it Such as are not vertuous but after this manner are not so indeed They are subtil and dextrous but not good men And though the external lustre of these goodly works they do be apt to deceive men yet it will not be able to satisfie their own conscience if they have any and much less to content the eyes of GOD who judgeth of things by their in-side and their verity not by their apparence For that any act of beneficence of clemency of meeknesse and humanity may be holy and acceptable unto GOD 't is requisite it should proceed from a sincere love towards our neighbours If it come from any other principle it is of no value in reality how plausible and pompous soever it be in shew It 's a false and spurious production a fruit sair without but worm-eaten and corrupt within Beside that the thing speaks of its self St. Paul proclaims it in the thirteenth Chapter of the first to the Corinthians If I distribute all my goods saith he to feed the poor and have not charity it profits me nothing Therefore Brethren the same Apostle having here afore charged us to bear with one another to pardon one another and to perform all other acts of kindness mercy meeknesse and patience doth now add very pertinently for the purging of our hearts and works from all the venome of hypocrisie that together with these vertues which he hath exhorted us unto we have above all charity as that which is the soul of every true vertue and without which the fairest and most esteemed actions are but as an ancient Doctor said well glittering sins And beside all this saith the Apostle put on charity which is the bond of perfection And let the peace of GOD hold the chief place in your hearts unto which ye are called in one body and be ye thankful You plainly see that he recommends unto us three Christian vertues Charity the Peace of GOD and Thankfulness Now as for the last of these he only names it without saying ought else of it whereas in referrence to the other two he briefly sets before us some considerations that may oblige us to take up the studious pursuance of them For he saith of charity that it is the bond of Perfection and of the Peace of GOD that we are thereunto called in one body In compliance then with the order of our Text we will treat of three heads in this action if GOD please first of Charity secondly of the Peace of GOD and then for a conclusion in some brief touches of gratitude or thankfulness about which the Apostle speaks but a word and no more There is no person in the Church but knows that Charity is that pure and sincere and vertuous love which each of us doth owe to other men our neighbours upon the account of that communion of nature we have with them as also principally because of the image of GOD after which they all are created according to the expresse command that He hath given us to love them as our selves I grant it hath divers degrees and doth embrace men with some inequality these more strictly and those less according to the differences of their merit and worth as also of the union we have with them either in nature or in the state or in grace Nevertheless it extends its self unto all and doth not account any one a stranger but obligeth and serveth them freely as far as its ability permits and when occasion is offered For our LORD and Saviour teacheth us in the parable of that poor man whom the Samaritan assisted Luke 12.36 finding him in that pitiful estate the theeves had left him on the way from Jericho to Jerusalem that every man that needeth our help is our neighbour So that GOD and right reason obliging us to love whom ever that is our neighbour it 's out of all doubt that there is no man but we ought to love But as Charity hath a much greater extent than the friendship of the world so is its flame much more pure and holy For to say true men of the world love none but themselves it being evident that if they affect any it is not so much to do them good as to draw profit or pleasure from them But Charity doth sincerely affect its neighbour desiring to him and procuring him that good which is necessary to make him happy And the difference of these two affections comes from their causes For Charity issueth from the love of GOD whereas worldly friendship proceeds from that vicious and inordinate love which every one beareth to himself so as Charity loving our neighbour for GOD's sake seeks nothing but GOD's glory and the welfare of the person it loveth whereas a man of the world not loving but for his own sake does accordingly seek nothing but his own interests And though this doth plainly appear in the whole conduct of the one and the other of these loves yet it may be particularly observed in this one event namely that that affliction and misery which extinguisheth worldly amity doth make the affections of charity to flame more than ever an evident sign that the one is neither bred nor fed but by the fruit it gathers from the thing it loves whereas the other on the contrary being kindled by that ray of the Divine image which it sees ingraven on the nature of its neighbour is kept alwaies in and the more it sees him need its compassions and good offices the more it increaseth and redoubleth its endeavours It 's this holy and Christian Charity which the Apostle would have us put on And besides all this saith he put on Charity These words as they lye in the original may be taken two manner of waies both of them apt and good and such as have their authors Some interpret them and above or over all these things Others a little otherwise and for all these things Both the one and the others do accord that all those things which the Apostle intends are the same he had spoken of immediately before to wit those bowels of mercy that kindness that humility meekness and patience which in the precedent verses he commands us to put on Now then after the sense of the former of those interpreters he means that to this rich garment we should add charity putting it uppermost as a precious and an useful robe to cover and keep all the rest Not that we must put on charity last in regard of time after all those other vertues for on the contrary it ought to be first formed in us as the parent of whom the most part of the rest are to be brought forth But the Apostle makes use of this comparison upon the account of other resemblances that these things have with one another and the authors of this exposition do note three of that kind One that as the robe we put over our clothes is greater and larger than our other clothing so
CHRIST hath given us in raising us again with Himself doth oblige us These thoughts and works of Heaven are necessary productions of the principles and faculties of that life unto which we have been raised up You can neither be Christians without having part in the resurrection of our LORD nor have part in His resurrection except you walk with Him and wear that lightsome robe of sanctity wherewith He vesteth all the associates of His resurrection He Himself calleth us hereto from that lofty Throne whereon He sitteth at the right hand of GOD Faithful soul saith He to each of us look unto me and I will give thee light Fear not for I govern the Heavens and the earth Only fix thine eyes thy thoughts and thine heart on me and I will guide thee by my counsel and receive thee one day into my glory Dear Brethren this He doth promise us and of this He will give us earnest next LORD's-day at His holy table Let us do what He demands of us or to say better let us pray Him to do it in us and He will assuredly do what He promiseth us Unto Him unto the Father and unto the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen THE THIRTY THIRD SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER III IV. Verse III. For ye are dead and your life is hid with CHRIST in GOD. IV. When CHRIST who is your life shall appear then shall ye also appear with Him in glory DEAR Brethren The LORD JESUS being not only the author and the cause but also the pattern and exemplar of that great Salvation which GOD of His infinite mercy offereth to mankind in the Gospel it is not possible that we should have part in it or assuredly enter into this rich possession without having in us a resemblance of the same soveraign LORD and being as so many copies of this Divine Original where all His features and lineaments may appear though in a form and measure much less perfect and eminent than His. Rom. 8.28 Of this the Apostle expresly informeth us in his Epistle to the Romans saying that those whom GOD did fore-know that is love and discriminate from the rest of men according to His good pleasure to communicate really faith and eternal salvation unto them He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son Heb. 2.12 13. For this cause He doth us the honour to call us sometimes His children and sometimes His brethren by reason of the resemblance we have with Him the nature the condition the quality and as 't is commonly termed the fortune of children following the fathers and of brethren being like their elder brothers Whence the Apostle concludes in the Epistle to the Hebrews that He who sanctifyeth that is the LORD JESUS Heb. 8.11 and they who are sanctified that is the faithful are all of one that is of one and the same mass of one and the same form and nature And to make it plain to us the Scripture compareth Him sometimes to a Vine-stock Jo. 15. Rom. 11. otherwhile to an Olive-tree of each of which we are branches all of them things between which there is by nature a strict communion the one and the others having the same constitution and qualities And thence again it is that Saint Paul calleth Him our first-fruits when speaking of our death and the resurrection which is to succeed it he saith that CHRIST was made the first fruits of them that slâ—ep 1 Cor. 15.20 the first-fruits as you know being of the same condition and nature with the rest of those things out of the mass whereof they are taken Now although this consormity of the faithful with the LORD JESUS be of a large extent yet it doth principally appear in two heads wherein the Scripture doth particularly consider it to wit in His Death and in His Resurrection the happy remembrance whereof we have celebrated this morning For the death of JESUS CHRIST hath produced a death like it in all true believers reducing them by its efficacy and virtue unto a state conform to His when He was stretched out on the Cross and lay in the Sepulchre In like manner His Resurrection transmitteth into them a life like that which He resumed when having overcome death He issued out of His grave His Death is not only the cause but also the pattern of ours and likewise His Life is both the principle and exemplar of ours It 's of this death and this life Dearly beloved Brethren the effect and the image of the Death and Resurrection of the LORD that we make account to entertain you in this action For after our having celebrated the memory of the death and resurrection of this Great Saviour and participated of the one and the other by the vertue of His Spirit and our Faith what can we more pertinently meditate than the precious fruit which each of them produceth in us and the images of the one and the other of these mysteries which this Divine dead and again risen perâ—â—â— doth draw and form in us inasmuch as He changeth us after a sort into Himself by an impression of His omnipotent vertue so as if we have truly receiv'd Him we are become dead and risen again with Him St. Paui teacheth us this excellent and saving truth in the series of our ordinary Texts by these words which we have read for the subject of this exercise In those that preceded which we expounded eight daies since this great Apostle drew us from the earth that he might elevate us to Heaven where JESUS sitteth at the right hand of the Father Seek saith he the things which are above and not the things which are on the earth But because he knew how difficult such a transportation would be for persons who are still so many waies fastned to the earth to work so high a design thoroughly into us besides the reasons already represented which were taken from our resurrection with the LORD and from His presence and glorious soveraignty in the places he would elevate us to he further proposes two more for that end in this passage The one taken from our death For saith he ye are dead and the other from that new life which we have received a life hidden it 's true for the present in GOD but such as will be plainly and plenarily discovered one day at the manifestation of the LORD JESUS Your life saith he is hid with CHRIST in GOD. When CHRIST c. These are the two principal points we will treat of in this action the grace of our LORD assisting and Him we invocate praying that this word of His may be effectually in us His power to salvation throughly changing us into the similitude both of His salutary death and of His glorious life that being dead unto our selves we may not live henceforth but in Him unto His honour and the edification
all the sentiments we have Let there appear nothing in our words in our affections or our works but what is His. But this lesson of the Apostles doth no less recommend to us charity towards our neighbour than submission towards JESUS CHRIST For since the Church is a body and even the body of CHRIST that is the fairest and most perfect body in the world judge ye what ought to be the union and the love of all the faithful that compose it Look upon the body of man from which this resemblance is taken how great is the zeal of all the parts for the conservation of the whole How do they love it and conspire for it's good how do they do and suffer all things and each in it's rank expose their life and being for it Such ye Faithful ought to be your affection for the Church this Divine body of the LORD whereof you are members It s peace its preservation and its glory should be the object of your highest and most urgent defires There is nothing that should not be cheerfully employed in so brave a design Wo to them that have no feeling of the wounds of this sacred body that are not affected with its bruises and look upon the breaches of it unmoved who are so far from groaning at them and endeavouring to repair them that themselves make more rending with extream impiety and inhumanity the most innocent body in the world and most beloved of GOD the body of His Son which He hath redeemed at the price of His own Blood But besides the affection we ought to have for the Church in general this similitude advertiseth us also to love ardently each of the faithful in particular St. Paul toucheth at and treateth of this advice expresly in another place There is no division in the body 1 Cor. 12.25 26. saith he the members have a mutual care one of another and if one of the members suffer any thing all the members suffer with it or if one of the members be honoured all the members rejoyce together in it Now ye are the body of CHRIST and His members each one on his part O GOD how great would be our happiness and our glory if the union and concord of our flock did answer this fair and rich picture if knit together by an holy and inviolable love and having but one heart and one soul as we have but one Head we did amiably converse together tenderly resenting the good and evil of each other and each of us putting forth his power to conserve and encrease the good of our brethren and to comfort and cure their evils But alas instead of this sweet and grateful spectacle which would ravish heaven and earth we behold nothing among us but quarrels and coldness and hatred and animofities The welfare of our brethren displeaseth us and their ill case toucheth us not at all The former raiseth our envy and the latter stirreth not our compassion Vanity and the love of our selves make us either disdain or hate all others There are no bonds which our fierceness doth not break it equally violates both those of nature and those of grace Is this that great name of the body of CHRIST which we glory to be called by CHRIST is nothing but sweetness and love He hath laid down His life for His enemies How are we His we that hate and persecute our brethren And how are we His body since we rend one another Were ever the members of the same body seen at war together the hand assaulting the foot and the teeth falling on the hand If any such thing appear is it not taken for the effect of an extream rage or for an horrible prodigy Oh! how ordinary is this rage and this prodigy among us who being members of the same body and which infinitely augmenteth our shame of the body of CHRIST the Saviour of the world have yet no horrour at the biting and consuming of one another as if we were an herd of Canibals and not the flock of the Lord JESUS I well know we do not want plausible reasons to palliate each of us our faults passion it self making us witty in the defence of this bad cause But let our own conscience be our judge let it remember it hath to do with JESUS CHRIST and not with men if it beguile us it cannot deceive GOD. Renounce we then unfeignedly all this kind of vices and cordially loving our Brethren succouring the afflicted assisting the poor comforting the sick and living in concord with all let us truly be as we say we are the body of our LORD JESUS CHRIST It 's this in particular that the bread and the wine of our LORD the sacred embleme of our mystical union do require of us they mind us that we are but one bread and one body as the Apostle represents it Chap. 10. in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Finally this doctrine further sheweth us with what purity and sanctity we ought to keep our own persons since all being the body of CHRIST we are each one members of Him Against every temptation that sin shall let fly at us let us take up this consideration for our succour say shall I take the members of CHRIST to make of them members of Satan Shall I defile that body in the ordure of incontinency or of drunkenness or any other debauches which the Son of GOD hath cleansed with His blood which He hath united and joyned to Himself and whereof He is become their Head Far be it from me to commit so vile a fact It 's thus My Brethren that we ought to regulate our whole life for the being truly the body of CHRIST And if we so be this Divine Head doubt it not will love us and tenderly preserve us For no one ever yet hated his own flesh He will feed us and set us at His own Table and give us the bread and wine of Heaven and after the combats and trials of this life will clothe us with His own glory and immortality as being the first-born from the dead To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true GOD blessed for ever be honour and glory to ages of ages Amen THE X. SERMON COL I. Ver. XIX XX. Vers XIX For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell XX. And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself having made peace by the blood of His cross viz. as well the things that are in Earth as those that are in Heaven EVen as in the frame of Nature GOD hath set up one only principle of light namely the Sun and hath united in the body of this admirable luminary all the brightness that was spred through the universe that it might enlighten the Heavens and the earth and that from it as from a common source might stream forth into all things all the flame and warmth they do receive so likewise in the Kingdom of
the other Even such is the case of true Believers and such as are but temporary Persecution and offence do not make the difference which is seen between them when the former do retain the Gospel and the others quit it This event only sheweth that the one were GOD's wheat and the others but chaff according to what S. John saith of Apostates They went out from us because they were not of us 1 John 2.19 that it might be made manifest that all are not of us The same is to be further seen evidently in the Parable of the Sower where the LORD saith expresly Mat. 13.13 19 21. that he that persevereth had heard the word and understood it and receiv'd it in an honest and good heart Whereas He saith of them who do revolt that one heard but understood it not another had no root in himself An evident sign that their disposition was different at first before the perseverance of the one and the fall of the others Whence appears how impertinent the Argument is which our Adversaries draw from the Apostacy of the latter to prove that the faith of the former may fail and on the contrary For if the wind carry away the chaff it doth not therefore follow that it shall also bear away the corn and if the storm beat down an house that 's planted on two or three stakes it is not to be said it may do as much to an House that 's founded on a rock If the blade that shoots forth and grows up suddenly in the sand without any bottom happen to wither at the first extreme heat that smites it this implieth not that the like may betide the corn which is deeply rooted in a good and fertile soil The other point which we have to observe is the assurance of true faith excellently represented here by the Apostle in these words which are full of a singular Emphasis If you continue in the faith being founded and firm contrary to what is taught in the Church of Rome that faith is in a continual agitation so as a Believer can have no assurance that he is for present in the state of Grace and much less yet that he shall persevere in it for the future In Conscience can it be said of these people as the Apostle saith here of the LORD 's true Disciples that they are firm and founded How may it be seeing they incessantly float in doubt and uncertainty and are miserablely in suspence between the hope of heaven and the fear of bell I pass by that other error of theirs which is yet more contrary to the Apostle's Doctrine namely their maintaining that the choicest faith may fail If it be thus how can it be affirm'd that those that have it are founded and firm Let us then hold fast the truth that 's taught us here and in divers other places of Scripture to wit that true faith abideth always and being founded on the Merit and the Death and the Intercession of JESUS CHRIST doth never fail The wind makes but the chaff to fly away it prevails not upon good grain It overthrows only the trees that are feeble and ill grounded It leaveth in their place those that stand upon good and deep grown roots And as an Ancient sometime said Tertul. de Paersc We may not account them prudent or faithful whom Heresie hath been able to change None is a Christian but he that persevereth to the end But I return to the Apostle who for the fuller Explication of this firm and not to be shaken faith which he requireth in us for the obtaining of salvation addeth further And if ye be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Justly doth he joyn Hope unto Faith these two virtues being so straitly link'd together that they mutually succour each other and one cannot be had or lost without the other For first Hope is the suit of faith expecting with assurance the fruition of the the things that we believe so as when the perswasion that we have of them comes to totter it is not possible but the hope which was founded on it must come to ruine Again in the combats which we sustain for the faith hope is one of our principal supports while it is firm and vigorus in us it repelleth without difficulty all the strokes of the Enemy opposing to the fear of the evils wherewith he threatneth us and to desire of the good he promiseth us the incomparable excellency of the glory and felicity which we look for in the other world He that hopes for heaven cannot be tempted by the paintings and appearances of the earth For this cause the Apostle in another place compares hope to an Anchor which penetrating within the vail fastned and grounded in Heaven holdeth our vessel firm and steady amid the waves and agitations of this tempestuous Sea whereon we sail here below And it 's this in my opinion which the Apostle aims at here that the faithful might be established in the faith he willeth them to have still in their hearts the hope of heavenly bliss and never to suffer this Sacred and Divine Anchor to be taken from them They are in safety while it holds them fast But for the better expressing it he calleth it peculiarly The hope of the Gospel that is the hope which the Gospel hath wrought in us the expectation of those good things which it promiseth And so you see he referreth Hope to the Gospel as to its true and genuine object All the hopes that we conceive from other grounds are vain and failing There are none but those which embrace the promises of JESUS CHRIST that are firm and solid and such as never confound them that wait for them The Gospel promiseth us first the entire expiation of our sins and the peace of GOD in JESUS CHRIST His Son They therefore that seek this benefit in the Ceremonies and Shadows of the Law as the Galatians somtime did and the false Teachers who would have seduced the Colossians or that seek it in their own merits and the merits of Creatures they all I say and all that are like them let themselves be carried away from the hope of the Gospel Then again the Gospel promiseth us eternal life in the heavens by the grace of GOD in His Son Those therefore quit the hope thereof also who seek their felicity either in the earth or in heaven otherways than by the sole mercy of the LORD Whereby it doth appear how very pertinently S. Paul doth recommend this hope of the Gospel unto the Colossians For in the combat wherein they were engaged it was sufficient to preserve them from all the attempts of the Impostors What have I to do saith this Hope with the observation of your Disciplines or the quirks of your Philophy since I abundantly have in my Gospel all the good things which you vainly promise me But because it is ordinary with false Teachers to abuse the name
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
they used to offend the Faith of the Church and to defend their own Inventions Tertullian This induced one of the most ancient Christian Writers to call them the Patriarchs of Hereticks and to say that all Heresies are maintained by their rules and animated with their spirit and do lodg in their thickets and bushments as in their strong hold He calls them Animals of glory and all Christian Antiquity treats them very coursly as we understand by what is left us of the Books or that time wherein the commerce of Philosophy is accounted so dangerous that it hath been charged upon some as a great crime to have but look'd into Aristotle's Books and learned his Logick On the other side we meet with Fathers also who have high esteem of Philosophy and it cannot be denied but that even they that blame it do make use of it and many times with good success and much to purpose It 's not my design to break up this question or to produce here all that may be said either for Philosophy or against it The holy Apostle doth not oblige me to it as who blameth here not the substance thereof but the ill use of it which false Teachers made employing it either to the inventing or the defending of their errors this he evidently sheweth by that having ordered us to take heed that none make prey of us by Philosophy he adds immediately and by vain deceit by these words limiting what he had generally uttered and giving us to understand that he rejected not the use of Philosophy but when it was made to serve Error and Imposture We must therefore here as in all other subjects carefully distinguish the abuse from the thing it self and the substance from what is accessary to it and the truth from that error which is superadded thereto by the wickedness or weakness of men For there is not a thing in the world so good and so laudable in its own nature but our Vices do foul it in handling the same Intemperance hath defamed Wine Meats and Spices Luxury Gold Silver Precious Stones Silk and Perfumes all of them Creatures of GOD very good and very excellent Cruelty Murther and Parricide have defiled Iron a most necessary instrument of our life and Fire which we cannot be without hath often served the rage and the injustice of Tyrants What is there more admirable than Beauty among the ornaments of the body and then Eloquence among the ornaments of the mind Yet they frequently become through the corruption of men means of debauchery and seduction Not so much as the Scriptures themselves the most salutiferous effect of the goodness of GOD but are sometimes profaned by error and vice ignorance and levity wresting them to mens own ruin and wretchedly turning that to destruction which was not given but for our salvation It is not meant that upon this pretence we should cast off a due using of any of the works of God who being infinitely wise hath made nothing but is useful By this account it would not be lawful to make use of any thing since there is nothing which viciousness and ignorance doth not abuse I say the same of Philosophy If its Authors among the Pagans if Hereticks among Christians have made it serve the interest of error it follows not that it must be totally rejected nor should we do as the man that rooted up his Vines because having taken too much of the fruit of them he was overcharged with it or as he who would have his Rose-bushes burned because he had been sometimes prick'd in gathering their Flowers All that may be thence concluded is that this plant must be discreetly handled the fruit enjoyed but with moderation the flowers gathered but with heed taken of the thorns This is all the Apostle forbids us in it even deceit and not instruction that in it which is vain and not what is found to be solid Error and Sophistry not Science and Ratiocination Philosophy it self doth wash its hands of its Disciples faults It disavows their Errors and renounceth all that they have brought forth without its direction by ill arguing how great soever otherways their reputation be It is so far from defending them that it self affords us weapons wherewith to combat them and offers us its lights to discover the weakness of their false discourses For it hath observed and taught the rules of legitimate Reasoning with such admirable skill that there is no falshood to be met with but it gives us a conviction of So as if error be in the discourses of men of this profession as without doubt there is no small measure it is certain that in this unhappy production they have swerved from their own rule it being impossible that a falshood should ever be duly and rightly concluded from truth Whence it follows that no error or doctrine contrary to truth is to speak properly Philosophy it is an abuse of it It may well be an imagination and an extravagance of the Phil sopher not a part or a true fruit of Philosophy And when the Apostle saith here that Hereticks make a prey of men by Philosophy that is as he addeth by a vain deception he takes the word Philosophy as the vulgar doth for the accustomed and ordinary discourses of Philosophers and not for true Philosophy and that which is properly so called As long as the Philosopher carefully keeps within the bounds of his faculty and transgresseth them not he instructeth and doth not deceive The bounds of Philosophy which it hath set it self are the things that may be known by the light of natural reason While it keeps this road it travels securely and I confess what it teacheth in this kind may do good service to the Gospel so far would it be from clashing with it For who sees not that its discoveries of the nature of Plants of living Creatures of Metals and Meteors of the transmutation of Elements the motions of the Heavens of Times and Seasons of the concatenation of inferior Causes with the superior and the Conclusion it raiseth from this Contemplation That there is above the Universe an Invisible Eternal most Wise and Almighty GOD upon whom it all depends who seeth not I say that this is laudable and excellent and nothing in effect but a report of the handy-work of GOD and a demonstrating of his Divinity If the Philosopher had staid him there and deduced nothing thence but this clear consequence That the same Supream Beeing whose sootsteps and whose glory he had perceiv'd in his works ought to be supreamly adored served sought and loved never had the Apostle ordered us to be afraid of Philosophy for he himself makes use of such discourse Acts 14. 17. when he speaks to the Gentiles as you may see in his Oration to the Lycaonians and the Athenians in the Acts and he doth elsewhere evidently confirm it when he saith That GOD hath made manifest unto men what may be
upon them So in Grace if we may take leave to compare the mysteries thereof with natural things JESUS CHRIST the true Sun of righteousness hath not only in himself all the fulness of the Deity dwelling there bodily He also communicateth his fulness to all the souls of men that look on him and do move and live in his communion He filleth them with his abundance and clotheth them with his light changing them into his Image and of dim and dark lumps as they were originally in themselves making them so many Starrs and lightsome bodies Now if you take the Apostle's word here in another manner as importing that we have been made compleat in JESUS CHRIST the sense will still be very pertinent For besides that we being naked of all perfections meet for our nature the saying that we have been made compleat in CHRIST will excellently well express his Grace as signifying that it is he who hath fill'd up our breaches and repaired in us what the other Adam had ruined by giving us all that we wanted Besides this I say this term will also very aptly answer to that title which the Apostle gave a little before to the Ceremonies of Moses's Law where he called them the rudiments of the world that is the beginnings the first and plainest Lessons of Piety Heb. 7.19 Gal. 4. such as consequently were unable to bring to perfection as he saith expresly in another place by reason whereof he stileth the time of the Law the infancy of the Church that is the age of its imperfection Opposing therefore JESUS CHRIST unto the Law in this respect he now saith that we are compleat in Him and that for good reason in as much as He hath the body whereas the Law had but the shadow He hath fulness whereas the Law had but some small parcel of the requisites of our salvation For the same cause he elsewhere calleth the Ceremonies of it weak and poor or beggarly elements Gal. 4 9. As for the Law saith he it did but begin with us and only draw some slight and dark lineament upon us of that true form which GOD did purpose to imprint whereas JESUS CHRIST hath finish'd us In Him it is we have that perfection that entire body that truth and fulness whereof the Law had but the beginning the shadow and figure Hereby now this holy man deals those seducers whom he hath undertaken an handsom blow discovering the foolishness of their design who would still oblige persons to the Ceremonies of the Law that were made compleat in JESUS CHRIST an attempt no less ridiculous than if one should put a man to his ABC again who had received the last tincture of highest erudition in the University pretending that he could not be throughly intelligent and accomplish'd except he still daily studied the rudiments and plainest lessons of Children But that which follows in the Apostle's words namely that JESUS CHRIST is the Head of all principality and power is adjoined to prevent another error of those men's who as we shall hereafter hear did teach the worshipping and serving of Angels pretending it necessary we should address our selves to them as to Spirits capable of interceding with GOD for us and of obtaining by their interposal with that Supreamest Majesty those graces and perfections which we need S. Paul doth shew in these few words the vanity of this false doctrine For since the LORD JESUS is the Head of Angels who sees not but that we have most abundantly in Him whatsoever these people could expect from them and that possessing JESUS CHRIST as we do by faith in His Gospel we have no need to run to Angels who depend upon Him and have nought but what is found much more richly in their Head As if a man that doth possess a Prince's Son would yet needs make use of the favour and interpositions of his servants with him Members have neither motion nor sensation nor life but the same is much more abundantly in their Head Subjects and Servants possess nothing but the Prince can far better and far more easily communicate it to us than any one of them Since JESUS CHRIST is the Head and Prince of Angels it is clear that having Him we want nothing of all that which the Angels can give us From the same ground appeareth further the impiety of the error of these Seducers For since the Angels are subject unto JESUS CHRIST it is evident by the light of Scripture that no one can give them that religious worship which these people attribute to them without becoming guilty of idolatry the greatest and sensiblest outrage that man can do to his Creator For no Christian can be ignorant but that GOD throughout his whole word doth forbid us to serve any creature how high and excellent soever it be religious worship being an homage which belongs to the Divine Nature and cannot be performed without sacriledg to any other As for other things I presume you all know that they are the Angels whom the Apostle means by these principalities and powers of which he speaks as we formerly explained it Col. 1.16 upon the precedent Chapter He saith that JESUS CHRIST is their Head that is their Lord. And this quality belongeth to Him not only as He is the Eternal Son of the Father of the same essence and power with Him who having created them at the beginning and continuing to preserve them by His Goodness and Might is by all kind of right their true Master and natural Lord but also as He is the CHRIST and Mediator For since He in this relation and under this quality hath been constituted the Lord of all things both superior Phil. 2.10 inferior and intermediate having in consequence of His humiliation receiv'd such a Name as is above every name and unto which every knee boweth both of those that are in Heaven and that are on Earth and that are under the Earth it is evident that in this sense He hath dominion and empire over Angels 1 Pet. 3.22 as well as others And thus also S. Peter expresly teacheth us saying that Angels and Authorities and Powers have been made subject to Him For this cause these Spirits are often called the Angels of CHRIST as in S. Matthew Matt. 13.41 24.31 Rev. 1.1 and 22.16 The Son of Man shall send his Angels and in the Apocalypse where S. John saith that JESUS CHRIST sent him by his Angel the things that were revealed to him and in the same Book I JESVS saith the LORD have sent mine Angel Only we must observe that the L. JESUS is not called Head of the Angels in the same manner and sense as He is stiled Head of His Church The former Title signifieth only the Empire and Lordship which he hath over the Angels The second signifieth further the union He hath with His faithful ones who were saved and redeemed by the merit of His Death and are animated
life soever they be in respect of earth and flesh And truly for just cause For if we consider the thing in the light of true reason we shall find that what men call life in them is unworthy of that name it being to speak properly meer death For living is right acting and exercising of faculties suitable to one's nature with such satisfaction and pleasure as he is capable of So as the true life of man for of him we speak is nothing else but a continual exercise of good and holy and just actions suitable to his true nature and worthy of that immortal soul which was given him at the beginning with such high contentment as must needs accompany the same Now it is evident that those that are in the flesh do do nothing like this Instead of those excellent and noble actions for which they were created they do none but base and bad ones Instead of meditating on GOD their Creator and on heavenly and divine things they dream on nothing but the flesh and the earth unworthily weltring in these bogs with all the sense and understanding they have Instead of loving GOD above all of adoring and serving him with all the strength of their soul their whole will is set on creatures and vanity And their Appetites instead of being subject to right reason do drag it into corruption and unrighteousness Sure this universal disorder in actions and motions is not to say true the life of a man it 's a depravation and an overthrow of it which deserves the name of Death rather than of Life As when a Clock is marr'd and all its motions put awry and confus'd there 's no longer the going of a Clock though it still have the parts it no longer doth the office it hath only the name of a Clock not the truth So is it with Man he hath still the broken remainders and ruins of his primitive nature but the pieces being confus'd and the wheels crush'd together and all motions disorderly he hath no longer the true life thereof he hath but a false and deceivable image of it Again acting in this horrible confusion it cannot be that he should have that pure and calm contentment without which his life is not life He must of necessity be always in doubt in distrust in fear and disquietness and at last fall under those just executions which this disorder doth deserve that is into that eternal death which is the wages of sin And though he doth not yet suffer this final infelicity while he is on earth nevertheless because it is infallibly his portion and will eftsoons assuredly betide him we are to count him even at present a dead man and look on him as on a Malefactor that is on the point of being condemned and executed For though he in the mean time doth live and breathe yet we stick not to say that such a one is a lost man because his punishment is certain Thus you see it is very justly that the Apostle reckons all those to be dead who are without the grace of GOD forasmuch as they do none of the actions of true life and eternal death is unavoidable to them while they are in this estate But the Apostle's words do signifie somewhat more yet For to be dead is not simply to be without exercising the actions of life it is an having lost the principles of life and a being incapable of doing the actions thereof You call him a dead man not who is simply without action and doth not exercise sensation or motion for they that are asleep or in a swoon are verily in that condition yet are not dead but him who cannot any longer act nor feel nor move and with action hath lost the faculty or power of it Sure then since the Apostle saith that carnal men are dead he means not only that they are without the operations and motions and sentiments of true life but that moreover they lye destitute of the faculty and power to act them Himself teacheth it us expresly elsewhere For as to their understanding which is the foremost and the ruling guide of all actions properly humane he saith not simply that it doth not comprehend the things of GOD but moreover that it cannot discern them The natural man saith he comprehends not the things of the Spirit of GOD 1 Cor. 2.14 for they are foolishness unto him neither can he understand them forasmuch as they are spiritually discerned And as for the Affections which are another principle of human actions he affirms likewise somewhere that the affection of the flesh is enmity against GOD Rom. 8.7 John 5.44 that it is not subject to the law of GOD nor indeed can be Our Saviour also saith of such as are in this miserable estate that they cannot believe and one of his Prophets had said long before Jer. 6.10 13.23 that the ear of that people was uncircumcised and that they could not understand and in general that they could no more do any good than the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots But the Apostle here doth further shew us the quality and the cause of this death under which we lay before the LORD did call us Ye were dead saith he in offences that is Eph. 2.1 in your sins as he expresly adds in the Epistle to the Ephesians and in the uncircumcision of your flesh I acknowledg this word is sometimes taken in the Scripture for the external condition of the Gentiles and circumcision on the contrary for the state of the Jews whence it comes that these two terms are used to signifie one of them the Gentiles and the other the Jews as when the Apostle saith elsewhere that the preaching of the Gospel to the uncircumcision was committed unto him and the circumcision unto Peter that is he receiv'd the charge of publishing the Gospel to the Gentiles and S. Peter to the Jews I confess also that these Colessians to whom he writes were by birth Gentiles so as it may be said of them that they were dead in that miserable heathenish estate they were sometime in Yet I do not think that this is intended by the Apostle in this place For in that case it would have been sufficient to say simply when ye were dead in uncircumcision i. e. in Paganism and there would have been no need to add as he doth in the uncircumcision of your flesh Besides it is evident it seems that he maketh here a secret opposition between that uncircumcision whereof he speaks and that circumcision which the Colossians had received from the hand of JESUS CHRIST whereof he spake immediately before saying that in JESVS CHRIST they had been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hand by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh Therefore as by circumcision in that passage a spiritual and mystical cutting off was signified so in the Text the Apostle takes the word uncircumcision
two things namely first the corruption of a nature destitute of all just and rational apprehensions and motions and secondly the guilt of sin and an obligâ—tion to eternal punishment In like manner that life to which GOD calleth us by his grace doth consist in two particulars first a restauration of His Image in us by the infusion of principles and faculties of true life and secondly the remission of our sins The Apostle here doth briefly speak of them both of the first in saying that GOD hath quickned us together with CHRIST of the second in adding that he hath freely pardoned us all our sins For the first GOD hath quickned us in that delivering us from the death we were under he hath put into us by the grace of his Spirit the principles of an heavenly life and formed in our breasts new hearts hearts illuminated with a new light to wit the good knowledg of his Truth and of the mysteries of his will Then in the second place by the virtue of this Divine flame he enkindleth in our souls the love of his most excellent Majesty charity towards our neighbour uâ—â—ection for just and honest things zeal for his glory abhorrence and hatred of sin and in a word sanctification and all the virtues which it comprehendeth that are the sproutings and productions of this second celestial and happy life which in his great mercy he conferreth on us From this new nature as from a blessed root do issue good and holy actions prayer worshipping of GOD frequent meditation and reading of his word extasies of love to him travels for his glory sufferings for his Name sake relieving instructing assisting of our Neighbour and such others that are as it were the flowers and fruits in the production whereof that life which GOD hath given us in his Son doth properly consist It 's the same thing that the Apostle elsewhere compriseth in few words saying Eph. 2.10 and 4.24 that we are the workmanship of GOD being created in JESVS CHRIST unto good works which GOD hath prepared that we should walk in them And again in another place that our new man that is the second nature which he formeth in us when he quickneth us by his grace is created after GOD in true righteousness and holiness The holy Spirit being rich and magnificent in its expressions doth explain this admirable and blessed operation of the grace of GOD in us by divers terms taken from different resemblances but all amounting to the same sense For to set it forth it saith not only as here that GOD hath quickned us but also Eph. 2.10 1 Pet. 1.3 Ezek. 36.26 Jer. 31.33 Rom. 11 23. Col. 1.13 1 Cor 3.6 Acts 16.4 Phil. 2.13 that He hath created us and in another place that He hath begotten us again the same is meant when it saith that GOD taketh out of us our hearts of stone and gives us hearts of flesh in which he writes his laws that He reneweth us and formeth us into new creatures or new men that He graffeth us by his power into the true olive that He translateth us out of the kingdom of darkness into his marvellous light that it 's He who giveth encrease the Ministers of the Word being nothing that He openeth our hearts and worketh in us effectually both to will and to do of his good pleasure and other like phrases which are found here and there in the Scriptures But the Apostle addeth here that GOD hath thus quickned us together with CHRIST shewing us by these words the cause and the manner of our vivisication namely that it was effected in JESUS CHRIST and with Him and by Him For as that death which we heretofore bore in our selves doth come from Adam the stock and original of our carnal beeing who by destroying himself destroyed us also with him and corrupting his own nature corrupted ours likewise so as it is in him and from him that we inherit this misery in like manner on the contrary that life which we have now receiv'd from GOD doth come from JESUS CHRIST the stock and root of the new nature who raising up himself unto life raised us up also according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere viz. that as all dye in Adam so likewise in JESVS CHRIST are all made alive But this assertion of his here that GOD hath quickned us together with CHRIST 1 Cor. 15.22 doth particularly refer to his resurrection as if GOD in restoring him to that glorious life which he receiv'd at his issuing out of the Sepulcher had at the same time given us also part therein And he speaks in this manner for two reasons principally The first is because it was then that JESUS CHRIST brought to light that blessed life whereof we have been made partakers and from him as from its source hath it been derived unto us so as that same time was the day of our new birth as well as his For if he had not been made alive no more should we have ever been Not but that the Father all had the might and power that was necessary to give us life again But his Justice could not have suffer'd him to give life to any of the sons of men if their Surety and Mediator had abode under death The second reason is That he being our Head and we his Members he our Pattern and we Copies drawn if I may so say from his Original when GOD raised him he re-enliven'd us also by the same means since by this action he obliged himself to vivifie us likewise it being evident that without this we should not have that conformity with our Head to which he predestinated us Not to mention for the present the efficacy this Resurrection hath to form in us faith and hope and love of glorious immortality which are the principles of that new life that GOD doth put into us by his Spirit as we intimated in the exposition of the precedent Verse There remains now the other part of this blessed life which GOD giveth us in his Son namely the remission of our sins S. Paul sets it before us here when he saith that GOD hath freely pardoned us all our sins For the Spirit of Sanctification which is as the soul of that new life he createth in our hearts doth indeed turn away our affections from vice and obstruct our committing of unjust ungodly and impure actions wherein we wallowed afore Yet this respecteth only the present and the future and if there were no more the guilt of sins committed in time past during our spiritual deadness would nevertheless remain in its strength it being clear that though the act of sin be past the faultiness wherewith it commaculates him who committeth it goes not off so soon It subsists still both in the conscience of the sinner if he have any and in the registers of the Justice of the Supream Judg of the World binding over the sinner unto punishment Whence it follows
to come But at the bottom and in themselves they contained no such thing in effect On the contrary they were so many obligations upon a sinner openly testifying that he stood obnoxious to the Justice of GOD. For the aspersions and purifications that were made by washing or pouring water upon men did evidently shew that such as receiv'd them were defiled and unclean And Circumcision was a publick confession of the impurity of our nature which did declare that it needed to be cut or retrenched And they that offer'd Beasts to be slain for sacrifices did by that very act acknowledg they had deserved death Those that observ'd the Fasts and other mortifications of the Law did protest they were unworthy to use the Creatures of GOD. And thus it was in the rest of their Ceremonies All their devotions of this nature were either images of the punishment they deserved or an avouchment of their guiltiness and so many proofs and convictions of their sin For to imagine that these carnal Ceremonies did truly expiate their offences was not possible for them to do both by reason of the absurdity and extravagancy of the thing it self and also for that GOD had a thousand times advertised them of the contrary by the mouth of his Prophets So you see in my opinion clearly how all the Law of Moses was no other than an obligation against us an instrument of our condemnation an evidence of our sin and a justification of our punishment Wherefore the Apostle elsewhere calleth it in the same sense and for the same reason the ministration of death 2 Cor. 3.7 9. and of condemnation because in effect it did properly serve only to form and prosecute and finish the sinners arraignment as affording full demonstration both of his guilt and of the penalty due to him giving in evidence concerning his crimes and making known the Justice of GOD in judging and punishing him And hereto must be refer'd what he elsewhere notifies namely Rom. 3 7. Gd. 3 1â— Rom. 7. â— that by the law was given the knowledg of sin and that it was added because of transgression and again that without the law he had not known sin As for what the Apostle addeth here in the second place That this obligation of which he speaks doth lye in Ordinances we have touched at it already and referred it to that large multitude of Commandments wherein it consisteth For I do not see that any thing doth oblige us to restrain this clause to the Ordinâ—â—â—â—s of the Ceremonial Law as some do It comprehendeth generally all that the Law Ordains of what kind or rank soever it be And it seems to me that the Apostle's scope and aim doth so require For he urgeth GOD's having â—bolish'd that obligation which consisted in Ordinances to prove that he hath freely pâ—â—doned our offences which he had been saying Why and how 〈◊〉 Because saith heâ— or inasmuch as he hath cancell'd by the cross of his Son the obligation that was against us Verily it seemeth that this reason will be beside the purpose if the obligation that was made void were not that of the whole Law as the offences which have been forgiven us in consequence of the abolishing of this obligation are generally all sins committed against any part of the Law whichsoever and not only transgrâ—ssions of the Ceremonial Ordinances And whereas the Apostle in the following Verses doth argue from this Doctrine against the Ceremonies only who knoweth not that it is ordinary to reason from the whole unto one of the parts As when elsewhere in the Epistle to the Galatians having laid it down in general that the Law of Mâ—ses cannot at all justifie us he thence inferreth against the seducers that by câ—nsequence neither circumcision nor the other ceremonies can have this virtue just as in this place having setled this principle that the Mosaick Law was abolish'd by the Cross of our Saviour he afterwards doth with reason thence conclude that we are no longer obliged to its ancient Ceremoniâ—s But the Apostle saith in the third place that this obligation whereof he speaks was contrary to us This as you see doth also suit well with the Law Of it self I confess it is good and holy and prontable and salutiferous unto man as that that would lead him unto â—e But it is become contrary to us through cause of sin whereof we are all guilty For it serves to convict us of it as an Obligation which being produc'd in judgment stops the mouth of an unfaithful Debtor It is as it were our Adversary that impleadeth us and lays open our crimes and brings upon us that condemnation to which we have submitted in accepting and signing it And as for its Ceremonies besides that they witnessed the sin of those who practis'd them as we have said they were also contrary to us in another kind even as putting a new yoak upon us which through their vast multitude and diversity was heavy and unsupportable Yâ—t it must be observed that this seems not to be properâ—y the thing which the Apostle intends here the word he makes use of in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying that this obligation was not simply contrary to us but contrary in some sort I think then that by this word he prevents an Objection that might be made him For though the Law might some one say be an obligation against us yet is it nevertheless useful since it sheweth us our sin and misery and by that means forceth us to have recourse to the mercy of GOD that we may seek our salvation in his Grace alone which was in effect the true end for which GOD gave it to the Israelites The Apostle granting this as a truth doth affirm That this obligation was notwithstanding in some fort contrary to us For first It telling us only of obeying or being punished and thundering out on all hands that dreadful voice Cursed is every one that continuâ—th not in all things written in the law to do them did darken the clearness of the grace of GOD and perplex poor sinners filling them with affrightments and hindâ—ing them from full discerning of the clemency and mercy of the LORD Thenâ—â—g in it aggravated their pains by its ceremonies the true scope of which it was at that time very difficult to comprehend aright And lastly It shut the gate of the House of GOD against the Gentiles of whose number the Colossians were it being as an enterclose that separated them from his people and consequently cloigned them from his grace and pâ—rdon which he giveth not to any but such as are in his Covenant If therefore it were not absolutely contrary to us yet it cannot however be denied but that it was so in some sort In fine the Apostle saith that this obligation which was against us hath been effaced and entirely abolished and fastned to the Cross which also agreeth very pâ—â—per'y to the Law of Moses of which
with so rich a portion not envy any of the creatures the perfections and happiness they have Our whole life would be a perpetual feastival whereon free from the travail and turmoil of worldlings contemplating in spirit the glory of the Palace of our LORD meditating His promises breathing after His benefits and enjoying them for the present by faith and Hope we should in repose wait for the blessed day of our glorious triumph But alas how far are we from such a felicity This wretched and perishing earth is the sole object of our minds Our souls are no less fastned to it than our bodies It swalloweth up all our thoughts it possesseth our affections it takes up our cares and our labours and hath the use of all our time We have no desires and love but for the false goods which it sheweth us nor fear and horrour but for the evils wherewith it threatneth us As for Heaven and the things it comprehendeth we are so far from seeking them that we not so much as think of them except it be dreamingly or in manner of a divertisement when we are told of them in this place looking on the stately representations which JESUS CHRIST hath drawn us of them as an empty picture fair indeed and pleasing but good for nought saving to feed our eyes with a short and bootless pleasure not attracting nor engaging our desires This is the cause why our whole life is miserable full of griefs and fears of weaknesses of regrets and infelicities The least strokes overturn us the least losses and slightest afflictions bear us down because not being fastned to Heaven the only firm and sure place of the World we fluctuate exposed to the mercy of all that comes against us And as children cannot be appeased when their puppets are taken from them because they have set all their affection on them so are we seized and do take on when we come to lose some of these toyes of the earth There is no way to comfort us because we have fastned our hearts to them And to say truth our condition is worse than other mens they at least are subject but to the evils that either the infirmity of nature or as they call it the inconstancy of fortune do bring with them whereas besides these the bad Christian who is not a Christian but in name is moreover exposed to the persecution of the World so as to say plainly there is nothing more foolish nor more wretched than he who hath part in the temporal sufferings and hardships of true beleevers and none at all in their consolation or blessedness inasmuch as his profession exposes Him to the hatred of the World and his vice excludes him from the Kingdom of GOD. Awake then ye that are worldly and come once out of so dangerous an errour Let not the trumpet of Heaven the voice of our great Apostle have founded now in your ears in vain Do not add this contempt to your other crimes He hath advertised you of your duty He hath declared the reasons that oblige you to it Take heed lest if you shut your ears against JESUS CHRIST who speaks by His mouth you perish in the end with this earth and the things you seek on it How do you not perceive that you shall never find there the happiness you seek Why hath not the experience of so many millions of persons who daily spend themselves in this vain labour taught you that the things of the earth are all of them but vanities and illusions transient figures which promise pleasure honour and contentment but afford none which do not cure the maladies of the body nor of the soul which infinitely toil out those that seek them and never fill the hearts of those that possess them multiplying their desires and their fears inflaming and envenoming their passions instead of extinguishing them which are subject to infinite mutations which men and elements may bereave you of every moment and which considering the short and uncertain duration of the life we lead here below you can enjoy but a very little time supposing that nothing does deprive you of them before death At that time Matt. 16.26 What will it profit a man to have gained the whole world and lose his own soul It is sure a blindness incredible to one that saw it not I do not say that a Christian who hath hopes of the world to come but that even any reasonable man should adhere with so ardent and obstinate a passion unto such wretched and fruitless things We perceive it and confess it and make the bravest discourses in the World upon it and after all that false lustre which we behold in these things hath such a faculty to bewitch our senses that not a person but lets himself be caught thereby But the worst is that besides errour and vanity there 's in it a tendency to eternal damnation For men may not slatter themselves None can serve two Masters nor look on Heaven and earth both together He that seeks the one must of necessity renounce the other it being no more possible to seek than it 's to find at once the things beneath and those which are above Faithful Brethren choose you and take the better part and leaving worldly men to labour in vain after the things of the earth and to seek in it what they shall never find turn you your hearts and eyes towards Heaven as the Apostle calleth you to do There Christian is the felicity you desire There dwelleth rest and joy and immortality and the perfection of both soul and body These are the only things that are truly worthy of your prayers and your pains Seek them and mind them night and day Give your selves no rest till you have found them and do feel the first-fruits and beginnings of them in your hearts Let these thoughts sweeten your sufferings and consolate your losses T is in vain that you threaten me ye people of the World You cannot deprive me of what I possess nor hinder me from finding what I seek since upon the things of Heaven you have no power Whatever you bereave me of the best part of my treasure and the only part that deserves that appellation will still remain entire to me Let the same thought arm us against all tentations Thou Tempter promisest me the things of the earth but I seek those of Heaven which thou canst not dispose of Though I should lose all I have here below even to this flesh its self yet shall I find it again with a thousand-fold increase in Heaven Let this thought again keep us continually busied in the good and worthy actions of piety charity and honesty Let our manners resemble those of the inhabitants of that divine City which wee seek Let the light of their knowledge the ardency of their love the purity of their affections shine forth now betimes in our lives 'T is that to which that new nature JESUS
faithful it mingleth and consociates them changeth them into one body and one spirit gives them the same will and the same affections Now surther it is to form and conserve this holy union among us that the Apostle does recommend to us the peace of GOD in the second part of this Text. Let the peace of GOD saith he hold the first place in your hearts to the which you are called in one body For this peace of GOD is not that which we have with GOD by faith in JESUS CHRIST His Son when as being appeased by the satisfaction of His Crosse He looks upon us in Him with a propitions and favourable eye as a Father and not as a Judge not imputing our sins to us which may be termed Peace of conscience But it is the peace we ought to have with one another all of us living amiably together as children of one and the same Father and heirs of one and the same grace and glory It 's the daughter of Charity and a fruit of that holy and Christian love which binds us perfectly together The Apostle calls it the peace of GOD first because He loves it above all things and upon this account is often stil'd in the Scriptures the GOD of peace hating nothing in the world more than trouble and discord and contentions and wars Secondly because He commands it us every where in His word And lastly because He is the Author of it who gives it and inspires it by His Spirit into all those that are truly His children And the Apostle hath expresly given it this title in this place for the more effectual recommending of it to us and that He might induce us to receive it with the greater respect as a thing of GOD's holy sacred and divine which we cannot violate without offending grievously that Soveraign Majesty to whom it doth belong 〈◊〉 many waies He willeth that this Peace of GOD do hold the chief place in our hearts The term he makes use of in the original is admirably expressive and elegant for it properly signifies to have the super-intendance of a thing to be the judge and arbiter of it to govern and regulate it and give it law That is the Apostle means that this Divine peace be the Queen of our hearts the mistresse and governesse of all your motions that that keeps them in due respect and with-holds them from ever attempting ought that tendeth to violate or disturb it And if the resenting of an offence for instance or an opinion of our own worth or any other such consideration do begin to kindle wrath or hatred or animosity against our brethren or excite some other passion of like nature in our hearts that this Peace do forthwith advance and stay the commotion and agitation of our minds calming the storm and speedily repelling all these sentiments of the flesh as so many incendiaries or evil spirits without giving them entrance or audience That it do enjoyn us and inspire into us humility and patience when we have been offended regret and the making of satisfaction when we have offended any other and cause us to seek carefully after all that it shall judge necessary to maintain amity and good intelligence among us as kind words and obliging deeds banishing both from our mouths and from our manners all that 's apt to cause or keep up our dividing from our neighbours The advertising of us that this is the peace of GOD were enough to perswade us to give it such place in our hearts But that the Apostle might overcome all possible obstinacy he here further represents unto us two considerations besides which oblige us to give it this super-intendency over our souls The one is that we are thereunto called and the other that we are one body For the first you know that our LORD and Master JESUS CHRIST doth every where call us to this Peace of GOD and that He hath given us precepts for it in His Gospel and examples of it in His life For what was there ever in the world more meek and peaceable than this Divine Lamb He contended not Mat. 12.19 nor cryed and His voice was not heard in the streets as the Prophets fore-told of Him He was gentle and lowly in heart He never repulsed any and received sinners with open arms how bad and abominable soever they had been He invited His greatest enemies unto His salvation and offered His grace to the most obstinate and bore their contradictions without answering again and their reproaches with silence and their rage without exasperation and did weep bitterly for that Jerusalem that rebellious City would not know the things of her peace Such is the pattern He gave us commanding us likewise expresly to be sweet Mark 9.50 and simple as doves without gall and without bitternesse and to be in peace among our selves And His Apostles repeat this lesson to us in divers places Rom. 12.8 as St. Paul here and other-where again If it be possible as much as in you lyeth have peace with all men And it 's for this that JESVS CHRIST came into the world even to pacifie Heaven and Earth Jews and Gentiles Isa 2.4 11.6 7 8. to extinguish enmities and wars and change swords into plow-shares and spears into pruning-books to take away the poison of asps and the cruelty of wolves and the fierceness of lions and transform bears and the savagest beasts into lambs Isa 66.12 and make them all live and dwell peaceably and amicably together finally to make peace overflow as a river as the ancient oracles had magnifically foretold Isa 9.5 by reason whereof He is also expresly stiled the Prince of Peace And you know it was the legacy He bequeathed us when He was preparing to dye for us Joh. 14.2 Peace I leave with you said He my peace I give unto you not to speak of the blessing and the dignity He promiseth those that shall love the same Blessed saith He are the Peace-makers Matt. 5.9 for they shall be called children of GOD. After all this who can doubt but He calleth all His unto peace as the Apostle here affirms Since He forms them to it by His voice by His lise by His promises and by the whole design of His Mediatorial Office But besides the command and order He hath given the very estate and condition He hath by His vocation put us in doth manifestly oblige us thereunto and this the Apostle represents unto us in the second place when having told us that we are called unto peace he adds in one body or to express the full and whole force of the Greek words in one only body It 's a doctrine universally received and most expresly asserted in divers places of Scripture that the whole Church doth make up but one only mystical body of which JESUS CHRIST is the head and the faithful are the members being animated under Him with one and the same
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
of their sex Moreover the interest of their Religion requires this performance at their hands though law and reason had not impos'd subjection on them to the end it might appear by their obedience that JESUS CHRIST doth not disturb the just order of humane societies but on the contrary form both men and women to all kind of righteousness and honesty much more exactly and effectually than other Religions do Lastly the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST having in divers places taken Marriage for a symbole of the union which is between Him and His Church he hath by that usage authorized and confirmed the duties of both the two Married parties and particularly the subjection of the wife since she is the image of the Church which ought to be subject unto CHRIST a matter which the Apostle hath elsewhere excellently made use of in this subject Eph. 5 23.24 The Husband saith he is the bead of the Wife even as CHRIST is the head of the Church Therefore as the Church is subject unto CHRIST so let wives be to their own husbands in all things Thus you see with how much truth and wisdom the Apostle here alledgeth unto Christian women that it is meet in the LORD that is in JESUS CHRIST they should be subject to their husbands it being clear by all we have been saying that all the considerations of the discipline of this same LORD and of the communion they have with Him do so strictly oblige them to this duty that if they fail of performance beside the fault and the disorder which they commit against the Law and institution of GOD and nature they also particularly offend the LORD JESUS and outrage the mysteries of His Gospel and scandalize His people But I have said that the Apostle does also by these words regulate and limit that subjection which the wife oweth her Husband For adding to the rest that in the LORD or according to the LORD he evidently sheweth that it reacheth no further than to such things as do not offend JESUS CHRIST She is subject to her husband I acknowledge but in things wherein she is not rebellious against GOD. She ought to please him but on condition she displease not their common LORD She owes him her obedience and her assistance and her service in adversity and in all the troubles of houshold affairs but not in sin The will of JESUS CHRIST is the true boundary of her subjection and complacency She ought to put on so far but further she may not pass without perrishing Whatever tye we have to any creature it still leaves the rights of GOD entire because our obligation unto Him is the first and most ancient the strictest and most necessary of all that we are under And if the Husband pretend to oblige his Wife or the Father his Child or the Prince his Subject unto any violation of the commands of GOD that is either to do what He forbids or not to do what He injoyns Acts 5.29 Luke 14.26 Matt. 10.37 in this case the faithful soul is to remember that we ought to obey GOD rather than men and that if we love father or mother husband or wife children or brethren or sisters or even our own lives more than CHRIST we are not worthy of Him nor can be His disciples But having thus heard the lesson which the Apostle gives the wife let us now hearken unto that he gives the husband Husbands saith he love your Wives and be not bitter against them He commands 'em to love them and forbids 'em to be bitter against them and in these few words compriseth all their duty This duty is no whit less just but indeed more sweet and pleasing than that which he prescribed the wives And observe I pray the Apostles prudence For when he had allotted the woman subjection for her share consequence seemed to require that he should give the man command and government for his But he doth it not He established the man's authority sufficiently by putting the woman in subjection to him and for the most part his strength and the other advantages of his sex do cause him to assume but too much Wherefore in stead of saying Husbands govern your wives or command them or of using some such word importing authority he saith unto them Love your wives to sweeten on one hand the subjection of the wife and to temper on the other hand the authority of the husband Wife let not your subjection fright you the Apostle subjects you not but to a person who loves you Husband let not your authority make you insolent If the Apostle subject your wife unto you it 's only to the end you love her Derive no vanity either the one or the other of you from the advantages he gives you If the love which the husband owes his wife make her haughty let her remember that withall she is subject unto him that loves her And if the authority which GOD giveth the husband flatter him let him not forget that the wife is not submitted to him but for the obliging him to love her the more Further this love which the Apostle would have husbands bear their wives is a sacred and sincere affection produced in their hearts not simply by that pleasing form and that grace and sweetness which naturally makes men love and seek unto this sex and which how perfect and charming soever it may be is at most but a flower of a very short and uncertain duration but principally by the will of GOD who hath joyned them with 'em who hath given them to them for companions in their good and bad fortunes for helps in all the parts of their life for a perpetuating of their name and lineage for the diminishing of their troubles and the augmenting of their joyes This perpetual and indivisible union which bindeth them together and which of two persons hath changed them into one flesh which hath mingled together all their interests and in their dear Children inseparably combined and confounded their blood and very nature all this I say must kindle in the foul of husbands a pure and an inviolable love unto their wives then again this love must flow forth from the heart into the external actions discovering and evidencing its self by such continual effects as may be truly worthy of it For love is not a dead picture nor a vain phantasie nor an idol without life and action It 's the liveliest and most active of all our sentiments It 's a will that affecteth and sets all the power one hath on work to procure some good to the person whom it loveth The first effect of this love is to be pleased in the presence of that which a man loves and not be able to suffer the absence of it long without disquiet The second to communicate to it all a man possesseth that is good and the third to guard and preserve it from all incommodity and molestation It 's thus the
into Apostles which beats down the proudest fierceness and preserves invincible the most despicable weakness which hardneth the bodies of it's humble Warriours as Steel maintaineth them in the flames and confounds with their lowness the fury of Elements of Men and of Devils For this is that the Sacred Writers ordinarily call glory even an abundance of beauty of power and perfection so rich as it over-bears our senses and makes to bend under it all the vigour of our Spirits reducing them to admiration and astonishment And St. Paul somewhat frequently useth this word in this sense as when he saith that CHRIST was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father that is by His great and unspeakable power Whence it appeareth that the Vertue which converteth us to GOD and that which conserveth us in His grace is not a common and ordinary might but an invincible efficacy which nothing can resist Seek it not in your own nature Christian soul seek it in GOD and acknowledging your weakness ask of Him the remedy of it If it betide you to resist the enemy and to remain victorious in any combate render all the glory of it to this Soveraign LORD without attributing ought of it to your self But the Apostle sheweth us in what follows what is the use and effect of the succour which the glorious power of the LORD giveth us who strengthneth us unto all suffering saith he and patience of mind with joy These are the two productions of the Spirit of GOD in a faithful soul patience and long waiting in which principally our strength consisteth These are as the two hands of Heaven that sustain us in perils and keep us from sinking under the weight of those evils wherewith we often find our selves surcharged And though both the two are of a very like nature yet they have each of them something particular Sufferance beareth the evil without bending submitting to it at its inflicting humbly and standing firm under this rude load The Spirit patient or long-waiting for so the term used here in the Original doth properly signifie lends it the hand afterward and attendeth without murmuring for deliverance from the evil it suffers and for enjoyment of the good it hopeth Sufferance respecteth the very weight and heaviness of the affliction The long-waiting of the patient Spirit respects the duration of it These two vertues are absolutely necessary for a Christian For without them how should he support either the chastisements of GOD or the persecutions of the world How should he be firm in the exercise of other vertues to discharge the Offices of them against the impediments that thwart them every hour Tertull. de patient Patience saith an Ancient is the Superintendant of all the affairs of GOD and without it it is not possible to execute His commands or to wait for His promises 'T is it that defeateth all its enemies without toil It s repose is more efficacious than the motion and action of others 'T is it that makes healthful to us things of their own nature most pernicious It changeth for us poisons into remedies and defeats into victories It rejoyceth the Angels it confoundeth Devils it overcometh the world It mollifieth the hardest courages and converteth the most obstinate hearts It is the strength and the triumph of the Church according to the saying of the ancient Oracle By keeping you quiet and by rest you shall be delivered your strength shall be in silence and in hope But the Apostle to shew us what this patience is to which the Spirit of GOD formeth His children saith that it is with joy This is the true Character of Christian patience The Hypocrite suffers sometimes but it is murmuring And the Philosophers yere while made a great shew of their patience but it was only an effect either of their stiffness or of their stupidity which was no wayes accompanied with the joy which the Holy GHOST sheds into the souls of those that suffer for the name of GOD. Not that they are insensible or that they receive the evil on them without grief But if the evil they suffer do sad them this very thing rejoyceth them that by the grace of their LORD they have the strength and the courage to suffer it and do know that their suffering shall turn to their good and that from these thornes they shall one day reap the flowers and fruits of blessed immortality To which may be added the sweetness which is then shed into their heart by the vive and profound impression of that only Comforter who communicates himself to them on such occasions more freely than ever and can by the ineffable Vertue of His balm their most bitter wounds This is that Dear Brethren which we had to say to you on this Text of the holy Apostle Let us receive his doctrine with faith and religiously obey his voice He sheweth us what our task is here below Let us acquit our selves in it with care GOD of His Grace hath raised up among 〈◊〉 a great light of knowledge let us employ it to its true use and walk with it in such a sort as may be worthy of so holy and merciful a LORD whose name we bear Let this great Name awaken our sences and affections let it pluck them off from the Earth and elevate them to Heaven where He reigneth who hath given it to us Let this Name put into our hearts a secret shame to do or think ought that may be unworthy thereof Faithful Sirs remember you are Christians as oft as flesh or earth sollicits you to evil Put the world by 'T is not to please it that you have been regenerated by the Spirit from on high The World is so unjust so humorous and so changing that 't is impossible to content it See in what pain and torment they continually live that attempt it And though you should compass it the success would cost you dear By pleasing the world you would displease your own Conscience the contenting whereof is infinitely more important to you than any thing else But with GOD it is quite otherwise His will is constant and still the same without any variation or change Nothing is pleasing to Him but what is just and reasonable Your Conscience will find in it its entire satisfaction and never reproach you for having served so good a Master Not to alledge to you that the World after you shall have killed your self to serve it will pay you only with ingratitude and contempt as experience daily shews us whereas the LORD will magnificently reward the care you shall have taken to do His will comforting and blessing you in this world Crowning and glorifying you in the other If you demand what must be done to please Him the Apostle shews you in a word Fructifie saith he in every good work As often as the LORD shall cast His eyes on this Vineyard let Him see it still laden with good fruits Let Him never
have cause to complain of it as He yerst did of that of Israel I expected saith He it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes Sure He hath had no less care of ours than of theirs He hath planted it in like manner with choice Vines He hath also environed it with a brave and admirable hedge He hath watered it with the rain of His Clouds and made the beams of His Sun of Righteousness to shine on it and may justly say of it What was there more to be done to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Be we not ungrateful to so sweet a Master Let not our sterility confound His expectation Let our fruits be answerable to His cares and our secondity to His husbandry Let there be no soul barren and unprofitable among us Let each one Fructifie of that He hath each one improve the dressing and sap the LORD hath given us Let the sinner present Him his repentance the Just his Perseverance the Rich his Almes the Poor his Praises Old Age its Prudence Youth its Zeal Let the Knowing abound in Instruction the Strong in Modesty the Weak in Humility and all together in Charity And since it is the good pleasure of our Heavenly Father that we have here divers combats as none may live piously without persecution prepare we also for this other part of our duty and supplicate the LORD with the Apostle that He do strengthen us with all strength according to the power of His glory that He do give us a firm and unmoveable patience to persevere constantly in the Holy Communion of His Son so as neither the promises nor the threatnings of the World neither the Lusts nor the fears of Flesh may be ever able to debauch us from His Service O GOD our task is great and we are feeble Our enemies are Giants and we but Dwarfes Therefore thy self work in us merciful LORD the work which thou commandest us Perfect thy glorious power in our weaknesses Strengthen our hands and confirm our hearts that we may combat vigorously and atchieve great things in thy Name and after the trials and tentations of this life may one day receive in the other from the Sacred and Sweet hand of thy Son the glorious Crown of immortality which we breathe after So be it THE V. SERMON COL I. Ver. XII XIII Vers XII Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us capable to partake of the inheritance of Saints in light XIII Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His well-beloved Son DEar Brethren Though the first Creation of man be a most illustrious master piece of the goodness power and wisdom of GOD this great worker then making Adam of the dust and forming Him after His own image to live and reign on earth in a soveraign felicity Yet it must be confessed that our restauration of JESUS CHRIST is much more excellent and admirable For whether you consider the things themselves which have been given us or have respect to the quality of those to whom they have been communicated or to what the LORD did for the communicating of them you will see that the second of these two benefits of His doth surpass the first every way The first gave us an humane nature the second hath communicated to us a divine one The first made us a living soul the second maketh us a quickning spirit By the one we had an earthly and animal being by the other we receive a spiritual and heavenly one The one seated us in the garden of Eden the other elevateth us to the Heaven of Glory There we had a Lordship over living Creatures and the Empire of the Earth here we have the fraternity of Angels and the Kingdom of Heaven There we enjoyed a life full of delight but infirm and depending as that of other living Creatures on the use of meat and drink and sleep Here we possess one full of vigour and strength which like that of blessed spirits is sustained by its own vertue without need of other nourishment The one was subject to change as the event hath declared the other is truly immortal and immutable and above the accidents that altered the first The advantage of the first man was that he might have not dyed the priviledge of the second is that he cannot dye But the difference will appear no less in the disposition of the persons to whom the LORD hath communicated these benefits if you attentively consider it I confess that dust which GOD invested with an humane form merited not a condition so excellent and received it from the meer liberality of the Creatour But if it were not worthy of such a savour at least it had nothing in it which rendred it uncapable thereof in the rigour of justice Whereas we not only have not merited the salvation which God giveth us in His Son but have over and above merited that death which is opposite to it If the matter upon which the LORD wrought in the first creation of man had no disposition for the form He put in it so neither had it any repugnancy thereto whereas in our second Creation that is in our redemption by JESUS CHRIST He findeth in us souls so far from complying with His operation that they potently resist it So you see that to effect the first work He employed only the single out-going of His will and word whereas for creating the second it was necessary He should shake the Heavens send down His Son to earth deliver Him up to death and do miracles that astonished men and Angels It 's with this grand and incomprehensible mysterie of GOD that the Apostle entertaineth us my Brethren at this time in the Text which you have heard For having finished the exordium that is the Preface of this Epistle and intending from thence to enter on His principal subject to slip the more gently into it after representing to the Colossians the Prayers he made to GOD for them he now adds the thanks he offered Him for their common salvation and by this means opens the entry of his dispute touching the sufficiency and inexhaustible abundancy of JESUS CHRIST for saving of believers which leaves no need of making any addition to his Gospel Giving thanks unto the Father saith he who c As this Text consists of two verses so it may be divided into two articles In the first the Apostle giveth thanks unto GOD for His making us capable of entring into the inheritance of His Saints In the second is proposed what he hath done to make us capable of this happiness namely delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son These are the two points we will handle if it please the LORD in this action humbly beseeching Him to guide us in meditating so excellent a mysterie and touch our hearts so vively with it as that it