head Every one confesseth that this must be understood figuratively and mystically and after the same manner all men take the other expressions for the most part by which our union with the LORD is represented as when He is called the Foundation of the Church the corner stone the vine-stock of the Faithful and their raiment No one concludeth that it is necessary for the verifying of these passages our bodies should really touch His substance Why then will they infer it from other places where to set forth the same mysterie it is said that He is our bread our meat and our drink If He be our Head if He be our Raiment if He govern and clothe us without touching our bodies with His why may not He be our bread and nourish us without real entring into our bodily throat and stomach If the one be mystically and figuratively understood why will you force me to take the other corporally and literally I say the same upon the Apostles express declaring that the Church is the body of CHRIST Our adversaries do conclude no Transubstantion from hence and they confess that for salving the truth of these words there is no need that either the Church should lose its own substance and nature or be really changed into the substance of the body of CHRIST Nevertheless they will by all means have it that the same words when the Gospel saith of the bread which our LORD took that it is the body of CHRIST As if it were not rational and easie to say that the bread as well as the Church is the body of CHRIST figuratively and in a mystical way If they admit this sense in one of these places why do they reject it in the other where the nature of things themselves and the truth of heavenly doctrine doth no less necessarily require it In fine not to make any longer stay here St. Paul cleareth up to us in two words another question which the passion of Rome hath so horribly embroyled in these latter times namely what is the nature and the true definition of the Church The Church is saith he the body of CHRIST These two words overthrow all the Philosophizing of our adversaries about this subject in order either to the straitning or enlarging the Communion of the Church beyond what ought to be I say the straitning For they admit to the possessing of this name those only that acknowledge the Bishop of Rome whereas St. Paul alloweth it to all those that belong to JESUS CHRIST and that have His Spirit no one of these but being of His body and by consequent of His Church in whatever place and under whatever Pastors he live I say also the enlarging it For these Doctors who are so severe on one hand as that they give the name of the Church only to the Roman Communion are so loose and so very indulgent on the other hand as they yield it up to the most desperate and prophane Hypocrites that are provided they addict themselves to their Pope not requiring as they affirm Bellarm. 3. de Eccl 〈…〉 2. as any interiour vertue in them to be members of the true Church but only an exteriour profession of the Roman belief and Communion But St. Paul fulminates down this no less impious then extravagant doctrine by saying that the Church is the body of CHRIST For no one can be of His body without being quickned by His Spirit Rom. 8.9 He that hath not the Spirit of CHRIST saith the same Apostle elsewhere is none of His. Certainly then it is not true that the prophane or hypocritical are parts of the Church There is no communion between CHRIST and Belial The body and the members of the one cannot be the body and members of the other Forasmuch as the Church is the body of CHRIST it must of necessity be concluded that these people of whom our adversaries compose their Church which have not as they say any piety or internal vertue and by consequence are members of Belial may well be since they will have it so true members of the Roman but assuredly not of the Christian Church And if the Pope do own them for his sheep we are very certain that the LORD JESUS will never avouch them for His. But it is time to come to the two other titles which the Apostle here giveth in the next place to our LORD JESUS CHRIST adding that He is the beginning or the principle and this first-born from the dead Even as when he had said before that JESVS CHRIST is the first-born that is the Lord of every creature he presently brought the reason of it taken from thence that all things were created by Him In like manner now having said that He is the Head of the Church he foundeth this truth upon His being the author of the Church He that formed and constituted it and the Prince of this new generation He that will give it the true and utmost perfection of its being For the word which we have rendred the beginning signifies also the principle that is to say the cause and origine of a thing and first-born denoteth likewise both Him who is born before the rest and him who is the Master or the Prince of the rest he saith therefore first that the LORD JESVS is the beginning or the principle Certainly this appertaineth unto Him upon the account of the first creation inasmuch as He is the Author of it the word and wisdom which did produce the Universe and it may be 't is in this sense that He calleth Himself in the Apocalypse Rev. 3.14 1.8 21.6 22.13 the beginning of the creation of GOD and elsewhere in the same Book Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end But speech here being of the Church and the resurrection the word beginning must
him by a person that know it not to be poyson who perchance took of it himself thinking it a remedy so error from whatever hand it come hath still a bad effect and the opinion they have of it who present it to us doth not change the venom of it nor impede its corrupting of our souls and extinguishing Divine life in us if we do receive it But the Apostle in this place pointeth out the means also which false Teachers use for the setting up of their errors That none saith he may deceive you by words of perswasions These he calls elsewhere in the same case sweet and flattering words Rom. 16.18 saying in his Epistle to the Romans that Schismaticks and such as make divisions contrary to the doctrine we have learned do seduce the hearts of the simple by sweet and flattering words 1 Cor. 2.4 And this he nameth again elsewhere the enticing words of man's wisdom Under these terms he comprehendeth all the advantages and attractives of discourse all that it hath in it which is apt to touch and win hearts as either probable reasons wherewith it is furnisht or beauty of terms and expressions or artificial disposition and graceful pronunciation There is none but knows how potent these charms of eloquence are They sometimes dazzel the best eyes and do deceive the firmest minds It 's a kind of Magick and Enchantment which makes things appear quite otherwise than they are and gives them colours and qualities that are not their own which maketh Honey pass for Wormwood and Wormwood for Honey black for white and white for black There is no cause so good but this kind of illusion overthrows nor so bad but it establisheth There is no affection which it doth not allay nor bâ—lâ—â—f which it doth not shake nor resolution which it doth not break It hath often 〈◊〉 the innocent to be condemned and the nocent absolved with applause 'T is by its sleights that truth how invincible soever it be hath sometimes seemed to be vanquished 'T is to its dexterity and its stratagems that error and falshood do we the greatest part of their lying-triumphs For feeling themselves in reality weak they have recourse ordinarily to this kind of Sorcery that they may carry by its illusions what they could never win by true and legitimate strength 'T is it that maintaineth Sophisters and Wranglers and Mountebanks and Seducers With the sophistry and prattle which it lendeth them they have the hardiness to shew themselves and to oppose the clearest truths and recommend the grossest errors But among all the busie people that use it there are none that employ it more perniciously than Hereticks and corrupters of Religion This false Rhetorick is the principal instrument they seduce withall Accordingly it is evident that they have always taken it up and scarce ever attempted upon Truth but with this sort of weapons And it must be confessed that they help themselves by them with wonderful dexterity Never was cause in matter of Religion more sordid or shameful or seeble than that of the Pagans yet they that pleaded it against the ancient Christians knew so well how to fard it with the colours of their false reasons and the gloss of their brave words that they made it pass for plausible among the multitude and rendered Christianity ridiculous to them how holy and lightsome soever its truth was Those Hereticks which arose from among Christians had no less ability and artificialness to recommend their impostures borrowing for this purpose from the Philosophers and Orators of the world the subtilties of their Logick and all the colours of their Rhetorick There are still left us some pieces of the one and the other in the Books of Antiquity as the Discourses of one Celsus in Origen of one Caecilius in Minutius of Porphyrius and Symmachus for Paganism divers writings of Tertullian for Montanism of Fanstus for the Manichees and of Julian for the Pelagians in S. Augustine It 's wonderful with what dexterity and with what grace and eloquence they do manage such bad and infamous subjects nor can I read them without lamenting the unhappiness of so many excellent and highlyapprovable things to be miserably profaned in the service of error as one cannot chuse but groan to see Marble and Gold and Azure and precious Stones employed in adorning the Temple of an Idol And I note it expresly to you my Brethren that you may not think it strange if those of Rome at this day do speciously defend a very bad Cause nor be much moved at the ostentation they make of it who are not ashamed to boast of the eloquence and subtilty of their Teachers as if this were one of the marks of truth I freely consent to the praises they give them and do acknowledg that words of perswasion as the Apostle here calls them do abound on their side but I dare affirm notwithstanding and am assured that every intelligent and unpassionate person will accord with me herein That how subtil and eloquent soever their Masters be and how much pains soever they have taken for the better plastring over and colouring and burnishing of their Doctrine in conclusion their works are not more neat nor more polite nor more specious and fair-seeming than the works of those Pagans and Hereticks whom I but now named yea to speak without passion I believe they are far inferior to them Let them forbear therefore to urge unto us for a mark of truth an advantage which is common to them with Pagans and Hereticks an advantage which the most infamous Causes do employ which the worst do ordinarily seek after more earnestly than the best so much more cunning being used in their defence by how much less strength they have in themselves Not that I would decry eloquence and acuteness or render them suspect with you as if they never were in other service than of error I willingly acknowledg they are excellent graces of GOD and that he gives them to men properly for the defence of Truth and sure they have not always had the hard hap to contend for Falshood They have often done good service to the Gospel and employed their might for its glory both heretofore against the Pagans and the old Hereticks and in our times against those of Rome as appears by the writings both of the Fathers and of our own Doctors a good number of them being found who even in this respect come no whit behind their adversaries besides their having the principal advantage that is the truth on their side This Paul himself who here condemneth words of perswasion when they recommend error doth not reject them when they are labouring for truth And though he was not much versed in the art of prophane eloquence whence it comes that he saith of himself that for speech he was as one of the Vulgar yet his discourses want no strength nor grace that rich heavenly knowledg which abounded in his heart giving
S. Paul teacheth constantly ev ry where that it was disannulled and abrogated by the death of the LORD JESUS to make room for the Gospel according to the Oracles of the Prophets that GOD would make a new Covenant with his people Here is then the second head of our intended matter upon which we are to consider how GOD hath abolished this obligation which was against us by the Cross of his Son He tells us two things concerning it the one That this obligation is made void the other That it 's by the Cross of CHRIST it was made so He expresseth the former of these with great elegancy as his manner is using three most significant terms all of them taken from the nature of civil promises and obligations in pursuance of the similitude he began with First he saith that this obligation hath been effaced For so 't is ordinary with men to do when they have a debt paid them up they efface the name of their debtor that was upon their Books and the sum which he owed them The Apostle saith that GOD hath done the same in reference to us that he hath effaced this obligation of our mystical debt which was written in his Law and signed in our particular Consciences And this term hath the greater elegancy in this place because there did intervene for our acquitting some such thing as men are wont to do For they strike out their debtors promises with some liquor as Ink or the like which they draw over the lines of their writings So was our obligation made null by the effusion of a liquor to wit the blood of JESUS CHRIST which was poured forth as may be said from the Cross upon that dismal Book of the Law for the effacing all the clauses of our condemnation in it For as to the writing of men Ink is enough to blot it out But there was nothing save the Blood of the Son of GOD that was able to efface this doleful writing of the Law wherein the sentence of our death was contained Now it seems that this should be sufficient to assure a debtor even the telling him that his obligation is effaced Yet the Apostle contents not himself he addeth that ours hath been taken out of the way or abolished Thus you know among men they that are exact and punctual do not only efface their debtors writings they tear them and reduce them to pieces that no sign of their debt may remain GOD hath done so towards us He hath not only effaced the obligation he had against us He would not have so much as the rasures of it to appear He hath disannull'd it and abolish'd it and rent it with the nails of his Son's Cross He hath saith the Apostle fastned it to the Cross It is not possible to say any thing that should be better or more elegant Those same nails and those same thorns that pierced the body of our LORD upon that fatal Tree whereon he dyed for us did by the same means tear and cut in pieces the obligation which was against us that evidence of our debt and instrument of our death that is to say in sum the Cross of JESUS CHRIST hath disarmed the Law and divested it of that killing-force which it had against us naturally and reduc'd it to such an estate that we being under the covert of his Cross it can no more harm us than if all the Letters of it were estaced and its Papers rent in sunder This divine crucified Person hath by dying himself made the Law dye and that which doth sometime fall out in the combats of men hath been the event here both the Combatants even CHRIST and the Law remained dead upon the place The Law slew our LORD who went unto this combat for us to the end he might take and bear the terrible blows the thundrings and lightnings of our principal enemy But he hath also bereav'd the Law of life and left it in the same estate it had reduced him to though indeed with huge disserence in the issue For our LORD raised up himself from that death which he receiv'd and suffer'd for us rising again the third day gloriously alive whereas the Law shall never resume the life or the strength which he hath depriv'd it of It shall remain for ever in that death he hath given it This is that the Apostle teacheth us very clearly elsewhere when he saith that JESVS CHRIST having been made a curse for us hath redeemed us from the curse of the law Gal. 3.13 His wounds have been our cure his death our life and his curse our bliss The blood which issued out of his sacred body did blot out the sentence of our condemnation and the blows which pierced him did break in pieces the instrument of our ruin Now this great and admirable effect which S. Paul attributeth to the Cross of CHRIST doth furnish us with a clear proof of his Satisfaction For if his death were nothing but an example of patience and humility to what purpose saith this holy Apostle that the obligation which was against us was abolished and fastned to his cross Who seeth not but that by this account the Cross of our LORD would have done the Law no harm at all That his Blood would have been so far from making void our obligation as it would not have made so much as the least rasure in it What doth his death contribute to my deliverance from that curse under which this fatal writing puts me if he dyed only to give me a noble pattern of constancy and not to discharge my debts The Saints have verily suffer'd for our example and their deaths are patterns of our patience Yet it cannot be found that the Prophets or Apostles ever said of them by reason of it that the obligation which was against us hath been made void by their death or that the evils which they suffered have redeemed us from the curse of the Law And besides the blasphemousness of it it would render a man evidently ridiculous to give such language of them or to say of them as the Scriptures speak of the LORD alone that they have born our sicknesses and carried our dolours and been pierced for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and that the chastisement of our peace was upon them and by their stripes we are healed Conclude we therefore that he verily dyed in our stead and did satisfie on his Cross the Justice of the Father for us For this being presupposed as the Scripture teacheth there is no longer any difficulty and it is clear that his Cross did strike out and abolish the obligation that was kept in the Cabinet of GOD against us and which alone had the right and power to destroy us As when a Surety pays the sum which the man he hath given security for doth owe he voids the Obligation that had been made to the Creditor about it and by virtue whereof he was to
and Powers These are the Enemies whom the LORD JESUS hath overcome and utterly defeated on the Cross as himself reported the evening before his passion saying that the Prince of this world was then judged that is was about to be condemned And S. Paul elsewhere saith Heb. 2 1â— that JESVS hath by his death destroyed him that had the power of death to wit the Devil Let us now see how our Saviour hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers and publickly made a shew of them triumphing over them on the Cross First It is evident that all this language of the Apostle's is figurative and taken from what great Captains that had been victorious over their Enemies were heretofore wont to do For after they had spoiled them not only Arms Habits Jewels and Baggage but also of their Estates and all their Glory they led them away prisoners and made a shew of them to their Countrey-men on the day of their triumph This name the Romans gave to the pomps of that entry which their Captains and Generals of a Victorious Army made into their City For when any of them had won a Battel taken Towns conquer'd Countreys or done any great and notable exploit of warr one of the principal and most prized Honours that were decreed him for a reward of his valour was a Triumphâ— which was acted with incredible pomp and ceremony The Conqueror was mounted on a stately Chariot magnificently cloth'd and crowned His whole Army marched before and after him in Military order every Troop under its Ensigns and Colours The heads and principal of the Enemies followed his Chariot bound and in chains There was carried along all the Gold and Silver and other Treasures he had won from the Enemy The Towns he had taken the Rivers he had pass'd the Provinces he had subdued the Battels he had given were represented in Picture and exposed to the view of the people who with great festivity and rejoycing accompanied in throng or beheld him from the windows of their houses and filled the air with their acclamations and applauses He entred Rome in this â—quipage and passing through the fairest Streets of the City ascended the Capitol the chief of their Temples where he betook himself to offer sacrifice after he had thus displayed the fruits of his Victories before the eyes of all thâ— world and received all kind of benedictions and praises from his fellow Citizens This is properly that which was called a Triumph The Apostle therefore fetching his terms from this custom which was well known at that time and familiar to every one doth apply them to our LORD and Saviour because of that resemblance we find between the pomp of his mystical victory and this Triumph of Sâ—cular Rulers and Captains He tells us that he hath spoiled these hostile Principalities and Powers He saith that he hath publickly made a shew of them In fine he affirms that he hath triumphed on the Cross expressions all of them manifestly taken as you see from that glorious pomp of the Roman Triumphs which we have now described and which for substance do signifie no other thing but that JESUS dying on the Cross hath fully vanquish'd and defeated the Devil with all his power in the view of Heaven and Earth In prosecution hereof we are to refute the false expositions which some do give of this passage Themas Loranus Cajetan and after that render you an account of the true Some of the famousest Interpreters of the Church of Rome do understand it of the deliverance of the Fathers whom our Saviour as those men say took out of that Limbus in which their spirits were and led them to Heaven with them He spoiled principalities and powers that is the Devils from whom he took away what they kept in Hell forasmuch say they as he caused Adam Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob with the rest of the faithful who deceased under the Old Testament to come forth from their Limbus which is one of the partitions of the infernâ—l Region Then they say he led them carrying them up to Heaven and giving them entrance into Jerusalem on high whence they had been until then excluded And he made them triumph in himself for so the same Authors do read the Apostle's words that is He made them to participate of his triumph in that they had the honour to accompany and enter into Heaven with him But scarce can a thing be uttered more false more forced and more impertinent than this whole interpretation First That which it supposeth of the abode of the spirits of the old believers in a subterraneous and infernal Limbus is uncertain and fabulous being sounded only upon the tradition of men and not on any authority of the word of GOD. As for that which they commonly alledg to prove it namely Gen. 37.35 Jacob's saying that he would go down into Hell unto his Son Joseph they that are versed in Scripture do well know the word Inferi or Hell in that place in particular and almost every other where in the Book of GOD doth signifie the Grave Whence it comes that the same Patriarch saith elsewhere unto his sons that if any evil befel Benjamin they would make his white hairs descend with sorrow ad inferos to Hell as divers read it where it is clear that by the same word he means the Grave into which the dead go down with their hairs and not Limbus into which only souls descended who have no hair sure And as to what they produce of the pretended soul of Samuel call'd up from Hell by the Sorceress her charms where is the Christian that doth not burn to see such power granted the Ministers of Devils over the Spirits of Prophets God forbid we should credit so gross an absurdity That which the Enchantress saw came from Hell I confess but that which she saw was not in truth the soul of Samuel which was at rest with GOD in Ahraham's bosome It was nothing but a vain shadow and a phantasm of that Prophet called by his name because of its resembling him as the greatest part of the ancient Fathers did affirm and as some of the most famous Authors Leo Allatius in Euctath Antiâ—ch Psal 68.19 even of the Roman Communion do at this day hold They again do abuse what the Psalmist singeth of the Messiah Thou art gone up on high thou hast taken or led a multitude of captives as it s rendred These captives they will have to be the spirits of the Fathers But it is manifest to all that have the least knowledg in the holy Tongue that the phrase there used by the Prophet doth signifie to take or to make prisoners not to free them and to lead not into liberty but into captivity So as if this passage be meant of the Fathers we must say not that the LORD brought them out prison as is suppos'd but that he put them in a thing that would be infinitely
be more accessible unto us Joh. 14.1 6. Eph. 3.12 He proclaimeth in a thousand places that He is the way the truth and the life and that no man cometh to the Father but by Him that it is He by whom we have boldness Mat. 11.28 and access with confidence by faith in Him He calleth us unto Himself Come unto me saith He and I will give you rest And His Ministers do not only permit us to go to Him Heb. 4.16 they command and press us to do so Let us go say they with boldness to the throne of Grace that we may obtain grace and mercy to help in time of need Insteed of obeying these holy and divine calls of GOD and His Ministers you say No I will not do it I am not so presumptuous as to go either to GOD or to His Son I must beg the intercession of Angels and Saints to present me before that supream light In conscience is not this an exalting of your self above GOD Is it not a presuming that you know better than He what belongs to your duty and His service Is it not an hiding under the fine words of a feigned humility plain rebellion and disobedience to His Holy Majesty which is in effect the highest pride a creature can be guilty of since it is at the bottom a pretending that you are wiser than He and that the way He prescribes you is neither so good nor so reasonable as that which you have chosen But let us forbear any further arguing For where the Apostle speaks there is no need that we should discourse His authority relyes not on the succour of our reasons Here you see it is express against our adversaries corrupt usage He formerly condemns the thing they do For they approve and daily practise this service of Angels which S. Paul forbids us and ground it upon that same humility of spirit the pretexture whereof He hath voided and destroyed becoming doubly culpable both for rebuilding if I may so say this Jericho of superstistition which he hath domolished and for employing in it the very stones which he hath blasted from Heaven What can error say against so clear a determination By what charms can it turn away this flash of lightning from falling on its head Dear Brethren it is too much in love with its own inventions to give glory to GOD and will rather renounce His word than quit its superstitious imaginations In the present matter seeing its self pressed it hath recourse to subtilty and though it both maintain and practise the worshipping of Angels and cannot deny but 〈◊〉 the Apostle condemns those who teach and practise it yet it pretends with an 〈◊〉 â—ible boldness that it is not it the Apostle doth condemn It hath turned its 〈…〉 ways to effect this illusion all which to say the truth have more hardi 〈…〉 in them And to begin at this one the famousest of its last Advocates 〈…〉 â—ink ill satisfied in his conscience with the subtilty of his fellows hath bethought himself of a new gloss unheard of till now in all the Schools of Christianity both antient and modern born of his own conceit alone a very fruitful breeder of such productions and begotten by meer despair of his bad cause Du Perron in His Repl. to K. James p. 909. This man then affirms that S. Paul doth mean by the service or religion of Angels not as all the Fathers and all the Modern have believed the worshiping of Angels but as he all alone will have it the Law of Moses First the novelty of this gloss and the very consideration that for the space of neer sixteen hundred years not so much as one single man hath been found that was aware of it doth sufficiently shew that it is the heat of disputation and not the truth of the thing which suggested it to the author of it and the maxims of his Church he doth evidently renounce too which willeth that Scripture be not interpreted but by the Fathers whereas he laying by their exposition brings in one here that is not only undiscernable in any one of them but also directly contrary to the most Chrysoâ—â— Thâ—odoret Oâ—â—umâ—â— Tâ—â—â—philact and most renowned of their number who do understand these words of the Apostle of the worship done to Angels by those Seducers whom S. Paul doth in this place oppose But I say moreover that it is for good reason that no man ever thought upon it since in very deed it is not maintainable nor can be at all accorded either with the Apostles words or with his scope and design Not with his words for they must be interpreted according to the stile of the Authors of that tongue wherein he writes Now there are but two or three places in Scripture where the word used by the Apostle doth occur so construed as it is in this place One is in S. James Jam. 1.26 If any man among you saith he seems to be religious and bridles not his tongue but deceiveth his own soul that mans religion or service is in vain Another is in the book of the Acts where S. Paul saith that from the beginning he lived a Pharisâ—e Act. 26.5 after the accuratest sect saith he of our religion The word is found again so construed in the book of Wisdom held for Canonical by our adversaries and which though it be not such indeed yet is writ in Greek with the same language and the same stile that the Books of the New Testament are This author then makes use of the word in the same manner Wisd 4.27 The abominable service saith he or religion of idols is the beginning the cause and the end of all evil In all these places the religion or the service of any one doth signifie either the service he does to some other as in the two former passages or the service that is done to him by others as in the latter of them Here therefore except you think the Apostle swerved from the stile wherein he wrote the service or religion of Angels must of necessity signifie one of those two things either the service which the Angels do perform to GOD or the service which men perform to them The first of these two senses cannot take place by the confession of our adversaries themselves and of every sober person They must then necessarily admit the second and confess with us and with all the Ancients that by the service of Angels S. Paul intends not the Jewish religion or the Law of Moses but the religious service which these Seducers rendred to Angels under pretext of humility Moreover in what Prophet in what Apostle in what rational Author either Antient or even Modern have these men ever found this novel and extravagant manner of speaking the service of Angels that is to say the Jewish religion Verily it is called the Law of GOD because GOD instituted it the Law of Moses because
when to represent his modesty Psal 131.1 he saith that he hath not walked in great things and too high for him Dear Brethren we have no need to ascend so far back as the Apostle's time for examples of this vanity Our Adversaries of the Communion of Rome do afford us a sufficient store who as they retain the errour of those whom the Apostle here taxeth serving Angels as they did so do inherit their temerity intruding into things they have not seen They do magisterially pronounce that men must serve and invoke Angels and Saints departed They boldly define the Religious Worship that is to be given and divide it us into its kinds naming one of them Dulia and the other Hyperdulia all with as much confidence as if they spake of things most obvious to sence I urge not for the present that Scripture doth blast this whole errour every where intimating that we ought to serve no one in Religion but GOD alone and with loud voice anathematizing the Worship of any creature I pretermit what it saith particularly against the Adoration and Worshipping of Angels as also that S. Paul doth expresly prohibit it in the Text. I keep singly to the rule he here gives me that no belief be afforded those who intrude into things they have not seen and do demand of these hardy Doctors in what Region in what part of Divine Revelation have they seen these Services these Dulia's and these Hyperdulia's of which they so positively speak Where is it that the Holy Ghost hath shewed them these brave Doctrines To what Prophet hath He revealed them To what Apostle hath He signified them Of what Evangelist have themselves learnt them Sure they must here be husht of necessity They have not seen one of these pretended mysteries in the Book of GOD. They cannot shew us any track of them any where except it be in the fancies of Plato and of the Heathen Philosophers the Disciples of Daemons and not of GOD men taught in the School of errour and not in that of truth They proceed further yet and make us discourses about the Orders of Angels and distribute to them their business and cut them out their Ministrations they rank the Saints and give to them each his Charge and employment And if you ask them how these Spirits being in Heaven do hear our Prayers and requests and by what means they see the secret motions of our hearts They answer some of them that the mirrour of the Trinity upon which they incessantly have their eyes doth present them all the Idea's of them others that GOD reveals them to them some other way But whence do they know this It is neither sense nor natural reason that hath shewed it them If therefore they have seen it any where it must be in the Revelation of GOD. Yet it is clear and they cannot deny it that neither this pretended mirrour nor any one of their other conjectures do appear there at all Cajetan in 22. q. 88. a. â— And one of their most famed Authors sufficiently declares it We do not know saith he by any certain reason whether the Saints do perceive our Prayers or no although we do piously believe it as if it were piety and not pittiful credulity to believe things of which we have no assurance But let him make what account of it he pleases This is evident that since he confesseth they have no assurance of these things it must of necessity be confessed also that it is extreamly ill done of them to intrude into them except he will reject the Authority of the Apostle in his condemning those here most expresly who intrude into things they have not seen This vanity doth further shew it self in the things they give out concerning the state of Souls in their fabulous Purgatory the scituation the structure and partitions whereof they represent together with the fire and torments of the Spirits that are there imprisoned with such a deal of confidence as if they were just now come from thence after many years stay in the place Nevertheless the truth is that neither they nor their Ancestors euer saw one jot of it either in the Scriptures of GOD or in the nature of things there being not a word any where of any one of these imaginations That which they say of their Transubstantiation with its conditions and circumstances and of the manner how the body of CHRIST is present in every crumb of their Hoste and in every drop of their Chalice Their positions likewise concerning their pretended Sacrifice of the Mass and concerning the relative or Analogical adoration of Images and concerning the Characters which some of their Sacraments do imprint upon the souls of men and in one word all the points of doctrine that we contest with them are of the same nature All of them are things they have not seen they intrude into them walk in them and strout vainly commanding the belief or practice of them under pain of damnation how doubtful and uncertain soever they be and furiously anathematizing all those who make the least doubt to receive them As for us Dear Brethren who through the grace of GOD have learned to preferr His voice before the imaginations of men and to fear the thundrings of Heaven more than the fulminations of Rome let us leave them in this vain humour or to say better pray to GOD to bring them out of it and give them to distinguish their own dreams from His declarations And for our further acquitting of our selves let us religiously keep to the Apostles direction Intrude we never into things we have not seen Neither be so simple as to follow those that do or to suffer our selves to be mastered over by them Let us rest in the things which GOD hath clearly revealed to us in His word which He hath so set before our eyes in that Divine Treasury of His truth as very children may there behold them This portion is sufficient for us if we cultivate it well we shall find in it abundantly wherewith to inform our understandings wherewith to calm our Consciences and sanctifie our hearts and perfect all the faculties of our souls Let no man presume above that which is written 1 Cor. 4.6 Rom. 12.3 Take heed of being wise above what is meet but be wise to sobriety Let the word of GOD be the rule of our science and His Book the bound of all our curiosity All knowledge is had without knowing any thing beyond it This consideration alone is enough to preserve us from all the errours of Rome For since the intruding into things we have not seen is a temerity condemned here by the Apostle and in matter of Religion we can have seen none but such as GOD hath revealed in His Word it evidently follows that we are obliged not only to forbear believing but also to proceed to the rejecting of all the Doctrines about which we are in contest with Rome
one upon another and is never satiated with this vain food It never sayes 't is enough it 's alway saying give give like the wiseman's horse-leach in the Proverbs Prov. 30.15 If it regulate your eating to day to morrow it will give you laws for your clothing and afterwards for each of the parts of your life not leaving so much as your looks or your breathing free It 's a Labyrinth wherein poor consciences go on intricating them selves without any issue and a snare which does first take them than bind them fast and in the end strangle them But let us now consider the two other reasons which the Apostle makes use of to shew the vanity of the pretended ordinances of superstition about the matter of meats and eating and drinking The second than is taken as we have already intimated from the nature of those things which abstinence from was commanded They are all saith he things that perish in the using That is such as are consumed in doing us service the very eating and drinking whereby they are taken doth destroy them and they are of so feeble and infirm a substance that they cannot be of use unto us without being corrupted and to nourish us they must first perish an evident signe that all the benefit we receive from them doth respect but this wretched mortal life it being neither possible nor imaginable that what perisheth and is consumed in us should have any force or vertue for the life of our soul which is immortal and incorruptible So you see the Apostle does here presuppose this maxime that neither Religion nor the service of GOD doth properly and immediatly consist either in the usage of or an abstinence from any of those things which serve to the maintaining of our common life and are consumed in serving thereto Rom. 14.17 as he saith elsewhere expresly that the Kingdom of GOD is neither meat nor drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost He makes use of the same reason again in another place 1 Cor. 6.13 Meats saith he are for the belly and the belly for meats But GOD shall destroy both it and them His Master and ours had used it before upon the same argument to the same purpose against the vain scruples of the Pharisees the Patriarches of all this kind of disciplines T is not that Mat 15.11.17 saith he which enters in at the mouth that defiles a man Because as He adds immediatly after all that which enters in at the mouth goeth down into the belly and is cast out into the draught that is to say it perisheth and is consumed in the using 1 Cor. 8.8 Whence it comes that the Apostle pronounceth again elsewhere in consequence of the same doctrine that meat that is any certain sort of meat does not render us the more acceptable unto GOD 2 Tim. 3.4 and that there is neither gain in eating it nor loss in eating it not because as he saith elsewhere yet they are all created of GOD to be used by the faithful with thanksgiving so as nothing is to be rejected being taken with giving of thanks Sure were it not for the extreme blindness of men there would be no need for us to repeat and confirme so easie a lesson with such diligence and in so many places the sole light of reason and the nature of things it self teaching it us so clearly For who is there but sees this truth if he heed it ever so little and discovers of himself that one is not the better or the more holy for eating Herbs or Fish nor the worse or more vitious for living on other things All this seâ—ves but to sustein the seeble nature of this poor body and terminates there without penetrating to the soul whose essence is wholly spiritual It 's the conceptions of the understanding and the disposition of the heart and the habitudes that referr to them and the actions that proceed from them which make men good or bad and their morals laudable or blamable so as it 's a gross and a deplorable error though I grant it hath ever been and still is very common to make a part of piâ—ty and sanctity consist in eating of or absteining from some sorts of meats But the Apostle contents not himself with citing the conclusions of reason and the nature of the things themselves against the vain and pernicious ordinances of these Seducers For the overthrowing them without recovery and the taking away all pretext of defending them he further makes use in the last place of a strong and invincible argument drawn from their being established after the commandments and doctrines of men Thus it was that GOD did sometime strike the vain services of Israel 〈…〉 Their fear of me said He is an humane commandment taught by men And the LORD JESUS overturns all the authority of the Jewish traditions Mat. 15.9 with the same shot reproching them that it was in vain they honoured GOD teaching doctrines which were but commandments of men And it should seem 't is hence that S. Paul took both the conception and the expression he useth in this place This reasoning my Brethren is extremely considerable The Apostle rejects the ordinances of the Seducers because they are commandments and doctrines of men There 's no man but sees that this discourse hath no consequence unless upon presupposal that nothing ought to be receiv'd in Religion under the quality of necessary belief or service except it be either taught or commanded of GOD and not of men only It 's the doctrine of the Apostle S. Paul in this place the doctrine of the Prophet Isaiah in that other which we alledged even now it 's the doctrine of JESUS the Master of Apostles and Prophets in His dispute against the Pharisees O holy and pretious verity from how many errors wouldst thou deliver the world if according to the authority of our LORD and those two grand Ministers of His men would examine all things by thee as their rule and consider when some article in Religion is preached to us not whether it be specious and have some appearance of reason or whether it hath been yerwhile held by the Sages of the time past or be for the present believed by the greater part of Princes and people but whether it be indeed taught of GOD in His word or meerly set forth by men Dear Brethren by this short and simple method you may easily settle your thoughts about all the differences that rend Christendom at this day Take the Book of GOD and admit nothing into your belief but what you shall find either asserted or commanded therein refusing whatsoever the word of the LORD hath not authorized Sure I am that the Sacrifice of the Masse and Purgatory and Transubstantiation and the Monarchie of the Pope and the Invocation of Saints and in a word all that divideth us from Rome will remain among those commandments and
she may reign at her care by the favour of darkness And if she would have sincerely represented her motives in this ordinance of hers there should have been not the Preface we even now reported but such a one as this to wit it being evident by experience thaâ— the reading of the Bible is very prejudicial to her interests giving men the hardness to reject the authority and Doctrine of her Pope who is not only not found any where in this Word of GOD but even contrarieth it in divers instance for these reasons it hath seem'd good to her to shut up and restrain the knowledge of it as much as she can since the abolishing it altogether is both impossible and scandalous This is their true meaning this their true motive And in very deed you see how in conclusion they straiten this reading as much as possibly they can First they will not have men read any version of the Scripture though never so good and faithful and exactly made out of the Original Texts except it have as they speak some Catholique for its Author that is one or other of those people who being passionate for the Romane cause would weaken the words of the Scripture the most they may and sometimes even audaciously corrupt them for their own advantage as you may plainly perceive by the example of him who passing the bounds of the modesty of all others hath not long since put the express term Mass a stranger to all Scripture into the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and written at the third Chapter that the Prophets and Teachers which were in the Church of Antioch did say Mass against the Warrant of the Original and of all ancient Versions the Syriac the Arabick and the Latine it self canoniz'd by the Council of Trent every of which does say conform to the Original that those persons served or Ministred to the LORD against the example of the vulgar versions of the Roman Communion as that of the Doctors of Lovain that of Benedict and of Frison and others and in fine against the evidence of the thing it self this latter version falsly supposing that there could be no Divine Service but it 's pretended Mass Judge by this scantling what the versions of the Bible made by these good Catholicks are like to be But however altered and disguised in favour of them these versions be they yet fear them still well knowing that it is not easie so to sophisticate this Heavenly word but that it will alwayes have vertue enough left to confound their errors Therefore they add another restriction that for the reading of such Bibles there must be had a License and in writing not from the Parish Priest this sufficeth not but from the Bishop of the Diocess or from the Inquisitor an office in the Modern Church which is no more found in Holy Writ than the office of their Mass And yet they do not leave them an absolute disposal of the matter but oblige them to secure themselves first by conference and deliberation with the Curates of the Petitioners that they are persons whom the Word of GOD will do no hurt to that is will not make them disgust the Roman Religion which is at the bottom all the danger that they apprehend Christians do you not tremble to hear that these Masters forbid what the Apostle gives you order to do a thing that JESUS CHRIST Himself commands you when He sayes Search the Scriptures and that their dispensation must be had to do what JESUS CHRIST and His Apostle enjoyn you The Apostle sayes Let the Word of CHRIST dwell in you and these Gentlemen cry on the other side No meddle not with it Cast not your eyes on it Have not so much as the Book in your Houses which is far indeed from getting it to dwell in your hearts except one of our Bishops or of our Inquisitors give you permission for it Oh new and unheard of Theology That a Christian must have a dispensation from Rome or one of her Ministers to obey JESUS CHRIST and cannot do what S. Paul commands him except the Pope's Officers give him a permission in writing Can men more openly debase the authority of CHRIST and His Apostle Sure what 's commanded is a duty and that which is permitted especially what one is obliged to have a permission for in writing is a thing contrary to our duty as every one knows and as you may see by the practice of Rome it self where permission to eat flesh in Lent is indeed demanded but not to cat fish in the Carneval because according to their Laws the first is contrary to a Christian's duty and not the second If then a Christian must have a permission to read the Bible it is evident that the reading of it is a matter of some contrariety to a Christians duty that of it self it is unlawful and prohibited Again if such reading be duly commanded it must of necessity be said that every one is obliged to it at least every faithful man or woman that can read and that they no more need any one's permission to read the Bible than to give an alms or to comfort an afflicted person or to obey their Father or their Prince S. Paul's command as you see is express Let the Word of CHRIST dwell in you It 's then our duty to read it and meditate it It 's then a manifest enterprize against the Apostles authority to bind us up that we may not read it without any man's permission who ever he be It 's a changing of what Paul hath ordained It 's a taking it out of the rank of duties where he had let it and a placing it among transgressions It 's a making that to pass for prohibited which the Holy Apostle hath commanded there being no place for a permission but in things which the Law of GOD or of men have forbidden Can a stranger thing be ordained Yet they stoop not here For fearing least such a permission though difficult and strait and depending upon the will of their Officers should yet prejudice their Religion if any use were made of it they withdraw welnigh altogether the power to grant it which they gave the Bishop and the Inquisitor afore Index libr. prohibit observ circa 4. Regul For in the observation which they add upon this fourth Rule they declare expresly that the meaning is not there is by it any power attributed of new to Bishops or Inquisitors or to the Superiors of Regular Societies to give leave to any to read or buy or keep the Bible or any piece either of the Old or of the New Testament or so much as summaries or historical abridgments of the Books of Holy Scripture in any vulgar tongue whatever because say they they have hitherto been deprived of the power of giving such permissions by the Roman holy general Inquisition and it must be inviolably observed See I beseech you a most manifest illusion
see he was not of the opinion of the latter Popes of Rome who do accuse as you heard afore the reading of the Word of GOD of doing more harm than good It the reading of them must be interdicted upon the pretence that some unstable spirits wrest them unto their destruction it should be in the first place prohibited to Bishop Priests and Monks it being clear if my memory does not deceive me that such as have forged heresies by an ill understanding of the Scriptures were all of one of those three orders and not of the common people But it 's a very wild expedient and a remedy altogether extravagant to condemn the use of things because of the abuse of them by some certain persons By this account best and most innocent things and things most necessary for the life of men should be taken from them the light of the Sun the savouriness of meats the excellency of wines and fruits iron silver gold and other metals the accomplishments of learning and the marvels of eloquence For which of these gifts of GOD doth not the intemperance or the malice of men abuse And as the Prince of Pagan Philosophers hath rightly observed there is nothing they so perniciously abuse as that which is of its self best Aristot Rhet. and most profitable To conclude since the same GOD who knows the nature and the efficacy of His own Scriptures better than any commands us all to read them it 's an insufferable temerity for a man to intrude with his advice and change what the LORD hath appointed as if he were wiser than the Most High But the Apostle clearly refuteth this calumny of Rome against Scripture in the other part of this Text 2 Tim. 3.16 where he sets before us the fruits and uses we ought to draw from it Ye teaching saith he and admonishing one another by Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs with grace singing from your heart unto the LORD Else-where he advertiseth us that the Scripture is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness Here in like manner he setteth down for the first fruit we are to gather from this rich knowledge of the word of GOD that mutual teaching we owe one another for the second advertisement or admonition for a third consolation by the singing of Psalms and spiritual Hymns As to the First I grant the charge of teaching in the Church does principally pertain to Pastors appointed to this end yet there is not the privatest believer but doth also participate some way of this function when he hath the gift and the opportunity to edifie men in the knowledge of true religion Particularly Fathers and Mothers owe this office to their children husbands to their wives masters to their housholds the elder to the younger and in fine each one to his reighbour when he hath the conveniency Whence appears again how far distant the Apostles sentiment is from Rome's Paul would have the Faithful entertain with and instruct one another in the things of the word of GOD. Rome will not let any but the Clergie have power to speak of them The second use we ought to make of the Word of GOD is our admonishing one another Teaching doth properly respect faith admonition hath reference to manners The Scripture furnisheth us where-with to discharge both the one and the other of these two duties informing us plainly and plentifully as well of things that are to be beleeved as also of those that are to be done And it 's incumbent on the beleever to acquit himself in the matter according to the knowledge he hath instructing the ignorant and reproving the faulty all with a spirit of sweetness and discretion as the Apostle doth else-where prescribe For every man ought to look upon his neighbour as his brother reduce him if he stray raise him up if he fall clear things to him if he doubt and have in fine as much care of his welfare as of his own Far from us be the ferity of those proud spirits who would not be sollicitous in the least for their brethren's concerns and who if GOD should demand an account of them at their hands would be ready to say as Cain sometime answered Am I my Brother's keeper or Pedagogue Now as we are to be charitable and prudent for the performing of this service to our brethren so ought we again in our turn receive it from them with patience and meekness Remembring how the Psalmist says Let the righteous smite me Psal 141.5 it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent balm unto me The third and last use the Apostle would have us make of the word of CHRIST is in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs to sing from our hearts with grace unto the LORD The so doing doth respect partly the glory of GOD which we ought to celebrate by our singing and partly our own consolation and spiritual rejoycing For the LORD is so good that He hath provided even for the recreating of His children and knowing that Song is one of His most natural means extremely proper both to dilate the contentment of our hearts and render it full-blown as also to alleviate and mitigate their sorrows He hath not only permitted us but even commanded to sing unto Him spiritual songs And for the forming us unto so holy and so profitable an exercise He hath given us in His word a great number of these Divine Canticles as the Psalms of David and the Hymns of divers other faithful and religious persons dispersed here and there in the books of the Old and New Testament The Apostle nameth three sorts of them Psalms Hymns or Praisâ— and Odes or Songs Now though there be no need to take much pains in an exact distinguishing of these three sorts of Sonnets nevertheless I think their opinion very probable who put this difference between them that a Psalm is in general any spiritual ditty whatever the subject of it be that an Hymn particularly signifies Sonnets composed to the praise of GOD and that an Ode or Song is a kind of Hymn of more art and various composition than others You have divers examples of them all in the book of Psalms First all the composures there are called Psalms in general But it 's very evident they are not all of a sort There are some in which is celebrated the goodness the wisdom and the power of the LORD either towards David or towards the Church or in reference to all creatures These are properly Hymns and such is the eighteenth Psalm the hundred and fourth the hundred forty fifth and many others There are others in which are mystically and elegantly represenced with an excellent artificialness either the wonders of CHRIST as the forty fifth the seventy second the hundred and tenth and the like or the histories of the ancient people as the seventy eighth the hundred and fifth and hundred and
much more passion should we have for those that had their share in the fortune and atchievments of St. Paul and held some rank with him in the house and service of CHRIST our supream and eternal Monarch For I affirm and every reasonable person that shall seriously consider the thing will accord with me that the exploits of St. Paul and his associates under the Name and Ensign of JESUS CHRIST are much greater and more admirable than all the lofty deeds of the most renowned Conquerors So that if the grandeur of a matter do give us the curiosity to inform our selves of the names and qualities of those that intervened in it this alone ought to be no little satisfaction to us even that we find in this passage of St. Paul's Epistle the names of seven or eight of these the LORD 's generous warriers who coming out of divers quarters to rank themselves on each side of our great Apostle combated the enemy at Rome that is in his strongest Hold and there maugre all his fury planted the Empire and the Trophies of their Master But beside the just and lawful contentment that such a knowledge may give us this passage will also afford us divers other very useful instructions the Spirit that guided this sacred writer promoting not a word but is full of wisdom And this reverent opinion we ought to have of all things contained in the book of GOD. For as when in the shop of an intelligent and able Herbalift you see dry and wither'd simples that have neither smell nor tast nor colour you believe however that they have some secret vertue which lies hidden under that poor and unpromising appearance presuming that they would not else have been ever laid up in such a place So when in the holy Scriptures you meet with some passage or other that at first seems little worthy of consideration casting if I may so speak no smell shewing no colour to affect or excite our perceptive faculty make account that under this so unattractive an outside there is undoubtedly some spiritual utility contained for that JESUS the sovereign Physician of souls hath laid up nothing in this divine shop of his which is superfluous or without use You will by experience find it true if you take the pains to examine attentively and as our Saviour speaks to sound this text of the Apostles which containing only some recommendations and salutations which are little considerable in appearance will nevertheless afford you divers instructions very useful for the edification of your souls Now to ease you in this meditation we will employ the present hour by the will of GOD in discovering to you some of the remarkablest among them And that we may proceed in it with some order we wil handle the two parts of this text distinctly the one after the other In the first which comprehends the first three verses the Apostle recommends to the Colossians two considerable persons whom he sent unto them namely Tychicus and Onesimus In the second which extends through all the rest of the Text as far as the twelfth verse of the chapter he presents them the salutations of certain faithful servants of GOD that then sojourned at Rome were near him Upon the first of these two general heads there instantly offers its self to our observation the zeal and affection of this holy man for his Master's flock and withall his wisdom and spiritual prudence He was prisoner at Rome in the chains of Nero uncertain of the issue of his captivity persecuted by the Jews hated of the Heathen and for a surcharge of affliction turmoiled by the malevolence and cruel designs of some that called themselves Christians One would think that in so great and so confus'd and terrible a combate he should have minded himself only and that he were in an estate to receive the succours of other faithful men but not give them his Not a man of us but finding himself in a like danger would conceive himself dispens'd with for taking to heart the necessities of others and believe he had just cause to gather up and fix all his cares on his own need But this holy Minister of GOD to whom a most ardent charity did render the interests of his Master's sheep much more sensible than his own makes a quite different judgment in the case Neither his irons nor his prison neither the fury of the Jews nor the cruelty of the heathen nor the inhumanity of false brethren nor death nor the sword that hung continually over his head are able to put one moment out of his heart 2 Cor. 11.28 that care of the Churches which held him as he very truly saith elsewhere incessantly besieg'd from day to day knowing then the trouble the Colossians were in for him and the attempts that false teachers made upon their saith he contents not himself with writing this divine letter to them that is with sending them in this paper a living and abundant source of consolation and of succour against the horror of persecutions and the impostures of seducers he dispatcheth also two messengers unto them to inform them exactly of all the particularities of his imprisonment to tell them by word of mouth divers things which could not be written and to discourse upon and explain those which the brevity of a letter had not permitted him to enlarge For that such was the cause of his sending them himself doth expresly declare They shall advertise you saith he of all affairs here and speaking of Tychicus one of them He shall let you know saith he all mine estate For to this end have I expresly sent him unto you In the following words again he intimates another reason that he might know saith he your state True it is that there are some manuscript Greek copies that read a little otherwise namely that ye might know our state And verily it is thus the Apostle speaks of his sending the same Tychicus to the Ephesians I have sent him to you expresly saith he for this end that ye might know our state But it imports not much which of these two ways we read the Apostles words For there is fair probability that as the Colossians were in pain for him so he was likewise in pain for them both because of the persecutions which the faithful were then everywhere subject to and also for the trouble which he understood that Church received from some false teachers so that to satisfie this common and reciprocal desire which the Colossians and he had to receive certain and exact news of one another he sent Tychicus to them who might inform them of his and understand theirs to impart the same to him He adjoyneth the last and principal end in of sending Tychicus that saith he he might comfort your hearts For it was certainly the consolation of these faithful people that the Apostle sought But you will say what consolation could the report of St. Paul's affairs
the will of the LORD is and elsewhere again he commandeth us to prove it The necessity of the other point Rom. 12.2 our LORD JESUS CHRIST sheweth us when He saith in the Gospel according to St. Matthew Not every one that saith unto me LORD LORD shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 I acknowledge that while the beleever is here below there want many degrees both in his knowledge of the will of GOD and in the obedience he renders Him of that ultimate and supreme perfection which he shall one day attain unto in Heaven 1 Cor. 13.12 according to the Apostle's assertion in 1 Epist to the Corinthians that now we see through a glass darkly and know but in part but then we shall see face to face and know as we are known Yet this hinders not but that setting this comparison aside that measure of faith and holiness which the faithful do at present attain unto may be termed a perfection and compleatness because it is without hypocrisie reaching to internals and externals and doth include all the parts of true piety and chastity not one left out And it 's in this sense that the truly faithful are oft-times in Scripture called perfect and compleat to wit in reference to the state and measure of the present life for a distinguishing of them not only from prophane and brutish men who take up no part of the will of GOD at all but also from hypocrites and carnal Christians who consider but a part thereof halting between two and are throughly and absolutely neither in CHRIST nor of the world Epaphras had reason to desire this perfection for his Colossians since that no one without it can inherit everlasting life And they who dogmatize that it is not universally necessary for the obtaining of salvation and that it is a matter of counsel as they call it not of command they I say are grievously mistaken and do by this pernicious errour open a door of licence unto wicked men and furnish them with pillows to sleep upon in mortal security For our parts dear Brethren follow we the prayer of Epaphras and take good heed we never count that thing superfluous or unnecessary which he so instantly beg'd of GOD for his flock and sheep And knowing that they shall have no part in Heaven whose righteousness doth not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and that JESUS CHRIST will receive in thither none but them that have done the will of GOD His Father let us apply our selves with all our might â—o know it and fulfil it Let us give our selves no rest untill by prayers and tears and by continual labour and exercise in the Gospel we have attained to be perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. Yet it is not enough to attain hereto we must abide and stand firm in it as the Apostle here says persevere constantly to our last breath in this brave and blessed undertaking neither the menaces nor the caresses of the world neither the Sophisms of seducers nor the scandals of false brethren nor the weaknesses of our own flesh ever prevailing over us to make us vary For you know that the crown of salvation is for them alone that persevere It 's thus that Epaphras strove to obtain of GOD by his ardent and assiduous prayers that the Colossians might abide perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. But because the Apostle knew how much it concerned this people to be firmly perswaded of the affection of their Pastor that he might assure them fully of it he alledgeth to them the authority of his own testimony For saith he I bear him witness that he hath a great zeal that is a very ardent affection for you and for them of Laodicea and of Hierapolis These were two Cities of Phrygia neighbouring on Colosse where the LORD JESUS had Churches that served Him in the faith of His Gospel And that of Laodicea is one of the seven to whom He caused to be written by St. John those excellent Epistles which are read in the first Chapters of his Apocalypse You see what care the Apostle takes to set Epaphras right in the Spirit of his flock Whence you may judge how execrable is the rage or envy of those who quite contrary to this holy man do by their detractions and ill offices endeavour to alienate or slacken the inclination of Churches towards their Pastors and in so doing render their ministry unprofitable to them But to proceed After the salutation of Epaphras the Apostle presents them that of Luke and Demas Luke the beloved Physitian saluteth you saith he and also Demas It 's the constant opinion from all antiquity that the first of these two is the same St. Luke that wrote the third of our Gospels and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles two of the most excellent pieces that we have in the Divine writings of the New Testament And verily besides the name of Luke his own history as seems to me leads us to it For himself relateth that he embarqued with St. Paul when he was carried prisoner into Italy and that he came with him to Rome as you may see in the two last Chapters of the Acts where he describes this voyage Therefore being there with the Apostle there is all the probability in the World that he 's the person St. Paul speaks of in this place it being not found that mention is made in Scripture of any other faithful man of that name He calls him Physician because of his former profession as you see that St. Matthew is sometimes termed a Publican because he e'rwhile was so before his conversion But that same heavenly call that had changed Matthew from a Publican into an Apostle and afore-time of a keeper of sheep made David a Pastor of Nations wrought a like miracle in St. Luke and of a Physician to the body made him a Physician of souls His two books shew us how able he was in this Divine art and as often as you read them at home or hear them publickly here where because of their excellency they are both of them explained to you make account that they are a quantity of wholsome medicines presented you to be applied to your souls as you have need I well know that there are some modern Expositors who referr what the Apostle saith here unto another Luke but they produce no valuable reason For whereas they alledge that the Apostle would have adorned this person with some more illustrious Elogie if he had spoken of Luke the Evangelist this is extremely feeble Is it not a very glorious qualifying of him to call him his well-beloved It 's a great honour to have the love of so holy an Apostle and an assured testimony of piety and vertue Withal it is not alwaies necessary to accompany the names of illustrious persons
with all the Elogies they merit Surely the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews naming Timothy whose praise and great advantages in the work of the ministry and in all vertue every one sufficiently knows calls him simply his brother Timothy The other on whose behalf he salutes the Colossians is Demas In the Epistle to Philemon written at the same time with this and in which he maketh mention or most of the persons here named he placeth Demas with Mark and Aristarchus and St. Luke among his fellow-labourers whence it appears that he was a Minister of the word of GOD of the order of those who served for helpers to the Apostles and are stiled Evangelists But after he had for a space ran well after he had appeared with praise among the lights of the Church alas he lost in the end this fair crown of glory St. Paul who vouchsafed to give his name such an honourable rank in two places of his Epistles in a third tells this lamentable story Demas saith he hath forsaken me having lov'd this present world 2 Tim. 4.10 and is departed unto Thessalonica From this doleful example let us all learn Dear Brethren and particularly such of us as GOD hath called to the holy Ministry to stand on our guard and to mortifie in our selves worldly lusts as avarice the love of life and pleasures ambition and such like passions which ruined Demas And if the Dragon cast down some of the stars that shined in the heaven of our Churches if the flesh and the earth the food and the fulness of Egypt and the false grandeurs of Chaldea cause them unworthily to quit the design and the hopes of mystical Canaan let us not be scandalized at it We are not better then the Apostles If all the light of their wisdom and miracles could not keep Demas from becoming bankrupt of the truth we ought not to think it strange if there happen to be among us some whom belly and vanity do precipitate into the like fault notwithstanding the clearness and evidence of our holy doctrine But it is time to pass into the second part of our Text in which the Apostle orders the Colossians three things first to salute those of Laodicea on his behalf secondly to communicate this Epistle of his to them and thirdly to advertise Archippus of his duty Salute saith he the brethren that is the Christians which are at Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his house This Nymphas dwelt either in the City of Laodicea it self or in the Countrey near it as some in my opinion do without necessity suspect The Apostle names him in particular because doubtless he was one of the most considerable persons of the flock at Laodicea and St. Paul's affirming that he had a Church in his house doth sufficiently testifie the zeal of his piety This Church was not a place in his house where the Assemblies for religious exercises were for the Scripture never useth the word Church in this sense which is now common among Christians but it is his houshold and the persons whereof it consisted who all made profession of Christianity with him and were confirmed and edified therein by his instructions and good examples Whence appears the vanity of the pretension of those at Rome who acknowledge no Church to be but which braves it in the world and carries with it the pomp of multitude and prosperity The Church of JESUS CHRIST is found where ever He is known and served and adored according to His Gospel within the enclosure of the walls of an house in the very caverns of mountains and coverts of the wilderness whither the Holy Spirit expresly foretelleth us that the Spouse of the Lamb shall be sometimes constrained to retire The second order which the Apostle gives the Colossians is considerable When this Epistle saith he hath been read among you cause that it be also read in the Church of the Laodiceans and read ye also the Epistle from Laodicea First his willing that this Epistle of his be publickly read in the assemblies of these two Churches doth shew us that the Scriptures of GOD were given us to the end all the people of CHRIST Clerks and Laicks small and great should hear and read them and not to be put into the hands of one certain sort of persons only as if this treasure did belong to none but them And hence appears the abuse of those who read the Scriptures to their people but in a language they understand not which is as bad yea in my opinion worse then if they read them not at all For not to read them is simply to bereave the people of the profit they might make of them whereas to read them in an unknown tongue is not only to deprive them of their edification but moreover to mock them and no less offend GOD by perverting His word in such a manner from its due tâ—e and end What shall I say of their outrage who accuse these Divine books of ambiguity of obscurity of seeming contradictions and errours Who say that the reading of them is dangerous and more apt to corrupt and embroil the faithful then to instruct or edifie them O holy Apostle why didst thou put so dangerous a book into our hands a book full of thorns and void of fruit Why didst thou order them to read it in their assembly to impart it unto neighbouring Churches and enjoyn them to read it also Why didst thou not fear the infecting the Spirits of thine innocent Disciples and the insnaring of them in some heresie by the darkness of thy riddles or the sowing of some disorder in their hearts by the ambiguity of thine expressions Dear Brethren the Apostle answers that his Gospel is clear that it is not covered but to unstable spirits and such as are engaged in some evil passion that this Epistle is not any seed of errour but a remedy against seduction a vessel full not of poysons but of preservatives and antidotes But I perceive what the matter is The Scriptures seem to these Gentlemen dangerous because saying nothing of their Pope nor of their Mass nor of the worship of their Saints and Images nor of their Purgatory and such other points nay saying many things which are evidently contrary unto them they easily induce those that read them with respect to beleeve that these doctrines have been invented by men and were never taught by JESUS CHRIST and His Apostles This book troubles them because they find not their reckoning in it it is obscure because what they love do's not there appear It is ambiguous because it pronounceth nothing clearly or expresly for the opinions which they are resolved never to forsake Furthermore this imparting of St. Paul's Epistle unto the Laodiceans unto which the Colossians were obliged by his order shews us that there ought to be an holy and charitable commerce between the Churches of JESUS CHRIST in reference to spiritual things