place of Circumcision now abolished the fruits of which seal are mortification of sin and vivification in grace by vertue of the death resurrection of Jesus Christ being laid hold on by faith which is wrought in us by the mighty power of God so that there was no place left for Circumcision Doct. 1. The Sacrament of Baptism under the new Testament succeedeth to Circumcision under the old and is to be administred to Children born within the visible Church as Circumcision was to Infants of eight dayes age then Gen. 17. 12. for not only both do seal the same Covenant of grace and are initiatory seals of it but also Paul sheweth that the Christian Church is as compleat now in Christ as the Jewish Church was though we want Circumcision because we have an Ordinance as good as it was to wit Baptism Now if Baptism did not belong to Infants we should not yet be so compleat as they were seeing the Covenant was sealed by Circumcision both to themselves and their little ones Buried with him in Baptism 2. Regeneration consists of two parts to wit first Mortification of sin which ought to be a through and constant work here set forth by our being buried which speaketh more than death And secondly Vivification or quickning in grace set forth by our rising again Doct. 3. Both those parts of Regeneration are sealed in Baptism not as if we were of necessity to suppone that those are already in the person to be baptized but because Baptism obligeth the baptized person to set about these and sealeth up the whole Promises on Gods part even those which are for sanctification and grace so that whenever the party baptized shall lay hold by faith upon the Promise he hath God engaged by word and seal to make it out thus Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. 11. and yet it was not to be supponed that every Child of eight dayes age had actual faith Buried with him in Baptism wherein ye are also risen 4. Though the Sacraments do seal up grace to us in the way presently mentioned yet they do not confer grace upon us by any proper vertue of their own nor yet is there any principle of power in us which can reach the effectuating of such a work Eph. 2. 1. although the Sacraments do strongly tie us to the working of it as said is It is only the death burial and resurrection of Christ which is the fountain-fountain-cause of our dying to sin and living to God in so far as by the merit efficacy and example of the former we attain unto the latter in which respect we are said to be buried with him and risen with him 5. It is no lesse than the infinit power of God which worketh faith in us and neither Sacraments nor the Death or Life of Christ will avail to the subduing of sin and quickning of grace except Jesus Christ be laid hold upon by faith We are buried with him by faith and faith is the operation of God 6. In our acting of faith in God we are not to lay hold upon him in a general confused notion but should eye that in God most which is most conducing unto that purpose for which we do imploy him Thus speaking of faith as it imployeth God for quickning in grace he casteth an eye to that work of God whereupon our quickning in grace dependeth most even his raising of Christ from the dead Vers. 13. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses He giveth a further reason against the necessity of circumcision to wit when they were dead in sin and without circumcision as being Gentiles see Eph. 2. 11. God had quickened them with Christ making them partake of the life of grace purchased by him here and giving them right to the life of glory hereafter having pardoned all their sins freely for his sake So there was no necessity but rather it would be impiety to return unto Circumcision now especially seeing it was urged by the false Apostles as a necessary mean to get their natures purified and their sins pardoned Doct. 1. Every man by nature through sin is in a state of death he is thereby spiritually dead as being deprived of all grace union and communion with God chap. 1. 21. he is also judicially dead as lying under the sentence of death pronounced by the Covenant of Works Gen. 2. 17. And you being dead in your sins 2. As this state of death doth totally disable us from quickening our selves it is onely God who quickeneth so no misery of the creature though never so comprehensive as extending it self both to our outward and inward state though never so desperate as being past all remedie by humane help will impede God from doing good and bestowing of the choicest good Thus though they were miserable for their inward state as being dead and so incurable by humane Art and for their outward state as being in the uncircumcision of their flesh or uncircumcised Gentiles yet God doth quicken them 3. Whenever a man believeth in Christ he is in the same moment of time united to Christ and so that all which he did or suffered as sustaining our person or which he procured for our behoof as being our Head whether in his death buriall or resurrection is imputed to us by God and a right unto them derived to us as if we had been personally present with him all those times and given our consent to his doing of all those things in our name and for our behalf hence is it that He is said to have quickened these Colossians together with him though Christ had risen from the dead some years before their coversion 4. There is no spirituall life attainable except our obligation to wrath by the pardon of sin be removed you hath he quickened having forgiven you all your trespasses 5. This pardon though dearly purchased by Christ Matth. 26. 28. yet it is freely bestowed upon us having forgiven you the word signifies freely forgiven as coming from a root which signifies grace 6. Pardon of sin is also universall as leaving no sin unpardoned to him who doth believe and repent Psal. 32. 5. having forgiven you all trespasses Vers. 14. Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his crosse The Apostle illustrates the benefit of pardon and bringeth an argument against the Ceremoniall Law in generall by shewing God had not onely forgiven the debt of sin but Christ also by his death had destroyed their obligation to wrath because of sin making it altogether uselesse ever to give faith in Law against them which obligation he calleth the hand-writing of ordinances which was contrary to us alluding to written obligations among men for sums of money or such like wherein there is the body of
freeing of him from it so far is he from rescuing himself by any power preserved in his own free-will after the fall of Adam He must deliver us by main force or pluck us away as the word signifieth from the power of darkness 4. Though God doth not constrain the will of man by force yet he imployeth omnipotent power to remove his unwillingnesse and to make him willing to obey his call Eph. 1. 19. Who hath delivered us 5. There is no middle state betwixt the power of darknes and the state of grace all who breathe are either in the one or the other the Apostle mentioneth no other state but the Power of darknesse and the Kingdom of his dear Son 6. The state of grace and Gods favour is called a Kingdom because by grace the hearts of men are subdued to God as King whose Laws are full of equity and moderation Psa. 19. 7. and who moveth the wills of men sweetly as being willing subjects in the day of his power Psal. 110. 3. and doth not drive them on by tyranny or force 7. The state of grace is the Kingdom of his dear Son who is appointed of the Father to be head of the Church by whom all do enter that do come to the Kingdom Joh. 14. 6. and all grace is derived from God the fountain through him yea he dispenseth grace and glory as he thinketh fit Act. 5. 31. even he whom the Father loveth dearly and through whom all the subjects of this Kingdom are dearly beloved also Mic. 5. 5. The Kingdom of his dear Son Vers. 14. In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins He explaineth further how we are meet for Heaven and delivered from the power of darknesse to wit by our Redemption in Christ from sin Satan and wrath by vertue of a price paid by the Mediator to the Fathers justice even his blood which Redemption he explaineth from its principal part remission of sins in justification for Redemption is not here taken for the laying down of the price by Christ as Luke 2. 38. but for the fruits flowing from it not for that compleat redemption and freedom from sin and misery which the godly shall enjoy at the last day Rom. 8 23. Eph. 4 30. but for that measure of freedom which Believers do enjoy here by faith so that remission of sins is a principal part of it Doct. 1. As all men by nature are in a state of bondage to sin Satan and wrath so there is no freedom from this state except Redemption go before the word Redemption supponeth both these 2. No way of Redemption could be accepted but that which is by giving of a ransom and recompence for the wrong done by sin unto Divine Justice there is no redemption but through blood 3. None was fit to give this ransom but Jesus Christ God and Man In whom to wit Christ we have redemption 4 Nothing performed by Christ could be a sufficient ransom for this end except he had crowned all his other actions and sufferings by laying down his life and undergoing a bloody and violent death for we have redemption through his blood not as excluding his former obedience but as being the complement and crowning of it Rom. 5. 18 19. 5. Though Jesus Christ did pay this ransom unto God Eph. 5. 2. and not to Satan whose slaves we are by nature yet by vertue of the ransom paid we are delivered from Satans slavery and sins dominion for the Apostle clearing what he had said ver 13. of our being delivered from the power of darknesse he giveth this as a reason In whom we have redemption through his blood When God the just Judge was satisfied Satan the Jaylor and unjust Tyrant did lose his right to keep us longer in bonds so that Christ doth justly deliver the Redeemed Ones from him by force Heb. 2. 14. Matth. 12. 29. 6. Though Christ by his obedience and suffering did pay unto the Fathers Justice a sufficient ransom for our Redemption yet we do not actually partake of that freedom until we be in him and by faith united to him In whom we have redemption 7. Sin is the fountain-fountain-cause of our slavery and bondage so that it must be removed before our bondage cease thus speaking of our Redemption he instanceth it in the remission of sin 8. Because sin is a debt obliging us either to pay an infinite price or to undertake eternal wrath Gen. 2. 17. therefore that sin might be removed the Son of God behooved to shed his blood for our ransom We must have redemption through his blood otherwise there is no remission of sin 9. When this ransom is laid hold upon by faith and we thereby ingrafted in him the guilt of sin is freely remitted and we compleatly pardoned so being in him we have forgiveness of sins Vers. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God the first-born of every creature The Apostle having mentioned our Redemption doth here fall upon a description of the Redeemer and this both that in his worth the worthlesnesse of all other things whether of Angels or dead Ceremonies upon which the false Apostles did place equal honour with Christ chap. 2. v. 8. might be seen as also that the sufficiency of his blood in order to the redemption of sinners might the better appear as being the blood of such an one who is here described First From his internal relation to God He is the image of the invisible God as well in respect of his eternal generation being the expresse image of the Father Heb. 1. 3. as also that being made man God the Father did in him and by him as a lively image set forth unto us his glorious attributes of wisdom mercy righteousnesse and power John 14. 9. Secondly From his eternal relation to all things created He is the first-born of every creature as being from all eternity begotten of the Father before any thing was created and Lord and Heir of all the creatures as the first-born was among the Brethren Gen. 27. 37. Doct. 1. The knowledge of Christs worth doth contribute much to confirm and illustrate the doctrine of mans Redemption the excellency and fulnesse of Christ being that strong Basis and corner-stone to uphold and the great mean to carry on and throughly to effectuate that admirable work 1 Cor. 3. 11. Hence speaking of man's Redemption he inserteth in this verse and the three following this excellent description of Christ Who is the image c. 2. As the Divine Nature considered in it self is invisible it being impossible with bodily eyes to behold him at any time yea and also with the eyes of the mind except indirectly while we' are in this life 1 Cor. 13. 12. so the first person of the Godhead is conceived to be in a special manner invisible because he did never at least very seldom appear in any visible shape to men as the Son did frequently to the
by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled 22. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight What he spoke of reconciliation in general he applieth to the Collossians in particular hereby to make way for the following exhortation and having shown the miserable state wherein they were by nature as being not only strangers but enemies to God and that because of sin in them He declareth the gracious change wrought in them they being put in a state of friendship with God which Christ had purchased for them by taking on a true body subject to fleshly infirmities though without sin Heb. 4. 15. and by suffering death in it and all this that they might be presented free from all sin and perfect in holinesse before God in the last day Doct. 1. That general Truths may not be without fruit being looked upon as remote from us Ministers would labour prudently to apply them to the particular state and severall cases of hearers so doth Paul here You hath he reconciled 2. As those who are at peace with God were once in as desperate an estate as others so it concerneth them who are delivered from that state and would have the sense of that mercy kept still lively and fresh and not be puffed up with their present good condition despising others to be frequently minding that woful case wherein they were when first free-grace did lay hold upon them so Paul to commend this peace-making mercy in God doth mind them they were sometimes alienated and enemies in their mind 3. The state of man by nature is most miserable as being first estranged from God having no spiritual communion with him Gen. 3. 8 9. 24. nor any right or claim to that happinesse which floweth from the the enjoyment of him Psa. 58. 3. So they were sometimes alienated to wit by Adams fall as the fountain-cause Secondly they are enemies to God as fighting against Gods revealed will Rom. 6. 19. and hating God Rom. 8. 7. though not as creator and preserver of the world yet as he is a just Judge armed with vengeance against those who do wickedly and God is an enemy to them Isa. 63. 10. who though he love his Elect even in their unregenerate state with an everlasting love Eph. 1. 4. yet so long as they are unrenewed and have not fled to Christ by faith he cannot adjudge them to eternal life or look upon them any other way than as men under an actuall obligation to lie under the curse of the Law which is eternal wrath so they are enemies Thirdly As the cause of this enmity betwixt God and man is no wrong done on Gods part Mic. 6. 3. but mans own sin and wrong done by him to God so the great part of man's misery by nature consisteth in this his sin whereby the chiefest part of him even his soul and all the faculties of it to wit his reason Eph. 4. 18. will and affections Gen. 6. 5. all of which are here signified by the mind are wholly corrupted from whence doth flow all his actuall wickednesse and so much of it that every action of his is polluted as proceeding from such a silthy fountain Enemies in your mind by wicked works Doct. 4. As there is nothing in us to bud or buy free-grace with so by-past misery though arrived at the height of enmity against God will not impede Jesus Christ to work a miracle of mercy where he intendeth to be gracious so you who were enemies yet now hath he reconciled 5. The reconciliation of the Elect unto God is not from eternity nor the time of Christs death nor at any time before the sinner doth beleeve in Jesus Christ Election indeed is from eternity Eph. 1. 4. and satisfaction for sin was given to the Father's justice by Christ upon the crosse Joh. 19. 30. but justification is not until the self-condemned sinner assent to the bargain and enter himself heir unto Christ's purchase by faith for he speaks of them as now being reconciled having imbraced the Gospel when before they were enemies 6. The second person of the blessed Trinity in order to our reconciliation with God behoved to be incarnate taking on a true fleshly body not in appearance only and subject to all the common and sinlesse infirmities of flesh reconciled in the body of his flesh 7. It was necessary also in order to our reconciliation for Jesus Christ to suffer death in his body that thus Christ our surety and one of the same nature with us being seized upon we the principal debters might be absolved and set free Joh. 18. 8. yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death 8. As reconciliation with God hath holinesse of life following on it so the sanctifying of those who are reconciled is a work undertaken by Christ which he is to carry on from one degree unto another until he compleat it at death and so present the justified person holy unblamable and unreprovable in his sight that is Perfectly sanctified as the multiplying of words to one purpose doth import which is not to be accomplished untill death no nor fully in both soul and body joyned together until the day of his second coming Vers. 23. If ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under Heaven whereof I Paul am made a Minister In the third part of the chapter he exhorts them to persevere in the faith of the former doctrine not questioning the truth thereof nor quitting those hopes of good things to come which was begotten in them by it and that because what he had spoken of their reconciliation did depend upon their perseverance and the doctrine was the same with that which at Christ's command was taught through the world by Apostles and which he himself was called by God to preach among the Gentiles Doct. 1. Though a Minister may speak to a mixed multitude indefinitly sometimes as to regenerate persons 1 Cor. 6. 11. because the better part are so Mal. 3. 16 17. And sometimes as to unregenerate Deut. 29. 4 because the greater part ordinarily are such Matth. 22. 14. yet it is safest for him alwayes to guard what he so speaketh by propounding some marks and qualifications of those to whom the thing spoken doth belong lâ—st people stumble by conceiving their state to be either better or worse than really it is Rev. 3. 17. So Paul having spoken vers 22 indefinitly of them all as being reconciled he doth now restrict his speech only to those who had saving faith and would persevere in it If ye continue in the faith 2. All those who are reconciled to God having fled to Christ by faith shall undoubtedly persevere unto the end as being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.
name of evill concupiscence even those are to be mortified evil concupiscence 7. We do then set against sin to some purpose when we pursue it to the den and labour to pluck it up by the very roots with-drawing from those things which adde fuell to it for he will have them going from the outward acts of filthinesse to the inward root evill concupiscence and to set against covetousnesse also whereby lust is sed and nourished evill concupiscence and covetousnesse 8. Covetousnesse which consists in an immoderate desire to acquire or keep worldly riches is a sin which all Christians are to mortifie not onely because it provideth oyl to make all other sins burn but it hath a kind of idolatry in it as drawing our love trust fear and joy from God and his service to be taken up with and laid out upon wealth and riches more than any other sins and covetousnesse which is idolatry Vers. 6. For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience He presseth the exhortation by arguments The first is taken from the wrath of God manifested in its sad effects upon those who have continued contumacious and impenitent under those sins Doct. 1. Unbelief of divine promises and threatnings and obstinat impenitency under sin go together the latter following upon the former for disobedience signifieth both misbelief and contumacy or disobedience 2. It is not sin in it self so much as obduration in it which draweth down wrath chiefly lasting wrath upon the sinner For those things wrath cometh upon the children of disobedience or children of contumacy 3. Whatever judgments be already inflicted upon wicked men they have ground to look for more for wrath cometh in the mean time and is still coming upon the children of disobedience 4. Though the Lord be sometimes wroth with the truly godly because of sin yet he is not wroth for ever Isa. 57. 16. he debateth with them but in measure Isa. 27. 7 8. The wrath which is due unto and is accordingly poured forth upon contumacious sinners is of another kind as being everlasting without any mixture of fatherly mercy and flowing from sin-pursuing justice Matth. 25. 4. for which cause he holdeth forth that wrath which cometh on the children of disobedience as being most terrifying 5. As the consideration of the terror of divine wrath is a strong aw-band to restrain from sin So it is most moving when considered in the sad and woful experience of those who have found the dolefull effects of it for he mentioneth the effects of this wrath upon others to fear them 6. Sin keepeth so much of its old interest in the best and even Believers sometimes are so much overtaken with spiritual deadnesse Isa. 64. 7. that there is need to present the terror of divine wrath unto them to fear them from sin and excite them to duty for the Apostle proponeth the terror of divine wrath even to those believing Colossians Vers. 7. In the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them Here is a second argument taken from their by-past long continance in these sins when they lived in them or were in their natural state Doct. 1. It is not some moe or fewer particular acts of a man's life but his ordinary strain and way according to which sentence is to passe upon his state whether it be good or bad It was their walking in sin and making a daily trade of it which argued them to be in nature or living in sin 2. Before a mans effectual calling there is no difference betwixt him and the most godlesse man that is so as to make God his debtor either by promise or because of any worth which is in him to give him grace Rom. 11. 35. for as long as those Colossians were unconverted they were as much inslaved to sin as the most obstinat of natural men are In which ye also walked 3. A mans walking in sin or his ordinary strain of breaking forth in the outward acts of it dependeth upon his living in sin or upon the inward power and dominion which sin exerceth in him even as natural life is the cause of outward motion So that the best way to curb the outward acts is to strike at the life and power of sin within In which ye walked when ye lived in them 4. Our calling to mind of by-past sins and our long continuance in them should not be without an holy indignation at them and at our selves for them so as to scar us from them in time coming for the Apostle mentioneth their by-past continuance in those sins as one argument to scar them from them Vers. 8. But now you also put off all these Anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth 9. Lie not one to another He returneth to the former exhortation of mortifying sin and exemplisieth it in another sort of corruptions to wit those which are more spiritual whereof he mentioneth six The first three are sins of the heart the rest are sins of the mouth Doct. 1. So deceitful are our hearts in adhering to sin even when they seem to quit it Psal. 78. 36 37. that we should not be easily satisfied with our mortifying or subduing of it for Paul having commanded them to mortifie and kill sin ver 5. he biddeth them here put it off which speaks somewhat further to wit a removing of it quite out of sight as we do dead bodies when we bury them for so the word sometimes signifieth 2. Though all sins be not alike throughly mortified there being some more deeply rooted than others Psal. 18. v. 23. yet the grace of mortification striketh at all known sin and spareth none for it opposeth sin as it is sin Gen. 39. v. 9. and so all sin So the Apostle commandeth But now also put you off all those And the particulars after mentioned are not for restriction but for instance or example 3. In the work of mortification we are not to rest upon the subduing of these sins which are grosse and fleshly but are to proceed against more spiritual sins also which have as much of guilt in them before God Gal. 5. 20. though not so much of infamy before men So the Apostle exhorteth to put off anger wrath c. 4. Anger which as distinguished from wrath and malice is an unjust desire of revenge is a sin unbeseeming Christians and so to be put off chiefly when wrath is joyned with it which as it is distinguished from anger pointeth at the gorging and swelling of the blood about the heart which fireth the eye and tongue even that passionate commotion which useth to accompany anger transforming a man to a very beast thrusting him forward to act some mischief Luke 4. 28 29. and banishing the Spirit of God Eph. 4. 30 31. Put off anger wrath c. 5. But then is anger and wrath most dangerous and unbeseeming Christians when malice is joyned which as it is distinguished