and next in regard of its degrees For its extent it comprehends the things themselves that we can know which being almost infinite it is evident a man may know some who yet knoweth not others And as for its degrees one self-same thing is known more clearly and more distinctly by one more obscurely and confusedly by another It 's the same in this as it is in seeing One seeth and discovereth more objects than another and of those that see one and the same object one seeth it much more clearly and purely than another and whatever be the cause of this diversity whether the inequality of their eyes or the difference of their attention or that of the light which brightens them so it is that their seeing is very different that of the one being imperfect and defective in comparison of the other's The Apostle therefore beseeching the LORD that the Colâ—ssians might be filled with knowledge intendeth that they might obtain of His goodness a perfection both of the one and the other sort first that if there were any points of the Gospel not yet come to their knowledge He would grant them the grace to observe and apprehend them and secondly that if they did not purely enough apprehend the things they knew already He would so shine on them by the light of His spirit that they might clearly and distinctly perceive them For it is in these two points that the fulness or perfection he wisheth them in this place doth consist the one not to be ignorant of any of the necessary particulars of the mysterie revealed to us by the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST The other to know each of these particulars clearly and distinctly seeing the truth of them as in a great and resplendant light Besides we must remember that as the estate of a believer is of one sort here below where he travails for a time and after another on high in Heaven where he shall live in the bosome of GOD so the perfection of his knowledge is of two sorts the one earthly and the other heavenly This same is his last and highest perfection that same is but the disposition and beginning of it the one is the perfection of his infancy the other of his full age And though the first may be in a sense and in some respect truly termed fulness and perfection yet in regard of the other it 's imperfect Whence it comes that the Apostle elsewhere putting these two knowledges in parallel one with the other saith that now we know 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. but in part and see but darkly in a glass whereas in the other World we shall see face to face and know as we have been known And in the same place he compareth the knowledge we have here below to the thoughts of a child and that which we shall have on high to the thoughts and judgement of a perfect man Then all the arguments of the truth of the Gospel shall be so magnificently displayed before our eyes that doubt of it shall not be able to take place any more and whereas now we see but the images of things then we shall touch the substance of them besides that the light of our understandings shall be incomparably more clear and pure than it is here below But though considering the thing in its self one may call perfect only the knowledge of a believer enjoying the vision of his LORD on high in the Heavens yet referring and ajusting it to the state we are now in there is also on earth a sort of knowledge which in this respect may be called perfect namely the highest measure a faithful person can attain while he is here beneath As though the knowledge of a child be far below the lights of a perfect man yet this hinders not but there is a certain form and measure of knowledge proportionate to the capacity of this age which when the Child is come to we say it is an accomplished Child yea most accomplished For every age hath its perfection and every greatness its full height T is then of this second sort of perfection and fulness the Apostle intends to speak when he prayes the LORD that the Colossians might be filled with knowledge that is not that they might see the LORD face to face this is not given but in the other world but that they might receive of his goodness all the light necessary for the estate we are in here below and as high and rich a measure of knowledge as may and should be had on earth for getting one day to the upmost degree in the Kingdom of Heaven And note here by the way the holy artifice of the Apostle By praying GOD that the Colossians might be filled he secretly advertiseth them that they yet wanted something that he might render them teachable and attentive to the instructions he will hereafter give them For those that think they are perfect and have an entire and accomplished knowledge do disdain what any one would add thereto as a thing superfluous and unprofitable Therefore he timely takes away this imagination from the Colossians that they may patiently suffer him to instruct them and finish in them what was only rough-drawn To the same end doth that tend which he addeth that they might be filled with the knowledge of the will of GOD. For by this word he rejecteth and removeth far from this subject all the inventions and doctrines of men the disputes and subtilities of Philosophy the voluntary devotions and superstitions which had been sowed among the Colossians by the false teachers as things rather contrary than useful to the perfection and happiness of man and restraineth all the knowledge he desireth for them to the sole will of God as its true object and its just measure Upon which we have first to remark that the word here used by the Apostle in the Original and which we have translated knowledge signifieth properly a great and ample knowledge and these holy Authors employ it ordinarily to express that knowledge of GOD which is given us by the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST For the Law of Moses and the Doctrine of the Prophets doth indeed teach what is the will of GOD. But it hath not designed to declare it so purely and so fully as the Gospel Whence it comes that St. 2 Pet. 2.19 Peter compareth the light of the Prophets to that of a candle shining in a dark place and that of the Gospel to the brightness of the day And it s hereto St. John hath respect when he saith Joh. 1.18 that no man hath seen GOD at any time and that the only Son which is in the bosome of the Father He hath revealed Him Because the knowledge which was of Him before the manifestation of the LORD JESUS was so weak as it is scarce considerable in comparison of that which is given us It 's therefore properly this Evangelical and Christian knowledge which the Apostle wisheth
of the Gospel and to give it to the Fopperies and Vanities which they preach S. Paul to put the Colossians out of all doubt and ambiguity indicateth expresly to them what this Gospel is of which he speaketh That saith he which you have heard namely of Epaphras who had preached it among them and to whom he gave before an excellent Testimonial for fidelity and sincerity I mean saith he the Gospel which you receiv'd at the beginning from the mouth of true Servants of GOD and not these vain and dangerous Doctrines which evil workers would make to pass with you for the Gospel of CHRIST though they be nothing less then so But to confirm them the more in the faith he sets before them in the second place an excellent encomium of the Gospel which containeth a clear proof of its truth saying That it is the Gospel which was preached to every creature under heaven It is not the Doctrine which these false Apostles sowed here and there in some out quarters whispering and privily advancing the same among light and unstable spirits It is the true Word of the Son of GOD which had been proclaimed through the whole Universe by His command and according to the Oracles of His ancient Prophets That Word which going forth from Jerusalem did spread its self every way in a very little time and being accompanied with the power of its Author made it self be heard and believed in all the Provinces of the habitable earth in spight of the contradictions of Hell and the world His assertion that the Gospel was preached to every creature which is under heaven may be expounded two manner of ways but both of them amounting to the same sense First by a Figure very common in Divine and Humane speech the word Creature may be taken for Man the noblest and most excellent of all the Creatures And the LORD had so used the word before in the same matter when He commanded His Apostles to do what S. Paul doth magnifie in this place Go ye forth said He to them into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature Where it is evident that by every creature He understandeth men who alone are capable of hearing and receiving what is preached In this sense when S. Paul saith that the Gospel was preached to every creature it is as much as if he had said to all mankind and among all sorts of men agreeably to what he saith here a little after speaking of himself that he admonisheth every man Col. 1.28 and teacheth every man in all wisdom Secondly these words To every creature may in my opinion be taken also as signifying in all the world and this the rather because it is literally in the Original in all the creature with the Article the and not simply to every creature Now that S. Paul sometimes useth this term the creature to signifie the world this great body and collection of all things which GOD hath created this is manifestly to be seen in the Epistle to the Romans where he saith Rom. 8.19 20 21. That the great and ardent desire of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the children of GOD and again That the creature was made subject to vanity and more a little after That all the creature groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now where it is clear and confessed by the greatest part of Interpreters that the creature signifies the world and our Bibles to make us understand it the better do change the singular number into the plural rendring it les creatures and toutes les creatures the creatures and all the creatures whereas the Original readeth simply the creature and all the creature Taking it thus therefore in this place when the Apostle saith the Gospel was preached in all the creature which is under heaven he meaneth in all the world wherein we dwell wherein GOD hath seated mankind beneath the heavens I will make no stay here now to shew you how it might be truly said in S. Pauls time that the Gospel of our LORD was then preached to all mankind or in all the habitable world or how this event is a clear and solid proof of its truth We have already heretofore handled both the one and the other of these two particulars in expounding if you remember the sixth Verse of this Chapter which affirmed that the Gospel was come unto all the world Upon that Text which signifies no other thing than what the Apostle saith here namely that the Gospel hath been preached in all the creature which is under heaven We shewed first by good and irrefragable testimonies of Ancient Writers both Christian and Pagan that the heavenly Word had been preached within the Apostles days in all Countreys then known either to Greeks or Romans and receiv'd for the most part with fruit so as taking the word World according to the stile of all Languages not simply and absolutely for all the parts of the Terrestrial Globe but only for those which at that time were known to men and which they understood to be inhabited it might be said with truth and without any over-reaching Hyperbole as S. Paul declareth here that the Gospel had been preached in all the creature which is under heaven that is in all the world And in the second place we proved both by the importance of the thing it self and by the respect it hath to the Oracles of the Old Testament which had predicted it many ages before its event that this so swift so sudden and so admirable running of the Gospel through all the world in so few years is a certain and infallible evidence of the verity and divinity of this holy Doctrine obliging consequently both the Colossians heretofore and us at present to hold fast and persevere in the faith which we have given to it without suffering our selves to be ever mov'd away from it either by the cheating arts of false Teachers and their crafty Seducements or by the Threatnings and Persecutions of the world These things having been heretofore largely deduced and opened to you lest the repition of them should be irksome I will pass to the third head of our Text wherein the Apostle sets before the Colossians another Character of true Christian Doctrine to wit that it is the Word the Ministery whereof was committed to him It is saith he the Gospel of which I Paul have been made a Minister He opposeth his heavenly call to the temerity of the false Teachers who ran without having been sent and preached not what Heaven commanded them but what earth inspir'd them with their impulsions and instructions being from flesh and blood and not from the LORD JESUS It was otherwise with Paul all the faithful knew him to have been called from heaven and suddenly changed by the efficacy of Divine power from a Wolf into a Pastor made an Herald and witness of the Gospel immediately by the LORD JESUS instructed in His
which I delivered unto you that is taught It therefore calls those Doctrines Traditions of men which have men only for their authors which come from men and not from GOD. I confess that errors derived from that Philosophy whereof he spake even now may also bear the same name since they slowed from the spirit of man and had no other source than his imagination yet the Apostle distinguisheth the one from the others for two reasons as I conceive First Forasmuch as these had some colour of abstruse wisdom being sprung from speculations in shew sublime and excellent though in reality vain and frivolous whereas the Doctrines which he here calleth Traditions had no foundation at all but the authority of those that set them up and the usage of those that practis'd them they being otherways far from all Philosophical reasons not only true and solid but also probable Secondly Because they had had some successive continuance among the people of GOD having been deliver'd by the Pharisees and other Zealots of Judaism from father to son in a series of no small length whereas that which he calls the deceit of Philosophy was not deliver'd in that manner but lately invented by these new Teachers and taken from the dreams of some Philosophers Whence it doth appear that no productions or institutions of an human spirit are receivable in Evangelical Religion neither those that are supported by some pretended reasons nor those that are founded upon use and antiquity They are all of them nothing but folly and vanity in the sight of GOD with what colour soever they be painted over And though men boast of their utility they are extreamly hurtful as pestring Consciences and busying them about things which GOD hath not ordained and turning them aside from his pure service to matters of nought Accordingly you see that our LORD JESUS CHRIST rejects and roughly thrusts away all the traditions of the Pharisees how much esteem'd soever they were for their antiquity and pretended use reproaching them that by holding fast those Traditions of men they did let loose the Commandments of GOD and applying to them those words of the LORD in Isaiah Mark 7.8 Isa 29.13 In vain do they honour me teaching Doctrines which are the commandments of men As indeed it s an unsufferable presumption that man should attempt to prescribe the form of GOD's service especially after the declaration which himself hath vouchsafed to make of his holy will nor is there one among men that would endure his servant should treat him in that manner and instead of obeying his Orders and causing others to dispatch them fall a Philosophising in his house and giving his Family a new rule to observe as if he were wiser than his Master I know well the authors of these Traditions and those that follow them are not without fine reasons to palliate their temerity But it is evident that they do the very same for substance neither is it to be doubted but a servant that should be culpable of such a vanity would alledg likewise his motive and designs to any that would give him audience But common sense dictateth to the meanest capacities that such undertaking-spirits merit not so much as to be heard especially where GOD is concern'd in comparison of whom they with all their sufficiency are but poor worms of the earth Hold we firm therefore this foundation of the Apostle That the Traditions of men ought to have no place in Religion It concerns me not to inform my self of their age whether they be the traditions of men ancient or modern It sufficeth that I know they are Traditions of men Having the Apostle's advertisement we should not be moved with any reason or splendor or antiquity they may come clothed with If you would have me receive them shew me that they are Prescriptions of GOD Institutions of his CHRIST Doctrines of his Scriptures Without this how specious soever you make them appear to me I shall ever believe it is but to make prey of me and your diligence shall have no effect but the making me suspect them so much the more In fine the Apostle addeth a third Source whence the Seducers drew both their Doctrine and the means to colour it namely that which he calls the Elements of the world I pass by the opinion of those who refer these words to the Elements of Nature Water Air Earth and Fire as if the Apostle here did tax these false Teachers of reducing the service of them which was then in full vogue among the Heathen these wretched Idolaters having yerst deified all the parts of the Universe There is not a word in S. Paul's Writings either here or elsewhere that leadeth us to such a conceit and it is not very likely that the persons he here aims at should authorize so brutal a kind of Idolatry persons who covered themselves with the Name of JESUS CHRIST and made profession at least in shew of retaining his Gospel It is clear that the Apostle in other places doth mean by the Elements of the world not these primigenial and more simple substances out of which all natural generations are framed but the ceremonies and carnal services of the Mosaick Law under which the ancient people lived until the revelation of the Messiah When we were children saith he Gal. 4.3 9. and you know he calleth all that time the Childhood of the Church wherein it was under the Pedagogie of Moses we were in bondage under the elements of the world and a little after in contempt he stileth them poor and weak elements whereto the Galatians would embondage themselves Now it is evident the error of the Galatians was that they would still be subject to the Ceremonial Law Here beneath the Text he useth the same word in the same sense If you be dead with CHRIST saith he unto the elements of the world why are you burden'd with Ordinances There is then no doubt but that in this place he doth in like manner signifie still the same thing by these words that is to say the observations and devotions of the Ceremonial Law And in effect we shall see hereafter that these seducers whom he combateth in this Chapter would hold fast that Law either in whole or in part subjecting the faithful to circumcision and divers regulations about meats and days S. Paul calleth them Elements or as our Bibles have rendred it in some places the rudiments of the world because they were the first and the lowest lessons the Church had during the time of its Childhood they were as its Alphabet For the word Elements is often so taken namely for the first lessons wherein they are taught to know their Letters which are also call'd Elements because in speech words are made up of them even as natural bodies are formed of those first and more simple substances which we properly call Elements And he calls the Jewish Church the World because its estate and its
pleasuâ—â— by an humility of spirit and the service of Angels intruding into things which be hath not seen being rashly puffed up with the sense of his flesh Dear Brethren Here is a notable sentence pronounced which overthrows in express words all the worship that the superstition of men whether ancient or modern doth attribute unto creatures it being clear that there is not any one of them whom we may lawfully serve in Religion since the Apostle forbiddeth us to serve the Angels themselves who are without difficulty of all creatures the most excellent You know the interest we have in this cause those of Rome anathmatizing us in it under colour that content to adore and serve GOD our Creator and Redeemer only we refuse to render unto Angels and Saints departed that Religious Worship and those Divine honours which they decree and deferr daily to them to the great prejudice of the glory of GOD and the irreparable offence of men Let us therefore exactly consider this Oracle of the holy Apostles and that we may leave nothing in it behind us we must see first what the Doctrine of those Seducers is which he condemneth He expresseth it in these words Let 〈◊〉 man master it over you by an humility of spirit and the service of Angels and then we are to examine in the second place the marks he gives these false Teachers which are contained in the following words intruding into things he hath not seen being rashly puffed up with the sense of his flesh and not holding the head But we will satisfie our selves for this time with the former of these parts remitting the second to another opportunity by reason of the cavils and inventions our adversaries make use of to corrupt this passage which we must refute as briefly as we can The word that S. Paul useth at the entrance and which we have translated Master it is difficult and seldom found in the Authors of the Greek Tongue S. Hierom one of the learnedst of the ancients sayes Ep. ad Alg. 9 10. it was peculiar to the Country of Cilicia whereof S. Paul was as being born at Tarsus the Capital City of that Proviâ—ice However it be the derivation of the word is clear and doth sufficiently discover what is well-nigh its signification For such as understand the Greek do know that this term comes from another which signifies the reward that was given to those who won the victory in those games or combats for prize at which certain Judges and Moderators did at that time preside who had the superintendance of the whole action regulating and bounding the race assigning the ground and receiving the Champions into it judging of their courses and combats proclaiming that man victorious to whom they yielded the advantage and solemnly putting a Crown upon his head Whence it comes that themselves were called by a name that signiâ—ies Givers of the reward and the term which signifies what they did on such occasions is generally used to express governing regulating ruling and having the superintendance of a matter It is expresly from this term that that which the Apostle useth here is formed saving that it seems to signifie governing and ordering not simply but to the prejudice and damage of the concerned Therefore some have thought that S. Paul comparing here the Faithful unto Racers or Combatants as he very often doth elsewhere does exhort them not to let the prize or reward of the Victory to be taken from them by the artifice of Seducers who made it their business to turn them out of the true and lawful lists of their race which are no other than believing and obeying the doctrine of the Gospel and make them enter into another carriere to wit that of their own inventions and services in the same sense that he elsewhere said to the Galatians who were abused by a like imposture Gal. 5.7 Ye did run well who did turn you aside that you should not obey the truth If this exposition were adapted as well as to the Apostles phrase as it is to his sense it would be excellent shewing us that I may say it by the way how this serving of Angels here forbidden us is an error of no small importance since it maketh those who turn aside unto or employ themselves in it to lose the prize of their Heavenly calling The Latin Interpreter Canonized by those of Rome having respect to the effect of such false doctrine which is a driving of the faithful out of the right way doth Translate it simply Let no man seduce you There is no need to report the thoughts of all others But I do affirm that there can be hardly found an expression more proper more commodious and according better with either the term or the scope of the Apostle then that of the French Bible Let no man master it over you which doth naturally express the magisterial authority that these Seducers assumed to themselves enjoyning and commanding their fancies to the faithful as if they had been installed Superintendants of their Religion and their lives and willing them to understand that without practising what they prescribed it was not possible to obtain the prize of their high calling Wherein the Apostle giveth them a blow and renders them ridiculous as men who having in truth no lawful authority would yet make it be believed that they had and did speak and command with as much confidence as if it belonged to them to distribute the Crown of Heaven at the last day or that they had it already in their hands to impart it to whom it should seem them good But that which S. Paul addeth doth discover their folly much more let no man saith he master it over you at his pleasure or at his will which may be referred either to their office or to their Doctrine or as I think to them both To their Office meaning that they are voluntary Superintendents and that their own will alone not the voice of GOD or men did elevate them to this pretended Mastership well night as the Roman Orator calls a certain man a Voluntary Senator who did thrust himself into the rank of the Senators but had no right to be there having been elected only by himself But this respects also their Dectrine and signifies that the serving of Angels which they commanded was founded meerly on their own good-pleasure and not upon any precept of GOD that their will alone was the reason and ground of it not the will of the LORD that it was nothing but an imagination of their own head and a fruit either of their melancholy or their malice Whence we may observe by the way That those that teach in the Church ought to set forth nothing but what is founded on the word of GOD. Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony but if they speak not according to this word of a truth there shall be no morning for them This rule is enough to
in the French to express what S. Paul hath set down may be so understood yet true it is the Greek word he used in the Original text is never so taken as the intelligent do know Again this kind of Voluntary service doth consist in things which GOD hath expresly commanded but the Service here meant by the Apostle not so We are to know then that the Voluntary service he speaks of is worship which GOD did not by His word oblige men unto nor ever commanded them but they present it Him meerly of their own will subjecting themselves and others to it because it so pleases them without any necessity imposed on GOD'S part who demanded no such thing of them It is Voluntary not in regard of the manner after which it is performed for in this sense as we have said the Service of true Children of GOD may be also termed Voluntary but in regard of it's institution the principle that sets it up and presseth the performance of it being not the Law or the authority of GOD but singly the will of men who of their forwardness undertake to do things to the honour of GOD and for His Service which He for His part never gave order for Whence it comes that the word is in the language of the Greeks ordinarily taken in an ill sense as importing Superstition because it is the property of this vice to invent divers Services of it's self and pretend to pay off the Deity with them But the Apostle pointing here at the thing that gave the Seducers doctrine the shew and lustre which it had it cannot be doubted but he means their Service its being Voluntary and not its being superstitious though indeed it were so too For Superstition being generally decried and known to be a vice 't is clear that in that quality it is not a thing capable of recommending any ones doctrine nor were there ever found Seducers so gross as to profess that their worship was superstitions much less to vant of it and pretend to render it recommendable thereby But Voluntary service doth charm men and please their carnal sense And false Teachers for the most part do not forbear to glory in it and alledge it for a mark of the sublime wisdome of their doctrine There are of it two sorts the one gross and shameless to the highest degree which would make that pass for Service of GOD which He not only hath not commanded but even expresly prohibited as when the Idolaters in the wilderness counted the festival they kept before their Golden Calf and the honours they gave it things which GOD had expresly interdicted for worship performed to the LORD their GOD. Such also in effect was that Religious Serving of Angels which the Apostle taxed afore though it may not be doubted but the Seducers who introduced it did endeavour by divers subtilities to elude those passages of Scripture in which we are forbidden to do Religious Service unto any creature whatsoever The other sort of Voluntary service hath a little more shamefac'dness and modestie then the former when a man ordeineth and if we may so say erecteth into the title of a Divine service the observing of certain things which verily GOD hath not commanded but which neither hath He forbidden as abstinence from certain meats and the observation of certain dayes things which it seems GOD hath neither commanded nor forbidden It is properly to this rank we must assign that Voluntary service which the Apostle intendeth in the Text. For even they who institute such Services of the first sort do not yet own them to be so but pretended that GOD hath not forbidden what they command glossing those passages in which He forbids it and so artificially changing the true and genuine sense of them as they make it believ'd that the objects of their Service are not comprehended in it Now that this gives their Inventions a shew of wisdome as the Apostle here sayes and a lustre fair and plausible in the eyes of carnal men is very clear For first it seems magnifique and Heroical to be uncontented with what GOD hath commanded us for His Service and to have the resolution to exceed it That which He hath commanded being evidently due and of indubitable equity it seems a small mater to do but this because it is simply nothing else then the discharging of what a man ows which does seem to be a vertue not so exceedingly recommendable For whoever heard Panegyriques made in ones praise because he duly payd his debts Accordingly you see that presumptuous young man who is mention'd in the Gospel made no great account of all this For when our Saviour told him simply what GOD commands us in His Law he answers disdainfully Matt. 19.20 that he had kept all those things from his youth as if he had said that was his ordinary his daily practice and that he expected a quite other thing from so great a Teacher But when a man doth what he is not bound to do he is admired as we much more esteem him who gives what he doth not owe then him who simply makes puctual payment of what he doth owe. Besides it seems an act of a great and extraordinary love to GOD to subject that very thing to Him which He hath left free to us The fear of the Cudgel of times makes a Slave do all that his Master hath commanded him but it seems that nothing but love can oblige him to do more Again this very hardiness of daring to set up some certain sort of actions in the Service of GOD hath a kind of I know not what grandeur in it because common sense dictating to us that to ordein Service for Him is properly the act of a Divine authority we presently take them for Divine men who enterprise such a thing It may also be then that character of an humane Spirit which appears in these Voluntary services makes them to be the more esteemed by men every one naturally loving his own productions and favouring his own works Be it for these reasons or for others once certain it is that Voluntary services are ordinarily esteemed and admired by men And you see it clearly by experience of what is done in the communion of Rome For though considering things throughly no man can doubt but Innocence Charity and Justice are much more excellent then those Voluntary observances which are practised among them yet it is evident that much more account is made of these then of the others For the one they call simply good works But the others exceed it They are works of supererogation There was need to forge this new word our common languages having none losty enough to express the extraordinary altitude of their merit Hence it comes that Monks if you believe them are Angels and Demi-gods They are look'd upon as so many Heavenly Jewels so many Starrs and Luminaries as the only Ornaments of the Earth and of their Church
But they set at this rate none of those who without Frock and without little band and without particular rule do lead an honest and irreprehensible life in a secular habit The reason of this difference is that the former do exercise themselves in such Voluntary services as Francis and Dominick and Bruno and Loiola have prescribed them whereas the latter do addict themselves to that which GOD hath commanded them though indeed no man can deny but that to oblige men right the oppressed succour the needy assist the Widow and the Fatherless the things that GOD hath commanded be incomparably better and more excellent then to put on a Capouche or go with bare feet and shaven crown or scourge ones self twice or thrice a week which are things that men ordein In like manner you see that in that communion none are commonly canonized which is the highest point of honour they do to piety but such as have regularly fasted and Disciplin'd themselves and liv'd in coelibat and as they say done Miracles things all which GOD hath not at all commanded in His Word As for those who content themselves with the Religion and vertues which GOD hath ordeined nor do affect Voluntary services they must not pretend to be ranked among the Saints of Rome But I think there is yet another secret reason which hath as much or more efficacy then all the rest in making Voluntary services to be so well receiv'd by men namely that great aversion which they naturally have for those things that are commanded of GOD from obligation whereunto they hope to redeem themselves either in whole or in part at least by means of humane Services For what countenance soever they make of finding the obedience of GOD's commandments very easie yet in reality there is nothing to which they submit so unwillingly and with greater pain so as all the austerity of Voluntary service is pleasant in comparison of it Being then pâ—ssess'd with this false prejudice that by absteining from what GOD permits or by submitting to what He doth not command they shall in reason oblige Him to dispence with for what He doth command upon hope of this exchange they gladly take up Voluntary service which also you know they do indeed hold to be satisfactions that is a kind of ransom at the price whereof they are delivered from the punishment they did incurr for not having served GOD as He commandeth Thus you see Dear Brethren that Voluntary service gives a lustre and a vain shew of wisdome to humane doctrines and traditions The second head of things that contributes to this effect and that renders the same hugely recommendable is humility of Spirit the Apostle hath already noted heretofore the affectation and shew of this pretended humility in one of the doctrines of these Seducers particularly to wit their teaching the Service of Angels which they did with pretence that the putting of the faithful in subjection to those blessed Spirits was to humble them Here he speaks of it more generally For besides that all the outside of false Teachers is commonly painted over with the colours of a great and deep humility their discourse and all their procedure being full of submissions and of an high profession of renouncing the advantages of vain glory besides this I say their institutions and Disciplines themselves do also promise humility and seem to be so many exercises of it And this is the thing in my opinion which the Apostle does particularly consider in this place Look back I pray on the Disciplines of those Seducers whom he opposeth I mean on those abstinencies from certain meats and the observations of certain dayes doth it not seem that this was an exercising of men unto humility since it was a bounding of their liberty and a degrading them from the power they had to dispose of these things at their pleasure Adding withal that in general whoever subjecteth man to a law of his doth humble and abase him putting a new yoke upon his neck whatever the thing that he commandeth in other respects be The same mark of humility does appear in the greatest part of the Voluntary devotions that are in vogue whether it be among Pagans or among Turks or among Christians themselves For they all in a manner do reduce the habit and feeding of their Devoto's to a low and an abject form and such as is of small esteem among men and oblige them to things that seem to vilify and in some sort disgrace our nature Homer Idad II. v. 235. For the most part they give them nastiness and filth for trimming as the ancientest of the Heathen Poets sayes expressly of certain very devout Priests called Selli or Sellians that they alwayes had foul feet and slept on the bare ground They cast down their countenances and make them of a sad look Mat. 6.16 as our Saviour sayes expressly of the Hypocrites of His time that they disfigured their faces And as for habits who can recount all the diversities of them It may suffice to observe in general that both for the matter and also for the form and fashion these Zealots have alwayes in a manner chosen those which are not only course and of small account but such as have also somewhat unusual and ridiculous in them Their food doth wear the same livery and you know there is at this day an infinit number who to descend unto the lowest degree of meanness do bind themselves by an express vow to mendicity or beggery though GOD by express order forbad it his people Deut. 19. â— these men desiring rather to violate His command then deprive themselves of so rare an humility It 's sufficient for their design that this strickes the eye For there being nothing more natural unto man than the desire of honour and the passion of braving and appearing and of shewing every way both in person and in cloathing and in dyet the marks of some eminency and advantage above others one can hardly look without admiration upon people who seem to renounce all this especially when they are persons born and bred in such conditions as afforded them the means of possessing all these advantages at their desire This without doubt Creates a great prejudice for their Doctrine and makes it to be favourably received it seeming not possible either that persons who so voluntarily devest themselves of what others most earnestly seek after should not be moved by a good Spirit or that Doctrines which tend to humble our haughty and proud nature should be other than holy and salutiferous The remains the last of those three colours that enter the composition of the paint of humane Doctrines which is in a manner the deepest and gives them the greatest gloss namely that as the Apostle saith they do not at all spare the body and have not any regard to the satisfying of the flesh It is clear and confessed on all hands that he speaks of the
afford the Colossians since Tychicus left him in prison at Rome that is in the mouth of the Lyon as himself speaks in another place Dear Brethren it is true the Apostle did abide still in that sad estate for that time and it 's true this was it the Colossians were in pain for But yet these two messengers had many things to say unto them that were proper to mitigate their trouble and to ease their pain first that the Apostle was still alive safe and sound as Daniel otherwhile in the den of Lyons nay that he was not without hope of being set at liberty Then again and which is the principal that is faith and piety were so far from being weaken'd by this rude tentation that they were become more firm and lively then ever shining in this tryal as fine gold in the furnace that instead of being afflicted at it himself he comforted others the spirit of GOD continually maintaining Christian joy and peace in his heart and this tribulation and conserving the same fresh and full as otherwhile the bush of Moses in the midst of the fire And lastly that if his body was bound yet the Gospel was not so the Apostle with an high and invincible courage frankly preaching in his irons and changing by a Divine miraculousness his prison into a School of JESUS CHRIST opening too by the efficacy of his example the mouths of many brethren to preach the word boldly without fear his whole affliction serving by the providence of GOD to a much greater advancement of the Gospel Phil. 1.12 as himself saith elsewhere This relation as you see was very proper to consolate the hearts of the Colossians not to speak of the knowledge and capacity of Tychicus in the things of the Kingdom of Heaven which furnished him abundantly wherewith to do these faithful people this good office in representing to them the doctrine and the promises of our LORD and Saviour the necessity and utility of the cross 2 Cor. 4.17 the life and the crowns to which it leadeth us and that eternal weight of an excellent glory which this light and transient affliction worketh for us and the like intimations of which the whole Gospel is full For you may not imagine that this Tychicus and this Onesimus whom he sent them were simple messengers that had no other ability then to make faithful report of what they had seen and heard of St Paul's affairs They were two excellent persons endowed with great gifts of GOD and well instructed in the knowledge of him yea as it is certain of the one and very probable of the other called to the holy ministry And it further heighthens the Apostles charitable affection towards the Colossians that he would deprive himself for their consolation of the presence and assistance of two such persons at a time when they were so sweet and so necessary to him But his prudence appears no less in this choice then his affection and goodness First more generally in that he employ'd about this affair persons proper for the end for which he sent them And secondly in particular that one of the two whom he chose to wit Onesimus beside other qualities he had was a Colossian and therefore a person that should have the more credit with them as their own countryman It is true that Epaphras of whom he will afterward speak had the same quality But it seems that a particular consideration withheld the Apostle from employing him in this commission Even that he had already exercis'd the holy Ministry among the Colossians and preached that very Evangelical doctrine to them which was now troubled by false teachers as we understand by the first Chapter of this Epistle He then being interessed and as it were a party in the quarrel the Apostle do's very prudently in employing other persons namely Tychicus and Onesimus that so their faith and doctrine appearing conform to Epaphras's the Colossians might the more easily perceive that his was not particularly his own but in truth the LORD CHRIST's and his Apostles and that as the Scripture faith in the mouth of these two or three witnesses the word might be established But the Apostle to give them credit with the Colossians and render their Ministry fruitful to them advertiseth them of the good and recommendable qualities each of them As for Tychicus he calleth him his beloved Brother and a faithful Minister and Fellow-servant in the LORD titles as you see very honourable He qualifies him after the same manner in the Epistle to the Ephesians to whom he employ'd him in the very same sort as he doth here to the Colossians Whence it appears that this holy man was one of those extraordinary Ministers which the Scripture of the New Testament do's particularly stile Evangelists These were as aids to the Apostles assisted them followed them and were diversly employed by them according to the necessities of the Church sometime in one place sometime in another without being fixed to any particular flock as ordinary Pastors are and making no longer stay any where then the Apostles orders did require Such a one for instance was Titus whom St. Paul left in Crete to finis the erection of the Church Tit. 1.5 and afterward sent into Dalmatia to preach the Gospel there 2 Tim. 4.10 Such a one again was Timothy and Crescens and many others And truly the charge the Apostles had being of such a vast extent as to embrace the whole universe it is evident that it did of necessity require they should be assisted by such Helpers and inferiour Ministers who might be employed in such places as they themselves could not go to or tarry in Our adversaries to give you this intimation by the way do commit an errour in this matter when they apply to Bishops what they read in the New Testament of this sort of Ministers For it 's true indeed that the Evangelists were superior unto the common and ordinary Pastors of each Church and held the next place to the Apostles whose Lieutenants in a manner they were But it 's false that any such Ministers were or were to be in the Church after the Apostles decease Their Ministry was extraordinary and subsisted no longer then the Apostleship did for which properly it was instituted And hence it plainly appears that the Bishops of the Roman communion can by no means pass for Ministers of this order since they have each of them their Title or Diocess to which they are fastned and have no power to exercise their Ministry elsewhere whereas the Evangelists had no flock that was properly and particularly assigned them but were as general intendants who by the Apostles order and according to the necessities of Churches did transport themselves sometime to one and sometime to another unto countries and people very far asunder as you see by the example of Titus who having been employ'd in ordering the Churches of Crete when that was done came
from them complaints and crys against your carriages that you consolate the pains they take for you by your resentment of the same and above all by your progress in the studious pursuit of piety For this is the only fruit they crave of all their cares and their combats they would account them most advantagiously recompenced if you do but profit by them if they perceive by the goodness of your manners and the sanctity of your life that they have not labored in vain But do not imagin I pray that their sollicitude doth discharge you of all care On the contrary it sheweth you with what earnestness and assiduity you should labor for your own Salvation For if they must heed your affairs with so much diligence what zeal should you put forth about them your selves Their travel may awaken and hearten you but it cannot save you except you travel your selves Their combating will win you no Crown if you take not part in it after their example Every one shall live by his own faith and no person be crowned for the zeal of his Pastor or his brother If your Pastors watch if they stand on their guard if they labour and combat blessed be GOD they shall receive their pay But their labouring will not excuse your loytering nor will their heedfulness justifie you neglects Every man shall bear his own burthen they may give you the example of their piety they will not be able to communicate to you the recompences of it Employ we then our selves both the one and the others Pastors and flocks about our Salvation with fear and trembling Let us all combat with Paul if we will be crowned with him Imitate we his Charity if we desire to partake in his Glory Let us extend our cares and our love as he did not only to the saithful whom we know but even to those whom we never saw For carnal amities I confess it is bodily sight and presence which enkindles and maintains them The eyes of the flesh are the authors and the preservers of them But in those of JESUS CHRIST it is otherwise It 's the Spirit that knits them It is its eye and its sight that causeth them both to begin and to continue For since it is properly JESUS CHRIST and His Gospel that Charity loveth it is evident that it ought to embrace all those which bear the marks of them whether they be absent or present The distance of times and places doth not hinder these sacred commerces The Apostle combateth even for those that had never seen him Let us also then love all true Christians and spread our affections as far as to those whom many Seas and many Mountains sever from us Let us combate for them by prayer and do them how far off soever they be from us all the Offices whereof our Charity shall be capable travelling with holy tenderness for the salvation and edification of one another But having considered St. Paul's combat let us now examine the end and design of it Whence comes it holy Apostle that thou takest so much pains and hast these Colossians and Laodiceans and even those that never saw thee so neer thy heart Why doth this carefulness follow thee to the very prison and come there to aggravate and invenom thy personal sufferings Why labourest thou so for them To the end saith he that their hearts may be comforted they being joyned together in love and in all riches of full certainty of understanding unto the knowledg of the secret of our GOD and Father and of CHRIST Thus doth the Apostle answer our demand I am in pain saith he for their consolation and their faith I combat to preserve this treasure to them and to prevent the enemies snatching out of their hands so precious and so necessary a possession By saying he combats for them that they may keep these Graces He sheweth That they were in danger to lose them if the enemies they had that is the Seducers and false Apostles did accomplish their design and perswade these faithful people to those errors which they were setting forth In effect it is evident that their doctrine of man's Justification by ceremonies and observations whether legal or humane is incompatible with the truth of the Gospel doth disturb the comfort of the faithful break the bond of charity confoundeth and embroileth the mystery of JESUS CHRIST bereaveth Him of His glory and of His plentifulness representing Him as poor and scanty and as needing the succour either of Moses or of Philosophy and the superstition of men to give us Salvation The Apostle nameth three things which he wisheth unto these Believers and which he would keep for them by his cares and combats Consolation of heart Conjunction in charity and the riches of a full certainty of understanding or as he expresseth the same thing in other terms knowledg of the secret of our GOD and Father and of CHRIST The first of these to wit Comfort of heart is the happiness of the faithful upon earth For it is that calm and tranquillity which their souls enjoy amidst the tempests of this life when they sweetly repose themselves upon their Master's word and are assured to partake of His Salvation notwithstanding the menaces and persecutions of the enemy and the defects and imperfections of their own course All heresie and error in Religion doth necessarily disturb this consolation because it shakes the truth and certainty of the doctrine of the Gospel upon which it is founded But the error which the Apostle sets himself to oppose did particularly strike at this part of our Salvation depriving consciences of that peace which faith in JESUS CHRIST doth afford them and casting them into a miserable agitation in that it makes their justification to depend on I know not what observances that are either vain and unprofitable or even impious and pernicious It 's this that animates S. Paul to combat it so vigorously every where because the faithful could not receive it without losing their true consolation that is their only hearts-good And this should make us jealous for the purity of the Gospel to keep it free from all admixture of error Let us not hearken unto those who tell us that if what they have added to the Gospel do displease us yet we cannot deny but they retain JESUS CHRIST and the foundations of our Salvation in Him It is a most evident delusion I confess that JESUS CHRIST giveth Salvation and Consolation but He doth it to those that embrace Him as He presents Himself to us on His Cross and in His Gospel naked and without adulteration and composition If you will have either vice or superstition with Him He will serve you for nothing save to augment your condemnation As food how good and wholsome soever it be will no less then kill you if it be mingled with poyson We must either receive JESUS CHRIST alone or renounce His Salvation There is no possibility to
He shall entertain not Men or Angels but the King of Men and Angels the Eternal Son of God the Prince of Life and Father of Eternity He that receives the Doctrine of an Aristotle or a Plato or of a Father or a Pope and in short of any man whatever doth not thereupon receive the Author of the Doctrine himself because no man hath either the power or the means to communicate himself to those that credit his instructions But JESUS CHRIST being GOD blessed for ever of a Nature a Wisdom and a Power infinite he accompanieth his own Gospel and communicates himself to those that receive it he dwelleth in their hearts by faith he there sheds abroad the light and influence of his Spirit he bringeth thither with him Peace and Life and Joy Now to close up this part Take heed you do not stretch S. Paul's words beyond his intention as if his meaning were that generally every one should hold to that which he hath been taught and never part with what he hath once received whatever the things be which he hath believ'd and whoever the persons were that delivered them GOD forbid that an imagination so sottish and pernicious and so very far from the Apostle's mind should ever enter into your heart By this account those that have been in an error should do well not to come out of it and it should not be lawful for such as have taken poison instead of a remedy to cast it away Neither should point of honour and generosity be urged in this case perseverance in an error once known is not constancy but obstinateness It 's a part of true generosity to confess one's fault and forsake it and it is clearly a seebleness of spirit not to let go what is false or naught upon the pretence that you had the ill hap to close sometime with it I confess it had been better to have rejected it at first but setling in it after conviction is a doubling of your fault and infelicity And as for Honour it 's a pitiful extravagancy to place it in things contrary to duty and vertue If Error be honourable I shall yeeld that he that confirms himself in it is a man of Honour But since quite contrary all confess as is most evidently true that Error is a shameful thing and blame-worthy who sees not but that true Honour obligeth us to quit it and not stiffen our selves in it and that pretending of Honour for persevering in error or in vice is to go about as the Gospel says to gather figs from a thorn Luke 6.44 and grapes from a thistle It is as if a man would attempt to white himself with Ink and cleanse himself with Mud. In a word it is a seeking of Honour in Shame and of Glory in Ignominy But I pass by those who by such speeches clearly discover either that they have not well pondered what they say or which would be yet worse that they hold Truth and Error Piety and Impiousness Vertue and Vice to be indifferent things since after their reckoning Pagans and Hereticks are blamable when they forsake these latter to follow the former which cannot be affirmed without maintaining at the least that both the one and the other are indifferent in as much as common sense dictateth to all men that it 's a prudent action worthy of praise and not of blame to quit the worse for the better and leave a bad way that one may take a good one I come to those of Rome who also abuse the Apostle's exhorting the faithful here and elswhere to abide in that which they have received and which hath been taught them without giving ear to novelties This say they is that you have done you that walk no longer in the way you were taught amongst us that have deserted and abjured the Mass and the Service of our Saints and the veneration of our Images and the belief of our Purgatory and many other such things which your Ancestors received and all which or the greatest part of them have been constantly and openly preached among us from age to age and from father to son for a thousand years and more as your selves cannot deny Dear Brethren To this I answer That this exhortation of the holy Apostle's is so far from favouring their Cause that quite contrary it overthrows it and sets up ours For as we have said He doth not positively determine that every one adhere to the Doctrine he hath received of his Teachers GOD forbid since by that means he should have obliged the Pagan to remain eternally in his Idolatry left him by his Ancestors and the Heretick in the error his Masters have infus'd into him and the Musulman in the Faith of his Mahomet and the Jew in the tradition of his Fathers He should on the contrary exhort the Gentiles to come out of the ways wherein GOD had let themselves and their Ancestors walk for the time past He who presseth the Galatians to forsake the by path whither their Doctors had misled them that they might recover the race they once ran He who would have Timothy and all true Ministers 2 Tim. 2.25 26. labour to draw men out of the snares of the Devil whatever hand it was that entangled them in the same He speaks here to faithful people who had received and kept pure and sincere till then the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST without any mixture of error or superstition It 's to these he recommends the standing fast in what they had learned And if our Adversaries resemble them I confess they have reason to stick in the Doctrine of their Fathers and we have done ill to recede from it He speaks not in general of all kind of Doctrine but particularly and by name of that which the Colossians then believed to which he expresly gives these two Characters for the distinguishing of it from all other Doctrines First That it wholly referred to JESUS CHRIST Secondly That it had been delivered them either by himself or at least by some one of his faithful Disciples So as you have received JESVS CHRIST walk in Him even as you have been taught If such the Doctrine of Rome be if it neither publish nor exhibit ought but JESUS CHRIST the Lord if it were delivered by S. Paul if it came from his hand if it be derived from his spring I will unfeignedly confess that we are faulty in having quitted it But since on the contrary it is evident and as clear as the light of the Sun that what we have quitted and abjured is not that LORD JESUS CHRIST whom Paul and his fellow-labourers and Scholars preached but a Leaven which is contrary to him and which hath been superadded by men nor was taught by the first Ministers of the truth Who seeth not that we have in this not disobeyed but obeyed the Apostle's exhortation that we have done what he commands and not what he forbids For in what place of S.
the importance of this duty Beware saith he lest any man make prey of you He could not more to the life or with greater elegancy express the danger of such as stand not on their guard than by this word which signifies properly to carry away the booty that a man hath taken It is not without cause saith he that I give you order to use all your abilities and to defend your selves against Error with utmost vigilancy For no small matter depends upon it It is as much as your souls your selves and the noblest part of your beeing your understandings your affections your heart comes to The Wolves and the Thieves against whom men watch with so much care do aim only at their Sheep or their Purse Those against whom I animate you aim at your Persons An Enemy against whom Cities and States do set guards doth threaten only their Goods or their Lives at most He against whom I require your watching seeketh your souls and the share they have in eternity You are the Workmanship and the Jewel of the LORD of Glory You will be a prey to Satan and his Ministers if you fall into their snares They will not be content with having taken you they will bring you into bondage and the redeemed of JESUS CHRIST whose liberty he hath bought at the price of his Divine Blood will become slaves of men and which is worse of Devils Good GOD how piercing was the eye of that Heavenly Spirit which guided the Pen of this Apostle How clearly did it see the nature and the qualities of all the things whereof he speaketh Observe how Error â—iumpheth over those whom it infecteth See the Trophies it sets up of their spoils the Fâ—tters wherewith it loadeth those whom it seduceth the yoke which it puts upon their neeks and the captivity into which it brings them and you with confess that the eâ—lects of its false and damnable conquests could not pâ—ssibly be more truly and more naturally represented to us than by saying as S. Paul doth here that it makes a prey of Christians or carries them away as booty For Error is ever insolent and whereas Preachers of the Truth do serve those whom they teach and stile themselves their Ministers as this Apostle heretofore did the Teachers of Falshood usurp dominion over those whom they have corrupted and vaunt that they are their Judges their Masters and their Lords S Paul noted it long since of the seducers of the Corinthians who as he saith 2 Cor. 11.20 enslaved them devoured them and exalted themselves over them and smote them on the face that is did put all kind of indignities upon them And the false Teachers among the Galatians Gal. 6.13 he saith did glory in the flesh of their miserable discriples They are blind that do not at this day observe the self-same thing in the carriage of those men that reign over all the multitude whom they have deceived and rear up lofty Trophies of every poor soul that they have made prey of Dear Brethren if you love the liberty which the LORD JESUS hath purchased for you if you abhor the servitude of men if you desire the fruit of the one which is immortality and detest perdition the inevitable sequel of the other in the name of GOD take heed that no man make prey of you The Doctrine of truth is enclosed within the LORD's sheepfold Abide there if you would be in safety Stray you thence but ever so little and you will fall into the hands of Wolves and Robbers Hearken not unto their babble Be not taken with their countenance Let any thing among them that may promise fair be suspected of you since their seeking only is to withdraw you from the simplicity of the Gospel Now the Apostle points at three things here which he adviseth us to take heed of in particular namely The vain deceit of Philosophy The traditions of men and The rudiments of the world Because these were the three sources from which those false Apostles that then attempted the Colossians drew all the heads of their Doctrine and the means which they used to colour it and give it that vain lustre which was needful for the beguiling of the simple and unlearned For Col. 2.23 as we shall see more particularly in the sequel of this Chapter they enjoined the worshipping of Angels a matter they had taken in all likelihood out of the Sinks of the Platonick Philosophers who storied divers things of these higher spirits and of their interposition and mediation between GOD and us for the purifying of us and the rendring us capable of supream happiness as we see even at this day in those remains which we have of their Writings Again Col. 2.23 they introduced divers voluntary devotions which did not spare the flesh and seem'd full of humility but were indeed only traditions of men without any foundation in the word of GOD. Finally it is also evident that they pressed the observation of days and the distinction of meats according to the ordinances of the Mosaical Law which are likewise stiled Elements of the World Now though these three points do particularly respect the false Teachers at Coloss yet they are common well-nigh to all such as ever set themselves to alter and sophisticate the Gospel the most part of their impostures having issued from one of these three springs We will consider them therefore briefly and distinctly by the will of God and after them the character or mark which S. Paul giveth them to wit that these things are not after CHRIST Among these things of which we are to beware he gives the first place to Philosophy It 's name is very honourable Philosophy if you weigh the word signifying the love and pursuit of wisdom But the corruptness of those men that gave their Profession this name among the Grecians did disgrace so worthy a term and made it to be the name of a Tool of Error and Imposture rather than of an Instrument of Science and Truth For the common sort of those that stiled themselves Philosophers amused themselves altogether in vain Speculations in a trade of subtilty and syllogizing and in endless disputes that yeelded men no true profit They thought they had attained the End of their profession when they had got a faculty to speak of all matters with some colour and probability so as to dazle the eyes of the ignorant and win the admiration of the half-witted This vanity rendred them odious first among the Pagans themselves where they went among the people for extravagant persons and were in little better esteem among the greater part of the better sort And for as much as of all Professions scarce any did more fiercely oppose the Gospel of our Saviour thence it came to pass that the first Christians also conceiv'd a very ill opinion of them which encreas'd when it did appear that Hereticks did ordinanarily fetch from these mens Forges the Arms
Austerity and Rigour which these Seducers made shew of as well in their lives as in their Doctrine beating down their bodies and giving them hard usage without having any great care to content their desires All are at accord that this in gross the Apostle's scope and sense as indeed his words do necessarily and clearly signifie But when it comes to the ranking of them and the construing of each of them in particular there doth some difficulty appear which hath caused diversity of thoughts among Expositors The difficulty doth precisely respect the latter clause alone and have not any regard to the satiating of the flesh instead whereof it is in the Original rendring word for word not in any honour for the satiating of the flesh Some good and eminent servants of GOD do sever the word honour from the rest interpreting the Apostle thus they do not at all spare the body in that which is for the satisfying of the flesh The honour of the body in the Apostle's language is its purity and honesty as he plainly teacheth elsewhere 2 Thes 4.4 saying The will of GOD even our sanctification is that each one should know how to possess his Vessel in Holiness and Honour And to this honour he opposeth in another place Rom. 1.26 all the ordures and impurities of Luxury which he calls passions of dishonour or infamous affections as the French Bible hath translated it Therefore it is Heb. 13.4 that he stileth Marriage which was instituted of GOD for the conservation of this honour of our bodies honourable among all The Apostle then according to the sentiment of these Interpreters doth oppose this honour to the Seducers pretended mortifications For to preserve this honour it is true we ought not to spare our bodies but religiously abstain from all that 's contrary to the same denying our flesh all the pleasures of impurity It 's for this end alone that an ill usage of our bodies is permitted us whereas these Seducers their abstinences were of another nature For the rigour they used towards their bodies was to abstain not from pleasures incompatible with Sobriety Temperance and Chastity but from certain sorts of meat the use of which no way defiles the body nor violates in any manner the holiness it ought to be kept in This exposition you see is good and godly and suiteth well enough with the Apostle's terms Our French Bible hath followed another no less pertinent as taking the Greek word that properly signifies Honour or Respect for Having regard they do not at all spare the body and have not any respect or any regard for satisfying of the flesh For a man regards what he doth honour whence it comes that to honour is often put in Scripture for the having a care of as when S. Paul would command Timothy to have a care of Widows 1 Tim. 5.4 he says to him Honour the Widows that are Widows indeed and so frequently elsewhere In like manner therefore he saith in this place that these Teachers did not at all spare the body and took no care of it not valuing at all the things that are requisite for the feeding and satisfaction of the flesh I think we may hold to this Exposition as the simplest and easiest and indeed it is the commonest and most followed These false Teachers then made this their contempt of the body and the small care they took to nourish it according to its appetites to be sounded out aloud referring thereunto those abstinences from some kind of meats which they enjoyned proclaiming that this was to mortifie their flesh and keep it in an wholsome discipline What could be said more plausible For as nothing is more unworthy the high designes of piety than a sticking to the things of the Carkass and the Kitchin so it seems that there is not any thing more worthy of the things of Heaven then contempt of this base and wretched nature And the more passionate ordinary men are for their flesh even to the making it their GOD so much the more do they admire those who beat it down instead of adoring it as themselves do Accordingly evident it is that most Seducers have abused this colour to paint over their inventions and impostures We read how the old Idol-priests did cut all their faces with Lancets 1 King 18.28 and other Pagans rend their Children and Pages with stripes before the Altar of their feigned Deity nor can one think without horrour upon the Cruelties and Barbarities which the most part of their Priests and Votaries did and do yet to this day exercise on their own persons in places where Paganism bear sway Their Abstinences also were extream and there were Sects yea whole Nations that scrupled to eat of any thing that had had sence The Fastings and Austerities of the Encratites the Montanists and Eustathians ancient Hereticks of the Christian Profession are famous in the Writings of Antiquity Not so much as the Mahumetans the most sensual and most carnal of all Infidels but do make semblance of not sparing their bodies I pass by the prodigious and incredible austerities of their Votaries of whom some go almost stark naked and so little spare their flesh that they wound and gash it both with Incisions and inustions others neither eat nor drink but very seldom Even all Mahometans in general do most devoutly observe every Year a kind of Lent which they call Raâ—edan Fasting daily an whole month from Morning untill night without taking any thing at all untill the Starrs appear Every one knows also how scrupulously they all abstain from Wine one of the pleasingst and most prized refreshments of the body But for these people who are without any knowledge of the Apostle's Authority Beloved Brethren it is no wonder they should suffer themselves to be seduced by such vain shews Our amazement and grief is on the occasion of our Adversaries of the Roman Communion that this false lustre so loudly decryed here by an Apostle whom they profess to acknowledge and reverence should yet be sufficient to recommend unto them Doctrines purely humane and cause them to receive them for Divine For I may truly say that all their errours or wanting very few have been introduced by favour of three false colours which the Apostle doth here so roughly reject to wit voluntary service humility and mortifying of the body And they are not ashamed to recommend them still by these very things alledging for the defence of their doctrines such shews as Pagans Hereticks and Infidels have heretofore painted over their impieties and superstitions withall and the Apostle expresly remarked and condemned the abuse of It 's by this that they defend the worshipping of Images and the Invocation of Saints and the exorbitant submission they live in unto the Prelats and particularly to the Bishop of Rome and the celebration of so many Festivals and a multitude of other abuses Not being able to found them on the
passeth unto exhortation conjuring these faithful people to live well and holy forming their deportment to a Piety Honesty and Vertue worthy their vocation He endeth with some particular affairs whereof he speaketh to them and with the recommendations he presents them both on his own part and on the part of some other faithful persons that were with Him But you will better understand the whole by the exposition of each of the parts of the Epistle if the LORD grant us to compleat the same For the present we propose to our selves to consider only the five Verses we have read the two first of which contain the Inscription of the Epistle and the other three the joy and the thanksgivings of Paul unto GOD for the faith and charity of these Colossians These shall be GOD willing the two Points that we will treat on in this action The Inscription of the Epistle is couched in these words Paul an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the Will of GOD and the Brother Timothy to the Saints and faithful brethren in CHRIST JESVS that are at Colosse Grace be unto you and peace from GOD our Father and from the LORD JESVS CHRIST Whereas at this day the custom is to put upon Letters the name of those to whom they are written and within after the body of the Letter the Name and Sign of those that write them heretofore the use was otherwise for he that wrote did set both the one and the other Name within at the head of the Letter with a brief salutation in these words Such a one unto such a one health as we learn by a multitude of Greek and Latin Epistles which are left us in the ancient Books of the most renowned Personages of those two Nations The Apostle that lived in those Ages useth the same manner in all his Letters as you know saving that instead of wishing health and prosperity to those to whom he writes He ordinarily wisheth them Peace and the Grace of GOD and of his Son JESVS CHRIST According to this form the inscription of this Epistle containeth First The Names and Qualities both of them that write it and those they write it to and Secondly The good and happy wish wherewith they salute them The Names of those that write it are Paul and Timothy sufficiently known to all that are ever so little versed in the reading of the New Testament They are here described each by certain qualities attributed to them To Paul that of an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the will of GOD. To Timothy that of Brother simply The word Apostle signifies in the Language of the Greeks one deputed a person sent by some one But in the Scripture of the New Covenant it is taken particularly for those first and highest Ministers of the LORD JESUS whom He sent with a Soveraign and Independent Authority to Preach the Gospel and establish His Church in the world The highest and noblest charge GOD ever gave to men And to exercise it it was necessary First To have seen JESUS CHRIST alive after His Death that a good and lawful Testimony might be given of His Resurrection They must Secondly Have received their commission from the LORD himself immediately and in the Third place Have the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary measure with the gift of Tongues and Miracles Whence appears how ill founded they are that attribute the glory of an Apostleship to the Bishop of Rome to whom none of those three conditions do agree It is also clear that this dignity is extraordinary and was not instituted but for the first establishments of the Church the government whereof after its plantation the Apostles put in the hands of another kind of in feriour Ministers which are indifferently called in Scripture either Bishops that is Overseers and Superintendents or Presbyters that is Elders The History of the Acts informeth us that to the twelve Apostles afore ordained our LORD added besides afterward St. Paul having miraculously appeared to Him and sent Him with the same power the rest had to convert the Gentiles He assumeth therefore here this glorious Title at the entrance of this Letter and saith moreover that He is an Apostle by the will of GOD signifying that it was the express Order and Mandate of the LORD which honoured him with this Ministry and not the suffrage and authority of men differencing Himself by this means from those false Teachers and Troublers that had not been sent but by the will of flesh and blood The declaration of this His quality was here necessary for Him First To maintain His honour against the calumnies of Seducers who did disparage and black Him as much as they could under pretence that He had not lived as the other Apostles in the company of JESUS CHRIST during the dayes of His flesh and Secondly To ground the liberty He took of writing to the Colossians and of remonstrating to them their duty as well in faith as manners it being evident that the Apostles had right to use this authority over all and every of the Christian Churches To His own Name he addeth that of Timothy whom he calleth Brother as having one and the same faith and labouring about one and the same work whether it were to authorize His Doctrine the more by the consent of this holy man every word being more firm in the mouth of two or three Witnesses than in that of one alone Or to recommend Him to these believers that if he wrote to them or ever came to visit them they might receive Him as a person worthy of the fellowship of the Apostles and whose Name deserved to accompany that of Paul As for those to whom He directeth this Epistle He describes them next in these words To the Saints and faithful Brethren in CHRIST that are at Colosse I pass by as childish and impertinent the opinion of those whom it listed to say that it is the Isle and City of Rhodes He meaneth and that He calleth it Colosse because of that great and prodigious Statue of the Sun which the Rhodians had erected at the mouth of their Haven and which the Greeks ordinarily called the Colossus What need is there of these frigid and ridiculous subtilities since the Ancients shew that there was yerst in Phrygia a Province of Asia the less a City called Colosse not far from two others to wit Laodicea and Hierapolis whom the Apostle also mentions in this Epistle and recommends expresly to the Colossians the communicating this Letter to the Laodiceans when themselves should have read it Afterward this City of Colosse changed its Name and was called Cone and to it one of the famousest Writers of the latter times of Greece who is called Nicetas Choniates owed his birth taking His Surname from the place where he was born In Th saur l. 4. ch 22. and himself boasteth in one of His Works that it had been to the inhabitants of the City of Cone whence he was
last words of this Text whence it is that the Colossians had conceived so high an hope Of which saith he you have heard heretofore by the word of truth to wit the Gospel This Soveraign bliss which is reserved for us in the Heavens is so highly raised above nature that neither subtility of sense nor vivacity of reason nor even the light of the Law could discover it to us much less give us the hope thereof 2 Tim. 1.10 That same JESVS CHRIST who hath destroyed death hath brought to light life and immortality by the Gospel Before this they were either entirely unperceived or imperfectly known and hoped for It 's therefore precisely from the Gospel that we draw both the faith and the hope of them He calleth the Gospel the word of truth not as some will have it because it is the Word of JESUS CHRIST who is the Truth and the life for this exposition is more subtil than solid but because it is the most excellent of all Verities those that are learned in the School of Nature and of the Law being mean and unprofitable in comparison of those which the Gospel doth discover to us It may well be that the Apostle would also secretly oppose the doctrine of the Gospel to those of the seducers which still recommended shadows and figures as we shall hear in the following Chapter whereas the Gospel presenteth us the substance and the truth of things And it seems to be in this sense that St. John after he had said The Law was given by Moses addeth in form of opposition John 1.17 But grace and truth came by JESVS CHRIST because the Law had only dark lineaments and shadows whereas the LORD JESUS brought us the lively image the body and the truth of celestial things The Apostle remindeth the Colossians that they had already heretofore heard this Word of truth as it were to protest unto them that he would promote no novelty among them having no other design but to confirm them more and more in the holy doctrine they had already received with faith from Epaphras and other Ministers of the LORD See well beloved Brethren that we had to say to you for the exposition of this Text. It remaineth that we briefly touch at for you the principal points we should gather of it as well for the instruction of our Faith as the edification of our Charity and the consolation of our souls As for Faith 't is for it's security that St. Paul telleth us at the entrance He is an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the will of GOD advertising us by this quality He assumeth to receive no doctrine into our belief which hath not been annunciated by these great and highest Ministers of the LORD Let us examine the Spirits and admit only the word of the Apostles If any one Evangelize beyond what they have preached let us hold him for an Anathema We have their Scriptures Let us assuredly believe all that we read in them Let the doctrine which appears not there be suspected to us and praised be GOD that according to this rule we have banished from our Religion that which error and superstition had thrust into Christianity You know that the GOD the CHRIST the Heaven the Worship and Sacraments we preach have been given us by the Apostles of the LORD established by the Will of GOD and do appear throughout in their Gospels and in their Epistles Whereas the Mediators whom our Adversaries invocate the High Priest they acknowledge the Traditions they maintain the Purgatory they fear the greatest part of the Sacraments they celebrate the adoration of the Host the veneration of Images and the voluntary Worships which they practise are not found at all either in the Old or the New Testament Let us therefore firmly retain our Religion as instituted by the Will of GOD and constantly reject what is beyond it as come of man and not of the LORD from the Earth and not from Heaven But it is not enough to make profession of it we must plant this doctrine in our hearts by a lively belief in such sort as we may be able to say with truth That we have faith in JESUS CHRIST and charity towards all the Saints We render thanks to GOD with the Apostle for that of His great mercies He hath vouchsafed to communicate this treasure of His Gospel to us and not in vain since there are among us that have truly made their profit of these spiritual riches But the life of the greater part renders them unworthy of the praise which St. Paul here giveth the Colossians For is this to have Faith in JESUS CHRIST to serve Him so loosely as we do and testifie so little zeal for His glory so little respect to His Commandments so little belief of his documents and so little affection for the interests of His Kingdom As for Charity I am ashamed to speak of it so cooled is ours For if we loved all the faithful should we leave the life of some of them and the reputation of others without succour Should we injure them instead of defending them Should we take away their substance instead of communicating to them our own Should we black their honour instead of preserving it Would their prosperity offend us Would their miseries content us Faithful Sirs remember they are the Saints of GOD His Children and the Brethren of His CHRIST Respect those so sacred names and spare persons that have the honour to belong so nearly to your LORD He will judge you by the treatment you shall give them and write on his account the good and the evil which they shall receive from your hands recompensing it or punishing in the very same manner as if you had honoured or violated Him in His own person He will cut you off from His communion if you do not carefully regard and practise theirs and will never avouch you for His Children if you acknowledge them not for your Brethren And here alledge not to me I beseech you that you have faith I know well that this divine light cannot be in souls which are cold and destitute of Charity But suppose that this were possible I tell you and declare that all your pretended faith should you have the highest degree thereof that may be in the world without charity would be but a shadow an Idol and an illusion and as St. James saith a stinking carkass James 2.26 Do all you will Have as much faith and knowledge as you please if you have not charity you are not a Christian you are but a false and deceitful image of one Charity is absolutely necessary to the perfection of a Christian It is the badge of this holy Discipline it is the honour and the glory of it and the Apostle as you see sets it down here among it's essential parts Faith shall cease in Heaven when we shall see instead of believing But charity shall remain for ever Have then a
he saith that the Gospel is preached to every creature Col. 1.23 that is under Heaven and at the tenth of the Epistle to the Romans where applying to the Ministers of the LORD JESUS what the Psalmist had sung of the Heavens Rom. 10.18 Their sound saith he is gone forth through all the earth and their words unto the ends of the World And elsewhere speaking of himself he saith That from Jerusalem Rom. 15.19 and round about it even to Illyricum he had made the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST to abound and after the time he wrote those words He sowed it besides in the Isle of Malta and at Rome Now if the other twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples and the Evangelists did labour each according to his measure in proportion with St. Paul as it is not to be doubted but they did no one will have cause to be astonished that all they together should have by that time carryed the Gospel through the whole world We read likewise in the writings of the first Christians Justin Clement Tertullian and others that in their time that is about 130 and 160 years only after the LORD's death all was full of Christian Churches and that there was no Nation either among the Greeks or the Barbarians nay the very Scythians or Tartarians wherein CHRIST JESUS had not servants And though these testimonies cannot be rejected without extream impudence there being no probability that either St. Paul or those other Writers would have spoken of the thing in such sort if it had not been true yet entirely to disarm incredulity I will add that the very same appears by the Books of Pagans of that time that are remaining For Tacitus a Roman Historian a passionate enemy of Christianity Amel. l. 15. though otherwise a grave man and of great esteem among his Countrymen hath left in Writing that in the eleventh year of Nero that is only eight years after the date of this Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians a severe search having been made after it there was found a very great multitude of Christians at Rome This sufficeth to justifie what the Apostle says For since that Preaching was able to penetrate so far on this side athwart Provinces that made as it were the heart of the Roman Empire it might be much more easily spread towards the East in the Estates of the Parthians and in the Indies even whither St. Thomas went as appears by tracks of it that remain of it to this day in those Countries and towards the South in Egypt and Ethiopia where St. Matthew Preached as the ancients do report and towards the North whither passed some of the other Disciples This was well nigh the whole world then known of the Greeks and Romans and thus without doubt the Apostle understands it in this place For as to those great Countreys discovered in the West about one hundred and fifty years ago which they commonly call the West Indies or the New world it is evident the Ancients had no certain knowledge of them and it is very likely that they were not yet peopled in the Apostle's time the furtherst memory which the Nations there have preserved of things yerst done among them being but for four or five hundred years at most Be it concluded therefore that taking the World as is commonly understood for Countries inhabited and known at that time the Gospel was then already come into all the world The Apostle mentions it to the Colossians First to confirm them the more in the saith they had given to the Gospel I confess that its truth depends not upon the success of the Preaching it nor upon the multitude of them that believe it Though all the world should reject it though Heaven and Earth should persecute it the faith of a Christian ought to abide alwayes firm and unshaken being founded as it is upon the word of GOD and not upon the consent of men as on the contrary though the whole universe should maintain errour we should not be for this either obliged to follow errour or excusable for having followed it this order of GOD subsisting for ever that we must not follow a multitude to do evil But thoug it be thus yet it is a great consolation to a faithful soul to see the truth spread abroad And since the Divine Vertue of the LORD is so much the more powerfully declared by how much the more men it converteth unto his Christ it is evident that this extension of the Gospel helpeth and confirmeth our Faith in as much as it furnisheth us with an excellent testimony of the power of GOD and of the efficacy of His word But I add also that the success here touched by the Apostle contains a manifest argument of the Divinity of the Gospel and that in two respects For first if you consider the thing in its self it is so great and marvelous as that it sheweth sufficiently that this Doctrine is not only true but even Divine and Celestial When St. Paul wrote this Letter it was not full thirty years that JESUS CHRIST had suffered death in Judea and yet the Gospel as he saith was already come into all the world How could it have made so much way in so little time penetrated so many obstacles flown into so many places infinitely distant if it had not been both of a Celestial Original and carryed by a divine force Certainly as the extension of the light of the Sun who inlightens the whole Hemisphere in an instant and the rapidness of its motion who visits all the Climats of the universe in four and twenty hours doth evidently shew us that it is a work of GOD and of a nature altogether different from that of Earthly and Elementary things In like manner this so swift and suddain course of the Evangelique Doctrine that fill'd the world in so little time pierced through and dissipated the darkness and made it self be seen so quickly from one end of the Heavens to the other invincibly proves that it is a divine thing and no humane production Look on all the disciplines that ever had sway in the World You shall not find any of them that was establisht in this sort and made such a progress in so small a time The religions of the Pagans lived only in the Countries where they were born and if sometimes they stretched further it was rather the curiosity of strangers that brought them from the place of their birth than their own design or vigour all those so famous sects of the Philosophy of the Greeks did abide each of them in the soil that bare them And the Doctrine which the Popes of Rome have established in their Communion came not to the estate wherein we see it but by a long succession of time one age gaining one point and another adding a second till after many ages it took in fine the consistence and form it hath at this day and wherein
it is maintained by the terrour of Inquisitions and the pomp of a worldly power and the favour of the Great who find their own interests in it It is only the Gospel of the LORD that from its birth had the courage and the force to fly every way penetrating with incredible swiftness all the Regions of the habitable world in less than five and twenty years And let none alledge unto me here the Seduction of Mahomet which infected the East and the South and a part of the West it self in a very little time For there is nothing alike in the progress of the one and the other of these two doctrines I pass by other differences that may be observed I will only touch at one of the most essential namely that Mahomet and his Successours advanced not their impostures but by force of Arms and dint of Sword not Preaching and establishing their Doctrine save in the Countreys they conquer'd and among the Nations they brought under their Yoke To say true it was their Iron and not their Alcoran that ran through and spoiled the World What was strange or supernatural in their success That a Troop of Robbers whom their own need or others cowardice and confusion emboldened to enterprise could seize them of some Towns by fraud or force That puffed up with the good fortune of their first successes and by a multitude of people joyned with them they pushed further on and issuing out of their Arabia should attempt the outmost quarters of the Roman Empire very ill-garded at that time and in a manner exposed to pillage and that gaining ground by little and little they should fall on further and break in on one side and the other as the division and weakness of their enemies gave them opportunity so as in fine in the space of three or four score years they saw by these progresses the East and the South in their hands Sure there was nothing but humane in all this Alexander the Macedonian had yer-while done as much or more in less than fifteen years and Sesostris and divers others both before and after him It is then no Miracle that the Religion of the Saracens born if I may so say upon the wings of their victorious Ensignes saw much of the World by this means in fifty or sixty years If any marvel be it is that of their armes which did so great exploits in so small time and not that of their Alcoran which never entred but into places whose gates fire and sword opened for it But as to the Gospel of the LORD JESUS it is quite otherwise It had not to sustain it and advance it in the world either the aid of force or the favour of armes or the successes of Warr or the exploits of any Conquerour It had not in its service either the charms of Eloquence or the subtilities of Philosophy in one word it had no humane or terrene succour that you can possibly imagine Those that carryed it were twelve or thirteen Fishermen with a little number of others of the same Cloth without Credit without Armes without courage without Experience the off-scouring and sweepage of the world weakness and imbecillity it self who far from enterprising upon ought of other mens had renounced all that was their own who instead of smiting and slaying where whip'd and ston'd at every turn instead of attaquing did not so much as make resistance to them that ill handled them living in an extreme humility and innocence With this poor equipage the Gospel undertook the world and though it met every where with gates shut up and walls garrison'd with all that was terrible to force it back though the Jews persecuted it the gentiles derided it great and small had it in abomination Magistrates banish'd it and put it under the most cruel punishments though all did rend it with injuries and reproaches yet naked as it was it made it self room and in spight of so many dreadful impediments ran from East to West and from South to North and so constantly despised all earthly means as it reigned every where for sixcore years before it had one Magistrate or Captain on its side disarming and despoiling them when it received any so far was it from making advantage of their arms or authority We may affirm therefore that this progress of the Gospel is a thing altogether singular not at any time else seen or hapning in the world and with which neither Mahumetism nor any other Religion hath any community Consequently that this is a mark of the truth and divinity of this holy doctrine those that are humane neither having nor being able to have that admirable force and vertue which appeareth in it But this event proves the same thing yet again after another manner inasmuch as it was a manifest accomplishment of ancient Oracles yer-while given by the LORD to His former people and registred in His Scriptures which foretell in divers places that the Messiah should spread all abroad the knowledge of the true GOD which was before shut up within the strait limits of Judea Isa 60.3 9.1 that the Nations one day should walk in His light and that people sitting in darkness should see a great light which the LORD JESUS explaining in the dayes of His flesh had said upon it Mat. 24.14 that His Gospel should be Preached in all the world These predictions therefore appearing at that time so punctually and so admirably and in so short a space fulfilled who can doubt any more but that the LORD JESUS is the true CHRIST since never any but He revealed the GOD of Israel and His service to the World and that His Apostles were the servants of this same GOD who having foretold these things so many ages before so mightily executed them by their Ministry in the fulness of time But besides the confirmation of the Colossians faith in general I account that the Apostle would more-over by this Elogy he gives the Gospel to be come into all the world fortifie them in particular against the new doctrines which some seducers were sowing in their Church For since other Churches founded here and their in divers parts of the world had heard nothing of them it was a very evident argument that they were not any part of the Gospel that is of what the Apostles Preached Whence we may draw to give you this advice by the way an invincible proof both of the truth of the doctrine we believe and of the vanity of that which we contest about with our adversaries of Rome For as to that we hold it is evident the Apostles Preached it in all the world both by word of mouth and by writing there being none of the necessary positive and assirmative articles of our faith but doth appear in all the Monuments of Apostolique Preaching to wit both in the Books they wrote and in the Churches they sounded As for our adversaries it is no less evident they can
never shew that the Monarchy or infallibility of their Pope or the Adoration of their Host or the service of their Images or their invocation of Saints or Purgatory or the trafick of their Indulgencies or any other of the points which we debate with them was Preached in all the world at the time of the holy Apostle no track at all of them being found in any of the Books or Memorials that remain of that age or of a long time beyond it only a man may perceive them some ages after growing up one in one place and another in another at divers times and in different Climats an evident sign that they are not parts of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST which was Preached entire in all the world in St. Pauls life time but inventions and traditions of men that came since After this suddain and admirable spreading of the Gospel the Apostle adds the efficacy it had in the places where it had been preached It is not only come into all the world saith he but which is more it bringeth forth fruit there as it doth also in you It bears the same fruits there which it hath produced among you You discern that these fruits of the Gospel signifie no other thing but that faith charity honesty modesty temperance and the other spiritual vertues which it produceth in the souls of those that hear it and receive it as they ought and in which the Sanctification of men doth consist It is this power and efficacy of the Gospel which the LORD would represent unto us in the Parable of the seed to which He compareth it Matt. 13. and which according to the divers disposition of the places where it fell brought forth more or less fruit in some an bundred fold in other fixty and elsewhere but thirty Never was seen a thing more marvellous The Gospel changed the whole earth in a few years It crowned plants with flowers and fruits that were barren and accursed It filled the desarts the plains and the most desolate heaths with exquisit and delicious trees That which the Laws of Nations that which the most excellent Philosophy had husbanded whole ages in vain no sooner felt the hand of these Evangelique Vine-dressers and labourers but suddainly losing the bitterness of its first juice was sweetned and became loaden with Celestial fruits There was piety sweetness and humanity seen to flourish where never had appeared ought but the horrour of Superstition of Atheism of cruelty and all other kind of Vices This is the change which the LORD had foretold in Isaiah Isa 41.19 in those Allegorical words I will make to grow in the Desart the Cedar the Pine tree the Myrtle and the Olive I will set in the Plains the Firre-tree the Elme and the Box together And elsewhere again comparing the Gospel to a rain that watereth the Earth and makes it bud and bring forth corn and bread So shall my word be saith He it shall not return to me without effect Isa 55.10 11. but it shall do all my pleasure and prosper to the things I shall send it for And this divine fruitfulness of the doctrine of the Gospel which miraculously changed the world is also a most evident argument of it's truth and of it's heavenly original there never having been Religion or Discipline on earth that had so lively and universal an efficacy But the Apostle particularly commendeth here the fruits it had brought forth among the Colossians It fructifieth in you saith he since the day that you heard and knew the grace of GOD in truth He praiseth both their teachableness in that this word had fructified in them from the first day they heard it and their constancy for that it continued still fructifying to that time The earth produceth not fruit as soon as it hath received the seed there must be time to mollifie the grain to make it thrust forth and sprout to raise it up and garnish it with fruits In this spiritual Husbandry it is not so The Gospel if rightly received into your heart will fructifie there from that very moment Receive it then faithful Brethren Defer not till the morrow This day that you hear the voice of the LORD harden not your hearts Psalm 95. It 's one of the most pernicious artifices of the enemy to suggest to men that they put off their conversion to the future Give me saith He this day and thou shalt give God the next Give me the present and Him the future to me the flower and vigour of thy life to Him the remains and thine old age So they find at last when all hath been given to Satan and the world nothing remains for them to give the LORD to whom they have left the future only that is what was not theirs disposing of the present which alone was in their power to the pleasure of their mortal enemy Christians take heed of his wiles and hasten ye out of his snares Imitate these faithful Colossians Receive the Word of GOD so deep into your hearts that it may fructifie there from this very day You cannot be the LORD' 's too soon Put not off the design of being happy to another time consider that time fleeth and life runs out and death comes while you deliberate But if we must begin betimes to bear fruit worthy of the Gospel it is not mean't that we may cease again soon after as forward Trees which make an end first as they did begin The plants of the LORD begin early but never cease to fructifie They bring forth fruit in their through-white old age and are even then in good liking and bide fresh as the Psalmist singeth Psal 92.15 If you have embraced the Gospel with ardour retain it with an invincible constancy For salvation is not prepared save for them that shall persevere that shall keep the verdure of the heavenly sap in them in spight of the scorching heats of Summer and the coolings of Winter so as no season how rude and contrary soever doth ever strip them of their mystical flowers and fruits As to what remains the Apostle calleth the faith of the Gospel The knowledge of the grace of GOD because it is not possible to relish this heavenly doctrine if a man have not received and experimented the mercy which it offereth us in JESUS CHRIST This grace is the heart and substance of the Gospel Whence appears that it is a corrupting it and a changing the nature of it to thrust into it the doctrine of the satisfactions and merits of men things either wholly incompatible with Grace or such as at least extreamly darken and enfeeble it When he faith that they heard and knew the Grace of GOD in truth he meaneth either that they received it truly in sincerity of heart without hypocrisie or that this Grace they knew was delivered them pure and sincere without any mixture either of Pharisaical Superstition or Philosophical Vanity or finally
are those mouths of Hell that inspire nothing but hatred and kindle nothing but animosity envy and revenge in the souls of those whom they can breath upon who busie themselves in making dissentions among brethren in dividing and arming one against the other such as nature or grace hath most strictly united But it is time henceforth to conclude this action that which you have heard may I think suffice for your understanding of this Text and so nothing remains for me but to conjure you to make in good earnest your profit of it and to draw from this Meditation the holy uses it containeth whether for the correction of your manners or the consolation of your souls The Gospel of JESUS CHRIST is come unto you the same Gospel which yerwhile changed the Universe which abolished Idolatry and Paganism and made the knowledge and service of the true GOD flourish every where The LORD hath raised you up Epaphras's faithful Ministers of His Word who have published it to your Fathers and to you with exquisite sincerity and truth entirely so as Paul preached it to the Nations without any leaven of superstition or error acquitting themselves in their Stewardship with so upright a conscience with so much zeal and ardour as I assure my self that the great Apostle were he now on earth would do them the honour to own them for his dear fellow-labourers You have seen this sacred doctrine renew the proofs of its divinity by the swiftness of it's course and efficacy of its vertue as which in little time flew through all Christendome and in spight of the oppositions of Hell and Earth rais'd up every where fair and flourishing Churches to the LORD We may say particularly of yours that the Gospel fructified in it from the day it was heard there The blood and the sufferings of so many faithful ones as gloriously sealed its truth therewith their charity their zeal their good and holy works of which memory remaineth still among us are unreproachable witness of it But I know not whether I may justly add what the Apostle saith here of his Colossians that the Gospel bringeth forth fruit still in you For those few fruits which it produceth here are choaked up with so many thorns and bryars so many sins and vices that they scarce deserve to be considered Not that the Gospel is changed in its self It hath still that immortal force which GOD gave it to bud and thrust forth and produce the fruits of righteousness and life It is ever the incorruptible seed of GOD His Word living and abiding for ever full of efficacy and vigour Whence then cometh this sterility Dear Brethren it cometh from the bad disposition of our ground and not from the weakness of the heavenly seed The Gospel fructifieth not among us because it falls in stony places and by the High-ways or among thorns upon souls either full of worldly lusts and carnal cares or exposed to the feet to the going to and fro of Devils or frozen up and hardned with the fear of temporal evils This is Faithful Sirs the true cause of our barrenness Let us then purge our hearts Hos 10 12 Jer. 4.3 and as a Prophet saith break up our fallow grounds Let us pluck up the thorns which the world hath planted there avarice the desire and deceitfulness of riches ambition and the love of our flesh sensuality and vanity When you shall receive the Gospel into souls so prepared it will not fail to shew it's fecundity It will bring forth it's fruit abundantly in some an hundred for one in others sixty in others thirty Without this it is in vain that we boast us of JESUS CHRIST and of His Word His Word is not given us but to fructifie If we abide barren far from serving us it will aggravate our condemnation and draw upon us a judgement so much the more terrible by how much the more plentifully it was communicated to us Remember that dreadful threatning justified by so many sad and lamentable experiments which the Apostle denounced to the Hebrews The earth that bringeth forth thorns and thistles is rejected and nigh unto cursing and it's end is to be burned 'T is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living GOD who is so much the more severe to punish the contempt of His Word by how much the more liberal He was in imparting it to men These same Colossians whose faith and charity the Apostle praiseth here and their neighbours the Laodiceans and those of Hierapolis for not having continued to bear fruits worthy their Vocation saw some years after their Cities ruined and swallowed up in an horrible earthquake And all those fair Churches of Asia so much celebrated in the Acts and the Apocalyps are at this day entirely desolate for not having made their profit of the Gospel GOD hath already begun too to avenge this contempt of His Word in divers places of Christendome which the bryars and thorns of the old superstition do cover once again instead of the Gospel that lately flourished there GOD forbid Dear Brethren that we should fall into the like condemnation To prevent it let us recover the zeal of our Fathers let us do the first works Let the Gospel fructifie again in the midst of us Let it bring forth and make to grow up abundantly charity meekness honesty peace humility patience alms prayer fasting sobriety chastity and the other fruits of the Spirit and above all a spiritual love of St. Paul and the other Apostles who report the Gospel to us to respect them and walk in their doctrine concord and mutual love in one towards another If we make this use of it GOD will take pleasure in the midst of us He will daily visit us He will cherish us as His Paradice His Heritage the Garden of His delights He will pour out upon us here below all kind of graces and blessings in abundance and after having seen us fructifie on Earth He will one day transplant us into Heaven to live and flourish there for ever in the Courts of His own blessed and eternal habitation Amen THE III. SERMON COL I. Ver. IX Vers IX And for this cause we also since the day we heard it cease not to pray for you and to make request that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding THE love of beauty and excellency is so natural to us that we cannot discover so much as the beginnings and buddings of it any where but we take pleasure in them and the secret content we thence receive usually causeth us to wish their growth and their perfection unless envy or some other maligne passion do check the moving of our hearts Thus when we see towardly Children and that promise well there is no soul that hath ever so little of humanity but is delighted and maketh the like apprecation for them as Joseph did sometime for Benjamin when
will in wisdom and understanding but in ALL wisdom and understanding that is to say very abundantly and in so great and 〈◊〉 a measure as none of the parts none of the operations of this divine ability be wanting to them after the same manner as when He saith elsewhere have all faith to signifie so high and raised a measure of it as no kind and no degree of faith is wanting Such is well-beloved Brethren the ardent and affectionate Prayer which the Apostle made continually for these Colossians That they might be filled with the knowledge of the will of GOD in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that is in such sort as this knowledge might form in them an exquisite sageness and spiritual prudence It Remaineth that to end we briefly touch at the principal lessons we are to take out of it for the instruction of our faith and the amendment of our manners First you see how far the judgement of the Apostle is from the doctrine and practice of Rome The Apostle willeth that the faithful do know the will of GOD that they be filled with this knowledge Rome teacheth that their faith is better defined by ignorance than by knowledge and that it is sufficient for them to have and I know not what implicite faith as they call it which without knowing ought its self referrs its self to the faith of another The Apostle willeth that the faithful be endowed with all wisdom and spiritual understanding Rome seareth nothing so much as this and desireth that without knowing or understanding ought themselves they leave this whole study to their Curates contenting themselves with saying they believe what the Church believes not knowing mean time what it believeth indeed Darkness is not more contrary to Light than this pretended faith to wisdom and understanding Their practice is conform to their doctrine For they hide the Scripture from their people the sacred and authentick evidence of the Will of GOD the living and teeming source of all wisdom and heavenly understanding and if in their service they repeat any passages of it they repeat them in a strange language that their people may hear it and not understand it Faithful sirs thank GOD for that He hath withdrawn you from this Kingdom of darkness Enjoy with gratitude the light He hath set up in the midst of you Learn in the brightness thereof what is the will of the LORD the head and the foundation of true wisdom Make account that this knowledge is the gate of Heaven the entrance of eternity the seed of the divine nature and the principle of Celestial life Without it how will you love GOD since none loves what he knows not Without it how will you obey GOD since to obey Him is no other thing but to do His will Without it how will you resist the enemy how will you free your selves from his wiles how will you discern his impostures from divine truth Judge what account the Apostle maketh of it since it 's the first thing he asks of GOD for these Colossians whom he so ardently affected If you will attain the salvation to which he directeth them have that which he with so much passion desireth in them Remember you are the people of the Sun of righteousness of the eternal wisdom and word the workmanship of His Comforter who is a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding Deut. 33. Isai 1. and that one of the greatest reproaches GOD ever made to His Israel is the calling them a foolish people and unwise that hath neither knowledge nor understanding And since you see that the Apostle demands of GOD this divine wisdom for the Colossians address your selves also to that Father of lights from whom cometh down hither every good gift Press Him importune Him quit Him not till He have revealed His mysteries to you till He have lightned your eyes and your hearts to make you see the wonders of His wisdom But unto prayer add also study Read and hear His word carefully meditate it both here and at home render it familiar to you commune of it with your neighbours and instruct your Children in it As I grant this labour is unprofitable without the grace of the LORD so I maintain that with it it is most efficacious Paul would Preach to Lydia in vain if GOD did not open her heart But if GOD set to His hand it is not in vain that Paul labours for it And to attract this saving hand of the LORD joyn unto prayer the Offerings of your alms the perfume of a good and holy life Make use of what you know Mannage these first fruits of light which you have received already Employ the Talent that hath been given you and the Master will give you on it others greater How would you He should communicate new graces to people that so vilely abuse the first You know His will and do that of the Devil and the Flesh He â—â—th made you a present of the Gospel and you drag it in the dirt He hath marked you with His seals and you foul them in the ordures of vice You impudently bear His Liveries into the debauches of the world and the Disciples of Heaven are as ardent as the Children of this Generation after the dissoluteness of the time GOD forbid that wisdom and spiritual understanding should lodge in hearts so profane It 's a jewell too precious to shine otherwhere than in Heaven that is in pure and holy souls So far will you be from encreasing your light if you change not manners that GOD will take away this little which remaineth and let you return into Aegypt to live once more in its miserable darkness But GOD keep us from so great an unhappiness my Brethren well-beloved and to prevent it let us in good earnest convert us unto Him renouncing the lusts of the world and the filth of the flesh living in an exemplary purity and honesty that the LORD may take pleasure in the midst of us that He may make the knowledge of His will abound in us in all wisdom and spiritual understanding and after the faith and hopes of this life receive us in the eternity of the other unto the Vision and fruition of His glory So be it and unto Him Father Son and Spirit the true GOD blessed for ever be all honour and praise Amen THE IV. SERMON COL I. Ver. X XI Vers X. That ye may walk worthily as is beseeming the LORD unto the pleasing of Him in all things fructifying in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of GOD. XI Being strengthned with all might according to the power of His glory unto all sufferance and patience of mind with joy PHilosophers both Pagan and Christian do commonly divide the Sciences into two sorts The Speculative which seek only the knowledge of their subject resting in it when they have once acquired it without pretending any further and the Practical which aim at action and consider things
only for the sitting us to do them Of the first sort is Astronomy which hath no design but to comprehend the motions of the heavenly bodies and the Mathematiques which are busied in the study of magnitude and number without having other end than to know the nature of them Of the second sort is Science Moral or the Ethiques which teach us but in order to action and shew us what each of the Vertues is to the end we may practise them and live according to the rules this Science gives us It 's disputed in the Schools to which of these two kinds of Sciences belongs Sacred Theologie that is the doctrine of Divine things revealed to us in the Gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST For on one hand it teacheth us divers things of the nature of GOD and of Angels and of the World to come and such other mysteries which seem to be objects of contemplation only and not of action On the other hand it gives us divers Rules for practice and this mixture hath induced some to think that it is a discipline not simple and uniform but miscellaneous and composed of the one and the other kind Our Apostle in my opinion clearly decides the question in this place For having afore wished the Colossians a rich and full knowledge of this divine doctrine in all wisdom and spiritual understanding he stayes not there but adds in the Text we have read the end it is subservient to To the end saith he ye may walk worthily as is beseeming the LORD unto the pleasing Him in all things fructifying in every good work Here you see he states it expresly that the end of knowledge is practice holy walking and fructifying in every good work being evidently doing Whence follows that it ought to be placed among the Active Sciences since their end is the Character of their nature and that which properly gives them the rank they are to hold I grant it treats of the Essence and Attributes of GOD but it 's with design to carry us thereby unto the love and service of His Majesty that is unto action Whence it comes that in Scripture to know GOD is almost alwayes taken for to serve Him according to that light of the knowledge of Himself which He hath given us But it is of no great importance for us to know what rank this heavenly discipline is of among the Sciences provided we hold fast this principle of the Apostle's that the end why we should be instructed in the knowledge of GOD is a godly life and not the soothing of our minds or the contenting our curiosity with a vain delight much less the being able to entertain with such high mysteries the company we chance to be in For as we call that man an Architect not who can handsomly discourse of buildings but that hath the art to erect them and as we give not the name and glory of a Captain to one that can elequently speak of War but to him that can manage it and is of capacity to conduct an army skilfully and can withstand and fight an enemy and acquit himself in all the functions of a military command so we must hold for a Christian not him who knoweth and can pertinently explain the duties of the faithful but him that performs them It 's in the life and not in talk that this Science doth consist in the heart and in the conversation not in the brain and in the tongue Let this then be effectually the end of this holy study Let us learn not simply to know or to speak but to do carefully reducing into practice all the prescriptions of this heavenly doctrine And that we may rightly comprehend this legitimate end of our knowledge let us meditate the lesson which the Apostle now gives us concerning it It contains two Heads First The very life and actions which we are to endeavour and Secondly The firmness and patience wherewith we should persevere in them These shall be GOD willing the two subjects we will treat of in the present action The Apostle explaineth us the former of them in the tenth Verse That ye may walk worthily as is beseeming the LORD unto the pleasing of Him in all things fructifying in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of GOD. In these words as you see he shews us first the end of the knowledge of the Gospel in general which is a walking worthily as is beseeming the LORD Next he sets before us the principal parts of this worthy walking The first respects the scope it proposeth to its self even the pleasing of GOD in all things The second the actions wherein it ought to be employed which are a fructifying in every good work The third its progress and advancement which is to increase in the knowledge of GOD. Here then Christian soul is the true and only end of that heavenly light which hath been communicated to you that you walk worthily as is beseeming the LORD You know the Scripture ordinarily compares the life of man unto a journey and the actions and designes and employments he passeth it in unto a path or way In effect after we are once entred the world we incessantly eloign us from the point of our Nativity as from the place whence we departed and advance towards death as a common habitation where all do meet alike some sooner others later As for other travellours they may stay if it seem them good or return unto the place from whence they came But we cannot possibly do the one or the other Time enwrapping us about from the first point of our life carryeth us away still forward whether we wake or sleep whether we consent to it or strive to the contrary without permitting us to turn back or to repose our selves one single moment just as he whom the Sea and the wind carry on in a Vessel so as his own particular motion serveth not at all either to stop or to slack his course But as the wayes and designes of travellors are very different so there is an huge diversity between the forms and manners of the life of men The way that the wicked follow is one and that of good men another The Pagan steereth one course the Jew and the Mahometan another and the Christian another wholly different This is that the Scripture calls The way of man understanding by this word the form and institution of life which every one doth follow And suitably to this dainty figure it often makes use of the word Walking to signifie directing forming and composing the life after some certain manner whether good or evil intending thereby the tenour of life we lead and the deportments and actions to which we addict our selves There is nothing more common in the Psalms and in the Proverbs than these forms of speech to walk in Integrity or on the contrary in Fraud and Iniquity and in the Writings of the New Testament to walk in Light or
in Darkness after the Spirit or after the Flesh and other like Phrases which all signifie a certain form and condition of life good or evil as it is qualified According to the stile of Scripture the Apostle saith here to the end that you may walk meaning that you may live that you may direct and form your lives But how will he that we walk worthily saith he as is seemly towards the LORD It is word for word in the Original worthily of the LORD or in a fashion worthy of the LORD But our French Bible hath faithfully represented the sense of these words it being evident that the Apostle intendeth we should lead a life that answereth to the honour we have of being Children and Disciples of JESUS the LORD His co-heirs and heirs of His Father He else-where often useth this manner of speaking or others altogether like it As when he exhorteth the Philippians to converse in such sort as may be worthy of the Gospel Phil. 1.28 Eph. 4.1 1 Thes 2.12 and the Ephesians to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith they had been called and when in like manner he adjureth the Thessalonians to walk worthy of GOD who hath called them to His Kingdom and Glory The teachers of merits have drawn from these passages that proud name which they ordinarily give them calling them merits of condignity pretending that to walk worthy of GOD signifies meriting of life by their works properly and in the accompt of exact justice But they are evidently deceived For not to speak of the vanity of this presumption which Scripture and reason it self do thunder-strike a thousand wayes it is clear that to be worthy of any thing signifieth not at all in these passages the meriting it properly and exactly For who is there that would thus interpret the Apostles saying walk worthy of GOD that is lead a life that merits GOD There are people found that have opinion of themselves good enough to imagine they merit Heaven and the glory of the life to come There hath none been yet seen that I know who vaunted Himself to merit GOD. This language would be monstrous and surpass the pride of Devils themselves It 's too much presuming but to affirm that any merit the gifts of GOD. Common sense permitteth not a man to think or say that he merits GOD. As ill doth what the Apostle saith elsewhere suffer this gloss Converse in a fashion worthy of the Gospel and live in a fashion worthy of the Vocation of GOD. For who ever heard say that our works do merit either the Gospel or the Vocation of GOD a thing past and which we have already received from the liberality of the LORD before the having done any one good work It is clear that in all these places the worthiness whereof the Apostle speaketh is nothing else but a certain well-beseemingness arising from the correspondence that is found between us and the subjects whereof he saith we are worthy Just as when St. John Baptist exhorteth the Jews to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance he meaneth not that merit repentance but that answer thereto that are suitable to the sense we have of our own sin and of the Grace of GOD. In like manner here a life holy and full of piety and of good works is worthy of GOD not because it merits Him but because it hath some suitableness with His sanctity and glory It is worthy of the Gospel because it is correspondent to it and conform to what it requireth of us It is worthy of the Vocation of GOD because carried to things to which He calleth us and produceth the fruits which He demandeth of us Would you then know Christian what your life should be let it be worthy of the LORD St. Paul hath comprised all in these few words And as sometime a Prince faln into the hands of his enemy who demanded of him how he should treat him answered as a King signifying by that one word all the moderation and generosity he desired should be used towards Him So the Apostle in these two words embraceth the whole form of our carriage How shall we live Lead saith he a life that may be worthy of the LORD This is enough to let us understand that neither avarice nor cruelty nor hatred nor envy nor any other of the passions of the world must have any place in our manners but that justice charity and all other pure and celestial affections should shine forth in them that there should be mixed in them nothing base nor abject but that all should be great and generous and elevated above the dunghills of the Flesh Have then Believer this supream LORD continually before your eyes Interrogate your Conscience upon each of the things that are presented to you whether they be worthy of Him and do not any that may not be put in this rank Flee all that crosseth the quality of His disciple all that swerveth from the rule which He hath given you all that diverts you from the Kingdom to which He conducteth you This LORD is purity and sanctity it self He is entirely separate from sinners He never had any communion with vice This LORD is soveraignly good He hateth no man He prayed even for them that Crucified Him and did infinite benefits to them that injured and blasphemed Him This LORD neither possessed nor coveted the honours and grandeurs of the earth All His glory is divine and His grandeur celestial His discipline is like His life He enjoyneth us throughout nothing but a singular innocency sanctity and goodness and the good things He promiseth us are spiritual and not carnal the inheritance He hath purchased for us and to the possession whereof He leadeth us is in Heaven and not on the earth Upon this it's easie to judge what is this form of life worthy of Him which the Apostle commandeth us It is a life that hath resemblance with His wherein shine forth both the examples of His Divine Vertues and the marks of His doctrine and the badges of His house and the first fruits of His glory It is a life that treadeth under foot the baseness of all vices that disdaineth what the flesh and the world do promise to their slaves and beholding with contempt all that the earth adore hath no passion but for Heaven It 's a life sweet and humble and innocent that obligeth all men and injures none at all that without turning to the right hand or the left runs on and advanceth incessantly towards the mark of the supernal calling It 's thus you must live faithful soul if you would satisfie the light you have received of the knowledge of GOD. I confess it is an high design But neither is it for low and common things that GOD hath given you His Son and His Spirit If our infirmity makes fear let the power and the might of the LORD assure us And if there escape us sometime any act unworthy of Him as in
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
and against the seditious within It 's with this Science he buildeth the House of GOD it is with the same also that he cleanseth and keepeth it pure Whatever the enemy be that appears he sets against him nothing at all but his Crucified JESUS For even as in nature no sooner doth the Sun appear in our horizon opening its beautiful and brightsome visage to the world but the shade and cloudiness that filled the air doth immediately vanish away so in the Church when the LORD JESUS ariseth in the hearts of men there shedding abroad the riches of His saving light and shewing His fairness to open view at the same instant errour and abuse do disappear being unable to sustain the force of this divine brightness and as the Psalmist sings on another occasion If He arise His enemies are dispersed and they that are against Him flee before Him He driveth them away as wind doth the smoke This then is the only assured means either to preserve or recover truth and the purity of heavenly doctrine even to propose JESUS CHRIST incessantly to the faithful and diligently shew them all His riches all His Vertue and His Grace This is the Apostle's method Thus he doth on all occasions still reducing his Schollars to JESUS CHRIST So you see in the Epistle to the Hebrews that he might put-by the shadows of the Jewish Law wherewith some of that Nation endeavoured to darken the Gospel he sheweth them at the beginning the majesty and divinity of the LORD JESUS setting Him up above men and Angels on the Throne of a super-eminent glory Thus he doth in this Epistle and indeed he combateth here a like errour For after he had saluted the Colossians and given them some tokens of the affection he bore them as you heard afore he now beginneth to speak to them of JESUS CHRIST discovering His Divine glory and the fulness of His goodness to them that being content with so rich a treasure they might not go beg either the succour of Moses or the assistance of Philosophy for the saving of their souls It is precisely at the Text we have read that he beginneth this excellent discourse For having before thanked GOD for the grace He had shewed the Colossians in translating them into the Kingdom of His well-beloved Son he takes occasion from thence to speak of Him adding In whom we have deliverance by His blood to wit the remission of sins This is the great benefit we have received from GOD by means of JESUS CHRIST Then he describeth in connexion herewith the excellency and divinity of His person Who is saith he the image of the invisible GOD the first-born of every creature But for this time we will content our selves with the first point the meditating whereof as you see My Brethren is very suitable to the action of the Holy Supper to which we are invited wherein the remission of sins which we have in JESUS CHRIST is sealed to us by His Sacrament wherein the blood by which He hath purchased it is represented and communicated to us wherein JESUS the Author of this benefit is pourtrayed before our eyes as broken and dead for us and as feeding us to everlasting life Lift we up then our hearts with religious attention that having rightly comprehended both the greatness of the grace of GOD and the excellency of His CHRIST we may present Him souls lively affected with sense of His goodness and may receive in consequence of it that joy and blessed life which He promiseth to all those that shall approach Him with such a disposition To aid you in so necessary a meditation I will examine if the LORD please what the Apostle teacheth us concerning the benefit which we receive of God in His Son saying that we have in Him deliverance by His blood to wit the remission of Sins In these words he briefly pointeth out who is the Author of deliverance even JESUS CHRIST what is the deliverance it self namely the remission of sins what the means is by which JESUS CHRIST hath obtained it for us even by His blood and lastly who they are that receive it from GOD namely we that is to say the Faithful He had said afore that GOD hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into His Kingdom Now he sheweth us by whom He effected that great work adding that we have deliverance in JESUS CHRIST He is the Author of our redemption our only deliverer the Prince of our salvation But whereas the Apostle saith that it is in Him we have deliverance this may be taken two wayes both of them good and commodious First as signifying that it is by Him we have been delivered For it is an Hebrew manner of speech frequent in Scripture to say in instead of by And after this sense the Apostle declareth how it is by JESUS CHRIST His Son that GOD hath accomplished the work of His good pleasure towards us having constituted Him the Mediator of mankind who according to the will of Him that sent him perfectly executed all those things that were necessary to put us in possession of salvation But this word in may also be taken in the sense it hath in our vulgar language as signifying our spiritual communion with the LORD by reason whereof we are said to be in Him and He in us 1 Jo. 2.2 For though He be the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world and the worth of His sacrifice so great as that it abundantly sufficeth to expiate all the crimes of the universe and although the salvation obtained by Him be offered in effect and by His will unto all men yet none actually enjoy it but those that enter into His communion by Faith and are in him by that means as that clause of His covenant expresly importeth Joh. 3.16 GOD hath so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life 1 Jo. 5.12 When it is that St. John protesteth aloud He that hath the Son hath life He that hath not the Son of GOD hath not life which is as much as if He had said He that is in JESUS CHRIST hath life and he that is not in Him hath not life according to what our LORD Himself said to His Apostles Joh. 15.3 Out of me ye can do nothing So you see this sence is good and clear and containeth an excellent doctrine That to enjoy salvation by JESUS CHRIST we must be in Him Nevertheless because the Apostle in this place designeth to shew us what the LORD hath done for our salvation rather than what He requireth of us for our participating thereof I would more readily take the words the first way in whom that is by whom we have deliverance And this indeed is the commonest exposition which the most and best Interpreters both ancient and modern do follow Let us next consider what the benefit of
doth whatsoever He will The Son hath all power in Heaven and in Earth and there is nothing but is facile to Him The Father is super-eminently good hating evil and loving rectitude and justice The Son is the Saint of Saints entirely separate from sinners goodness and justice it self The Father is merciful and inclined to pity The Son is the bottom of His compassions The Father maketh His Sun to shine on and His Rain to bedew even the men that blaspheme Him The Son dyed for His enemies and prayed for those that crucified Him In short the Father hath not any other essential quality but the Son hath it likewise and in the same measure with the Father I come to His Works Certainly the Son Himself informeth us how perfectly He represents the Father in this respect Joh. 5.19 saying in general that what thing soever the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise The Father created the Universe The Son founded the Earth Heb. 1.10 Joh. 1.3 and the Heavens are the work of His hands All things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made of all that was made The Father conserveth the world by His providence the Son sustaineth all things by His mighty word The Father hath set up the Princes and Magistrates who govern mankind Prov. 8.15 and there is no power but of Him It 's by the Son that Kings Reign and Princes decree justice The Father saved and redeemed the Church the Son is our righteousness our wisdom and our redemption The Father loved us and delivered up His Son to death for us the Son gave Himself a ransome for our sins If the Father raised up the Son the Son also raised again His own Temple when the fury of the Jews had beaten it down If the Father quicken the dead the Son quickneth them likewise and the last judgment the punishing of the wicked in Hell the glory of the Faithful in Heaven and all that refers to it is the work both of the one and the other The Father hath elected us so likewise hath the Son Joh. 13.18 I know saith He whom I have chosen It is the same in all the other actions and operations of the divine nature If you read the Scriptures exactly you shall not see any of them attributed to the Father but is likewise attributed to the Son And as for that right and soveraign authority which accreweth unto GOD over all things from these great and high qualities and operations this glory shineth in the person of the Son as it doth in the person of the Father If the Father be Judge of the earth King of ages and Monarch of the world the Son is in like manner the LORD of glory the head of the Armies of Heaven the Prince of men and Angels the Judge of all flesh If the Name of the Father be great and dreadful that of the Son is above every name which is named in this world or in the world to come If all creatures both superiour intermedial and inferiour do owe a soveraign homage to the Father and cast down themselves before Him adoring His Majesty with the profoundest respect they are capable of so it is clear that before JESUS every knee doth bow both of things in Heaven and things on earth and things under the Earth the Father Himself proclaiming when He bringeth Him into the world Let all the Angels of GOD worship Him So you see Dear Brethren that the LORD JESUS is truly the image of His Father since He hath and discovereth perfectly in Himself the Nature the Properties and the Works of the Father An admirable a singular and a truly Divine image which possesseth the whole form of its original without any variation and faithfully and naturally representeth all the features of it in their true and just greatness measure and nature I confess there are among men sons that resemble in some sort their Fathers but there are none in whom such resemblance is comparable with that of the Son of GOD to His Eternal Father If our Sons represent our nature and manners it is always with some difference which a piercing and a clear-sighted eye may easily observe and after all there are none that in their life do express the lives of their fathers totally entire with every one of their actions and operations Whereas the Son of GOD is a most complete image both of the nature and the life of His Father if we may speak in this manner of these mysteries all the works of the one whether small or great being also the works of the other This sacred Verity taught here by the Apostle overthroweth two heresies which though contrary and opposite to one another did sometime equally trouble the Church of GOD. I mean that of the Sabellians and that of the Arians The former confounded the Son with the Father the latter rent them on sunder Those took from the Son His person these His nature For the Sabellians did dogmatize that the Father and the Son were but one and the self-same person who according to the divers wayes and ends of his manifestations did assume sometimes the name of Father sometimes the name of Son So as in their account it is the Father who suffered on the Cross and it 's the Son who sent Him that suffered St. Paul breaketh their errour by saying that JESVS CHRIST is the image of the Father For no one is the image of himself and how great and exact soever the image's resemblance of its original be it 's of necessity that it be another subsistence than its original A child hath the same nature with the Father whose image it is said to be but nevertheless the person of the Father is one and that of the child another Since then the Apostle declareth here and elsewhere that JESVS CHRIST is the image of GOD that is to say of the Father we must either desert His doctrine or acknowledge that JESUS CHRIST is another person than the Father But if you distinguish their persons it doth not follow that you must divide their nature as did the Arians who made it their position that the nature of the Father is another than that of the Son the one increated and infinite the other created and finite These are two shelves which we must equally avoid steering our course straight in the midst shunning on one side the confusion of Sabellius and on the other the division of Arius JESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle is the image of GOD His Father He could not be the image of Him if He were one same person with Him He could not be His Perfect image if He had a nature differing from the nature of the Father How should He represent His eternity if He had been created in time How His immensity if He had a limited essence How His Majesty and glory if He were but a creature Let us then hold fast this truth full and entire
first-born of every creature He simply meaneth that He is the Master of them and not as the hereticks pretend that He is a Creature as they are and only created before them For the reason which St. Paul annexeth taken from His having created them concludeth rightly that He is Master of them but not that He was created Himself Otherwise it must by the same means be said that the Father who created all things was also created Himself a blasphemy which the most shameless hereticks would abhorr For if the Apostles discourse be good and pertinent as all Christians confess thus must His reasoning be Whoever hath created all things the same is the first-born of every creature But the LORD JESUS hath created all things He is therefore the first-born of every creature There you see clearly that this first proposition Whoever hath created all things is the first-born of every creature cannot be true save in this sense that He is the master of every creature but it is evidently false in the sense that the hereticks take the words first-born of every creature that is created before every other creature it being clear that the Father who created all things is eternal and sure was not created It must therefore of necessity be said that the Apostle by the first-born of every creature doth mean their LORD and Master Otherwise His discourse would not be pertinent But having sufficiently justified in our last action and cleared this conclusion of St. Pauls that the Son of GOD is the first-born of every creature let us consider now the reason of it he alledgeth drawn from hence viz. that He created all things and that they are all for Him and all subsist by Him that is to say He is the Author the End and the Conserver of them It is a truth of infinite importance in Christian Religion both of it self and for its own merit as also for the great contradictions it hath suffered at all times from the enemies of the Divinity of JESUS CHRIST both ancient and modern who have put to it all their force that they might either overthrow or at least shake it For this cause we are obliged to examine the present Text wherein it is so statelily founded with so much the more care and that we may omit nothing which is necessary for the clearing of it we will consider in the first place what the Apostle saith of the Son of GOD that All things were created by Him and for Him and that He is before all things and that they all subsist by Him Next we will view in the second place the division he maketh of all these things which the LORD created some they that are in Heaven others they that are in earth some visible others invisible as Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers These shall be if the LORD will the two parts and as it were the two Articles of this Action May it please GOD to guide us by His Spirit in so sublime a meditation and to enable us by His grace to refer it to His glory and to our own edification and consolation In the former of these two Articles the Apostle as you see saith first that All things were created by JESVS CHRIST secondly that they were all created for Him in the third place that He is before all things and lastly that they all subsist by Him For though these four points be near a kin and necessarily linked the one with the others yet they are distinct at the bottome and ought to come under consideration severally there being neither of them but doth contribute somthing particular to the glory of our great GOD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The first is plain that All things were created by JESVS CHRIST For where is the Christian who understands not this and knows not that to create doth signifie in the use of Scripture to make a thing either of nothing or of a matter which had no disposedness to the form that it receiveth And forasmuch as there is none but the Divine Power that is capable of such an action or operation thence it comes that this word is never attributed to any but GOD only There 's none but He that doth create things For this cause among the other Titles which are given him for marks of His glory He is stiled The Creator this Title appertaining unto Him alone When the Apostle then saith here and twice repeats it That all things were created by the Son he signifieth that it is of Him they received all the being they have that it is He who by this Noble and Divine manner of working which the Scripture calls Creation brought them from non-being to a being who by His infinite power produced the matter of which they consist prepar'd it and fitted it as it now is investing it with those forms and admirable qualities on which all the motions of their nature do depend that is to say in one word The LORD JESUS is the Creator of the Universe It was not possible to express this truth more clearly And thus it is that all Christians always understood this passage until those new Enemies of the Divinity of our LORD who blasphemously say that He hath no actual subsistence in the world but since His birth of the holy Virgin they not able to bear so respendent a light have endeavoured to obscure it by the fumes of their frivolous and false glosses They say therefore that the word Create signifieth in this place mearly to reform and re-establish things to put them in a better estate than they were in and not to bring them out of nothing and give them their whole being They will have it that the Apostle by saying All things were created by JESVS doth intend not the first Creation of the World when arising out of nothing it receiv'd its natural being and form from the Creator But the Renovation of the World wrought by the Preaching of the Gospel and by the word of the Apostles whom the LORD sent to reform the Nations and to put things in an incomparably better and more happy estate than they were in before Enslav'd they were to the Empire of Sin and Satan whereas by the Doctrine and Power of the LORD JESUS they have now been consecrated to God and sanctified to His glory Unto this I answer That it 's true the World was renewed by the Gospel inasmuch as this holy Doctrine did abolish both the Ceremonies of Moses's Discipline and the false Religions of the Heathen and formed in the whole earth a new people that serve God in Spirit and in Truth being created in righteousness and holiness I acknowledge also that this Renovation is the work of a Divine Power and could not have been effected by any Humane or Angelical strength by reason whereof it may and ought to be called a Creation it being evident that there was need of no less vertue to reform the World than to create it And finally I
towards His Church For He enliveneth all the members of it from the greatest even to the least and gives them not the power and authority only as Princes give their subjects but the very strength and ability to act communicating to each of His faithful ones such a measure of His Spirit as is necessary for sensation and motion and all the other functions of heavenly life as St. Paul teacheth us in the Epistle to the Ephesians and more at large in the First to the Corinthians Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 12. Moreover the Head hath this advantage above the rest of the body that it is of a more exquisite constitution and temper than the other members according to the rule that nature prudently observes in general which is to frame those things best that are designed to the choiâ—est employments Kings and Captains do deserve also the name of Heads in this respect their dignity being very high-raised above their subjects But their advantage in this particular is nothing in comparison of that which JESUS CHRIST hath above His Church not only by His being incomparably more holy more wise and more powerful than any of all the faithful but especially in that He is GOD blessed for ever Finally as you see the Head is placed highest in the body of man this scituation being necessary for its commodious exercising the functions of its government a thing that Kings and Princes imitate dwelling ordinarily in Palaces and sitting on Thrones raised above the houses and seats of their subjects so JESUS CHRIST hath this advantage but in a far greater degree sitting on high in the Heavens upon the Throne of GOD above the whole Church both militant and triumphant And whereas He conversed sometime on earth that was only for a while and by dispensation for the good of His body which obliged Him to do it even as the head boweth down it self somtimes when the necessity of any of its members doth require it But the proper and natural place of JESUS CHRIST is that lofty Sanctuary of immortality where He now appears in highest glory from thence governing by His Spirit all the parts of this mystical body of the Church both those that are in Heaven and those that are yet on earth Thus My Brethren you see wherein this dignity of our LORD JESUS doth consist and with how much reason St. Paul expresseth it here and otherwhere by saying that He is the head of the Church Whence evidently follows what the Apostle also evidently says that the Church is the body of CHRIST For if JESUS CHRIST be call'd the Head thereof for having and exercising towards it all the functions and prerogatives of a natural Head towards its members it is clear that the Church must also be called His body since this whole Divine society depends on JESUS CHRIST and receives of Him all the light all the aptitude all the sense and motion that it hath Upon this doctrine of the Apostle we have divers things to consider before we pass any further First by fixing this position he timely fortifies the Colossians against that errour which we shall find Him expresly opposing hereafter the errour of those that would subject the faithful to Angels and to Moses introducing into the Church the worshipping of the one and the Pedagogy of the other For since the Son of GOD is the Head of this sacred society who seeth not that it ought to depend on Him alone that 't is to Him it oweth its obedience and service and of Him it ought to receive its discipline and guidance But it must also be observed that the Apostle giveth this title to JESUS CHRIST with a design to glorifie Him enroling it among the other praises of His Soveraign dignity Indeed since the Church is the most Divine society in the world since it is acompany of Kings of Priests and of Prophets the Assembly of the first-fruits and a new world much more excellent than the old a world immortal and incorruptible it is evident that to be the Head thereof is a quality more sublime then to have been the Creator and Prince of the Universe at first Whereby you see in the third place how unrighteous to say no more the rashness of those is who give this name to another beside JESUS CHRIST acknowledging a mortal man for the true Head of the universal Church Let them colour this usurpation how they will they shall not be able to justifie it This is evidently to despoil JESUS CHRIST of His royal robe and to take the Diadem from Him which none but He can bear They alledge that the Scripture verily communicates to others beside JESUS CHRIST the names of Pastor of Priest and of Teacher and of Light and such others It is true but it never gives that of Head of the Church to any but Him And the difference of these titles is evident the former signifying charges whereof the faithful do exercise some portion and some shadow whereas that of Head of the Church signifies the Supremacy which is incommunicable to any other but the Son of GOD. As you see that in a State the name of Prince and of Governour and Captain and others of like sort are not given to the King only they pertain to others also But no other may be called the Soveraign or the Head of the State besides Him without incurring the guilt of Sacriledge or Treason Yet they endeavour to excuse them and say they make the Pope but the ministerial and subordiate Head not an essential and soveraign one But this is nothing but words arising from their interest and not founded in the truth of things There is no Prince that would be satisfied with such language if any one of his subjects that had made himself the head and Monarch of His State should alledge for his excuse that he had no intention save to pass for a ministerial head In the nature of men whence this similitude is taken we see no bodies that have two heads of a different rank and if any such be found at any time they are accounted for monsters which cannot be said of the Church the most perfect master-piece of all the works of GOD. In a word it is not enough to say that the Pope is the ministerial head of the Church it must be proved We plainly read in Scripture that JESUS CHRIST is Head of the Church Let us believe it and adore Him under that quality But that there is another head in the Church be he visible or invisible be he ministerial or soveraign this we meet not with at all in the writings of the Apostles not to say that we meet with divers things in them wherewith such a doctrine is incompatible Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of GOD. Let it therefore be permitted us to suspend our believing this other pretended head of the Church since we have heard nothing of it in the word of GOD. But that which the
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
Son is not Eternal and co-essential with the * As the whose Church believeâ— Fathers but created and made by the will and good pleasure of the Father For the Apostle doth not speak here of the original of the perfections that are found in CHRIST but of their being united and met together in one and the same subject I acknowledge it is by the good pleasure of the Father and by the order of His will that the Godhead of the Son dwelleth in the Mediator But it thence follows that this Godhead of His is an effect of the Fathers will It was before it filled the Mediator The same Father who by His will united it to our flesh for the making up together with that flesh the person of CHRIST had communicated it to His Son from all Eternity by a natural act of His Eternal understanding that is to say by a Divine Generation Now it is not in vain that the Apostle here advanceth this assertion That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in HIS CHRIST But he doth it with design to * Or settle confirm our Consciences in the Religion of the LORD JESUS only For these Colossians as we shall see hereafter were tamper'd with by Seducers who mingled the Mosaical Ceremonies with the Gospel and the worshipping of Angels with the service of the LORD the Apostle therefore doth here timely fortifie these Believers against this error and that by two excellent Reasons the first taken from the dwelling of all fulness in JESVS CHRIST Poor men saith he what seek you for either in Moses or in Angels we have all in JESUS CHRIST There is no good no perfection nor excellency either in GOD or in the Creature but dwelleth in this Soveraign LORD Having Him we have no need at all to go unto others since in Him we find all The other Reason is taken from the Will of GOD the supreme rule of Religion the only thing that is sufficient to settle the agitation and natural distrust of our Consciences As for JESUS CHRIST saith he it was the good pleasure of GOD that in Him should all fulness dwell The Father hath set up Him to be the spring of our salvation But as for Moses and Angels we do not see that ever it was the will of the Father to give them such a dignity Dear Brethren now that our faith is fought against with the like errors let us arm it also with the same reasons If the Adversary send us to Angels and Saints let us answer him that the LORD JESUS sufficeth us that having Him we can want nothing since all fulness dwelleth in Him I will not enquire for the present what these Angels and Saints are whom you recommend to me whether they have indeed that merit and that righteousness and that authority which I need for the expiation of my sin and for opening the house of GOD to me How rich and how abounding soever you represent them to me I may let pass their store this CHRIST whom I embrace having all fulness dwelling in Him Let them be all that you please they will want however some part of that infinite plentifulness which overfloweth in our CHRIST And how zealous soever you be for their glory yet you durst not presume to say that all fulness dwelleth in them How great is your imprudence to go hither and thither a groping in pits and cisterns while you have near you such a living and inexhaustible fountain Grant that the worshipping of Saints is not criminal which yet it evidently is it is notwithstanding superfluous forasmuch as it hath nothing in it but we find the same better in the fulness of JESUS CHRIST But the other consideration which the Apostle sets before us here is of no less force That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in His CHRIST My Faith yea our Adversaries attends on the will of GOD. This will is its object and its rule I cannot rellish either Doctrine or Service that is not conform thereto Tell me how you know it is the good pleasure of GOD that this fulness of merit and power which you ascribe somtimes to Saints departed somtimes to your Pope and his Ministers doth indeed dwell in them As for the LORD JESUS whom I adore and in whom I seek all my bliss the Father hath proclaimed from Heaven That He is His welbeloved Son His Scriptures declare That He hath committed all judgment to Him and That all fulness dwelleth in Him But as for those others whom you have taken for objects of your Devotion and to whom you have recourse for your salvation you cannot shew me any thing semblable of them Certainly then it must be vouched that all your Devotion in this behalf is but a Will-worship founded only on your own passion and the fancy of your Leaders not upon the good pleasure of the Father It is strange fire that hath issued out of the earth and not been kindled from Heaven Such as cannot without crime either enter into or be used in the Sanctuary of GOD. But I return to the Apostle who having said That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in CHRIST doth add And by Him to reconcile all things in Himself both those that are in Heaven and those that are in the earth This is the great Master-piece of the good pleasure of GOD the end for which His will was that the fulness of all Divine and Humane perfections should be seated in CHRIST And this is that which the particle and used by the Apostle doth signifie It doth not meerly connect the two parts of his discourse but importeth moreover the consecution and the dependance of the latter on the former as if He had said It was the good pleasure of the Father that in JESUS CHRIST should all fulness dwell and so reconcile or to the end that He might reconcile all things by Him For all this fulness which the Father would that His CHRIST should have dwelling in Him was necessary for His effecting this Reconciliation There needed he should have the power and the holiness and the wisdom of the Divinity and together with it the humility and the obedience and the meritorious sufferings of the Humanity that he might finish this design He could not have been able to re-unite Heaven and Earth with less preparations Let us see then what this work is this Reconciling the Apostle speaks of of all things Terrestrial and Celestial in GOD by JESVS CHRIST It is clear by the Scriptures that JESUS CHEIST hath by His death reconciled men unto GOD so as He hath appeased His wrath and opened to us the Throne of His grace as the Apostle teacheth us in divers places and particularly in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 5.18 where he saith That we have been reconciled to GOD by the death of His Son and
loved From such an illusion did the Pagans hatred of GOD arise For imagining Him as a Tyrant full of cruelty and injustice or as an idle King that hath no care of His State it need not be wondered at if their understanding falsly conceiving Him under so monstrous a likeness their will was swayed to hate Him rather than love Him And those among them that had a better opinion of Him yet for all that loved Him not For by an extream errour of mind placing their supream happiness in the enjoyment of pleasures and vices and being not ignorant that GOD hateth them and punisheth them they considered Him as an enemy to their contentment So the love of vice induced them to hate Him Whence it followed that GOD on His side as being soverainly good and just condemned their impiety and had a will to punish it which is the thing that the Scripture figuratively calls GOD's hatred This is that the Apostle meaneth that the Colossians in their Paganism were enemies of GOD. But to shew us how deeply this enmity was rooted in them having said that they were enemies he addeth in their understanding This is the principal and highest faculty of our soul that moveth and guideth our wills and our affections and is by consequent the regent of our whole life The Apostle saith therefore that rebellion and enmity against GOD have taken up their seat in the understanding seizing if we may so say on this grand Tower of our nature and thence continually making war against GOD. This war the Apostle intends when he adjoyneth in wicked works I should never have done if I would attempt now to represent all the horridness of the heathens lives St. Paul sheweth us an Epitome of it in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans he there lays forth the principal fruits of their impiety their injustice their uncleanness and their abominations vice being grown to such an height among them that they did not only commit it but also favour it and took no shame to adore the very persons whom they confessed to have been extreamly commaculated with it This dissoluteness and being given up to wicked works was a clear conviction of their enmity against GOD which renders them altogether inexcusable Rom. 1.32 because how great and universal soever their corruption was yet they were not ignorant that they that do such things are worthy of Death as the Apostle saith there a little after This doctrine of his touching the estate of Heathens deserves great consideration For it teacheth us two points of very much importance First the quality and Secondly the extent of the corruption of our nature by sin As for its quality you see it is so horrible that it sets us far from GOD and makes us strangers to Him and His enemies so deep that it hath soaked into all the faculties of our souls even the understanding it self the noblest of them all and finally so contagious that it infecteth all our works with its venome none issuing forth but wicked ones Whence appears first how false and pernicious the imagination of those is who place this corruption in the lower part of the soul only in the affections and sensual appetites and in their resistance of reason and will have it that the understanding hath remained in its integrity St. Paul doth loudly pronounce the contrary lodging enmity and rebellion against GOD in the heathens understanding and he elsewhere testifies the same truth in divers places as when he saith 1 Cor. 2.14 that the natural man comprehendeth not the things of the Spirit of GOD that they are foolishness unto him and he cannot comprehend them and otherwhere that the sense Rom. 8.7 Ephes 4.18 or wisdom of the flesh is enmity against GOD that it yields it self not subject to the Law nor indeed can And in the Epistle to the Ephesians that the Gentiles have their understanding darkned Confess we then that this evil is universal that it hath depraved our whole nature and left nothing sound or whole in us from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head It hath extinguished the light of the understanding and filled it with thickest darkness It hath made irregular the motions of the will and put a dreadful disorder into all the passions and affections And so palpable is this that the two Masters of Pagan Philosophy have in some sort perceived it and as it were felt it while they were groping in their darkness they have left in writing the one of them Plato in Soph. Aristotle Ethic. l. â— that the soul of man is sick of two maladies ignorance and naughtiness the other that there is in our nature I know not what that resisteth right reason From the same ground you may see again how vain the conceit of those is that ascribe I know not what merits of congruity as they call them to men out of the state of grace Would you know how the Colossians invited GOD to gratifie them with the light of His Gospel They were saith the Apostle estranged from GOD and enemies in their understanding in wicked works If a subject do merit the favour of his Soveraign by turning His back upon Him and departing from Him if rebellion and enmity do oblige to shew graciousness if wicked works do incline the goodness of GOD to communicate it self to men then I confess they that are out of His covenant may merit His grace But since it is quite contrary and every body well knoweth that such carriage is a plain provoking of justice and doth inforce punishment who seeth not that man while he is in the corruption of his nature doth merit nothing either by way of condignity or of congruity but the curse of GOD according to what the Apostle elsewhere saith even that by nature we are children of wrath Eph. 2â— I said in the second place that this Text discovers also to us the extent of this corruption For if any sort of men could be found exempted from it in all probability it should be the Greeks the most polite and best civilized of all people Nevertheless you see the Apostle involves them here in this universal misery Whence appears how much some of the ancientest writers of Christianity were mistaken whom the love of learning and secular erudition did so charm Clem. Alexand. Strom. 6. as they stuck not to say that the Gentils by means of their Philosophy might become acceptable to GOD and attain salvation I grant they had a very quick understanding as we see by their Books in which they have left us admirable marks of the acuteness of their minds Neither do I deny but GOD presented them both in the nature of this vast universe and in its government with very clear and most illustrious arguments of His power wisdom goodness and providence as St. Act. 14. Rom. 1.19 20. Paul elsewhere saith that this supream LORD never left
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
is clear that we read nothing in this text either of these satisfactions or of that treasury or of those indulgences whereof they tell us Certainly if they will draw these things from hence it behoveth them to shew us that they are here to discover them to us to constrain us by the force of their proofs to see it here But so far are they from binding us to this that they not so much as endeavour to do it and content themselves with telling us that though our exposition be good and true yet theirs also must be adjoyned Since they urge no other reason of it but their own dictate we may reject it with the same facility that they offer it Nevertheless for your greater edification I will insist a little further upon the illustration of this Text. First the Apostles words do no way oblige us to understand him of their satisfactions it being evident that it may be said of all useful things that they are for those who have the use of them as for example that it is for men the Sun shineth in the heavens that it is for them the clouds poure down the rain and the earth yieldeth its fruits That it is for the Church S. Paul wrote his Epistles that for the same he preached and published the Gospel and a thousand other such things 2 Cor. 12.15 in which never any man dreamt of any satisfaction And when S. Paul professeth to the Corinthians that he would most willingly spend Justinian on the place and be spent for them doth he mean for the satisfaction of their sins No saith a Jesuite but he speaks of his great pains in preaching and teaching which would not have failed of being very useful to the edification of the Church though of no value for the satisfaction of GOD Here therefore in the same manner when the Apostle saith his afflictions are for the Church It follows clearly that his sufferings were of use to the Church which I willingly confess but not that they were satisfactions for the sins of the Church which is precisely the thing we deny and which they should prove But if the words of this Text do not found their exposition the authority of the Fathers of which they are wont to make so great a noise doth not establish it any jot more there being not known any one of them that ever inferred their doctrine from the Text or that interprets it otherwise than we have done Lastly the thing it self doth as little favour their design And to demostrate it to you we must briefly touch at all the points of their pretended mystery It is composed of four propositions all which they advance upon their own credit without founding so much as one of them on Scripture For first they presuppose that when GOD pardoneth us the sins that are committed after Baptism He remitteth to us only the fault and the eternal punishment but not the temporal punishment of our trespasses this they count He obligeth us to expiate either here or in Purgatory Secondly they add that divers Saints as the Apostles and the Martyrs and others have done and suffered much more than themselves needed for the expiating of their own sins And as they are provident thrifty men lest these superfluous satisfactions for so they call them be unprofitably lost they hold that they go into the Churches common treasury where being mixed with the superabundant passions of CHRIST they are conserved for the necessities of penetents And finally after all the rest they give the custody of this treasury to the Bishop of Rome alone who dispenseth it as he judgeth expedient Here 's a chain of immaginations which have no foundation either in reason or in Scripture or any other where but in their own passion and interest For first who taught them to cut in pieces thus the benefits of GOD and to suppose that He remits the guilt without the punishment as if to remit a sin were ought else than not to punish it and that He again remits a part of the punishment to wit the eternal and holds us bound to satisfie for the other How doth this accord with that full and entire grace which He promiseth to repenting sinners and how with His declaring that He will forget their sins that He will do away their iniquities that He will remember them no more and that there is no condemnation to them that are in JESVS CHRIST Would not it be a mocking of men if after all this He should exact of them the punishment of their faults to the utmost farthing And as for the pretended satisfactions of the Saints whence have they drawn them from what Prophets from what Apostles seeing both the one and the others do declare that none of them were justified by their doings or their sufferings that they all had need of grace for the expiation of their sins So far were they from having suffered more than was necessary to expiate them and that all their sufferings are not able to counterpoise the glory wherewith GOD will crown them And if we be indebted unto them for any part of the expiation of our sins what will become of the Apostles assertion that CHRST purged our sins by Himself Heb. 1 3â— and that he did consummate or make perfect them that believe by that one sole oblation which He made on the Cross If S. Paul who is in question did in suffering satisfie for us how doth he protest elsewhere that He was not crucified for us Sure according to our adversaries supposition 1 Cor. 1.13 he could not in truth deny it For if his sufferings do serve not only to the edification of our lives but also to the satisfying for our sins as they pretend there remains no longer any sense in which it may be said that CHRIST alone did suffer for us These two propositions that the Apostle did suffer and did not suffer for us will be irreconcilable whereas in our doctrine it is easie to accord them by saying he suffered for us that is for our edification and suffered not for us that is not to satisfie for our sins this kind of suffering appertaining to the LORD JESUS only Beside if the afflictions which the Apostle speaks of here were satisfactory for the Church as our adversaries will have it S. Paul would not have suffered them with joy it being evident that pains of this nature do necessarily seize those that suffer them with an extream horror and heaviness because they are accompanied with the apprehension of the wrath of GOD against sin as it appears both by the Cross of our LORD which he bore constantly and patiently it is true but without any moving of joy and also by the confession of our adversaries themselves who represent to us the souls that suffer for their sins in their imaginary Purgatory all astonied with horror and full of an excessive sadness In fine how doth this fixtion accord with the
necessary for the edifying of the faithful which is the end of the ministry It is not enough to propose the secrets of the Gospel in general unto them general things do not much stir us They must be touched in particular and the word of God which is the instrument of our profession is proper for these two operations as S. Paul expresly noteth when he saith that the Scripture is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteoussness that the man of GOD that is His servant or his minister may be accomplished and perfectly furnished unto every good work Such then as the LORD hath honoured with this sacred ministry should labour both in the one and the other of these two performances and make account that he calleth them not simply to teach but also to admonish For this here is not the pew of a Professor of Mathematiques or Physick who hath no other business but to explain the secrets of those sciences to those that hear them This Chair hath been prepared in the Church for the conducting of men to salvation not meerly to make them understand but to give them everlasting life to illuminate their minds to form their lives unto holiness to pluck them out of the snares of Satan and cause them to walk in the wayes of GOD. Faithful Brethren since you know that such is the nature of our charges you should not think it strange or ill that we execute them in this manner among you There are some that have a tender ear They willingly hear information and doctrine but cannot bear remonstrances Discourse about the mysteries of religion is pleasing to them but about their vices and their duty burthensome And this tenderness is a very bad sign as shewing that their morals are not found As a Physician judgeth that there is something amiss some sinew hurted or some collection of unnatual humors in those parts of the body which he cannot touch without putting the Patient to pain If you would have our ministrations to be entirely grateful to you reform your manners that nothing may remain in your life but what is healthy and vigorous Remonstrances do importune those only that have a diseased Soul But they should consider that if they be troublesome to them they are necessary for them and if the interest of our Office do oblige us to make them the interest of their salvation doth much more oblige them to suffer the same It is a salt somewhat sharp but wholsome a potion bitter but conducing to health But the Apostles addition that he teacheth in all wisdom must not be forgotten There is no need I should advertise you that he speaks of heavenly wisdom of that truth which is necessary to be known for the obtaining of Salvation It is evident therefore when he saith he teacheth in all this wisdom he signifies that he declareth all the mysteries of it to such as he instructeth that he hideth no part of it from them which it concerns them to know for their arriving at the inheritance of JESUS CHRIST It is the very thing that he speaks elsewhere more clearly and in express words namely when he taketh the Bishops or Pastors of the Church at Ephesus to witness that he had kept back nothing from them which was profitable for them but had taught it them Act. 20.20 21 27. and preached it publickly and from house to house tesstifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks repentance towards GOD and faith in JESUS CHRIST our LORD and a little after I have not shunned saith he to declare to you all the counsel of GOD. Whence it appears that the traditions which are pretended to have been not publickly and generally taught to all the faithful but delivered in secret to some only by the Apostles are not at all necessary to mens Salvation He that hath learned what the Apostle taught all men knows enough since he taught in all wisdom except men will say that he wanteth some knowledge who hath learned all wisdom But it hath alwaies been one of the artifices of curiosity to feign that men of GOD did not publish all and that they committed a part of their instructions only to the ears of some that were more perfect than the vulgar to the end that under this pretext it may make its own disquisitions and inventions pass for articles of divine doctrine I know well that this is a meer imagination as weak as it is bold and such as hath no other foundation than the passion of those that advance it But it is not my business to make any further inquiry into the vanity of it For what ever it be since S. Paul hath taught every man in all wisdom my simplicity is henceforth in safety The ignorance of your pretented secrets cannot be prejudicial to me since all the wisdom of the Gospel is comprised in the Apostles publick and common teachings From the same consideration you may perceive also how extravagant the dreaming of those is who would make it be believed that the doctrine of the Church is polished and perfected from age to age the succeding having added to the light of those that went before and that we should not wonder if the ancients either knew not or even spake contrary to some of the Articles of the Modern Divinity forasmuch say they as the Church not having yet at that time declared them the belief of them was not necessary By this account the Faith will have been imperfect in the Apostles time Yet S. Paul saith here that what he Preached to all men was all wisdom and he will add immediately that by it he rendred every man perfect in CHRIST JESUS whatsoever may be said in the matter it is clear that it 's enough to know the things that are sufficient to save us If that which the Apostles Preached did suffice for the salvation of the first believers we have nothing to do with that which men have added since For we seek but our salvation and it 's sottishness to imagine that what was sufficient to save believers in those dayes is not sufficient to do it in ours as if GOD had changed his design and the revelation of His Son and the Apostles Preaching were not the seal and the last perfection of all His dispensations The Articles which have been declared in the latter ages did make up a part of the wisdom Preached by the Apostles or no. If they made up a part of it they were no less necessary for the first ages than for the latter If they made up no part of it they are now as little necessary as ever And it avails nothing to alledge the Church to us For what authority soever may be ascribed to the company which is so called it hath not enough to make that necessary which in reality is not so not enough to shut up what GOD hath opened nor to contract what He hath dilated or to
bind what He hath loosed If GOD will save us without belief of the Mass or of Purgatory the Church would do well to will the contrary would she not GOD will judge us by His own will and word and not by the fantastical conceits or imaginations of men But I return to the Apostle who sheweth us also in this Text and it 's that which we are to consider in the third place what the object of this his Preaching is when he saith that he admonisheth every man and teacheth every man It 's very probable that the false Teachers who would seduce the Colossians for the colouring of that observation of the Law which they recommended did alledge that the Apostles themselves left the Jews the use of Circumcision and the practice of legal abstinences and that if S. Paul did otherwise it was but towards some only I account it is to this properly that we must referr and oppose his saying here three times that he admonisheth every man that he teacheth every man and that he might render every man perfect in CHRIST He thus repeats this word to them to shew that his Preaching was the same and uniform throughout that he declared to all men but one sole JESUS CHRIST and that he Preached Him indifferently both to Jews and Gentiles Greeks and Barbarians GOD having given for them all but one and the same Gospel as He hath set up but one Sun in the Universe to shine on all mankind I declare saith he the same CHRIST unto all as Saviour and Redeemer of the world There is no man to whom I Preach any other thing Whereby he gives a secret blow to the doctrine of these Seducers which was particular and not Preached either by the holy Apostle or by any of his fellows It may well be also that he aimed to shew here in his way the extent of his charge which enclosed all men on earth within its compass there being no one of them to whom he had not authority to Preach the Gospel and to admonish and teach him According to his saying elsewhere that he is debter Rom. 1.14 both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise for the seasonable establishing of the power he will use anon to admonish the Colossians and condemn the Seducers For he shews thereby that there is no person how knowing soever he may be otherwayes but is his Scholler for this Heavenly wisdom and ought in this respect to be subject to his instructions and to learn of Him the mysteries of the same As if he had said that GOD hath raised him to the Doctoral Chair of the universe and made him His publick and universal Herauld who should be hearkened to by all the men of the world Whence it follows that these pretended Masters of the Colossians who would intrude to teach them after their mode did thwart the institution of GOD and that before they did put themselves upon the instructing of others they should first have learned of the Apostle the true mysteries of the wisdom of GOD. I acknowledge there is not any one of the Ministers of GOD who hath now this great extent of Authority that the Apostle here ascribeth and with truth to himself Nevertheless each of them ought to do in his district what the Apostle did in his even admonish and teach every man whoever he be in all wisdom have but one and the same Gospel for all not pleasing doctrine and as is commonly said a Velvet Gospel for the rich and another quite different for the poor but treat them all without respect of persons not conceal ought from the one which hath been discovered to the others each one ought to teach the small as well as the great to admonish the great as well as the small to edifie them all in common without despising the littleness of the one without fearing the greatness of the other But let us now see what the end of this Preaching JESUS CHRIST is We declare Him saith the Apostle admonishing and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may render every man perfect in JESVS CHRIST This was the Apostle's aim this was the design of his labours even to present all those that heard him holy and unreprovable unto JESVS CHRIST to put them into such an estate by his Preaching as that they might appear before the Throne of Grace without confusion He expresseth it elsewhere in other terms namely when he saith to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11.2 in particular that he had appropriated them or knit them or as it were espoused them to one husband that I might present you saith he as a chaste Virgin unto CHRIST where he useth precisely the same word which he placeth here and which we French have translated in the one of these places rendre render and presenter present in the other You know there are two sorts of perfection one of a believer's minority the other of his full age according as the Apostle distinguisheth our times in the first Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 13.11 The one that which we have here below during the course of our Pilgrimage The other that which we shall not have but in Heaven our true Countrey This latter is a perfection every way compleat such as comprehendeth all the degrees of knowledge holiness and glory which our nature is capable of The former is a perfection begun having all the parts of sanctification and consolation that are necessary in our present frailty but not yet brought up to the top and highest degrees The one is simply and absolutely called Perfection the other is so named but in some respect and in comparison either of the estate which we were and other men not regenerate are still in or of the condition of our age The Apostle means the first Phil. 3.12 15. when he confesseth that he is not already perfect He speaks of the second when he faith Let us all that are perfect be thus minded The one and the other is the end of the Preaching of the Gospel For the design of Paul and of all true Ministers of the LORD is to guide the faithful to eternal salvation that is to the last and highest of these two kinds of perfection by means of the first And so the nearer effect of their Preaching and which immediatly follows it is the believer's perfection on earth The further and more remote effect of it which necessarily and infallibly results from the first is his perfection in Heaven Moreover this first perfection to which Preaching immediately tendeth consisteth of two parts chiefly Knowledge and Sanctification Faith and Charity And though there be many defects both in the one and the other if you compare them with the vision and glory of Heaven yet the one and the other are even at present perfect in some sort to wit in as much as the true believer wanteth not any of the knowledges and habitudes
that are necessary to salvation And it 's to this the Apostle reduceth it when he restraineth the perfection he speaks of to JESUS CHRIST that we may render every man perfect in JESVS CHRIST saith he It 's to His abundance that we owe our perfection forasmuch as He giveth us what we have of it by His Spirit and supplyeth what we want of it by the riches of His merit The Apostle considers the Believer's perfection here in its whole extent that is in regard both of faith and of holiness I confess he doth particularly intend the first of these For it seems to me evident that he hath an eye to the errour of the Seducers who added the observation of the Mosaical Law the worshipping of Angels and such other Traditions to the instructions of the Gospel as if the faith of Christians were imperfect without them S. Paul to overthrow this pernicious dotage doth seasonably lay firm that the Preaching of the Gospel is enough to render every man perfect who receiveth it with saith that there is no need either of Moses or of Angels no need of the Ceremonies of the one or of the services of the other that JESUS CHRIST in whom we are abundantly sufficeth without the adjunction of any other But though this be the Apostles direct aim yet in that perfection which he speaks of together with entireness of faith he doth comprise pureness of manners and of worship which inseparably depends on it and without which that faith cannot possibly be perfect Such is the sense of these words of S. Paul from which we may learn two things before we go further on The first is the perfection and sufficiency of the doctrine Preached by the Apostles For since the end to which it tended was to make the hearer of it perfect it is evident that it had in it all that was necessary to convey this perfection there being no likelyhood that GOD would have put a means into the hands of His servants which was not sufficient to reach their end such a fault being incompatible with His infinite wisdom and power But it is evident that the Apostles Preaching would not have been able to make the faith of their hearers perfect if they had omitted in Preaching any one of those particulars the believing whereof is necessary to salvation It must be concluded therefore that they omitted not any one of them Whence it is clear by the same argument that all the traditions which men advance at this day are unprofitable For what service can they do us since we may be perfect in JESUS CHRIST without them It cannot be said that they were a part of the things which the Apostles Preached First the very men that defend them dare not affirm it of the most of them it being notoriously known that they rose up by little and little very long after the Apostles times Secondly because S. Paul himself describeth to us the matter of his Preaching We Preach CHRIST saith he confining it wholly as you see to the mysterie of our Saviour with which these Traditions have no more alliance than those of the Seducers had which he will afterward refute who sought to mingle divers Ceremonies and the worshipping of Angels with the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST And lastly because the Apostle elsewhere gives to Scripture the same sufficiency which he here ascribeth to his Preaching saying 2 Tim 3.16 17. that All Scripture is by the inspiration of GOD and is profitable for doctrine c. that the man of GOD may be perfect But it is clear that these pretended traditions do appear no where at all in Scripture Sure then it is also manifest that they are no way necessary to make our faith perfect But by the same grounds it is apparent again how contrary to S. Paul the doctrine of Rome is For whereas he saith that the design of his Preaching was to make every man perfect in JESVS CHRIST Rome on the contrary alloweth this perfection only to Clerks in the first place and next unto Monks not reckoning that the people whom by an odious name which S Paul never gives but to Pagans or the profane they call Seculars and men of the world in opposition to men of the Church can or should seek to arrive at persection And the presumption of Monks is grown so high that there are no longer any but persons hooded and cloathed in their mode that are called Religious men or Religious women as if every man who is a true Christian were not also truly religious and again they call their condition only the state of perfection as if all the rest of the faithful were but abortives and imperfect productions And though this vanity be so out of measure injurious to all other Christians yet their Partisans do suffer it and seem for the most part of them well pleased with it imagining under this pretence that there are none but Monks obliged to be perfect and that as for themselves who are in the world it is not their part to aspire so high and in effect the greater number do so freely dispense with themselves in the case that truly there is reason to call them Seculars indeed But the holy Apostle here overthrows in two words the arrogance of the one and the security of the other As for the former when he telleth us he Preacheth the Gospel that he might render his hearers perfect he clearly shews us that for our guidance to perfection we have no need of the Rules either of Francis or Dominie or Bruno or Loyola or the other many pretended Regulars who as it were outvying one another daily set forth some new discipline to the World The LORD JESUS hath provided long ago for our perfection giving us a most compleat and very easie rule to attain it after which it is an exorbitant rashness to resolve the establishing of another Follow that rule Christian embrace that and proceed constantly in the way of holiness which it hath prescribed you and be confident that so doing you shall not fail of being perfect though you wear not Francis's Frock and Hood or Loyola's little Band. But the Apostle here no less condemneth the security of those that are called Seculars than the vanity of such as stile themselves Religious For he saith expresly and universally that his design is to render every man perfect in CHRIST JESVS He will have no other Disciples He owneth none for his Schollers but such as aim at perfection such as vow it and labour after it daily If you remain Secular and in state of imperfection his Preaching hath not wrought it's effect in you and as you have not part in that perfection to which he would form you in this life no more shall you have part in that to which he desireth to conduct you in the next life There is but one sort of Christians even such as having believed the Gospel do mortifie the deeds of the body and
this custom was in repute among Christians Whether then the thing be considered in its self or the suffrages of the Ancients be taken it is manifest that our Fathers and our selves had all the reasons in the world to re-establish this sacred and just usage in the Church Now Sir this Book which I address unto you is a fruit of it For having undertaken in conformity to this order to expound in our holy assemblies the Divine Epistle of the Apostle S. Paul to the Colossians and being come to the end of it by the grace of our LORD because the whole work could not be commodiously contracted into one volume only I have divided it into three parts of which this here is the second The Piety which hath long flourished in your House Sir and the exquisite knowledge that GOD hath given you of His truth do induce me to believe that this Books which wholy treats of His Divine mysteries and nothing else will not be unpleasing to you It 's this hath given me the liberty to put your name upon it a Name which diverse excellent graces wherewith GOD hath adorned both your Family and your Person do render very dear and very honourable in our Church I am sorry that this Present is no more worthy of it But such as it is I do not despair but it may obtain from the dignity of its subject and from the favour of your goodness that acceptance which it cannot pretend to upon any merit of its own Please you then to receive it as a sincere testimony of the respect I bear your vertue and of the grateful sense I have of the friendship wherewith you honour me withal as an inviolable pledge of the prayers which I present unto GOD for your prosperity and of the fervent affection I have to be as long as I live Paris Apriâ— 1. 1648. SIR Your most humble and most obedient Servant DAILLE The SIXTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER I II. Verse I. For I would that ye knew how great a combat I have for you and for them which are at Laodicea and for all them which have not seen my presence in the flesh II. To the end that their hearts might be comforted they being joined together in love and in all riches of full certainty of understanding unto the knowledg of our GOD and Father and of CHRIST DEar Brethren As Gardeners and Husbandmen do not content themselves with sowing good grain in the ground that they manure but also take care to pluck up thence the bad herbs which might choak or incommodate the good So in the Spiritual husbandry of JESUS CHRIST it is not enough that the Ministers of his Gospel do cast his Divine Word the good and saving seed of our Regeneration into the Souls of Men They must also be at the pains to weed and cleanse this mystical Soil the tilling whereof is committed to them plucking up out of it error and false doctrine those bad and pernicious weeds which springing up of themselves or being privily sown there by an enemy's hand are apt to marr all this coelestial tillage Hence it is that the Apostle St. Paul having in the first Chapter of this Epistle to the Colossians setled the truth with great efficacy as you have heard cometh now in this second Chapter the beginning whereof we have read to reject and refute the errors which certain false workers ministers of Satan endeavoured to shuffle in that this people as a field or a garden of God's being rid of all naughty and noxious grain the noble seed of the Gospel which the Apostle had cast there might take root and spring up and grow at liberty covering and crowning it all over with the flowers and fruits of incorruption that is sincere piety and true sanctity no strange plant being mingled with it These Seducers as we have often intimated did teach that besides faith in JESUS CHRIST which they made profession of there was also a necessity of observing the Mosaical Law and of worshipping of Angels and of practising certain superstitious Disciplines and Mortifications of their own invention And to put off the whole the better they mingled with it some subtilties and vain speculations of secular Philosophy This is the weed which the Apostle the Church's holy Husbandman now roots up out of his LORD's field fortifying the Colossians against the craft of that sort of men and divinely shewing them how full and sufficient the doctrine of his Gospel was how unprofitable and even plainly dangerous the Seducers additions were You shall hear it afterwards in the progress of the Chapter For as to the two Verses we have read and the three or four following they are as the entrance or gate of this dispute the Apostle in them preparing the hearts of the Colossians to receive his instructions by the evidences he gives them of his ardent affection for their Salvation and presently in the first Verse he declareth to them the pains he was in for them and for their neighbours I would saith he that ye knew how great a combat I have for you c. Then he addeth in the following Verse the end or the cause of this combat of his To the end saith he that their hearts might be comforted c. These two points now we purpose to handle in the present action by the assistance of the grace of CHRIST S. Paul's care and combat for the Colossians and Laodiceans then his design or the end for which he underwent all this trouble for them In reference to the first of these two points ye may remember the Apostle affirmed in the end of the precedent Chapter that to discharge the Ministry which GOD had committed to him he did labour and combat according to his efficacy that wrought powerfully in him Now he descendeth from Generalities to a particular instance and having spoken in gross of the labour he did undergo for the edification of all he tells the Colossians of the pain he was in particularly for them adding For I would that ye knew how great a combat I have for you and for those of Laodicea It is not without cause saith he that I profess to strive and labour for the edification of the faithful For not to alledg other proofs of it to you GOD knoweth and I desire you also should know that I sustain a great combat for you and your neighbours Laodicea which he speaks of was the head-city of Phrygia nigh to Colosse which was situate in the same Province The Vicinity of these two Cities was the cause of a particular commerce between those Churches which GOD had formed in them whence it comes that the Apostle afterward salutes the Laodiceans by name and orders the Colossians to impart this Epistle to them S. John also in his Apocalyps makes mention of the Church of Laodicea and it is one of the Seven Churches of Asia to which the LORD JESUS commanded him to write in his name And
link Him either with the world or with superstition And this verity that our hearts cannot have true and solid comfort but in JESUS CHRIST alone is so evident that error it self when it is pressed home is constrained to acknowledg it After sufficient dispute about the merit of its works and large boast of the worth of its satisfactions and of the value of its Pontifical indulgences Bellarmin of Justif i. 5. c. 7. and of the Intercession of its Saints it confesseth that by reason of the uncertainty of our own righteousness the safest course is to put all our confidence in the sole mercy of GOD. In other cases which concern our divertisement only I think a man may sometimes without blame chuse the longest and most hazardous way In the case of our Salvation it is an excess of folly without doubt not to take the safest Since by your own confession my doctrine or rather the doctrine of the Gospel is the safer suffer me to hold to it and to pity your imprudence who do amuse the world with that which your self confess to have less of safety and more of hazard in it But I return to the Apostle who having said That he combateth for these faithful people that their hearts might be comforted addeth in the second place they being joined together in charity Their Seducers troubled their Union and casting in a new doctrine among them as a matter of contention ruined their fraternal concord as much as in them lay drawing them into diversity of minds from whence ariseth contrariety of affections It is therefore also for the preventing of this disorder and for the preserving of union in charity among them that the Apostle had so great a conflict For as the Sea abideth peaceable and united during a calm but riseth all in waves that violently dash on one another when the wind begins to bluster So false teachers which are as the winds and gusts of hell do no sooner fall upon a Church but they disturb its peace and put all the members of it in commotion parting them asunder mutinying them and making them miserably clash with each other to their common ruin and the joy of their enemy But S. Paul teacheth us here that the mutual conjunction of the faithful in charity is necessary for the consolation of their hearts to the end saith he that their hearts may be comforted they being joined together in love Indeed what joy and what comfort can a good soul have in the trouble of division Considering withal that JESUS CHRIST who is the only source of our joy doth not communicate Himself to any but such as have a true charity who abide conjoin'd in his body by the Lands of one and the same fame and love In fine the third benefit which the Apostle desireth to preserve among the Colossians and their Neighbours is the abounding of a full and an assured knowledg of the mystery of GOD being joined in charity and in all riches of certainty of understanding in the knowledg of our GOD and Father and of CHRIST This order is well worth the noting For these three things which he hath ranked together here are of such a nature that the first depends upon the second and the second upon the third Consolation upon union in charity and union in charity upon knowledg This last is as the first degree upon which charity is rais'd up and charity as the second which sustaineth the third to wit Consolation Of these three Jewels one cannot be had without the other And as the consolation of the LORD cannot be enjoy'd without the sweetnesses of charity so charity cannot be had without the lights of knowledg But the Apostle doth not simply name that knowledg which he desireth in the faithful He describes it in stately manner as he is wont and intimateth as he proceeds the principal qualities it ought to have which he briefly compriseth in these words all the riches of full certainty of understanding that is to express this Hebrew phrase in the idiom of our own language all abundance of understanding with full assurance and satisfaction He would have therefore first that the knowledg of a Christian be understanding that is that he do perceive and see in the clearness of coelestial light those verities which GOD hath revealed to us not that we are bound to comprehend them all and penetrate the nature of them to the bottom for being the most of them Divine and Supernatural this is impossible for us but that we ought to know what is revealed to us of them because otherwise we should be in danger every moment to be deluded and to take the vain traditions of men for things taught of GOD. Whence appears how far that hood-winkt faith wherewith our adversaries do content themselves is from the knowledg of a Believer This faith if interrogated about Evangelical truth refers it self to the Church in it being ignorant all the while of what it believes and consequently having no spark of understanding Black is not more contrary to white nor darkness to light than this fantasm of faith shall I say or of ignorance to the knowledg which the Apostle here requireth in us He would have the faithful to be intelligent and these people understand nothing at all nay do boast of their ignorance imagining that it is not without merit It is therefore the faith not of a Christian away with such a thought nor of the Collier as they call it no nor of a man indued with reason but the faith of a brute which hath no understanding as the Psalmist sings Secondly the Apostle willeth that we have not meerly understanding but riches yea all riches of understanding that is a great and perfect abundance of knowledg that we be rich in this kind of wealth that we be ignorant of none of the mysteries of Divine truth that we know not the elements or the first maxims of it only but all the inferences that are necessary to guide our lives and to guard us from the ambushes of Satan amid which we go Otherwise how shall we discern the voice of the chief Shepherd from the voice of a stranger to flâ—e from the one and follow the other Whereby you see again how contrary to the doctrine of this holy man the preaching and practice of those of Rome is who license their people to be ignorant and do blame such as not contenting themselves with the first and plainest lessons of Christianity do study the bottom of this saving wisdom outragiously decrying this laudable affection as if it were the way to heresie and hell Finally S. Paul would have this intelligentness of a Believer to be besides its abounding with an entire certainty and assurance making use of a word which he often puts to signifie a full and an assured perswasion when we hold things which we believe to be sure and indubitable For though matters of faith be not laid open either to
intention in this place But that which they add is yet worse For from this ill interpretation they infer a false and a dangerous doctrine concluding from our Saviour's having all the treasures of Knowledg that the infinite wisdom of His Divinity was really transfused into His humane nature and by consequent all the other properties also of the Divine nature as its omnipotency its infiniteness and its presence in all places since there is the same reason for all these attributes of GOD and they are so in separable that none can have one of them without possessing of the rest See I pray you how fruitful error is and how truly it was said by one of the ancient Sages of the world That one falsity and absurdity being supposed many others do necessarily follow upon it For that which hath led or to say better which hath drawn these authors into this long series of errors is nothing but a false opinion which they have about the Sacrament of the Eucharist They incommodiously and unreasonably suppose that the flesh of JESUS CHRIST is really present in the bread And this absurdity hath engaged them by little and little in those others that are so much worse For not being able to relish that Transubstantion which those of Rome make use of to uphold this real presence of our LORD's body and deservedly rejecting it as full of absurdities and contradictions yet bent to retain their own bad presupposition they have had recourse for the maintaining of it to another well nigh as great an error namely that of Ubiquity and do affirm that the body of JESUS CHRIST is every where present and consequently in the Eucharistical signes and to defend a thing so strange and so contrary to sense to reason and to Scripture they have advanced this conceit that the flesh of CHRIST through its Personal union with the Divinity hath really receiv'd all the properties thereof that is that the Son assuming it unto Himself hath rendred it omnipotent immense and infinite a thing which hath induced them to corrupt divers passages of the Word of GOD that they might form out of them some prop for their error It is not the place here to make a thorough refutation of their doctrine nor to lament at large such persons their deserting of the truth in this particular who are illuminated with the beams thereof in others Would to GOD we might bury a fault which hath caused so much scandal in Christendom in eternal oblivion I will only touch at the concernment of the Text in hand and their abuse of it for the favouring of their opinion I say then that in this ratiocination of theirs they commit two notable faults the one that they do not take the Apostle's meaning aright and the other that they conclude wrong And to begin at the latter of these they conclude wrong for from the being of an infinite science and knowledg in JESUS CHRIST it doth not follow that the Soul of His humane nature understandeth and knoweth all the things that God knoweth as from the being of an eternal Divinity in JESUS CHRIST it no way followeth that His flesh is an eternal Divinity or from His having created the World that his Flesh created it like as if at least we may compare Humane things with Divine from a man's having in him an immortal intellect it follows not at all that his body is intelligent or immortal For as in Man there are two Substances the Soul and the Body which though united in the same subject do nevertheless conserve each of them their Properties apart the Soul its spiritualness and invisibility the Body likewise its visibility and palpableness the one a capacity to understand and will the other not after the same manner there are two natures in JESUS CHRIST which though personally united yet are not mingled or confused one with the other But retain each of them their essential and original qualities in such sort that the Divine nature abideth eternal infinite omnipotent and omniscient and the humane created in time bounded in place and endowed with a limited strength power and science Now as when we say of man in general that there is understanding and sense in him that he hath a visible or invisible essence that he is mortal or immortal each of these attributions ought to be understood in reference to that part of his nature to which it agreeth and not be confusedly applied to them both So if the Apostle had said as I grant he truly might that there is in JESUS CHRIST an infinite power or knowledg it should be referred to His Divinity and not to His Humanity For JESUS CHRIST being very GOD blessed for ever with the Father who doubts but that in this regard He is omnipotent and omniscient But thence it follows not that He is so in regard of His humane nature too And for any to deduce it from that attribution is as impertinent reasoning as if because there is in JESUS CHRIST a flesh conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin and which was infirm and crucified you would inferr that therefore His Divinity was also born of the Holy Virgin and that it too was fastned to the Cross But though it should be granted them that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hid in the humane soul of JESUS CHRIST yet still they would conclude wrong to infer thence as they do that the knowledg of His Soul is infinite and the same with that of GOD. We confess that this blessed Soul having had the honour to be personally united with the Eternal Son of GOD hath also thereupon been adorned with all the shining light of knowledg and wisdom whereof its nature is capable so as it may be said in this respect that all the treasures of them are hidden in it and that the knowledg which it hath of things doth much surpass the knowledg of Men and Angels both for its extent and also for its clearness and firmness Yet the nature of the subject wherein it properly resideth being finite it self is also necessarily finite whereas the knowledg of the Father and of His eternal Word is infinite even as the nature of the one and the other is infinite And it is to no purpose to reply that by this accompt the humane nature of JESUS CHRIST will have no advantage above the Saints of whom it may be said in this sense that all the treasures of wisdom are hidden in them since GOD who dwelleth in them hath an infinite knowledg and wisdom For this consequence is evidently false First by reason of the extream difference which is found between the graces communicated to the Saints and the gifts of light and knowledg that are insused into the Soul of our Saviour Secondly by reason of the infinite difference that is between their persons for though GOD do dwell in the Saints by His grace yet no one of the Saints is GOD whereas the Eternal Word
that is necessary for you Let your whole life be taken up in the continual handling of these Divine Jewels in admiring the beauty and using the brightness of them Let it be all the passion of your souls the matter of your joys and the consolation of your troubles If you have not those false good things which the world so much glorieth in remember that you have the treasures of Heaven the portion of Angels the wisdom and knowledg of happiness Take heed that none bereave you of so rich a possession Shut your ear against the prattle and plausible discoursings of Seducers Conserve this treasure couragiously against their attempts nor be content to have it only communicate it to your neighbours lay forth the wonders of it before their eyes adorning all the parts of your life with it Let the innocency and sanctity and sweetness and humility of the LORD JESUS shine out in it Let these be your Pearls and your Jewels and your Ornaments before men which may constrain them to acknowledg that JESUS CHRIST dwells in the midst of you and to say Of a truth this Nation is a wise and understanding people Above all instruct your Children in this knowledg Leave them this wisdom for an inheritance Such a portion is enough to make them happy whereas without this they cannot possibly be other than fools and wretches though you should leave them all the wealth of the East and West Finally since the Apostle assureth us that all the treasures of wisdom are in JESUS CHRIST let us content our selves with him alone and centemn the vanity of those who under any pretence whatsoever would make pass for wisdom doctrines that are forreign and without the sphere of CHRIST Let us not so much as give them the hearing It 's warrant enough for us to reject them that they make up no part of the treasure of JESUS CHRIST I stand not to enquire whether they be true or false helpful or hurtful It sufficeth me that whatever they be otherways they are not in CHRIST Nothing is to be received in Religion but what comes out of this treasury GOD who hath given it us in his abundant mercy and who calleth us to partake also of it the LORD's day next grant us to conserve it pure and entire to possess it with joy and respect in this world and reap the full fruit of it in that which is to come So be it THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER IV V. Ver. IV. But this I say that none may deceive you by words of perswasion V. For though I am absent in body yet in spirit I am with you rejoycing and seeing your order and the firmness of your faith which you have in CHRIST AS men do not naturally love and desire but things which have an appearance of good so they believe none but those that have a semblance of truth and they lay down love of the one and belief of the others as soon as they certainly discover that the former are evil and the latter untrue Whence it comes that being prepossessed upon some general and confused knowledg with conceit that the enjoyment or belief of a thing would be profitable and advantageous to them they wish it prove good and true evidently presupposing that otherwise their very nature could not permit them to love it or believe it This is to be seen in children themselves who are the sincerest and most natural map of the motions of our nature For when their Nurses tell them any thing they ask if it be true and if the tale please them they are troubled when they perceive it is but a tale and would have it true that they might believe it So deeply imprinted in the mind of all reasonable Creatures is this sacred and inviolable principle of their nature that nothing is to be believed but what is true This advantage which truth naturally hath over falshood doth enforce its very enemies to counterfeit its mark and wear its livery they being sensible that their errors and falshoods can have no passage among men except they go under the appearance of some truth Even as Coiners that they may put off their Copper and Lead do give it the colour and resemblance of Gold and Silver and counterfeit the image and stamp of a lawful Prince or as they that would travel through an enemy's Countrey do privily accommodate themselves with the enemy's badges so Seducers well knowing that the understanding of man is the proper and lawful Kingdom of truth where nothing passes but under the avouching and marks of the same do fard and disguise the fictions which they would put off and give them as finely as they can the countenance and colour of truth that by the means of this false resemblance they may pass currant among men who would reject them immediately if they saw them in their own natural likeness There hath ever been a great number of these cheats in the world a multitude of persons being every where found who pricked forward by ambition or some other particular interest do strive to bring their fancies and dreams into reputation But as Christian Religion compriseth the best and most important Verities in the world so there never was any profession that Error and Imposture have more laboured to corrupt both by decrying some of its true doctrines on one hand and by intermingling of falshoods on the other And as all the artifice of such unhappy wits tendeth only to confound truth and lies so ought we to employ the utmost of our industry that we may effectually sever them and so discern them as we never take the one for the other This discerning dear Brethren is one of the most important duties of our life It is loss I confess to take Copper for Gold and bad money for good and it is moreover ignorance ever shameful sometimes not a little hurtful to receive an error for truth in Philosophy and in civil life But yet the loss and shame that accrues from all this kind of cheats reacheth no further than the present time whereas the consequents of those impostures which we suffer in Religion do extend even to eternity For this cause the holy Apostle often warneth the faithful Rom. 16.17 1 Thes 5.21 Eph. 4.14 Heb. 5.14 to whom he writeth to beware of them and to try all things with a great deal of care that they may not be inveigled by seducers nor take up their traditions for truths willing every sound and thorough Christian to have his senses exercised and habituated to discern between good and evil You may have observed in the Text we have read that this is the happiness which he wisheth and would procure to the Colossians keeping them from being drawn in by the fair speeches of those seducers that courted them He had afore represented to them at large the abundance and excellency of the benefits of their LORD and Saviour and he protested again in the
its tincture to the words of his mouth and that great personage indeed felt how it was who hearing him speak was press'd with the force of his discourse and said aloud Thou almost perswadest me to be a Christian All my aim is Acts 26.28 that since error oftentimes abuseth eloquence and acuteness against the truth as evil men do other gifts of God to evil ends we should not judg of the main of any cause by this advantage nor hastily embrace that party that defends it self with the best and most perswafive words nor reject that which hath least of these ornaments in view As Innocence is not always the best clothed so Truth frequently is not the most decked And though of it self it be always more probable more likely and more easily maintainable than falshood Arist. Rhetor. l. 1. c. 6. as one of the ancient Sages well observed yet sometimes it comes to pass through the sleight of seducers by the false light they set it in and the colours they shadow it with that it looks worse in the eyes of the ignorant than a lye doth Take we heed then of their surprising us and so well fortifie our minds against their illusions that they may never make us reject the truth how foul and ugly soever they paint it out nor receive a delusion how specious and plausible soever they do render it Remember that that Babylon the Mother of Error who is pourtrayed before us in the Apocalyps Rev. 17.4 doth present its abominations unto men in a golden Cup that is she gives her poysons in a pleasing Vessel and shuts up and hides the horridness of her impostures under very fair and specious words it 's this that those seducers yerwhile did who sollicited the Colossians their errors were attended with perswasive words for the beguiling of them This is the danger from which S. Paul would here preserve them Let us now consider the means he puts into their hands for their safe guarding themselves from it This I say unto you saith he that no one may deceive you with enticing words Since he thus speaks it 's evident that what he saith is able if we improve it as we ought to keep us from falling into the misleadings of seducement and to frustrate all the charms of its good and perswasive words What then is it that he saith and what at last is that so holy and so efficacious a speech which can dissipate the illusions and enchantments of error Dear Brethren you heard it in the exposition of the precedent Text where this holy man told us that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hid in JESVS CHRIST It 's that he understandeth here This is that Celestial Oracle to which he attributes this great vertue This is the remedy which he giveth us against all the poysons and all the charms of seduction None of the weapons or of the wiles of error can bear up before this sacred word It alone is sufficient if we use it as we ought to confound and annihilate all the pretended wonders of the eloquence and subtilty of false Teachers as heretofore the Rod of Moses swallowed up all the Rods of the Egyptian Magicians For whosoever shall hold fast this principle in his heart that all true wisdom and knowledg is in JESUS CHRIST he will receive nothing out of CHRIST Being content with this treasure he will despise all other things how specious and plausible soever they may be Seduction will do well to display its arts and to gild and paint over its inventions with the fair colours either of ratiocination or of eloquence It will get no ground upon such a one since after all the thing it doth so carefully polish is not in JESUS CHRIST out of whom he will know nothing He will not so much as hear the babling of error so far will he be from being affected with it He will shut his car against its fine words so far is he from being seduced by them Or if he please to cast his eye upon the works of its subtilty and its eloquence he will look upon them as Spiders webs or as jugling and Gipsies feats which amuse us and beguile our senses but make no impression on our hearts We well know they do deceive us though we cannot tell how So the faithful man will hold that for a deceit and an illusion that leads him out of JESUS CHRIST though otherways he do not see wherein the sophism of the error doth consist nor is able clearly to unty the knots thereof This dear Brethren is the sure and infallible means to exclude and to expel all error from among us Seducement winneth nothing but upon those that betray this gate and yeild it that there may something be of good and saving importance out of JESUS CHRIST and his Scriptures When once it hath this ground given it never wanteth paint and pretences to colour its delusions and render even those plausible and likely which are otherways grossest and most extravagant Thus those Traditions and Ceremonies which have still the vogue among our Adversaries were by little and little obtruded upon Christians The invocation of Angels and of Saints departed the Sacrifice of the Altar and the veneration of Reliques and of Images the visible Head and the Hierarchy and the infallibility of the Church Satisfactions and the merit of works Prayers and Services in a language not understood the adoration of the Host Communion in one kind only Purgatory Suffrages for the dead and many other such like things A thousand and a thousand colours are found to paint them out and recommend either the belief or the practise of them to poor people There are huge Books made about them full of wit and eloquence that drive the matter so far as to make these things pass for the principal and most useful part of Christian devotion But this short Saying of S. Paul's is enough to ruin all their labours and to secure us from all their snares In JESVS CHRIST are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg It sufficeth me to have Him since having Him I have all appertaineth to true wisdom How well disputed and how eloquently soever pleaded all your traditions be I am not concerned in them seeing I have the treasure of all Science in CHRIST JESUS And it is not here alone that the Apostle giveth us this lesson for the freeing our selves from the intanglements and snares of error Elsewhere instructing the Hebrews and exhorting them that they would not be carried to and fro with divers and strange doctrines he lays before them at the entrance this divine principle That JESVS CHRIST is the same both yesterday and to day and for ever But it 's now time to come to the second part of our Text in which the Apostle declares to the Colossians the cognizance he took of the state of their Church For saith he though I be absent in body yet in spirit
makes him disgust it immediately and betake himself to seek out novelties for the seasoning and rendring of it more grateful The Apostles had scarce sown this sacred doctrine in the Church as in the Camp of Israel but evil workers presently rose up who to remedy men's disdain and accommodate this Celestial verity to their palate would needs add to it divers inventions and novelties of their own forgging And S. Paul foretold that more such would arise as bad or worse than the first 2 Tim. 4.3 4. Having saith he itching ears they shall assemble to themselves Teachers according to their own desires and shall turn away their ears from the truth and turn unto fables O prophecy too true How punctually hast thou been fulfilled This foolish itch of the ear hath caused a thousand and a thousand fantasies and novelties to be by little and little entertained among Christians which have so born down and as it were overwhelm'd the Gospel that it is hardly to be discerned any longer as you may see in the Doctrine of Rome which is but an heap of Traditions Errors and Superstitions partly copied out from Judaism and some from Paganism it self partly issuing from the private speculations of some particular persons In our Fathers days the Gospel having been brought out of the dark caverns of ignorance into the light of men it was receiv'd in like manner with ardor and admiration But that disgusting of the best and most wholesom things which is fatal to us overtook it quickly and did stir up as also it full doth divers spirits who for remedy do strive to sophisticate this pure Doctrine and dress up its simplicity with their own inventions to make it please the world To cure us of this fastidiousness the Apostle at this time addresseth to us the exhortation you have heard the same which he sometime made to the Colessians for the same end forbidding them novelties and strange doctrines and enjoining them to stand fast in JESUS CHRIST who had been preached to them without admitting or desiring any thing beyond His Gospel Therefore saith he as you have received the LORD JESVS CHRIST so walk in Him c. Upon these words for the giving you a full and entire exposition of them we have two things to consider First The Apostle's enjoining the Colossians to keep and fasten to the LORD JESUS this is the sense and intention of the first verse Secondly The manner how he would have them fasten to the LORD namely by the confirmation and abounding of their faith in his Gospel with thanksgiving These two particulars we purpose to treat of in this Exercise by the assistance of CHRIST for your edification and consolation And for the first You may remember that in the precedent Text the Apostle praised the faithful people of Coloss and rejoyced at the good order he saw in their Church and at the firmness of their faith in JESUS CHRIST But because it is not sufficient to begin well except we do continue in as much as salvation is promised only to those that shall persevere unto the end with good reason and very pertinently doth he now add to the praise he gave them an exhortation to continue and to abide firm in that good and happy state wherein they were and this so much the rather for that there were about them certain busie and unquiet spirits who with their inventions and subtilties endeavoured to vitiate the sincerity of their belief as you have already heard and shall again more particularly hear in the sequel of this Chapter Therefore saith he to them as you have received the LORD JESVS CHRIST so walk in Him JESUS CHRIST is the Subject in which he would have them to abide For He is the way the truth and the life neither is there salvation in any other But because these false Teachers for the better putting off their vain traditions were wont to colour them with our Saviour's Name knowing well that every faithful person would soon hiss at them if they spake openly of our quitting JESUS CHRIST or our distancing our selves from him The Apostle anticipates this danger and expresly shews the Colossians how he intends they should abide firm in JESUS CHRIST saying As you have received the LORD JESVS so walk in Him And to this also that which he adds in the following Verse hath relation As you you have been taught By this he clearly signifies that the doctrine which had been delivered them either by himself if it be true that he preached the Gospel to them and founded their Church as some think or by Epaphras as most are of opinion He signifies I say that this Doctrine which had been preached to them and believed by them was so holy and divine and sufficient to salvation that it was their duty constantly to adhere thereto and to admit nothing beyond what they had heard under any pretext whatsoever Here is the way Isa 30.21 walk in it whether ye turn to the right hand or to the left as Isaiah sometime said But by these words the Apostle not only marketh out to them and stateth that Doctrine which they ought to hold he obligeth them also thereto by their own interest For since they had receiv'd it they could not again part from it without condemning themselves either of imprudence or of levity For he that quits the Faith he once embraced doth thereby evidently shew either imprudence in having sometime taken a false or imperfect Doctrine for good or levity in quitting and altering now a Doctrine good sufficient when he received it If your belief be good why do you change it If it be otherwise why did you entertain it It follows of necessity either that there was error and precipitation in the one or that there is weakness and sickleness in the other So you see that the interest of their own reputation did oblige these Christians to that constancy which the Apostle enjoins them Besides though it be an hainous sin not to receive the LORD JESUS when He presents Himself to us by His Gospel yet it is much more enormous to cast Him out after reception given Him as it is by far a greater outrage to thrust forth a man from your House when you have admitted him than to have shut your doors against him at the first The one is a simple offence the other is an affront In like manner it is a much more injurious treatment to desert CHRIST JESUS after having follow'd him than never to have given ear to or follow'd him at all And observe here I pray the efficacy of sound doctrine it is such as that in receiving it we receive JESUS CHRIST himself For this Highest LORD comes in to all such as embrace his Gospel And we may apply to this purpose what he said to his Apostles on a like occasion Whoso receiveth them receiveth him whoso gives credit to their preaching shall have their Master to be with him
CHRIST the Prince of Life and with that fulness of grace we have received and the holy Apostles preached Mix nothing forreign with it To add to it is to accuse it of imperfection and insufficiency Instead of losing time in the inventions of Error and in the laborious but childish exercises of Superstition Let us employ all hours in good and holy works walking in JESUS CHRIST rooting and building up our selves more and more in him establishing our selves and abounding in faith and testifying and proving the truth of it by a pure piousness towards GOD and an ardent love towards our Neighbour by the fervency of our Prayers the liberality of our Alms the humility of our Deportments the modesty of our Persons the honesty justness and integrity of all our Words and Actions to the glory of the LORD JESUS whom we serve and own for our Master to the edification of men and our own salvation Amen THE TWENTIETH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER VIII Ver. VIII Beware lest any man make prey of you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after CHRIST OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST comparing the society of his faithful ones in the tenth Chapter of S. John to a Flock of Sheep doth advertise us that there are Thieves who coast about this mystical Fold and do come only to steal to kill and to destroy as also that there are Wolves which take away and scatter the Sheep You are not ignorant dear Brethren that under the names of these spiritual Thieves and Wolves he doth represent unto us evil Spirits and the false Teachers whom they set on work who both together earnestly promote the same design though by divers means namely the debauching and alienating of the faithful from the Communion of JESUS CHRIST their only Pastor getting them and appropriating them to themselves as the Thief who takes what is another's and makes it his own Whence ensues their death and destruction For as the Wolf kills the Sheep he hath seized so these Ministers of Satan do bereave of life those whom they pull away from the Flock of Christ out of whose communion there is nothing but death and perdition But these wretched workers do employ as I said many different means to compass their cruel and bloody design Some they take away by downright force making them leave the bosome of the Church by the violence of persecutions or drawing them into the world by the pleasures of the flesh and do bring them even to a renouncing of the very Name of JESUS CHRIST the Prince of Life Against others they make use of fraud training them forth and distancing them by little and little from JESUS CHRIST under fair and plausible pretences so as in the end they have nothing of his left them but a name and a vain unprofitable profession remaining indeed under the power and in the possession of his Enemy It 's against these mystical Thieves and Robbers that the Apostle doth awaken the Colossians in the Text we have read exhorting them to take heed of ' em Before he prayed them to establish to build up to root themselves more and more in the Communion of the LORD JESUS acknowledging with humble gratitude the excellency of his gift mâ—de them 〈…〉 ensure this Treasure to them he adviseth them to watch against th◠〈…〉 ambushes of their Enemies who sought to surprise them and pluck by 〈…〉 tifice of their subtilities and fair discourses JESUS CHRIST out of their hearts and render themselves Masters of them and of their life Beware saith he lest any man make prey of you c. For it is the duty of a good Pastor such a one as the Apostle was not only to seed the mystical Sheep which the chief Shepherd hath committed to his care by giving them the pure and wholsom doctrine of the Gospel the only pasture of souls but also to preserve them with all his power from the paws of Wolves and the hands of Robbers advertising them of the danger and dextrously delivering them out of it by the saving-tone of his voice But as your Pastors are obliged to this care so you see dear Brethren that it is your duty to watch for your own safety to open your eyes and senses that ye may discern a stranger from a domestick a thief from the shepherd the hand of a robber from that of a friend Beware saith the Apostle to you He would not have the faithful be silly sheep that let themselves be led away by the first commer and indifferently embrace all that is offer'd them His will is that we have our senses exercised and habituated in discerning between truth and falshood able to prove all things that we may hold fast what is good and not suffer our selves to be surprised either by the dignity of a Robe or the blaze of Wit or some appearances of Deportment seeing that Angels of Satan do sometimes clothe themselves with light The prudence of the Beraeans is praised by the Holy Ghost Acts 17.11 who examined S. Paul's preaching comparing what he had spoken to them with the Scriptures that they might assuredly know the state of the matter The salvation of our souls is too precious for us to trust any other than GOD in it Whence appears how dangerous that security of implicit faith as they call it is which without any scruple receives all that its Teachers deliver and is so far from examining it that it vouchsafes not so much as to understand it believing it true without knowing it provided only that the mouth which publisheth it hath been opened by the Pope's hand If the question were only of a title those of whom the Apostle adviseth the Colossians here to take heed were Teachers and he contesteth not with them about their dignity in any part of this Epistle He deals with them only about their Doctrine Accordingly the case is concerning Doctrine whether we ought to believe it or no and whatever may be the hand that delivereth it to us if it be false it will not fail to destroy us as poyson doth not forbear to kill though he that prescribed it hath taken his degrees with all the formalities requisite S. Paul too elsewhere with one word overthrows all the prepossessions that might be for any Preachers upon any ever so eminent quality of their persons when he proclaims twice together If we our selves Gal. 1.8 or an Angel from heaven do preach another Gospel to you beside what we have preached let him be an Anathema Be you all that you will you cannot be more than S. Paul or an Angel of Heaven Since their Doctrine ought to be examined by the Gospel for its having reception or being accursed as it should be found conform or contrary thereto it will be no wrong done you if yours be put to the same trial But consider I pray with what emphasis the Apostle recommendeth to us
known of Him Rom. 1.19 20 and that His eternal Power and Godhead invisible in themselves are yet visibly seen by the creation of the world they being considered in His works But the misery is that the Philosophers being carried away with that vanity and curiosity which was natural to them broke those bounds and would needs define things which are beyond that compass and about which Reason in the state we now are sees not one jot And here it is they necessarily fell into error and extravagancies as persons born blind would do should they intrude to discourse to us of colours Such are the Fancies of Plato and his Scholars concerning the estate of the souls of men departed from their bodies concerning the purifications he devised to convey us near the Supream Good concerning the interposition of Daemons is he calleth them that is Angels as the Scripture terms them to present our supplications to GOD and concerning the service which he ordained to be done them in consequence of this good office and a thousand other such like things Such also was the mistake of Aristotle when not content to understand the present establishment of the World he would know what it was in the beginning wherein he had no light at all concluding because in the state things now are of nothing nothing is made that therefore it was never otherwise and thereupon affirming for a certainty that the World is eternal As if we must needs judg of the first beginning of a thing by those Laws under which it lives after its settlement and should limit the power of a free Agent to the measure of the effect wrought that is as if because GOD in this frame of the World doth make now nothing without Matter therefore it followed that absolutely he could make nothing another way which is as impertinent a reasoning as if you should inferr that because a Painter hath wrought his pieces with three or four colours only it were impossible for him to draw or represent any thing any otherways In this particular Philosophy hath offended by excess undertaking more than it could compass It often erreth likewise by defect when it rejects the revelation of GOD as resolved to admit nothing that is above its own sense and reason as if a man that had never seen any other than the shining of our Fires and our Candles should contest there was no other light in the world Pride hath made the greatest part of the old Philosophers to fall into this impiety It seemed to them an abasing of their glory to acknowledg there was another School more knowing than theirs and that it was an injury to tell them GOD had discovered secrets to others which he had hid from them It was this vanity that spurr'd them on so violently against the Gospel of our LORD and Saviour at the beginning If Philosophy do modestly keep its rank if it be content with its bounds and not thrust away nor injure divine Revelation if it acknowledg it as its Mistris and be subject to it as Agar yerwhile was to Sarah welcom be it it may be received and may abide with us But if it usurp if it will needs be Mistris and command in a Family where it hath only the quality of a Bond-woman let it depart and be treated according to Sarah her speech to Abraham Drive out the bond-woman and her son GOD hath vouchsafed to reveal unto us by his Prophets and in the last times by his own Son all the Articles of Religion Philosophy ought to adore them with us It hath nothing to enjoin us in the matter From the mouth of GOD not from the mouth of Philosophy do we receive Religion As often therefore as Teachers of Error shall use the authority or artifice of the Philosophers to render their inventions plausible or probable in our eyes let us boldly despise all their subtilty Let not the names of Aristotle and Plato make us afraid let not their petty subtilties dazzle our sight We may hear them when question is only of men and of nature When GOD and his service is concern'd we ought to give ear to none but GOD and the Son of his love about whom he hath proclaimed from Heaven to us This is my beloved Son hear him It 's this the Apostle doth intend when he saith here Let no man make a prey of you by Philosophy But provided the Doctrine of our Lord and Saviour do remain sound and entire without diminution without augmentation or mixture we are not prohibited the service of Philosophy but may employ its Physicks and its Ethicks to confirm and illustrate as far as they can the truths of the Gospel its Logick to defend them against the Sophisms and Sleights of gain-sayers and in sum to adorn and embellish them we may use ought of worth that Philosophy doth afford as the Israelites heretofore adorned the Sanctuary of GOD with the Gold and Silver and Jewels of Egypt Whence you may see how in the disputes of Religion which we have with those of Rome they for their part do evidently abuse Philosophy whereas we duly employ it they abuse it For not to say that they make Aristotle reign in their Divinity-School regarding his Edicts and cherishing much jealousie of his reputation as if he were a Pillar of Religion they found Articles of their Faith upon the authority of the Sages of the world as when they prove their Purgatory by the testimony of Plato and the veneration of Images by the custom of Nations and Free-will by Philosophy and divers other things of like nature which being not to be found in the Scriptures of GOD they go seek them in the Writings of men As for us it is evident we have no positive Article in our Faith but what is in the Gospel Only when our Adversaries urge their Transubstantiation upon us having shewed that GOD hath no where revealed it to us in his word but even clearly contradicted it we call in Philosophy its self to our succour to evidence the absurdity thereof We produce its testimony in a case which clearly is of its cognizance namely the nature of an human body the place it takes up the quantity to which it is extended the quality of substantial mutations of which kind they pretend this is Whether a body made and formed Sixteen hundred years ago may still be every day substantially produced But it is high time to come to the two other Sources of the deceits of false Teachers The second is the Tradition of men as the Apostle calls it Take heed saith he that none do make prey of you by Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men The Scripture commonly gives the name of Traditions to those instructions which we receive from some other And it frequently useth the word deliver whence in the Latin Tongue that of Tradition is derived for to instruct or teach I received of the LORD saith the Apostle that
worship was gross and terrene and in some sort worldly in comparison of that of the new Isreal whom the LORD formed to worship GOD in spirit and in truth Whence it comes that he calls all the knowledg of the Jewish Rabbies 1 Cor. 2.6 8. the wisdom of this generation and those Rabbies themselves the Princes of this generation that is of this world Thus how hoary-headed and venerable soever the age of these rudiments of the world was the Apostle would not that the faithful should susser themselves to be taken under that pretence by those seducers that advanced the observation of them Behold what were those three colours wherewith these men be-painted their Doctrine The vain speculations of Philosophy The antiquity of Tradition and The authority of the Mosaical Ceremonies To which the Apostle adds and not after CHRIST By these very few words as with one blow he beateth down all the speciousness of these strange Doctrines Let men trick them up saith he as much as they will let them colour them with the subtilities of Philosophy let the practise of them be authorized by Tradition let them be recommended under the name of Moses and by the respect we owe to the rudiments of the former world all this hinders not but that we ought to despise them not only as unprofitable but even as dangerous since they are not after CHRIST He saith they are not after CHRIST First Because the LORD JESUS hath told us nothing of them in his Gospel whence it appears that we have good ground to reject from our belief all that is not found in the Scriptures of the New-Testament Secondly Because the Doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is wholly spiritual and celestial whereas those traditions and legal observations were gross and carnal And lastly Because besides their having no correspondency with the nature of the Gospel they do turn men aside from the LORD JESUS causing them to seek some part of their salvation otherwhere than in Him in whom it is so entirely seated as not the least drop of it is to be had in any other And what shew soever such as follow these Traditions do make of being resolv'd to retain JESUS CHRIST experience lets us see that they do but very slightly stick to him busying themselves wholly in the performance of their own devotions and placing the greatest part of their confidence in the same which comes from hence even that these are more grateful to them both for their novelty and for their being voluntary and indeed of less difficulty it being much easier to the flesh to acquit it self of some external and corporeal observances than to embrace JESUS CHRIST with a lively faith dying to the world and living unto him alone Thus you see what we had to say to you upon this advertisement of the Apostle's It is addressed to you also dear Brethren since you have adversaries who sollicite your belief in the same manner as those men did at first combat the faith of the Colossians They propose unto you the same errors and paint and gild them over after the same method with the vain colours of Philosophy with the plausible name of Tradition with the authority of Moses They are either Doctrines drawn forth from the speculations of Philosophers as the invocation of Angels and of Saints departed the veneration of Images the estate of souls in Purgatory and such like or humane Traditions as prayer for the dead Quadragesimal observances the Hierarchy the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome Monkery Single-life and others all crected by men without any foundation in the word of GOD. Or lastly they are Elements of the world ceremonial observances sometime instituted by Moses but abolished by JESUS CHRIST as the distinction of Meats Festivals Unctions Consecrations Sacrifice Fixation unto certain places and of all that we reject in our Doctrine there is not a particular but referrs to one of these three heads Remember therefore when they set upon you that the Apostle still to this day calls aloud from Heaven to you Take heed that none do make booty of you by Philosophy and vain deception after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after CHRIST Under these fair appearances there is hidden a pernicious design Men would take you away from JESUS CHRIST and make you a prey to and the Vassals of men Oppose to all their Artifices this one saying of the Apostle's That whatever the things which are enjoined you may be they are not after CHRIST they are not found in that Testament wherein he hath declar'd his whole will they have no conformity with the nature of his Gospel and do turn away the minds of men from that Soveraign LORD in whom alone is our wisdom and our righteousness our sanctification and redemption But Faithful Brethren as the Apostle's lesson should defend you from error so should it preserve you from vice Let that JESUS whom he so assiduously preacheth to you sill up your manners as well as your faith Love none but him as you believe in none but him Renounce the customs and vices of the world as well as its Religion Let the leaven of Philosophy have no more place in your actions than in your belief Receive the manners of men into your communion no more than the traditions of men If you be above the rudiments of the world be also above its infancy and its low and childish passions and affections they were sometimes pardonable in that childhood but are inexcusable in persons whom JESUS CHRIST hath advanced unto perfect men and such as by his illumination he hath brought unâ—â—fulness and maturity of age Let your souls henceforth have thoughts and aâ—â—ctions noble and heavenly and worthy of those high instructions which JESUS CHRIST hath given you Let your whole life be referr'd to him passing by the world and its elements this present generation and its lusts and idols with which the LORD JESUS doth not participate in any thing He hath crucified all those things for us and displayed before our eyes a new world brought forth out of the bosome of Eternity a world incorruptible and radiant with such glory as can neither be sullied or made to fade 'T is hither Faithful Brethren that you should elevate your desires This same is true Christian Discipline to dye with JESUS to this old world having no more sentiment or passion for its perishing-benefits and to live again with the same JESUS in that new world whereinto he is entred for us to breathe after nothing but its glory to think of nothing but its purity to rejoyce in nothing but in its peace and in the hope of its eternal pleasures To forgo for ever that which is passed and to tend with all our might towards the mark and price of our supernal calling justifying the verity of our Religion by the sanctity of our conversation so as there appear no more among us either ambition or hatred
or avarice or any of those loathsome defilements that do disfigure the whole life of worldlings The LORD JESUS who hath given us this excellent Divine Doctrine who hath founded it by his death and set it up by his resurrection who also hath in these latter times purged it afresh both of the vanities of Philosophy and of the traditions of men and of the elements of the world please to confirm us in it for ever by his good Spirit and to make it so efficacious for the sanctification of our life that after we have finished this earthly pilgrimage we may receive one day at our going forth of this vale of tears from his merciful hand the Crown of immortality which he hath promis'd and prepar'd for all true observers of his Discipline Amen The Twenty-first SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER IX Ver. IX For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily AS the Christian Religion doth consist in Principles and Practises incompably more sublime and salutiferous than any that the world ever learned in the Schools of Nature and the Law so was it delivered and instituted by an Author infinitely more excellent than any of those were who ever erected other Disciplines among men I will not insist upon the Authors of those various Religions which bore sway heretofore in the time of Paganism who though they were in esteem among Nations and raised to an high reputation of wisdom and vertue yet had the taint of an extream ignorance and vanity as their own Institutions sufficiently discover to any one that will take the pains to examine them in the light of Reason It would be injurious to the LORD JESUS the Founder and Prince of Christianity to compare him with such people But even Moses himself the great Teacher of the Hebrews and the Prophets who commented on explained and confirmed his Law are all insinitely beneath the dignity of this new Law-giver They were I grant Ministers of GOD the Mouth and Organs of his Majesty the Interpreters of his Will and Heralds of his Truth being endued as was suitable to so high Offices with an excellent sanctity a rare and extraordinary Wisdom and an heavenly Power which evidenced it self in them by miraculous effects But after all they were men and never pretended to be ranked above that feeble nature which was common unto them and us nor did receive any of those Honours which belong to the Divine whereas the LORD JESUS is so Man as he is likewise GOD blessed for ever and was so far from refusing Divine Honours that he hath expresly required them at our hands and enjoined us to adore him with the Father and to acknowledg him his Eternal Son This same difference the Apostle observes between the LORD JESUS and those other Ministers which GOD made use of in the former Ages God saith he having at sundry times and in divers manners in time past spoken unto the fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son Ebr. 1.1 Moses and the rest were Prophets of GOD JESUS is his Son The others were his Ministers JESUS is his Heir The others were faithful as Servants Ebr. 3.5 6. JESUS as Son is over the whole House In the others there did shine forth some marks of the commerce they had with GOD that Soveraign Majesty imprinting on their faces as upon Moses's in particular some sparklings of his glory But JESUS is His very Light the resplendency of his glory and the character of his Person Dear Brethren it doth highly concern us to know rightly this great dignity of our LORD and Saviour not only for the rendring to his Person the worship we owe him and of which we may not fail without offending the Father as himself hath told us John 5.23 He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father who hath sent him but also for our embracing with so much the more zeal the Religion he hath delivered us without ever admitting the perswasion that either men on earth or even Angels from Heaven can add any thing to the light the goodness and the perfection of the discipline of so great and so perfect an Author For this cause doth S. Paul here hold forth to the Colossians the Divinity of our LORD JESUS CHRIST In the precedent Verses he exhorted them to constant perseverance in the belief of his Gospel confirming themselves in it more and more and taking heed they gave no car to Philosophy and the vain traditions of seducers who endeavoured to corrupt sound doctrine by the mixing of divers inventions which they would add to it as if it were not perfect enough of it self to guide us to salvation The Apostle to bereave Error of this pretext and shew the faithful not only the sufficiency but even abounding of the Gospel represents unto them the soveraign perfection and divinity of its Author For in him saith he dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Since you have JESUS CHRIST saith he there is no need of recourse to others In Him as in a living and inexhaustible spring is all good necessary to your happiness a divine Authority to found your Faith an infinite Wisdom to direct you in all truth an incomprehensible Goodness and Power to give you grace and glory a quickning Spirit to sanctifie and comfort you All other things compared to Him are but poverty and weakness See how the Apostle fortifies the faithful in the doctrine of the LORD and in few words overthrows all that the presumption of flesh and blood may dare to set up beside or against his perfect truth For a right understanding of his words we must consider them exactly For though the number of them be small their weight is great they are rich and magnifick in sense and do contain within their narrow compass one of the noblest and fullest descriptions of JESUS CHRIST that is found in Scripture Let us see then first what all this fulness of the Godhead is whereof the Apostle speaketh And then in the second place how it dwells in JESUS CHRIST to wit bodily The LORD please to conduct us by the light of his own Spirit in so high a Meditation that of his fulness we may receive grace for grace and draw from it what may fill our souls with that life and salvation which overfloweth in him and can be no where found at all but in him As for the subject it self whereof S. Paul speaketh and in which he saith that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth none can doubt but that it is our LORD JESUS CHRIST For having said at the end of the verse immediately foregoing that the traditions of men and rudiments of the world are not after CHRIST he now addeth For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead Whence it is clear that the LORD JESUS CHRIST whom he had even then named is the Person of whom he speaks and to whom he attributes
the New Testament were then but fore-told and promised not fully and clearly revealed as now by their accomplishment they have been by means whereof it was meet that during all that time they should be exercis'd in the observing of these typical rites and held in and kept under the Pedagogie of Moses until the fulness of time according to the Apostle's Doctrine in the Epistle to the Galatians Now that JESUS CHRIST hath openly exhibited the very body of truth and fully brought to light all the causes and motives of true sanctification these exercises of the Church's infancy are no longer seasonable and they that still stick to them are no less ridiculous than he that would still keep up the centries of a vault or the models of a building even after the Fabrick is finish'd and brought to its perfection or retain under a School-master's Ferule and in the restraints of childhood a man grown up and come to ripeness of years This is that we had to say for the exposition of this Text. It remaineth for a conclusion that we extract those instructions and consolations which if we meditate on it attentively it will afford us First Since the Apostle assureth us that we are compleat in CHRIST you see how vain those mens pretensions are who set forth certain rules of perfection as they call them beyond the Gospel Let us content our selves with our LORD's fulness and seek our perfection in him alone And instead of amusing our selves about the inventions of men embrace and practise CHRIST's Discipline advancing daily towards the utmost degree of perfectness For we may not flatter our selves with an imagination that a man may nevertheless appertain to him though he lead an wholly vicious and corrupt life S. Paul here protesteth plainly to us that all such as are in him are made compleat Whence it necessarily follows that such as are not compleat are without his communion and by consequence should not promise themselves any share in his salvation it being prepared for those only that are in him If this Doctrine do trouble us let us impute it to our vices and our loosness and taking once this truth to heart with all our might endeavour after that perfection which is in JESUS CHRIST accounting that without it we cannot possess either his grace in this world or his glory in the world to come I well know that to speak absolutely no one is perfect and that if we compare our condition on earth with that in heaven all our perfections are but weaknesses Yet it is true that JESUS CHRIST doth even in this life in some sense compleat his faithful ones and this perfection which he giveth them is not a vain name or an imagination It 's a thing and a most real truth it is a piety and charity sincere and free and without hypocrisie which though it sometimes fail doth notwithstanding produce true fruits and works quite different from those of Worldlings and Hypocrites according to what our LORD said even that if your righteousness do not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Object not that you are yet on earth and that perfection is not to be found but in heaven and that to live as an Angel one should be without a body It is not the perfection of Heaven that we demand of you The LORD will not reject you for having not had in this life the transcendent brightness of the next But though a child be not obliged to conduct his life with as much prudence and reason as a man of years it doth not follow that he hath licence to live without rule and in the debanches and disorders of slaves Every Age hath its bounds and its measures and its perfection Our childhood here below must not be without discipline under the pretence that it is not come to full growth Christians I complain not that there are defects in your knowledg and practice which have no place in Heaven but that there are in you vices which ought to have no place on earth I blame you not for that there is a great difference between you and Angels but that there is none between you and worldly men I require not what is above the strength of your age but what is worthy of your profession and doth not at all exceed your light I beseech you only to labour as much for JESUS CHRIST as the children of this generation do for the interests of their lusts This doth not exceed the capacity of our nature since you see what the servants of sin do and it s necessarily your duty except you imagine that we owe less to JESUS CHRIST than Worldlings do to their foolish and vain passions The first piece of that compleatness which we have in him is this Divine Circumcision which is not made with hand but by the efficacy of his Spirit Without it we can have neither place in the communion of his people nor right to his Inheritance It 's a Circumcision of which we may truly say that every soul that shall not have receiv'd it shall be cut off from his people The Apostle shews us wherein it consists to wit in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh JESUS CHRIST hath put the sword in our hand that 's necessary to cut away this wretched flesh namely his sacred word wherein he discovers the horridness of sin and infernal venom of vices and the vanity and iniquity of all the lusts of the flesh He hath shew'd us the perdition which they that serve it fall into and hath put it to death on his Cross and buried it in his Sepulcher He hath spread before our eyes the wonders of GOD's love and the eternity of the Kingdom appointed for faithful servants He hath given us rules and examples of this part of our sanctification in his Gospel and in his life and offereth us the lights and consolations of his Spirit to lead us in this work Grasp we then this Divine Knife of his Gospel Thrust it hardily in to our hearts and cut out thence all the impurity of the vices that are there Let us rid our selves of them and cast them behind us Exterminate all the productions of the flesh as execrable things Leave not one of them in our selves Having subdued Avarice combat Ambition Pluck out Luxury and all its passions from our inward parts Root up Hatred and Wrath and Cruelty and spare the life of none of these Monsters Let us not rest until we have cleansed our hearts of all this cursed brood For it is not enough to have cut off some of them One sole Enemy abiding in our bosome is able to destroy us The body of the sins of the flesh must be put off saith the Apostle and not one or two of its sins only I confess the labour is hard but it is necessary and that at all times for it is the
mystically and not literally for the internal corruption of our nature and as he express'd it afore for the body of the sins of the flesh not simply for the external condition and mark of Paganism Ye were dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh that is in the corruption of your flesh precisely in the same sense that Moses meant when he commanded the Israelites to circumcise the foreskin of their heart that is to cut off the vices and corruption of their hearts This mystical uncircumcision of the flesh is nothing else but the depravedness of our nature the vices and perverse habitudes and qualities which have seiz'd on all its faculties the blindness error and folly of the understanding the disorder of the will and its adherence unto vanity and false good things the rebelliousness of the appetites and lusts 〈◊〉 â—â—inted with gall and bitterest poyson This is properly the princip 〈…〉 wherewith we all were struck before the vocation of GOD. This is the cursed 〈◊〉 from which it springs up in us In the stirrings and motions of this hateful source which boils incessantly in us and casts up filth continually doth this spiritual death consist And I confess in this respect there is a difference between the condition of the dead commonly so called and the condition of these spiritually dead whom the Apostle speaks of For the former as they do no good so neither do they any evil Their faculties are equally disabled to the one and the other Whereas these spiritually dead men have lost sense and motion only in reference to that which is good They have both quick enough but it is only in reference to evil They understand they love they desire but altogether oppositely to good their thoughts and affections being full of error extravagancy and malignity As for true good they neither comprehend it nor discern it nor love it any more than 〈◊〉 they had neither understanding nor will at all Whence it follows that whereas the deadness the insensibility and unmovableness of other dead is an innocent misery deserving our pity and not our hate these mens on the contrary is an evil infinitely culpable and doth merit not compassion but abhorrence and execration from every reasonable creature For that they neither do nor can love GOD doth not proceed from their being destitute of natural faculties of understanding and loving but from a strong and obstinate rebelliousness of those faculties and from that invincible passion which carrieth them to evil John 5.44 as our Saviour shews us when he saith unto the Jews How can you believe seeing that you seek honour one of another and seek not the honour which comes of GOD alone An evident sign that these wretched people's impotency to believe did come from nothing but their impiety their stiff and inflexible aversion from the glory of GOD and that ardent and invincible affection they had for vanity and their own glory See then beloved Brethren what the condition of all men is before the LORD doth effectually call them unto the grace of his Son Where now are they that pretend they have the power of a free determination and a will equally capable of good and evil that do hereupon contest they can either convert them themselves unto GOD as said the Pelagians of old or at least prepare themselves for conversion and dispose themselves for grace as the greater part of the Doctors of Rome and with them some others also do maintain at this day The Apostle blasteth all this pride in one word when he saith that we were dead in our sins and in the uncircumcision of our flesh If a dead man be able to make himself alive or to prepare himself for the reception of life by any actions that come from him I will yeeld that the error of these men is not incompatible with the Doctrine of S. Paul But since common sense assureth us that the dead are depriv'd not of the actions alone but also of the power of life and that there is nothing but a supernatural action of GOD that is able to restore them to the society of the living so as they can contribute nothing thereto themselves we must needs either charge a falshâ—od upon the Apostle who saith that before Grace we are dead in our sins or confess in consequence of his Doctrine that men neither have nor can have of themselves any action or disposition unto spiritual life and that the power of the hand of GOD working supernaturally in them by his grace is the only strength that raiseth them up out of this miserable state If their will be free it is free to evil only which it embraceth and followeth most freely I confess that is most voluntarily and without any constraint taking all its delight therein If their understanding do act it is for error which it doth conceive and most obstinately embrace But as for the life of GOD they have not liberty or light for it any more John 6.44 and 8.36 than if they had neither will nor understanding at all according to that which our Saviour hath taught us saying No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him and again If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed Without this a man can have neither life nor liberty The Apostle clearly sheweth it when having represented the death wherein we were he adds in the second part of our Text that God hath quickned us together with CHRIST having freely pardoned us all our offences For there is no doubt but we must refer this action unto GOD of whom he just before was saying that He raised JESVS CHRIST from the dead It is therefore the same GOD who raised up the chief Shepherd from the dead that doth also make alive his faithful flock bringing them our of that spiritual and eternal death into which we are naturally sunk and putting them into a celestial and immortal life As there is none but He that could inspire and quicken that dust of which He formed us at first so there is again none but He that can expel out of our flesh that death which hath seized on it and restore that life which sin hath extinguish'd in us Both the one and the other vivification is the work of His hand alone Yet to say as truth is it is needful for Him to put forth more might in the second of them than He did in the first For if that handful of earth of which He created Adam had no disposition at all to that form and life which He put in it yet at least it had no repugnancy thereto whereas besides that He now findeth in us no disposition to an heavenly life He meets with over and above resistance and contrariety a spirit of rebellion aâ—â—mating the whole mass of our flesh which He must necessarily cast out that celestial life may be infused Now as that Death in which we lay doth comprehend
cause that S. Paul here gives the name of an Obligation to the Law or Testament of Moses The word he makes use of in the Original doth signifie generally any acknowledgment written or at least signed with our hand by which we confess our selves to owe a man such or such a sum and oblige our selves to pay him it at such time and in such manner as we have agreed upon Such are those which be commonly called Bills and Schedules But because of all Contracts of this kind an Obligation that passeth before Notaries with certain solemn forms is the most juridical the French Bible hath made use of the name thereof in particular An obligation then in Civil matters is a Creditor's Title and an evidence of the power he hath upon his Debtor to convince him of his debt and compel him to make payment if he do refuse It 's an authentick testimony of his owing such a sum which condemns him to pay and makes his body and goods liable in this behalf unto his Creditor Whence it appears that this Obligation whereof the Apostle speaks in the Text is the instrument of our condemnation and an authentick declaration and demonstration of our sin which gives valid testimony that we are guilty and subjecteth us by this means to the avenging Justice of GOD giving him a clear and undisputable right to prosecute and punish us All agree that the word Obligation must be so taken in this passage of the Apostle But when question is of founding the bottom and of determining what properly and precisely the thing is to which this quality agreeth and whereunto S. Paul's meaning was to give it there is found some difference among Expositors some conceiving it one particular and others another I will not stay to report their several opinions it being no way necessary for your edification I will content my self with representing to you that sense which I account the truest and which hath likewise been follow'd by divers eminent servants of GOD. I say then that this Obligation whereof the Apostle speaketh is no other thing than the old Law given in time past to the Israelites by the Ministry of Moses and of them accepted at Mount Sinai This appears first from S. Paul's saying that this obligation lay in ordinances For every one knows that this doth properly belong to the Law of Moses which consisted in a great many moral ceremonial and political Ordinances The Jews who are very exact and scrupulous in such matters reckon them up to Six hundred R. Moses ben Majm and their learned'st Authors divide them into fourteen Classes or ranks The whole body of these Ordinances is precisely the Law of Moses so as it is evident 't is this Law the Apostle means since he saith that what he meaneth lay in ordinances He thus explains it himself in a passage that hath great alliance with the Text in hand where speaking of the re-uniting of the Gentiles with the Jews into one only people done by our LORD JESUS CHRIST he saith that he abolished the enmity in his flesh to wit saith he the law of commandments which lay in ordinances where it is evident that he signifies the Law of Moses both by those express words the law of commandments and also by the nature of the thing it self it being certain that this enmity of the Jews and Gentiles that is the thing which separated them before our Saviour's dispensation was nought else but the Mosaical Law which the one of them had and the other had not The same appears again clearly from that conclusion which the Apostle inferrs from this Doctrine in the sixteenth and the following Verses of this Chapter For from his position here namely That the obligation which is in ordinances hath been effaced he concludeth that none ought to condemn us in eating or in drinking or in distinguishing of a Festival or of a new Moon or of Sabbaths and again that it is impertinent for any to burthen us with ordinances such as are Eat not Col. 2.21 tast not touch not Now every one seeth that these ordinances do make up a part of the Law of Moses Certainly then it 's that Law he doth mean here because otherwise it would not follow from the abolishing of our obligation that we are no longer subject to such things But the truth of this interpretation will be fully perceived by an exposition of the Apostle's own words themselves there being no other subject but the Mosaical Law to which all the circumstances and qualities he here attributes to it do properly agree First He termeth it an obligation against us Secondly He saith that it lay in ordinances In the third place he addeth that it was contrary to us And finally in the fourth and last place he saith that it hath been effaced abolished and fastned to the cross things these which cannot all of them together be verified of any other subject First The Law of Moses was an obligation against such as liv'd under its dispensation that is as we have explained it an evidence and â—â—â—alible argument of their sin and of the just power that GOD had to condem them unto punishment For the Law of Moses proclaiming aloud that all such as failed to observe any one of its ordinances are accursed it is manifest that they all who accepted it for the terms of their Covenant with GOD did by the same pass condemnatory sentence on themselves and submit to the curse both the conscience of each one in particular and the common experience of all in general shewing that there was not a man who punctually observed all things written in the Law And as he that passeth an obligation to his Creditor doth condemn himself to make payment and if he fail therein doth make his goods and sometimes his very person liable unto him in like manner they that receiv'd the Law and sign'd it if I may so say after they had heard and understood it these I say condemned themselves unto the curse of GOD and did put their persons and all their goods into the hands of Divine Justice since it is clear that none of them did ever fully satisfie all the clauses which that Contract doth contain Therefore as a Bond given by a Debtor to his Creditor in acknowledgment of what he ows him is an obligation which makes it clearly appear that he is responsible to him and deprives him of all excuse and leaves him no defence to thâ— contrary So the Law of Moses is an authentick obligation which demonstrates and invincibly proves that the sinner is guilty and liable to the avenging Justice of GOD without having any considerable means left him to defend himself from that punishment which it ordaineth for all such as violate its commands As for the ceremonies I grant they promised in appearance some satisfying of the Justice of GOD and some expiation of sin inasmuch as they prefigured the mysteries of CHRIST who was
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
be put in prison of all the force it had to endamage him He effaceth it cancels it and makes it null He renders useless all the preparatives of Justice against his friend He puts the Adversary and all his Advocates to silence He stops the mouth of the Judg that was even open to decree against him He stays the Serjâ—ants and secures his liberty from their outrages This is just the thing our LORD and Saviour hath done for us But what say I he hath done thus for us He hath done for us infinitely more than all that this comes to Death and the Curse were due to us as the wages of our sins The sentence of it was written in â—he obligation of the Law which we our selves had signed and wherein we had submitted to this penalty The Judg was ready and Execution could not be avoided The LORD JESUS moved with compassion and sent by the goodness of the Father puts himself in our room as Surety and Mediator for us He pays what we did owe. He suffers on the Cross the punishment we deserv'd His Cross therefore hath struck out that redoubtable obligation which was against us He hath abolish'd and made it of no effect He hath broken all the forces it was going to raise against us He hath pacified our Judg coufounded our Accusers staid the Officers and Ministers of Justice and sav'd our persons from the fetters and torments which were prepared for us But hence again appears how vain the error of those is who pretend that GOD doth but half-pardon our sins that having remitted unto us the fault he doth exact of us part of the punishment and make us suffer it either in this life here or after death in a certain partition of Hell which they call Purgatory How could they more rudely clash with the Apostle's Doctrine He saith that GOD hath effaced cancelled and abolished the obligation which was against us These men affirm that he still makes us pay some part of our debt Sure then our obligation is not yet torn It 's a thing unheard-of in the course of Justice to bring an Action against that Debtor whose Obligation you have effaced If it be torn if it be made void and of no effect you have no longer any right to draw him before the Judg much less to get him condemned to pay If GOD who doth nothing but according to Justice should make us pay any part of the penalties of our sins which he hath forgiven us the Obligation by virtue whereof he condemneth us is still in its full force But the Apostle protesteth that it hath been effaced and remains blotted and nailed to the Cross of CHRIST for ever The Obligation which was against us imported all the punishments both temporal and eternal that we were obnoxious unto It is voided and nulled We therefore do no longer owe any of them Fear not Christian you have to do with a faithful Creditor Having remitted to you your debt yea cancell'd the evidence of it and torn the Obligation he hath no intent at all after all this to demand any part of it of you I confess that the payment JESUS CHRIST hath made is of no use to such as remain in unbelief and though he hath in point of right nulled the Obligation which was against us yet their ingratitude and infidelity is a cause that they have no benefit from this kindness of his Even as the unthankfulness and obdurateness of that servant of whom we are told in that Parable in the Gospel did deprive him of the favour his Master had shewed him in forgiving the ten Talents he owed For GOD hath affixed this reasonable condition to the Covenant of Grace which he hath made with Mankind that the payment of our Debts made by our Surety should not be allowed to any but those that believe so as they that obstinately abide in incredulity have no share in that impunity or in those other benefits which this great Mediator hath obtained for us But as to the man that believeth and by a true faith applieth applieth to himself the death and blood and merit of the LORD JESUS there is no more any condemnation for him Rom. 8.1 as the Apostle elsewhere saith nor by consequence any punishment the obligation by virtue whereof alone he could be condemned at the Tribunal of GOD having been effaced abolished and fastned to the Cross of his Saviour Thus you see Beloved Brethren what that grace of GOD is which the Apostle hath here made known and by what means we may get part in it Sinners you that groan under the heavy load of your crimes that feel your misery and perceive the cords of that damnation in which the Law doth entangle you come unto the Cross of CHRIST and you shall find rest to your souls Your consciences accuse you and compel you to subscribe your own condemnation acknowledging the justness thereof But how just soever it be the Cross of JESUS freeth you from it forasmuch as it hath fully fatish'd for you Beware of the error both of the ancient and the modern Pharisees who pretend ability to pay what they owe and even more than they owe and to justifie themselves by their works that is by the Law The Law is the instrument of our condemnation and the ministration of our death and a man that would be justified by the Law commits no less an extravagance than he that to prove he owes nothing should produce in Judgment the Bills and Bonds he hath given his Creditors Confess you your debts Divest your selves of all presuming upon your own righteousness Declare that of your selves you are bound over to eternal malediction that you have deserv'd it and do present your selves naked before GOD who justifies the ungodly He will clothe you with the righteousness of his Son And you Faithful Brethren who are already entred into this blessed Covenant Live ye in peace and quietly wait for the fruit of your faith according to the promises of GOD. Let not the thundrings and lightnings of the Law make you afraid Let not that death with which it so severely menaceth the sons of men terrifie you at all Let not World or Devils the Executioners of its Justice astonish you JESUS CHRIST hath brought to nought all their strength by effacing the obligation that was against us Satan thou cruel enemy of our repose object not to us our sins We confess they are greater and yet more grievous than thou canst express Lay not before us that clause of our old Covenant which puts all that have sinned under the curse We confess we have merited this curse But know Satan if we have deserv'd death JESUS CHRIST hath suffer'd it for us and if we have committed sins worthy of thine Hell the Blood of the Son of GOD hath blotted them out His Cross hath made void that old piece upon which thou makest such a clamour that rough obligation with which thou incessantly
other But now the LORD JESUS hath abrogated this adhering to places to times and to the elements of this world as a low and childish exercise and appointed for his people a service altogether spiritual and divine proportioned to that admirable light of knowledg which he hath shed into the hearts of the faithful a service that wholly consisteth in love to GOD charity and beneficence towards our Neighbour and in honesty and purity in respect of our selves This is the true service of the Deity worthy of man that presents it and of GOD that receives it since man is a reasonable Creature and GOD a Spirit infinitely good and holy according to what our Saviour addeth that the Father seeketh such to worship him and that being a Spirit they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth But though this kind of service be so just and so rational in its self and though the LORD JESUS have so clearly instituted it by his Divine Authority yet on the other part the inclination of our nature is so violent towards gross and earthly things that even among those who make profession of acknowledging JESUS CHRIST for the Son of GOD a multitude is found that cannot let go these bodily exercises in which a part of Divine Service did heretofore consist The Apostle testifies in divers places that there were such in his time 1 Tim. 4.3 and he advertiseth us in others that there would also be such in after-ages and the event hath precisely answered his prediction an evident sign it was the Spirit of Truth that is the Spirit of GOD which illuminated his understanding and caused him to see in those days things hidden in a time to come so far beyond the reach of the natural sight of men It 's against these people that he laboureth in this Chapter for to defend from their abusing them not only the Colossians to whom he writes but also the faithful of all Ages He laid firm and unmovable foundations of the truth in his foregoing discourse and the same as his manner is with great strength and glorious evidence shewing us that we have all those advantages plentifully in JESUS CHRIST upon pretence of which error would introduce its inventions and carnal observations that in him we have all fulness necessary to compleat us that his Resurrection and his Spirit do divest us of all the vices of the flesh and that his Cross doth give us full remission of our sins since it hath both made void the obligation concerning all the punishments we owed to Divine Justice and triumphed of all those powers that were capable of accusing or tormenting us Whence it clearly followeth that it 's a vanity for any to go about to oblige us unto legal and material observations seeing that we most perfectly have in the death and resurrection of our LORD all that sanctification and justification for the advancing of which it is pretended that these things do serve This is Dear Brethren the direct conclusion that the Apostle doth now deduce from that excellent and divine Doctrine which he established afore Therefore saith he let no man condemn you in meat or in drink or in the distinction of a festival day or of a new moon or of sabbaths Which things are shadows of those that were to come but the body of them is in CHRIST He first forbids them to suffer themselves to be put in subjection to these legal things and next he brings them a reason for it taken from their nature for that these things were but shadows of which JESUS CHRIST hath exhibited to us and given the true body These shall be by the will of GOD the two points we will handle in this Exercise observing in the one and the other of them what we shall judg conducible to your edification Those Seducers whom the Apostle opposeth in this place had drawn the devotions which they would add to the Gospel partly from the Mosaical Law partly from Heathen Philosophy and partly out of their own imagination whence it comes that in one of the precedent Verses he advised the Colossians to beware that no one made a prey of them by philosophy and vain deceit Col. 2.8 after the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world They had borrowed from Moses circumcision and the distinction of meats and days They had beg'd from the Schools of Philosophy the worshipping of Angels and the vain discourses wherewith they colour'd over this abuse and they had invented of themselves certain austerities and pretended mortifications of which they made great account in Religion See I beseech you what an heap of strange things the Spirit of Superstition did even at that time thrust into Christianity that you be not amazed if men in so many ages as have rouled down since those days pursuing the same design unheeded according to the passion of their flesh have by little and little quite fill'd up Religion with the like services and observations and as it were foul'd and dirted that pure and clear Fountain of our Saviour's Discipline with the dregs and sediment of their inventions For if flesh had the impudence to promote such abuses during the lives and under the eyes of the Apostles how much more would it have the boldness to enterprise and facility to execute it during the night of so many ages which were not only destitute of the light of those great Tapers but also overspread with the darkness of grossest ignorance But let us see how S. Paul condemneth the Traditions of those of his age to the end we may preserve our selves from those of our own by the example and authority of his Doctrine He spake before of circumcision to which they would have had Christians still submit themselves He now takes to task their other abuses and first the distinction they made of days and of meats and next in the verses following their Doctrine touching Angels and the worship they gave them and last of all their Disciplines and Mortifications from the 20th Verse to the end of the chapter We will see by the grace of GOD the two other parts of His dispute each of them in its place As for the former the Apostle taxeth here two sorts of destinctions or observations which these men made in religion the one of meats the other of days And as to the latter he noteth particularly and by name some of the days which they observed to wit Festivals new Moons and Sabbaths But about the other he expresseth himself in general only saying simply Let no man condemn you in meat or in drink without declaring particularly the kind of meat or drink which they prohibited or permitted so as the Apostle not telling it us and we having no light in it neither any other way it is not easy for us to know precisely what the meats were the distinction whereof these people did set up For first the Law of Moses whence they
Moses was the Mediator and Minister of it the religion or service of the Jews because that people made profession of it the elements or rudiments of the world because it contained but the Alphabet and the first and lowest lessons of piety and was affixed for the most part to the corporeal things of this world But that it was ever called the religion or service of Angels we read not And as for that which those people do alledge out of â—â—â— Epistle to the Galatians namely Gal. 3.19 Heb. 2.2 that the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator and its being called in the Epistle to the Hebrews the word spoken by Angels this I say doth not justifie their pretention at all For in these two places the Apostle does declare only the service which the Angels did to GOD when He gave the Decalogue upon Sinai where these heavenly Ministers accompanied Him and ordered all the Pomp of that admirable manifestation of His forming the lightnings and the thunders wherewith the Mountain did resound elevating in the air the smoke and darkness which covered it shaking its foundations and making all of it to tremble and distinguishing the thunders into those articulate words which the mouth of GOD it self pronounced So far did the operation of Angels extend and no further For as to the rest it was GOD that spake in His own Person I am said He at the beginning the LORD thy GOD and that gave and uttered all the other precepts which the Israelites heard so as the Law or the religion which He then established might well be termed the religion or the service of GOD. But it would be an evident injuring of His Majesty to call it the religion or the service of Angels since it was given neither in their persons nor by their mediation Besides though it were otherwise in this particular yet it is clear that this title would be proper to the Decalogue only and not reach that part of the Law which is called Ceremonial in the establishing whereof the Angels did not intervene at all GOD having delivered it immediately to Moses and Moses to the Israelites and yet it would be this precisely that S. Paul should understand here if His purpose were to speak of the Mosaical Law as our adversaries believe Since then this name The religion of Angels can no way belong unto it it must of necessity be asserted that it is not the Law of Moses that the Apostle means in these words But his design and the thread of his discourse is no less opposite to this gloss than his words For first having already refuted what the Seducers took from the Law of Moses in the verse immediately foregoing in these words Let no man condemn you in meat or in drink or in the distinction of feasts or of new Moons or of Sabbaths which are shadows of things to come whereof the body is in CHRIST having I say so magnificently deposited this for what cause or to what purpose should he go repeating the same again How should the Apostle be capable of such vain babling Let us say then that the errour he rejects here is diverse from that which he condemed just afore That which he condemned afore is the observation of the Jewish law or religion certainly then this is not the thing meant in this place Besides that which he addeth can no way refer unto it Let no man saith he master it over you by humility of spirit and the service of Angels intruding into things he hath not seen Where the Apostle evidently sheweth that the service of Angels enjoyned by the Seducers was founded upon hidden things and such as they could have no knowledge of either by their own reason or by Scripture whereas the Jewish Ceremonies are so clearly and so distinctly explained in the books of Moses that there is not a man but may see them there Lastly the Apostle shews us at the beginning of this discourse that these Seducers had drawn some of their observances from Philosophy which will not find place if by the service of Angels you understand the Jewish religion which as all know was delivered by Moses and not by the Philosophers 〈◊〉 p. 910. For whereas our adversaries understand the discourses of the Jews by the vain deceit of Philosophy this is absurd and rediculous in the highest degree it being evident that the Jewish Doctors are sometimes called Sages 1 Cor. 1.20 and their science wisdom as when S. Paul saith Where is the wise GOD hath made foolish the wisdom of the world But never are they called Philosophers or their Doctrine Philosophy These names being every where constantly referred to the learned men of Greece and of the Heathen and unto their Doctrine Be it then concluded in fine that the Apostle means here by the religion or service of Angels not the religion delivered to the Jews by Moses but the worship and invocation and service which these Seducers would have men address unto Angels under pretext of humility they having drawn this abuse out of the Greek Philosophers in whose Books it is still found to this day Plato one of the chief of them writing expresly that service must be done to the Daemons so called they the Angels as holding a middle place between the GODS and men and serving us for Interpreters to the Divine Nature and all his School hath â—ver thus hold and practised as doth appear by the works of the latest of his disciples And this abuse was common among all the heathen They founded it too just as the Seducers here taxed by the Apostle did and as our Adversaries do upon pretended humility of Spirit Aâ—b os p. 1807. c. 4.5 as we understand by an ancient commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans published under the name of S. Ambrose The Author speaking of the Heathen of his time sayes They are wont to make a miserable excause saying that by means of them that is of the petty Deities they served they might go to GOD as men come to a Prince by means of His Counsellors of State and His Masters of Requests But saith he a little after men go to a King by means of His Officers because after all a King is a man that knoweth not whom he may trust with His estate whereas GOD is ignorant of nothing and knoweth the disposition and actions and capacity of all men so as to obtain His favour we want not the suffrages of an Interposer there needs but a devout soul Such a one He will surely hear wheresoever he speaks to Him It 's from the sinks of this Philosophy of the World that the Seducers here opposed by the Apostle had drawn their pretended humility and their serving of Angels And our Adversaries well perceiving that for the main it cannot be denyed but such was the doctrine here condemned by the Apostle do advance another phancy of theirs telling us that in his
time there was a certain Sect which some call the Judaique Sect and others otherwise consisting of people who neither served GOD nor JESUS CHRIST but Angels under the quality of Chiefs and supream Patrons and Protectors of their Religion that it is at these S. Paul aimeth here and not at them who its true do serve Angels but do also serve GOD the Father and His Son JESUS CHRIST First all this Sect is an Idol which never had subsistence other-where than in their fond conceit neither could it indeed be any other where For if they were Jews who can believe that they served not GOD whose service the whole Judaical Law and Religion did expresly command throughout in the beginning in the middle and at the end Again if they were Christians how served they not JESUS CHRIST And if they were either Jews or Christians how did they own no other chief of their Relgiion then the Angels All this is nothing but a meer fiction of our Adversaries who endeavour to put a Changling upon us and do set up this chymera that it may take the blow which the Apostle dealeth them It is not lawful for us to forge Sects at our pleasure There must be proof of them produced from good and creditable witnesses if we would be believed about them But so far are they from having any warrant of this fine story in Antiquity that on the contrary the ancient Interpreters of the Apostle such as Theodoret Photius and Theophylact do overthrow it affirming that those whom S. Paul aimeth at alledged that GOD is great and incomprehensible and that it 's a thing unworthy of the Majesty of the Son to conduct so mean Creatures unto Him as men are whereupon they added that application must be made to Angels for our having access by their means and for the gaining of the favour and good-will of GOD. How did not they serve GOD since it was for access to Him and for the becoming gracious with Him that they employed the Angels interceding and how did they not adore JESUS CHRIST seeing they accounted themselves unworthy to go immediately to Him In fine how did they own the Angels for the supream Heads of their Religion seeing they made use of their intervention only for to come to GOD thereby 〈…〉 This very thing was the motive of their erring practice And of the fore-named Ancients adds expresly that the service they did to Angels was Praying to them as also this abuse reigned a long time in Phrygia and Pisidia and that â—ven in his dayes there were Oratories found Dedicated to S. Michael A relation 〈◊〉 which hath so stung one of the great Cardinals of Rome that all in Choler against this Author who lived almost twelve hundred years ago and was besides one of the greatest and most knowing spirits of Antiquities He saith with his leave he hath had ill luck in this particular Whence you may see the respect that these Gentlemen do bear the ancient Fathers whom they have perpetually in their mouth When they favour them they are Oracles If they speak otherwise their antiquity doth not sâ—ve them from being treated as ignorant and unlearned Now whereas they alledge the Apostle's saying of those he speaks of that they held not the head that is CHRIST JESUS I grant it But I affirm that this doth not interr they made profession of acknowledging Him not as from his saying that they were puffed up with the sense of their flesh and did intrude into things they had not seen it follows not that they did acknowledge either the one or the other of these things So far were they from it that they made profession of humility and it was under this very pretext that they would serve Angels and boast without doubt they did of knowing well the things that they divulged But the Apostle speaketh here of that which follows truly and ligitimatly from their doctrine and not of what they avowed For doubtless they made profession of JESUS CHRIST and of His Gospel and S. Paul doth clearly presuppose it through his whole discourse But by the addition of their errours they denyed in effect what they confessed with the mouth and by this serving of Angels took away from CHRIST the quality of being Head of the Church which in word they gave Him It 's this the Apostle here chargeth them withall and thereby foundeth evidently this maxime That whosoever takes the Angels or any other such whom you will for His Mediators and Intercessors with GOD he doth in effect renounce the Mediation of JESUS CHRIST and taketh from Him the glory He hath to be the Head of the Church This dignity no more admitting an associate then that of His Regality and being such as cannot be possessed by any one alone But why do I stand considering what the opinions of these false Teachers in other respects were Let them have believed whatever else you please sure it is they worshipped Angels and that S. Paul accuseth them of it and reprehends them for it and will not have the faithful follow them in this particular He doth not say that they were Sorcerers or Atheists that they did not serve or not invocate GOD and His Son JESUS CHRIST He saith they served Angels and takes them up for it extream sharply You do the same Judge then whether the Apostle's Thunder does not fall on you But you will say I do adore GOD and JESUS CHRIST In Conscience do you not mock the world in defending your self after that manner As if you were accused of not acknowledging the Divinity of the Father or of the Son and not of Worshipping Angels But it is alwayes the custome of these Masters to substitute one or other of the Ancients in their place when they are taken with transgressing the Ordinances of GOD and His Apostles The LORD forbids the bowing down ones self before Images They avow they do it but for all that do pretend that the Law Thundereth against the Heathen of former times and not against them S. Paul condemneth with heinous words such as enjoyn abstinence from meats They confess it is their practice but do add that it is the old Encratites and Montanists and Manichees whom the Apostle means and not they In like manner here being accused of worshipping Angels they franckly confess it yea boast of Worshipping them and Excommunicate us for that we do it not with them And whereas S. Paul protesteth so clearly that we must not serve them they pay us off with this brave excuse that it is not of them he speaks but of I know not what old race of Jewish Hereticks as if it were not manifest that he speaks in general of all those who at any time and in any place whatever do take upon them to serve Angels forbidding us under an heavy penalty to let them master it over us upon any pretext As for us Dear Brethren who do know that the Laws of GOD are
the service or Religious worship of Angels We are now to consider by the assistance of GOD that which the shortness of time hindered us from explicating then to wit the marks of these false Teachers and the pernicious consequence of their errour For though the Apostles intimation of the thing it self be sufficient His authority in the Church being such as it is not lawful for any man whoever he be to teach or believe any thing in Christian Religion contrary to the sentiment of this great servant of GOD Yet not content with injoyning the Colossians that they should not let themselves be master'd over by these pretended Doctors who would cause them to serve Angels for the adding of more weight to his exhortation he discovers to them those Seducers their true motives and the cause of their errour and remonstrates also the dismal issue in which it did engage them For as you have heard he noteth first their audaciousness and ignorance when he saith that they intrude into things they have not seen Next he shews the source of them to wit their foolish presumption when he adds that they are rashly puffed up with the sense of their flesh And lastly he represents us the pernicious consequence of their doctrine the fruit and success wherein all their striving did terminate which was that in effect by their glorious services they debauched and disunited men from JESUS CHRIST the true and only Head of believers and so depriv'd them of that life that light and salvation which this Divine Head influxeth into the members of His mystical body For this is in substance the sense of the latter part of the Text in which the Apostle saith that these people did not hold the head from which the whole body being furnished and fitly knit together by joints and bands encreaseth with the encrease of GOD. In these three heads the whole meaning of this Text seems to me to consist Wherefore if it please GOD we will examin them distinctly one after another and in the Apostles order treat first of these Seducers boldness secondly of their presumption and lastly of the consequence of their doctrine which tendeth to the disuniting of men from JESUS CHRIST the Head of the whole body of the Church As for the first point this temerity to intrude into things one hath not seen is ordinary enough with all sorts of men ever since the venom of pride impoisoned their hearts and in special with all hereticks But it is remarkable particularly in those that teach the service of Angels it being manifest that those blessed Spirits whose worship they erect are of a nature much superior to us the order and operations whereof are open to no sense of ours But when the Apostle saith they have not seen the things into which they intrude his meaning is not simply that the eyes either of their body or of their natural reason never received the Species of these objects nor apprehended or conceived the consequences and conduct of their being but moreover that they neither had nor could have by the word or revelation of GOD any certainty of the things they affirmed For though the greater part of the matters of Religion be above our senses yet when GOD hath discover'd them to us and as it were rendered them visible in His word it becomes easie for us to know them by this means and the Scripture too doth call the knowledge that we have of them this way a sight of them Ezek. 13.3 Thus Ezekiel means when he reprocheth the false Prophets with following their own hearts when they had seen nothing that is they predicted and assured things for true which the foolish imagination of their own Spirit suggested to them though in truth GOD had shewed them no such matter in the light of His revelation It is just so that those Seducers did whom the Apostle taxeth in this place They dogmatized and affirmed it as a clear case that Angels were to be serv'd and invocated and to perswade men of it they delivered many things concerning their nature and their intervention between GOD and us Yet the truth is that of all this they neither had nor could have any certainty as being things which they had never seen either in the School of nature or the revelation of GOD. All our knowledge and assurance necessarily comes from one of these three sources namely either from sense and such is the knowlege we have of the things we see hear smell touch and taste or from reason and so doth humane science which is acquired or formed by discourse and natural reasoning or lastly from the revelation of GOD who discovereth to us by the light of His word divers objects and divers verities which neither our sense nor our reason could perceive in nature Now though reason doth cause men by the consideration of things that are or are done in the world to discern some principles and verities of Religion yet the whole of this is so small a matter and withal so confused and imperfect by reason of the corruption of our understandings that the Word of GOD ought to be held for the sole assured foundation of Religion according to that which the Apostle signifies to us elsewhere Rom. 10.17.1 even that faith cometh by hearing and hearing from the word of GOD. When therefore he saith here that the Seducers do intrude into things they have not seen he doth it 's true respect in general all those Sources of our knowledge and absolutely deny that these men had by them any of the things they dogmatized but he does particularly referr to the third that is the revelation of GOD. And his meaning is that the LORD had not shewed them nor made them see by His Word any of the things they preached and would set up in the Religion of Christians And though indeed they neither had nor could have any certain knowledge of them nevertheless they discours'd of them blindfold and did divulge their phantasies the visions of their brain and dreams of their own Spirit for indubitable necessary and wholesome truths A carriage which the Apostle doth excellently well set forth by that word of his which we have translated intruding a word that properly signifies entring into setting foot on and marching forth in some quarter as in ground we have title to Whereby he noteth out the vanity of these false Teachers who did not meerly busie themselves in a research of things above their capacity which is in it self a vain and ridiculous labour but also dared to speak of them and make peremptory decisions about them so going above ground and walking as may be said in the vacuum of their own imaginations mounting their thoughts unto a Region far above them like that poor Phrenetick of whom the Poets speak who having presumed to enter upon a strange Element and fly there soon found his rashness punished with his ruine The Prophet makes use of a like phrase
when to represent his modesty Psal 131.1 he saith that he hath not walked in great things and too high for him Dear Brethren we have no need to ascend so far back as the Apostle's time for examples of this vanity Our Adversaries of the Communion of Rome do afford us a sufficient store who as they retain the errour of those whom the Apostle here taxeth serving Angels as they did so do inherit their temerity intruding into things they have not seen They do magisterially pronounce that men must serve and invoke Angels and Saints departed They boldly define the Religious Worship that is to be given and divide it us into its kinds naming one of them Dulia and the other Hyperdulia all with as much confidence as if they spake of things most obvious to sence I urge not for the present that Scripture doth blast this whole errour every where intimating that we ought to serve no one in Religion but GOD alone and with loud voice anathematizing the Worship of any creature I pretermit what it saith particularly against the Adoration and Worshipping of Angels as also that S. Paul doth expresly prohibit it in the Text. I keep singly to the rule he here gives me that no belief be afforded those who intrude into things they have not seen and do demand of these hardy Doctors in what Region in what part of Divine Revelation have they seen these Services these Dulia's and these Hyperdulia's of which they so positively speak Where is it that the Holy Ghost hath shewed them these brave Doctrines To what Prophet hath He revealed them To what Apostle hath He signified them Of what Evangelist have themselves learnt them Sure they must here be husht of necessity They have not seen one of these pretended mysteries in the Book of GOD. They cannot shew us any track of them any where except it be in the fancies of Plato and of the Heathen Philosophers the Disciples of Daemons and not of GOD men taught in the School of errour and not in that of truth They proceed further yet and make us discourses about the Orders of Angels and distribute to them their business and cut them out their Ministrations they rank the Saints and give to them each his Charge and employment And if you ask them how these Spirits being in Heaven do hear our Prayers and requests and by what means they see the secret motions of our hearts They answer some of them that the mirrour of the Trinity upon which they incessantly have their eyes doth present them all the Idea's of them others that GOD reveals them to them some other way But whence do they know this It is neither sense nor natural reason that hath shewed it them If therefore they have seen it any where it must be in the Revelation of GOD. Yet it is clear and they cannot deny it that neither this pretended mirrour nor any one of their other conjectures do appear there at all Cajetan in 22. q. 88. a. â— And one of their most famed Authors sufficiently declares it We do not know saith he by any certain reason whether the Saints do perceive our Prayers or no although we do piously believe it as if it were piety and not pittiful credulity to believe things of which we have no assurance But let him make what account of it he pleases This is evident that since he confesseth they have no assurance of these things it must of necessity be confessed also that it is extreamly ill done of them to intrude into them except he will reject the Authority of the Apostle in his condemning those here most expresly who intrude into things they have not seen This vanity doth further shew it self in the things they give out concerning the state of Souls in their fabulous Purgatory the scituation the structure and partitions whereof they represent together with the fire and torments of the Spirits that are there imprisoned with such a deal of confidence as if they were just now come from thence after many years stay in the place Nevertheless the truth is that neither they nor their Ancestors euer saw one jot of it either in the Scriptures of GOD or in the nature of things there being not a word any where of any one of these imaginations That which they say of their Transubstantiation with its conditions and circumstances and of the manner how the body of CHRIST is present in every crumb of their Hoste and in every drop of their Chalice Their positions likewise concerning their pretended Sacrifice of the Mass and concerning the relative or Analogical adoration of Images and concerning the Characters which some of their Sacraments do imprint upon the souls of men and in one word all the points of doctrine that we contest with them are of the same nature All of them are things they have not seen they intrude into them walk in them and strout vainly commanding the belief or practice of them under pain of damnation how doubtful and uncertain soever they be and furiously anathematizing all those who make the least doubt to receive them As for us Dear Brethren who through the grace of GOD have learned to preferr His voice before the imaginations of men and to fear the thundrings of Heaven more than the fulminations of Rome let us leave them in this vain humour or to say better pray to GOD to bring them out of it and give them to distinguish their own dreams from His declarations And for our further acquitting of our selves let us religiously keep to the Apostles direction Intrude we never into things we have not seen Neither be so simple as to follow those that do or to suffer our selves to be mastered over by them Let us rest in the things which GOD hath clearly revealed to us in His word which He hath so set before our eyes in that Divine Treasury of His truth as very children may there behold them This portion is sufficient for us if we cultivate it well we shall find in it abundantly wherewith to inform our understandings wherewith to calm our Consciences and sanctifie our hearts and perfect all the faculties of our souls Let no man presume above that which is written 1 Cor. 4.6 Rom. 12.3 Take heed of being wise above what is meet but be wise to sobriety Let the word of GOD be the rule of our science and His Book the bound of all our curiosity All knowledge is had without knowing any thing beyond it This consideration alone is enough to preserve us from all the errours of Rome For since the intruding into things we have not seen is a temerity condemned here by the Apostle and in matter of Religion we can have seen none but such as GOD hath revealed in His Word it evidently follows that we are obliged not only to forbear believing but also to proceed to the rejecting of all the Doctrines about which we are in contest with Rome
JESUS CHRIST here described by the Apostle And hence it appears how grievous the errour of those is who serve Angels there being not any thing in these words but does evince it First then the Apostle says they hold not the head 'T is true they do not make profession of letting it go For they affirm themselves Christians and do own JESUS CHRIST for the Prince and Author of their Religion But at the bottom and in effect they break the union which they should have with Him in quality of Head since they address themselves to Angels as their Mediators and Intercessors with GOD. For it 's a giving them the office of Head which pertains to one alone it being clear that this mediation which is the Source of our life is the office of our Head Again their impudence doth plainly appear in that JESUS CHRIST our Head doth furnish His body with all necessary graces For to what end should we go seek in Angels or Saints what we have abundantly in JESUS CHRIST Is there any grace any light any blessing which we may not have from Him Nay saith the Apostle it is he that furnisheth the whole body He is the fulness of grace an inexhaustible abyss of good Sure then it 's extream vanity to address our selves to any other and to seek the waters of life and of salvation in petty by-streams rather than in that so full so fresh and so abundant an only Source which the Father hath given us in this Divine Head Though the serving of Angels and Saints were permitted which yet it is not however 't is evident it would be unprofitable since we most assuredly have in JESUS CHRIST alone all the succour and assistance we can possibly pretend to from those creatures But that which the Apostle adds in the second place to wit that this Divine Head doth compact and knit together His whole body doth further potently oppose this error which divides the Church and brings a very manifest odd variety into its Services for that it multiplyeth the objects of its devotion causing some to serve one Angel or one Saint and others another some have a devotion for one and call themselves after him and others adhere to another as you plainly see by the example of those of Rome who are divided into divers bands and fraternities according to the Angels the Male and Female Saints to whom they engage their devotion not to say how each of them hath a particular service for his Angel guardian differing from the service of all others by reason of its object forasmuch as according to them every one hath his particular Angel different from those of others Whereas the true body of CHRIST is all knit together in a perfect union having but one only head JESUS CHRIST and one only religious service one and the same faith and one and the same Worship Lastly the Apostle yet again strikes at the Authors of this errour when he saith that the body of the Church being united guided and governed by its Head JESUS CHRIST increaseth with an increase of GOD. For these people are wont to vaunt of perfecting and increasing the Religion of Christians by the addition of such services as they invent But S. Paul informs us that this is not the increase that the Church receives which must be an increase of GOD an augmentation and advancement in things which He hath commanded an instituted whereas these people do grow only in the traditions of men and inventions of the flesh which add nothing to the true and legitimate magnitude of the body it becomes by them more blown up not fuller more deformed not greater They are like warts and wolfes and empostumes which disfigure and incommodate the body but are far from enriching or perfecting it Dear Brethren let us lay by all these strange doctrines Let us hold fast to this Holy and blessed Head JESUS the Son of GOD who hath vouchsafed to take us for His body Let us enjoy with awfullest respect the great honour He hath therein done us Be not we so ingrateful or so unadvised as to give that glory to any other which belongs to Him alone Let vain men submit to other heads let them profane this Divine quality of Head of the Church attributing it either to Angels or which is yet worse to a mortal man For our parts O LORD JESUS we neither have nor ever will have other head than Thee As it is Thou alone that hast redeemed us formed and associated us in the Communion of thy body So never will we address our Devotions our Religion our Services and invocations to any but to Thee It 's on Thee alone that we will live and of thy springs alone that we will draw Likewise with Thee are the words of Eternal life To what Saint besides should we go Without Thee we can do nothing and in Thee alone we can do all things Beloved Brethren this is the Vow which I now present to the LORD JESUS in the behalf of us all and I assure my self there is not one of you but heartily sayes Amen thereto It remaineth that we do faithfully acquit our selves of this great vow rendring up our selves to be guided and governed by the LORD JESUS CHRIST since He is our Head having no motion nor sentiment but what descends from Him and receiving into our Nerves and Arteries His Coelestial and divine Spirit sincerely renouncing the spirit of the Flesh and of the Earth which animates the world Remember that you are the body of CHRIST and live in such a pureness as may be worthy of so great a name Above all let us have those Sacred bonds between us which do fitly knit all the members of our LORD together that is to say the sentiments of a vigorus Charity communicating readily and chearfully to one another the graces which our common Head hath furnished us with for our mutual edification the rich their alms to those that are poor the knowing their instructions to the ignorant the strong their succour to the weak those that are in prosperity their Consolations to the afflicted encreasing all of us continually with an increase of GOD in Faith and Sanctification and advancing daily some paces towards the mark and prize of our supernal Calling This is the Discipline of the LORD JESUS This is that He hath commanded us His Apostles Preached and left in their Writings to us not the serving of Angels and other such inventions of superstition of which those holy men say not one Word except it be to refute and condemn them Rest we in their Doctrine and we shall have part in their bliss through the grace of JESUS CHRIST their Head and ours To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the only true GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to Ages of Ages Amen THE XXX SERMON COL II. Vers XX. XXI XXII Verse XX. If then ye be dead with CHRIST as to the rudiments
of the world why doth any one burthen you with ordinances as if ye lived in the world XXI To wit eat not taste not touch not XXII Which all are things that perish in the using being instituted after the commandments and doctrines of men DEar Brethren Seeing the Apostle plainly sheweth in diverse places that the use of meats is a thing indifferent and that if we eat 1 Cor. 8.8 we have not thereby the more nor the less if we eat not and even injoyneth us somewhere to accommodate our selves to the infirmity of our brethren Rom. 14.21 declaring that it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor to do any thing whereby our brother stumbleth or is offended or made weak it may seem strange to some that in this Epistle and in the first to Timothy and elsewhere he doth so earnestly insist upon this point and employ so many words and reasons against those who did prohibit certain sorts of meats to Christians But if you throughly consider this holy man his whole procedure and the motives of his taking such order you will find it full in all the parts thereof of reason and profound discretion For first there is a great difference between such as he bears with and those whom he rejects The one were infirm and the other insolent The former through want of knowledge could hardly count those things permitted which the School of Moses whence they were but newly come forth had prohibited The latter did in their headiness enterprise the bringing of Christians under the yoke again The errour of those reached no further than their own persons These would dogmatize and give the Church new Laws Wherefore the Apostle is sweet towards the one and severe against the others according to the difference of their faults And as to the thing it self though it be no more a crime to abstain from than it is to eat any of the meats which GOD hath created for our use yet to make this abstinence pass for a matter of necessity is a penicious attempt First it 's an overthrowing or a diminishing of our liberty which having been purchased by the blood of CHRIST ought to be very precious to us for since He would buy it us at so high a price it is not just that the fancy or the tyrannicall humour of men should bereave us of a thing that cost him so dear Moreover such injunctions do make that to be thought necessary which is indifferent and that to pass for a part of the service of GOD which is not so An opinion which hath dangerous consequences For men once possessed with this imagination do in such exercises loose a good part of their time which should be wholy spent in the study and practice of the true commandments of our LORD JESUS But which is yet worse they easily imagine that they get a licence to commit things prohited without danger by such abstaining from things permitted and the priviledge of being dispensed with for obedience to GOD by that they render unto men a conceit which as you see does undermine the foundations of that true and real sanctification without which no man shall see GOD. The Apostle well-knowing therefore the venom of these doctrines and seeing on the other hand the strong inclination that men have to them being likewise not ignorant as experience hath but too much verified that there would be alwaies people sound to set them on foot among Christians did account it necessary for the securing of our faith to give us in diverse places of His divine Epistles strong Preservatives against the Contagion of this pernicious error You have heard already heretofore how he said concerning it Let no man condemn you in cating or in drinking irrecoverably overbearing by those few words the temerity of all those who for such things bring the faithful to the Bar and condemn them to the fire of Hell for having but tasted of meats which they prohibit He now resumes the same discourse and having in the two precedent verses refuted the serving of Angels which the Seducers did set up in religion he comes to their other Ordinances which concerned certain abstinences and devotions that they imposed on Christians as salutiferous and of necessary use for humbling the spirit and mortifying the flesh and first he refutes them by three excellent reasons which he urgeth against them next he rejects the vain and specious pretexts under colour of of which they were recommended The first of those three reasons which he advanceth against these pretended devotions is taken from the liberty which JESUS CHRIST hath purchased for us by His death freeing us from all carnal and ceremonial services If therefore ye be dead with CHRIST saith he why doth any one burthen you with ordinances as if you lived in the world to wit Eat not Tast not Touch not The second is drawn from the nature of those things themselves from which an abstaining was ordered they all are things saith the Apostle that perish in the using And the third from the rise of such ordinances instituted not by the authority of GOD but after the commandments and doctrines of men These are the three points we purpose to treat of in this action by the assistance of GOD beseeching Him to grant that we may meditate them to our common Edification and Consolation The Apostles last words were concerning the communion of the Church with JESUS CHRIST its head who furnisheth His whole body and fitly knitteth it together by joynts and bands causing it to increase with an increase of GOD. Hereupon he takes occasion to set before us again that enfranchisement from the yoke of Ceremonies which we have by this holy and mystical communion with our LORD That is his meaning in these words we are dead with CHRIST as to the rudiments of the world For as we have shewed afore the Apostle does usually call the Ceremonial ordinances of Moses's Law the elements or rudiments of the world because they were the first and lowest lessons of GOD's people standing all of them in material and worldly things and in the usage of or in an abstinence from either elements or plants and animals and other fruits and productions of the world But he seems in this place to signifie by these words generally all services of this nature whether those that Moses sometime instituted for the exercise of the childhood and minority of Israel or those that other men erected afterward of which sort were the devotions and ceremonies which the Elders of the Jews and the Pharisees added to the Law and made to pass for traditions of antiquity as we understand by the Gospel where our Saviour notes them and very sharply reproves them in diverse places Such again were the disciplines and devotions of those Seducers whom the Apostle here opposeth and all other like them which though set up by diverse authors and at different times yet joyntly consist in one
one upon another and is never satiated with this vain food It never sayes 't is enough it 's alway saying give give like the wiseman's horse-leach in the Proverbs Prov. 30.15 If it regulate your eating to day to morrow it will give you laws for your clothing and afterwards for each of the parts of your life not leaving so much as your looks or your breathing free It 's a Labyrinth wherein poor consciences go on intricating them selves without any issue and a snare which does first take them than bind them fast and in the end strangle them But let us now consider the two other reasons which the Apostle makes use of to shew the vanity of the pretended ordinances of superstition about the matter of meats and eating and drinking The second than is taken as we have already intimated from the nature of those things which abstinence from was commanded They are all saith he things that perish in the using That is such as are consumed in doing us service the very eating and drinking whereby they are taken doth destroy them and they are of so feeble and infirm a substance that they cannot be of use unto us without being corrupted and to nourish us they must first perish an evident signe that all the benefit we receive from them doth respect but this wretched mortal life it being neither possible nor imaginable that what perisheth and is consumed in us should have any force or vertue for the life of our soul which is immortal and incorruptible So you see the Apostle does here presuppose this maxime that neither Religion nor the service of GOD doth properly and immediatly consist either in the usage of or an abstinence from any of those things which serve to the maintaining of our common life and are consumed in serving thereto Rom. 14.17 as he saith elsewhere expresly that the Kingdom of GOD is neither meat nor drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost He makes use of the same reason again in another place 1 Cor. 6.13 Meats saith he are for the belly and the belly for meats But GOD shall destroy both it and them His Master and ours had used it before upon the same argument to the same purpose against the vain scruples of the Pharisees the Patriarches of all this kind of disciplines T is not that Mat 15.11.17 saith he which enters in at the mouth that defiles a man Because as He adds immediatly after all that which enters in at the mouth goeth down into the belly and is cast out into the draught that is to say it perisheth and is consumed in the using 1 Cor. 8.8 Whence it comes that the Apostle pronounceth again elsewhere in consequence of the same doctrine that meat that is any certain sort of meat does not render us the more acceptable unto GOD 2 Tim. 3.4 and that there is neither gain in eating it nor loss in eating it not because as he saith elsewhere yet they are all created of GOD to be used by the faithful with thanksgiving so as nothing is to be rejected being taken with giving of thanks Sure were it not for the extreme blindness of men there would be no need for us to repeat and confirme so easie a lesson with such diligence and in so many places the sole light of reason and the nature of things it self teaching it us so clearly For who is there but sees this truth if he heed it ever so little and discovers of himself that one is not the better or the more holy for eating Herbs or Fish nor the worse or more vitious for living on other things All this seâ—ves but to sustein the seeble nature of this poor body and terminates there without penetrating to the soul whose essence is wholly spiritual It 's the conceptions of the understanding and the disposition of the heart and the habitudes that referr to them and the actions that proceed from them which make men good or bad and their morals laudable or blamable so as it 's a gross and a deplorable error though I grant it hath ever been and still is very common to make a part of piâ—ty and sanctity consist in eating of or absteining from some sorts of meats But the Apostle contents not himself with citing the conclusions of reason and the nature of the things themselves against the vain and pernicious ordinances of these Seducers For the overthrowing them without recovery and the taking away all pretext of defending them he further makes use in the last place of a strong and invincible argument drawn from their being established after the commandments and doctrines of men Thus it was that GOD did sometime strike the vain services of Israel 〈…〉 Their fear of me said He is an humane commandment taught by men And the LORD JESUS overturns all the authority of the Jewish traditions Mat. 15.9 with the same shot reproching them that it was in vain they honoured GOD teaching doctrines which were but commandments of men And it should seem 't is hence that S. Paul took both the conception and the expression he useth in this place This reasoning my Brethren is extremely considerable The Apostle rejects the ordinances of the Seducers because they are commandments and doctrines of men There 's no man but sees that this discourse hath no consequence unless upon presupposal that nothing ought to be receiv'd in Religion under the quality of necessary belief or service except it be either taught or commanded of GOD and not of men only It 's the doctrine of the Apostle S. Paul in this place the doctrine of the Prophet Isaiah in that other which we alledged even now it 's the doctrine of JESUS the Master of Apostles and Prophets in His dispute against the Pharisees O holy and pretious verity from how many errors wouldst thou deliver the world if according to the authority of our LORD and those two grand Ministers of His men would examine all things by thee as their rule and consider when some article in Religion is preached to us not whether it be specious and have some appearance of reason or whether it hath been yerwhile held by the Sages of the time past or be for the present believed by the greater part of Princes and people but whether it be indeed taught of GOD in His word or meerly set forth by men Dear Brethren by this short and simple method you may easily settle your thoughts about all the differences that rend Christendom at this day Take the Book of GOD and admit nothing into your belief but what you shall find either asserted or commanded therein refusing whatsoever the word of the LORD hath not authorized Sure I am that the Sacrifice of the Masse and Purgatory and Transubstantiation and the Monarchie of the Pope and the Invocation of Saints and in a word all that divideth us from Rome will remain among those commandments and
doctrines of men which S. Paul here casts away from our faith and that nothing will be found among the commandments and doctrines of GOD but those Services and beliefs which are received and confessed by our Churches In the Name of GOD make trial of it if so be you have not yet done it and you will see that if our Adversaries have the doctrines of men for them we have the doctrines of GOD of His Prophets and Apostles for us I pass by other doctrines of Rome for the present Only how can they defend their ordinances for the eating of no flesh during more then a third part of the year commanding the faithful to live all that time upon nothing but Herbs and Fish under pain of damnation pressing this ridiculous Law with so much rigour that they do not hold such for Christians as do transgress it and punish them not with Spiritual pains only but even with temporal unto death it self in the Countries where the Inquisition reigneth Is not this the doing with high hand what the Apostle here forbiddeth Let no man condemn you in eating or drinking and why are ye burthened with ordinances to wit Eat not taste not Whereas they say that the Apostle speaks only of the Mosaical Prohibitions of touching the dead and tasting the flesh of the Hog and Hare this we have already refuted He speaks in general of all ordinances that forbid the tasting of any sort of meat upon a Religious account And it is no way credible that he should grant the Pope or any other man whoever what he denies Moses or respect their Laws more then his Besides all the circumstances and reasons which he noteth or urgeth against the Laws of the false teachers are evidently of force against those of our adversaries Those teachers ordeined that these should be no eating nor tasting of certain meats These men do the same They recommended their abstinences upon pretence that they did humble the body and not spare it This is exactly the thing that our Adversaries affirm of theirs The Apostle alledgeth against them that they stitch'd up again the Veil of Moses which had been rent in twain by JESUS CHRIST and reduced that carnal and worldly worship into the Church which had been abrogated and abolish'd by the Cross of our LORD Is it not a Service of the same kind that those of Rome do set up a Service which consists in things purely external and corporeal to wit eating and meats S. Paul addeth that the things from which the Seducers required Christians to abstein were all such as perish'd in the using Those about which our Adversaries make Laws are they not consumed in the very same manner the flesh which they forbid the Fish and Herbs which they command In fine S. Paul rejects the Ordinances of the Seducers because they were Doctrines and Commandments of men Those of Rome to which the same quality doth adhere ought not then to be any more tolerated than they For how hardly soever the men be they durst not say that GOD appointed them They only say that they are conform to Scripture But how so while they so rudely clash with the Apostle's Doctrine in this place As to their allegation Dan. 1.8 that the Hebrew Children would not eat of the meats of the King of Babylon's Table the Scripture tells us they did it for fear of being defiled to wit because the most part of the meats of Pagans was offered to Idols Beside they doubted there might be some one of those things which were forbidden by the Law of Moses under which they lived causes as every one knows that take place no longer and are in effect very far off from the reasons of the abstinences of Rome Dan. 10.2 They produce also Daniel's three weeks during which neither Flesh nor Wine entred into his mouth They should add what the Scripture expresly reports that he did eat no pleasant bread nor anoint himself all that while because as he saith himself he was mourning Whence it follows indeed that such as are in mourning and affliction of spirit may if they see good banish all the pleasures of their manner of living even to those that are innocent permitted and ordinary as Daniel did at that time out of his own judgement and not upon any publick commandment But it cannot be thence concluded that either there was then or that there ought to be a Law for perpetuity in the Christian Church which forbids the use of meats for certain times of the year which is precisely the thing that our Adversaries pretend 1 Tim. 5.23 I pass by Timothy's abstinence who drank no Wine For there is little probability that it was through a Religious scruple he abstained Beside He was a particular person and did the thing at his own arbitriment not by the order of any publick Law And yet too S. Paul recommends to him the doing otherwise and in fine the question is now of Meats not of Wine which those of Rome do prohibit to none at all I also pretermit the Fasts of the Israelites on divers occasions as were those of Anna of David of Esther of John Baptist and his Disciples these have no Communion with the abstinences in hand We do not refuse Fasts far be it from us We do not simply and absolutely forbid even abstinence For it is equally in a Christians liberty to eat or not to eat any sort of meat whatever neither the one nor the other is a sin provided it be done in Faith and Charity All that the Apostle condemns and we with him and after him is the Tyrannie that prohibits what GOD permits and will needs make that necessary which He hath left free as also the Superstition that placeth the true service of GOD in things purely indifferent It remains then we conclude that this Law of our Adversaries is a Doctrine and a Commandment of men since it hath no foundation in the Word of GOD. But which is more it 's evidently adverse thereto For the Apostle writing to the faithful at Corinth that lived in the midst of an Heathen people in whose Markets and at whose Tables all sorts of meats were indifferently sold and served up he gives them this rule 1 Cor. 10.25 27. Eat of all that is sold in the Shambles making no question for Conscience sake And if one of them that believe not does invite you and ye be disposed to go eat of all that 's set before you making no question for Conscience sake How doth this accord with the Roman Laws that make scruple of so many sorts of meat for Conscience sake â— Tim. 4.1 2. But this holy man hath proceeded much further yet He hath not only refuted this errour He hath predicted it and given us timely Advertisement of it ranking Abstinence from meats expresly among the Articles of the false Doctrine of those Seducers whose coming he prophesied of describing them by dreadful
Philosophers defined good by this its refâ—â—â— to our affections and by the vertue it hath to move and attract our desires 〈◊〉 Good is that which all desire And hence it comes that Impostors who 〈◊〉 trade of seducing men have alwaies taken a great deal of care to give their 〈◊〉 vain institutions some shew of goodness being not ignorant that witho◠〈◊〉 they should not be able to gain any mans affections and much less to have any train of followers in the world This is to be seen particularly in religion into wâ—â—â—n never was heresie nor superstition introduced but under the favour of this in posture though spirits of different capacities having medled in the matter there haâ—â— been accordingly a great difference between their cosenages For as those that would make a false stone pass for a Diamond or an Emerald or a Ruby do endeavour as farr as cunning is able to counterfeit the truth to give it the colour the shape the lustre the sparkling and other qualities thereof that by such a feigned resemblance they may deceive simple and unexperienced persons So they that have set themselves upon the corrupting of Religion to the end they might make the opinions and services they promoted be received for sound doctrines and disciplines have above all things taken a great deal of pains to guild over their merchandize and to colour it with some fair and specious pretexts fit to dazle the eyes of men and hide the defects of their doctrine and give it the shew of what in substance it is not It is this that the Apostle S. Paul doth observe here in the documents and commandments of those Seducers whom he undertook in this Chapter For having solidly and admirably refuted that superstitious discipline which they had set a foot and which consisted in a religious worshipping of Angels and in a scrupulous abstinence from certain meats and in the observation of certain festival days for a conclusion he discovers in this last verse the false colours wherewith they did in vain dawb it over He acknowledgeth that it had its true some shew of wisdom but denies that this was sufficient to cover its defects or to oblige the faithful to receive it Their Ordinances said he afore are commandments and doctrines of men Which yet he now adds have some shew of wisdom in voluntary devotion and humility of spirit and in that they do not at all spare the body and have no regard to the satisfying of the flesh It is evident that he speaks of those humane doctrines which he had been mentioning in the verse immediately foregoing and he says first that they have a shew of wisdom Next he represents particularly three things which give them this false shew voluntary service humility of spirit and rough treatment of the body which they did not at all spare These are as it were the three colours which being mingled together by the artifice of the Seducers composed that paint which rendred their doctrine plausible and gave it this false shew of wisdom that beguiled the eyes of the simple In compliance with this distinction we shall treat of three points in this action voluntary service humility of spirit and little care for the body and then consider how error and superstition have always made and still to this day make use of them to glose their inventions GOD grant us to beware duly of them and please for this end so to guide and assist us by His Spirit in discoursing of them as we may all bear away some Edification and Consolation The name of wisdom is great and honourable in the opinion of all people in the world For whereas other Sciences have respect but to natural or humane the relation of wisdom is to Divine things And whereas other knowledges are for the most part unprofitable to him who possesseth them that of wisdom is salutiferous it signifying the skill of conducting ones way aright for the attainment of happiness by the light of some choice and excellent verities Whence it follows that this title of wisdom doth not properly belong but to the knowledge of GOD which He hath given us by His Son in the Gospel the only light that is capable of conducting us to supreme felicity Accordingly you know it is the name that S. Paul does ordinarily give it as when he willeth that the word of GOD dwell richly in us in all wisdom and when he saith elsewhere that he speaks wisdom among them that are perfect calling the same a little after the wisdom of GOD in a mysterie the hidden wisdom and so often elsewhere Now though the doctrine of those who corrupt the Gospel as these Seducers did who S. Paul opposeth in this Chapter be nothing less in reality than wisdom yet so it is that its authors gave it the name and would have it pass in the belief of men for a rare and a beneficial knowledge more worthy of heaven than earth and capable in fine of rendring those that follow it perfect and happy The Apostle acknowledgeth that the doctrine of the Seducers of his time had this shew of wisdom but by his very granting them the shew hâ— denies them the truth of it and his meaning is that that doctrine of theirs had nothing but a false and a deceitful colour of wisdom not the substance and reality of the thing Voluntary service is the first particular that gave these doctrines of the Seducers such a shew They have saith the Apostle some shew of wisdom in voluntary service that is by reason or because of the voluntary service they taught and set a foot the observances and institutions which these men enjoyed as abstinence from certain meats the worshipping of Angels and the like being nothing else but voluntary services A service may be called voluntary two manner of waies First when he that performs it unto GOD doth it with affection and a good will without torment and constraint The love he bears this great and soveraign LORD sweetly bringing his soul under His yoke and disposing him to account whatsoever He hath commanded to be good and delectable In this sense that free and sincere obedience which true believers render unto GOD according to the Gospel may be stiled voluntary because it proceeds not from a spirit of bondage as theirs doth who do serve only because they are afraid but from a spirit of Love and of Adoption crying in their hearts Abba Father Wherefore the Prophet termeth the new people who render this frank and filial service unto GOD Psal 110.3 under the Gospel of the Messiah a voluntary or willing people Thy people saith he speaking to Him shall be a voluntary people or a people of frank willingness in the day that thou shalt assemble thine army in holy pomp It is not in this sense that the Apostle understands the voluntary service he speaks of in this place For first though the terms voluntary service which are taken up
Scriptures of GOD they plead to us that they are voluntary services which are performed with a good intention and do tend to humble the Spirit Their Fastings and Abstinences their Watchings and Pilgrimages their Whippings and Disciplines and all the odd exercises of their Monks are not in the least commanded of GOD. But what skills it The more voluntary they are say they the more meritorious and then on the other hand they mortifie the body which they spare not at all having no regard to the satisfying of its desires There 's nothing but they might make pass for good and godly with this specious pigment I might justly plead against these vain pretexts that GOD's will ought to be the rule of ours and that it is dangerous to trust our intentions in matter of Religion seeing it often comes to pass that GOD hath that in abomination which does most please our thoughts as also that it is a proud and an extravagant humility to give men a power over our Consciences which it is the prerogative of GOD alone to have and that if the not sparing of the body do serve for the mortifying of it it follows not that we must place divine service therein I might alledge these and many other things and found them by the Scripture to demonstrate the vanity of their pretexts But for this time I content me with the Apostle's example and authority He acknowledgeth that the Doctrines of those Seducers whom he doth oppose had these three very colours and that the same gave them a shew of wisdom And yet for all this he doth not forbear to reject them making so little account of that shew of theirs that he vouchsafes not to spend one word upon the refutation of it How specious soever their Doctrines be it 's enough for his condemning them that they were instituted and taught by men and not by the LORD clearly presupposing by this procedure of his that all Christians should hold it for an undoubted maxime that Religious service must be measured by the will of GOD and not by ours by His order and not our phansie and that the foundation of our humility is the respect we owe him not to submit our Consciences to any besides Him Let then the Traditions of Rome in other regards be of what quality you please let them have all the colours of wisdom let them be voluntary and humble and meet to mortifie the flesh You will do much by setting all this pompous shew in view You will gain much by laying it forth before mine eyes and declaiming to me of the advantages of those things I cannot receive them except you shew me that it is GOD hath instituted them and not the will of man The Apostle hath taught me to make so little account of these kind of reasons as that I should not vouchsafe so much as to amuse my self to consider them After having heard you it sufficeth me to tell you as he saith here to the Seducers of his time that if your Doctrines have this shew of wisdom which you attribute to them they are in conclusion but humane things since GOD hath not at all commanded them in His word Yet upon thorough examination it will be found My Brethren that the most of their inventions do want not the reality alone but the colour and the very shew of wisdom For I beseech you what shadow of wisdom is there in this Lent for instance which they began the other day after the ordinary Preface of their Carneval What reason or common sense is there that can affirm if it be free that it is wisdom after license taken for all kind of debauches and fooleries to imagine an handful of ashes will efface it all That it is wisdom to believe the eating of Fish is fasting That it is wisdom to think the eating Herbs or Salmon or Green-fish is a sanctifying ones self and that to taste but a bit of Bief or Mutton during these forty days is to defile ones soul with a sin mortal and meriting eternal fire as if the whole nature of things were changed in a moment and the living Creatures of the earth from being good and wholsome as they were but four dayes ago became contagious and deadly Is it wisdom to tye up Christianity to an observance which hath so little reason in it and to say as they do that such as eat any flesh within this time are not Christians There is no understanding how ordinary soever but may easily judge that all this hath no shew of wisdom in it to say no worse And it is to no purpose to tell us that it 's not the nature of the things themselves but the commandment of their Church that makes them be of this opinion For if these things be not true in themselves their Church does ill to authorize them and besides that it contravenes the rules of wisdom evidently violates those of charity also as straitning the way to Heaven and augmenting the difficulty of entring there and damning men for things which without its commandment would be free and indifferent Let us lay aside then I beseech you my Brethren all these humane Commandments which are so far from being just and necessary that they have not for the most part so much as that vain shew of wisdom which the Apostle granted the Doctrines of the Seducers of his time had Hold we to the Sacred and saving institututions of our LORD JESUS which all are just all reasonable all full of deep Mat. 16.11 and truly Divine wisdom Let us believe as he hath taught us that 't is not what enters in at the mouth that doth defile a man but what cometh out of the heart and that the Kingdom of GOD Rom. 14.17 is not meat or drink but righteousness peace and joy of the Holy Ghost Serve we Him according to His own rule and not according to the imaginations of men Let our will be bound up to His let it count it self happy in following the same and not presume to guide it self Let it learn of Him what it oweth Him not be so arrogant as to define it after its own phansie The task He hath given us is great enough for our employing all the time and strength we have without diverting ought of the same any other way It 's in this that true humility consists even in submitting absolutely to JESUS CHRIST in refusing no particular of what He would have in attempting nothing beyond His orders He it is clear would have us to love GOD with all our heart and our Neighbour as our selves and that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present world looking for His glorious appearance This Beloved Brethren is the rule of the Israel of GOD that was delivered by JESUS CHRIST Preached by His Apostles confirmed by their Miracles and by the Conversion of the World Peace and Mercy be to all that shall
Sanctifie this earth during the time you tarry on it and change it as much as may be into Heaven adorning it with an Angelick life and conversation This is the way to make sure your crown For it will not be given in Heaven but to those that have desired and sought it in the time of their abode on earth None shall reap eternal life but they that have sowed to the Spirit No man shall have fruition above but he that hath hoped here below and no man hopeth here below but he that cleanseth himself from the filth of vices He that hath this hope in JESVS CHRIST purifieth himself saith St. John Represent incessantly unto your selves this glorious coming of the Son of GOD. Consider that He will not long delay Yet as little a while as may be and he that should come will come Consider that He will come on the sudden as lightning which in an instant shines out from the clouds and as the thief that comes at the point of time he was least looked for How much will our confusion be if He should surprise us in the disorder of our worldly affections and occupations But GOD forbid that this should betide us He hath waited sufficiently for us Let us employ that little time which is left us with so much the more care the less we have had for that which is past Let us watch let us pray let us be doing Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling Let us lead lives worthy of the name of Christians which we bear worthy of the Master whom we serve and of the food He hath given us and of the love He hath born us and of the glory He keeps for us cleansing our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and waiting with an holy joy and setled patience for the revelation of this great GOD and Saviour to His Glory and our Salvation Amen THE THIRTY FOURTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER V. Verse V. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication unclearness inordinate appetite evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry DEAR Brethren In all the designs of our lives the End is the principle that moveth us to act and the rule of our actions The fair aspect it gives us is the thing that inslameth our hearts and kindleth in them the desire of possessing it which thereupon awakeneth the powers of our souls and causeth each of them to employ what ability and industry they have in the pursuit the understanding its light to find out and make a due choice of means fit to conduct us in it the will and affections and other faculties of our nature which depend upon them their motions to get these means and set them on work All this is done as you know and experiment it daily only to attain that End we have proposed to our selves The ends which men aim at are infinitely different and oftentimes even contrary to one another and consequently their courses very different also as if some went East and others West or some took their way Southward and others their march Northward Yet notwithstanding such diversity of intentions and prosecutions they are all incited and led on in the self-same manner there being not one of them but the desire of some end he loveth hath seized and swayed unto action and at length induced to take the course he steers according to the passion he hath for the attainment of it and the judgement his understanding makes of means proper to bring him to it The end therefore being the first spring that setteth us a going the principle of our motions and as it were the North of our course the guide and measure of our actions You see My Brethren that it infinitely concerneth us to take it right and having once taken it to have it continually before our eyes for the referring and addressing of all our travails to the same Wherefore our LORD condemns those as unadvised and injudicious persons who enterprise a design without having first duly considered it without having sate down and taken their counters in hand and exactly calculated all the cost that is without having maturely and composedly examin'd what the thing is which they desire and what abilities they have to compass it as that ridiculous builder who laid the foundation of a Tower and was then constrained to give over not having wherewithal to finish it For this reason also the Masters of Moral Philosophy that they might rightly form their scholars to it have been wont to set before their eyes the felicity of man that is his End for the enkindling a love and desire of it in their hearts and then they propose to them the means that are to be used to attain it Such is the method that the holy Apostle hath followed in this part of his divine discourse which we are explicating to you He shewed us at the entrance Heaven and JESUS CHRIST who reigneth there sitting at the right-hand of His Father together with that life and immortality and glory which He keeps for and promiseth to His faithful ones This is the end we should tend unto Seek said He the things which are in Heaven and I perswade my self there is not a man so stupid and savage but an object so good and so desirable does make impression upon and possess with love of it and a secret passion to obtain it Now though the splendor of so noble and so sublime an happiness should as soon as it appears put out all that fallacious appearance of the things of the earth wherein the children of this world do vainly seek their good and which they foolishly take for the end of their lives yet the Apostle to preserve us from this error and fully inform us of our true end hath further expresly advised us not to place it in things here below Mind not the things saith he which are upon the earth Having therefore each of you setled this divine end of your lives in his heart according to the Apostles doctrine look at it continually Let it be night and day before your eyes This thought alone is capable to direct all your steps to govern all your actions to purifie your souls to render you invincible against all your enemies to conserve the peace and the joy of GOD in you and maintain His consolations in you amid the greatest storms Yet this doth not satisfie our Apostle He not content with having mark'd out our aim to us and shewed in general what we ought to decline doth particularize us the means we are to use for arriving one day at that blessed Heaven whither he had elevated our hearts He discovers to us and tells us one by one the shelves and dangerous passages of our course and finally goes over the most part of our duties in the conduct of this grand design He begins with vices of the flesh and of the earth the two pernicious pests of
the duty which the Apostle requireth of us here As indeed we must acknowledge that through the weakness of our apprehensions and understanding and amid that infinity of false appearances which things or men continually present us with it would be very difficult not to say impossible to preserve our selves from all error and never be deceiv'd in common life The Apostle demands of us a very easie and just thing even that we never speak any thing but what we believe to be true and that in the commerce we have with men our language be sincere and faithful without fraud and without fallacy naturally representing without what we conceive within and that it never betide us to say one thing and think the contrary The Scripture teacheth us in a multitude of places that GOD hateth lying more than any other Vice Prov. 12.22 and the Wise man saith expresly That false lips are an abomination to him the Psalmist also among other marks he gives the Inhabitants of the Hill of GOD Psal 15.2 puts this for the very first That they walk uprightly and work righteousness and speak the truth as it is in their heart and elsewhere he speaketh peremptorily Psal 5.7 That GOD will destroy them that speak leasing In sum S. Rev. 21.8 John proclaimeth in his Revelation That the portion of all lyers shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Whence you see that question here is not of a matter of decency but of a necessary duty which we may not fail of without incurring perdition The justice of it is so evident that the Sages of the Pagans themselves have acknowledg'd it leaving us in their Books a thousand notable intimations of that roundness and simplicity and truth which a man of honour and probity should inviolably observe in his whole life For speech having been given us by nature or to say better by the God of nature to the end we might signifie and declare unto our neighbours what we have in our hearts it 's clear that an abusing it to signifie what we do not think is a violation of the Law and institution of Nature And all true and generous courages have this sentiment so imprinted on their souls that they cannot endure double persons whence it comes that the Prince of Heathen Poets makes his Heroe say He hates no less than the gates of Hell the man that says one thing and hides in his heart another Lying is a slavish Vice that proceeds either from baseness of spirit or from badness of conscience or from vanity Accordingly you see that it 's extreamly odious among all noble and civilized Nations and particularly in ours of the French where you know there is no outrage that 's accounted more grievous and more sensible than to charge a man with lying He that hath suffer'd it without justifying himself is held to be a man lost in honour not among Gentlemen only but even among people of meaner birth this generous and veritable sentiment having been left us from hand to hand by our Ancestors that lying is an infamous thing and the mark of a soul either wicked or witless and that he who is not asham'd of it will make conscience of nothing as on the contrary truth is the foundation of all vertue and honesty But the Scripture sheweth us in two clauses what we should think of it when on one hand it nameth the Devil the Father of lyes and on the other calls the LORD the GOD of truth and his eternal Son the truth it self A consideration that renders the temerity of those so much the more unsufferable who stiling themselves the companions of JESUS have not shamed to favour lying by that Doctrine of Equivocations and mental reservations as they call them Eph. 4.20 which they have published and practised in these last times But ye have not so learned CHRIST if so be ye have heard and been taught by him as the truth is in JESVS He hates all lying and obliquity in what manner soever they be disguised and would not have his truth dishonoured by begging from its enemies hand the help it needeth that is he would no ways have fraud and fallacy employ'd on his behalf his providence is potent enough to defend it without such infamous succour It 's a maxim of his Apostles that we must not do evil that good may come thereof Lying is an evil contrary to the Law of God and the Ordinances of nature There cannot therefore be any reason that gives us a dispensation to commit it Thus you see beloved Brethren that which we had to say unto you concerning these three Vices which the Apostle does here banish from the mouths of Christians Evil-speaking Impurity and Lying Let us obey his holy Doctrine and remembring that according to S. James He that offendeth not in word the same is a perfect man let us diligently purge ours from all these ordures and so govern our tongue that it may not speak but of wisdom nor pronounce but of judgment and that all our discourses may be full of goodness and of honesty and of truth so as our LORD and Saviour who is charity purity and soveraign truth may own us for his and after the combats and tryals of this life give us part one day in the peace and triumphs of the next receiving us into the society of those pure and holy Spirits who live on high in the Heavens with him to bless him for ever as unto him with the Father and the holy Spirit the only true GOD belongeth all honour and glory Amen THE THIRTY EIGHTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER IX X XI Verse IX Having put off the old man with his deeds X. And having put on the new man which is renew'd in knowledge after the image of Him who created him XI Where there is neither Greek nor Jew neither circumcision nor uncircumcision neither Barbarian nor Scythian nor bond nor free but CHRIST is all and in all DEAR Brethren I know and freely confess that being called this day through the goodness of GOD to celebrate the memory of the death and passion of our LORD JESUS CHRIST this sacred chair is obliged for the fitting you to so important an action to entertain you with things that relate to this great and divine mysterie But as I acknowledge that this is properly the service in which I should employ this hour so I conceive that these words of the Apostle S. Paul which you have heard and which occur in the chain of our ordinary Text are very sutable to that principal subject of our exhortation For this putting off of the old man and this putting on of the new of which they tell us are both the one and the other the true effect of this death of our LORD the remembrance whereof we solemnize If JESUS had not dyed we should never have put off the old man nor put on the new since that
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
their own but out of the stock of this Divine Word beside which they ought to teach nothing of themselves and if they do they are not to be heard Secondly the express order which the Apostle gives us that the Word of CHRIST should dwell richly in us doth shew that it 's the duty of Pastors sedulously to exhort their Flocks unto the study and reading and meditation of the Divine Scriptures and that it is incumbent on their flocks to addict themselves assiduously thereto Whence it follows in the third place that this Word of CHRIST ought to resound continually every where in the Church and in its publick Assemblies and in private Families and the very Closets of its Members Otherwise how would it dwell plenteously in us Moreover since the Apostle speaks here to all the faithful in general as well people as Ministers this Epistle being directed by him to all the faithful Brethren in CHRIST which are at Colosse its evident further his intention is that not only all Christians do hear this Word in the Church but that they also read it each one in private if they can and that such reading is not only permitted but commanded them as profitable and necessary Again the Apostles requiring it should dwell in them yea dwell richly in them does necessarily infer that it is not enough to know some general points of this Heavenly Doctrine but that men ought to be fully and distinctly instructed in it and in such sort as there may not be any part of this Divine treasure but we are possessed of The same appears further from the effect which the Apostle would have us draw from it namely our abounding by means of this word in all Wisdom a thing which hath no place in those that have but a superficial and as they speak an implicite that is a confused involved and entangled knowledge of it Whence in fine it clearly follows that the Word of CHRIST containeth all things necessary to Salvation it being evident that he that is ignorant of any part of them is not owner of Wisdom and much less of all Wisdom which yet the Apostle intimates we shall have if the Word of the LORD doth dwell richly in us Compare now the Law and the Discipline of Rome with this Doctrine of S. Paul and you shall find such a difference or to say better so palpable a contrariety between them as that the night and darkness are not more contrary to the day and its light First the Apostle remits his Scholars to the Word of CHRIST to learn there all the duties of Christianity Rome directeth hers unto the Pope and his Officers to be instructed about their Salvation The Apostle gives Sentence that the Word of CHRIST is capable of giving us all Heavenly Wisdom if it dwell in us Rome asserts that it is not sufficient for this end and that it contains but some part of saving Wisdom for the compleating whereof unwritten tradition must be added The Apostle would have this divine Word dwell in us Rome would not that it should and introduceth in its place I know not what kind of fabulous Legends with which it fills the world giving them to her votaries for the instructing and feeding of their Souls The Apostle willeth that this Word be read both in publick and in private among the faithful Rome will not that either the one or the other be As for the publick if she shew her assemblies any pieces of it she shews them hidden and wrapt up in a Language not understood that is she reads them and reads them not it being evident that the proclaiming the Laws and Ordinances of a Soveraign to a people in a language which they do not understand is all one as if they were not in effect proclaimed It 's the holding out a Candle but a Candle hid under a Bushel that is an holding it not out It 's a presenting the face of CHRIST unto his people but a presenting it veiled and disguised under such a form as they discern nothing of it And as to private respects you know with what indignity Rome doth treat Christians and how she forbids them to read their Father's Testament and judgeth it a crime that they should handle Books which were made for them or see those Letters which are expresly directed to them And that the permission of this reading which they give some Tradesmen of this City and the boldness of some Doctors who deny even the clearest things may not deceive you I think it pertinent to represent unto you here the Doctrine of Rome touching this matter Know then that in the Treatise and Index of prohibited Books drawn up by the Authority of the Council of Trent approved and publish'd by the Authority of Pope Pius IV Index libr. pro hibitor Reg. 4. and of all His Successors one of their first Rules runs expresly in these words Since it is manifest by experience that if the Holy Bible be commonly and indifferently permitted in the Vulgar Tongue there cometh of it more damage than profit by reason of the temerity of men the judgment of the Bishop or the Inquisitor must be stood to in this case so as they by the Counsel of the Parish Priest or of the Confessor may grant the reading of the Bible in a Translation made by some Catholique Author unto such as they shall find capable of drawing from such reading not damage or prejudice but increase of faith and piety and this License they must have in writing As for those that shall presume to read it without such License they may not receive absolution of their sins without having first rendred up their Bible into the Ordinaries hands Thus far the Papal Law Was their ever Ordinance more injurious to the Word of GOD and to His Apostles authority First their position at the entrance namely that the common reading of the Bible does more hurt than good and causeth more damage than profit this I say is horrible and directly contrary both to the Wisdom and Goodness of GOD as also to S Paul's declaration For who can believe that GOD should give such Books to His Church as are more apt to hurt than to help And how doth His Apostle recommend them to all Christians indifferently willing that this Word dwell plenteously in them if this be dangerous for them and rather pernicious than profitable And why doth he promise us from it the fruit of Wisdom yea of all Wisdom if the reading be so perillous Is Wisdom an evil and damageable thing But it is easie to comprehend the thoughts of Rome She means assuredly that reading of the Bible is prejudicial to Her that it discovereth her impostures and giving Wisdom to the Simple doth arm and fortifie them against her corruptions and pretended traditions This is in truth the damage and loss she feareth and which makes her so careful to extinguish or set aside all glimpses of this Heavenly light to the end
is not worthy of me he cannot be my Disciple Saving this just and reasonable exception children owe their fathers that obedience in all things which the Apostle here enjoyns them And first in those which are of themseves good and holy and conform to the Divine will beside that the Law of GOD obligeth us all to them the command of a Father doth moreover oblige anew his children and if they fail in it beside the crime they thereby commit against GOD they commit another against paternal authority which shall be charged on them and punished apart as a different sin and worthy of its particular penalty Secondly the child again owes obedience in medial and indifferent things that is things which are morally neither good nor evil the extent whereof is very great Though such things be free of their own nature yet they are so no more unto a child after the father's order His command draws them forth of that indifferency in which they lay and renders them necessary in reference to him And here must no self-flattery take place I wish and it is their duty as we shall hear anon that Fathers would command nothing but what is humane and equitable yet if they forget themselves and pass these bounds how harsh and troublesome soever their commands be obey'd they must be if they contain in them nothing impious or contrary to the Divine Law according to the express order that S. Peter giveth Servants to be subject to their Masters not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward The reason for children in reference to their fathers is the same in this behalf with that for servants in reference to their Masters You see then Beloved Brethren the just extent of all those things in which the Apostle would have children obey their Parents Whence appears how unrighteous and dangerous and contrary to the Word of GOD the Doctrine of those of Rome is who enfranchise all Christian children from this paternal authority and power daughters at twelve and sons at fourteen giving them liberty at these so green years of age to go from their parents house will they nill they and retire from under their obedience into the cloysters of their monasteries where they have erected an assured sanctuary and an inviolable safegard for the rebellion of children against their fathers and their mothers There under the umbrage of a false devotion they entertain children in idleness and foment their impiety tyrannically giving them a dispensation for that obedience and those just succours which by all the laws of GOD and men they owe to the sacred persons of those who gave them being in the world The father demands of 'em the assistances and consolations which he promised himself from them He sheweth them his gray hairs and his limbs trembling through age he conjures them by the life he gave them and by the cares he took to breed them up He summons them to render him the just rewards of his pains and not to despise the tears and treaties of a person to whom they are obliged for their life The mother all in mourning presents them the paps that nursed them and sets before their eyes the tenderness of her affection and all the tyes of nature And they both together adjourn them before GOD that they may see themselves condemned at His dreadful tribunal to pay the honour which they owe them What say our adversaries hereupon They say that children ought to look upon their fathers and their mothers without emotion That neither their words nor their weeping should make any impression upon them That if they cannot enter into the monastery otherwaies than treading their bodies under foot they ought to have no horrour at all at so unnatural an action That it is piety to be cruel and insensible on such an occasion They say the monastick vow hath broken all the bonds of filial subjection and that the child who hath made it does no longer owe any thing to father or mother that he is dead to them and they have no more power over him no more than if he were out of the world Oh unrighteous and cruel and unnatural doctrine How could these men more plainly contradict the holy Apostle The Apostle saith Children obey your parents in all things for this is pleasing to the LORD And these Masters say Children obey them not in all things if they forbid you to be Monks scorn their Order It they command you to abide with them be gone against their will For you would do a thing displeasing to the LORD if you did not disobey them Neither let them alledge us here that they are now grown up If they cease to be children by attaining unto twelve or fourteen years I will acknowledge that they are no longer subject to their parents But if they must confess that no age does devest them of this quality it must be acknowledged that neither does any give them a dispensation for obedience since the Apostle commands it to all such as are children They excuse themselves upon the account of devotion This would pass if the father called his child unto impiety or commanded him to deny JESUS CHRIST or to serve idols But this father and this mother who would keep their child at home are Christians as well as Monks are and their house makes a part of JESUS CHRIST's as well as the Cloyster where he is kept in The obedience they demand of him is a duty commanded by the Law of GOD and very far from being contrary thereto I urge not at present that the vows by which he is pretended to be bound are contrary to the word of GOD as particularly that of mendicancy are rash as that of never marrying are injurious to the LORD as that of the blind and absolute obedience which they promise to a mortal man Let them go for permitted Certainly at least are they not necessary and themselves as great admirers of them as they are do confess I take it that one may serve GOD and obtain His kingdom without the precinct of a monastery and that neither beggery nor single lite nor the frock are things absolutely necessary to salvation There is neither place where one may not serve JESUS CHRIST in spirit and in truth nor habit but is compatible with piety Now the child ought to obey his father in all that GOD hath not prohibited Since then He hath not prohibited the living abroad out of the houses and habit of Benedict of Francis of Loyola and such other institutors of monastick life every child is necessarily obliged not to enter into them when his father forbids it him But you will say what if he hath made a vow to enter If he hath he hath done ill against the dues of piety and charity and such vows if it be an error to make them it is blindness and obduration to keep them The first and most inviolable of our vows is that which binds
either by defect or excess do not render to their servants what is right as for instance those that overbear them with toil or strokes and they that quite contrary let them live idle and in debauches those that diet them ill or too well and lastly they that defraud them of their wages which is one of the most horrid and cruel acts of injustice that can be committed But besides right the Apostle would have Masters render also to their servants equity The word he makes use of in the original properly signifies a certain equality and correspondence that should appear between the offices of the one of them and the deportment of the other so that as the servant obeyeth in singleness of heart and in the fear of GOD the Master likewise do command holily and religiously and that as the one serveth with joy and respect in like manner the other do govern with mildness and affection In a word right comprehends all that refers to justice and equity all that pertains to Christian Charity and gentleness For the reducing of the faithful unto this holy moderation he orders them to remember that they also have a LORD in the Heavens His meaning is that the dominion they have over their servants is not absolute but dependant on GOD and by consequence such as ought to be regulated by His word and will If they have people beneath them they have a Master and a Soveraign above them who is the common LORD of them all and unto whom they are to give account of the treatment which their servants shall receive at their hands He says particularly that this LORD is in the Heavens to hold them the better to their duty by the consideration of so redoutable a Majesty who is not here beneath on earth the place of misery and vanity but on high in Heaven sitting on an eternal throne and from that glorious habitation of light and immortality doth consider and govern all things at His pleasure nothing coming to pass in His whole Empire but He plainly perceives and most justly judgeth of This great LORD is above all and there is neither Master nor Prince of such elevation among men but is under His feet He is superlatively holy just and good He loveth all His creatures and concerns Himself in the wrongs of the meanest and most contemptible ones hating nothing more than injustice and insolence outrage and cruelty possessing withal an infinite wisdome and an almighty power which none is able to resist Sure then consideration of the Empire and soveraign dominion that He hath over us is very proper to keep us within bounds and to restrain us from abusing the power He hath given us over persons subject to us nor could the Apostle put those that have servants in mind of any thing more pertinently that should oblige 'em to render them right and equity Thus we have explained his instructions It 's now for you Beloved Brethren to make your profit of them and to gather the fruits he offers you in them for the amendment of your lives and the consolation of your souls First Ye Christians whom the meanness of your birth or as they call it of your fortune hath reduc'd to the condition of serving rejoyce ye at the the honour done you by this great Minister of CHRIST who disdaineth not to address his holy voice unto you Set the care he hath of you against the contempt that men cast upon you Let his speaking to you comfort you and raise your hopes of the inheritance of GOD. Think well upon the report he makes you that the persons to whom ye are subject are not your Masters but in reference to the flesh Your servitude will not be eternal Nay it will not be very long nor extend further at most then to the end of that carnal life which ye lead upon the earth When this earthly tabernacle is once dissolved you shall enter into the glorious liberty of the children of GOD and then there will no more be any difference between you and your Masters For the present your better part is already in possession of this liberty namely that spirit which GOD hath formed in you after his own image and which maugre all the outrages of men will ever remain master of it self if you give it to JESUS CHRIST the great freer of mankind who doth faithfully and speedily enfranchise every one that receiveth and embraceth His truth Only take heed that ye abuse not His grace as if the spiritual liberty He hath gratify'd you with did discharge you from doing faithful service to your Masters after the flesh The more He hath illuminated you in the knowledge of Himself the more fidelity and love do you owe. For besides other reasons the fear of GOD and the will of JESUS CHRIST doth now oblige you to obey them so that the serving them makes up a part of your piety According to your acquitting your selves therein well or ill GOD will give you or deny you his inheritance But besides your own interest the glory also of the Gospel is concerned in the case For your faults defame our religion and make it believ'd to be a licentious discipline whereas your fidelity will produce us praise Every one will be constrained to acknowledge the sanctity of our doctrine when they shall see it reform the deportment even of man and maid-servants And this the Apostle doth expresly represent unto you elsewere Tit. 2.9 10. Let servants saith he be obedient to their masters pleasing them well in all things not answering again not purloyning but shewing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of GOD our Saviour in all things Object me not the ill humour and rigour of your Masters Remember the words of St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.18 who obligeth you to serve not only such as are good and equitable but also the froward Take their ill treatment for an occasion by which GOD would exercise and refine your faith Receive those strokes of the rod from His hand and not from theirs making them matter for your patience and a tryal of your faith Let the eye of JESUS CHRIST who looketh on you let His favour and benediction which always accompany conscionable sufferings let the hope of his inheritance for your Salary sweeten all the pains of your servitude How ingrateful soever men be to you your patience shall not be left unrewarded if ye persevere in it constantly for CHRIST'S sake And you Masters who so much desire to have faithful and obedient servants render ye to them that right and equity which the Apostle commands you Though your extraction or estates set you above them in humane society yet your nature is no other then theirs Ye are subject to the like infirmities with them One and the same death will consume you both nor will there be any difference between your dust and theirs You shall appear before the same Judge and the tribunal
together with that good intention he bringeth with him unto such encounters diligently discern the persons he is engaged with not only in respect of the different conditions they are of in the world or in respect of their diverse capacity but also principally in regard of their humour and their disposition in reference to religion For they that are without have not all of them an equal aversion for ours There are some that have a sweet and an humane and tractable spirit and that hate not our persons though they approve not our sentiments There are others that are furious and look not upon us but as monsters whom they could with all their hearts as one may say devour For it 's the property of errour and of superstition to inspire their zealots oftentimes with these cruel and inhumane passions You shall again meet with spirits who though perhaps they rise not to this excess of rage yet are retchless and obstinate and having smothered or as St. Paul speaks fear'd up with an hot iron all sentiments of true conscience reason and honour are wilfully become a prey to errour and have stop'd up their ears and all the entrances into their understandings against the words and lights of truth with a determinate resolution not to admit any thing that crosseth their opinions and rather to renounce the quality of reasonable creatures then the maxims of their false religion That there must be very different demeanour towards these diverse sorts of persons there is no one but sees And our saviour plainly tells us as much when notwithstanding the order He gives His Apostles to publish His truth on the house tops He yet adviseth them expresly elsewhere Mat. 7.6 not to cast their pearl before swine and the reason He annexeth is considerable lest saith He they tread them under their feet and turn again and rend you plainly signifying by these words as experience sufficiently confirms that the spirits of those He speaks of are irritated and inflamed by that very endeavour which is used to cure them and that they are so far from amending as they become more fierce and more cruel upon it But now this discrimination of persons is not made for the having in sequel the liberty to hate the one and love the other For a Christian's religion permitteth him not to hate any man it indispensibly obligeth him to love all whatever be their nature or their religion or their disposition towards us yea it requireth him even to bless those that curse him Mat. 5.44 and do good to them that persecute him and make prayers and votes for them that crucifie him He considers not these differences of men but for the regulation of his deportment for the diversifying not of the passions of his heart but of the actions of his life towards them For though his carriage be different in one manner to some and in another manner to others yet his heart is the same towards all and to say true it 's the love he hath for them rather than any other reason that makes him to deal diversly with them To come then unto the choice of such means as are necessary and may be sutable for the end that we propose unto our selves in this kind of carriage Christian wisdome excludes from the number first all evil actions all actions that are contrary to piety or justice We owe this respect not only to GOD and our own consciences but also to men and especially to such as are without that we at no time do any ill before them For unjust or impious actions beside the venome they have in themselves have also this bad property that they are directly contrary to the end we ought to have in our deportment towards persons without which is as we have said the winning them to CHRIST Instead of attracting and bringing them on such actions drive them off and disgust them at the thing inducing them to judge ill of our religion by the ill fruits it produceth in us and to suspect that our belief is like our works and our Gospel as false as our lives are foul It was one thing that Nathan noted in King David's sin Thou hast made enemies saith he 2 Sam. 12.14 to blaspheme the Name of GOD And St. Paul in the evil lives of the Jews Thou saith he that makest thy boast of the law Rom. 23.24 by transgressing the law dishonourest thou GOD For the Name of GOD is blasphemed because of you among the Gentiles The Heathen heretofore took like offence at the debauches of bad Christians and did not forbear to reproach them with it The men vant said they that they are delivered from the tyrannie of Satan and dead unto the world yet their affections and lusts do no less overcome and master them than ours do us whom they call slaves of Satan For what serves this Baptisme wherewith as they pretend they have been wash'd and that Spirit which as they say doth govern them and that Gospel which they make so great a noise withal since their whole life is full of filth and flesh and disorder Accordingly you see how the Apostle among other reasons which he alledgeth to divert the faithful from things contrary to justice and honesty doth not forget to urge this for one that the Name of GOD saith he and his doctrine be not blasphemed 1 Tim. 6.1 and in another place that the word of GOD be not blamed and a little after that ye may make the doctrine of GOD our Saviour honourable in all things So the first thing we owe to those that are without is a pure and constant innocence in all our treating with them The beginning and the first point of prudent converse in this behalf is that we neither say nor do any thing in all the communication we have with them which they may justly accuse of wanting devotion towards GOD or of covetousness or cruelty or any other unseemly or unjust passion towards themselves But after abstinence from evil we owe them also the performing and practising of that which is good first by rendring to them readily and uprightly all that is their due by the laws of GOD and of Nations to Princes fidelity and obedience to Magistrates respect to Kindred and Countrey-men amity each in their degree Rom. 13.7 and as St. Paul saith else-where tribute custome fear honour to whomsoever either of 'em doth belong not defrauding any one of his right nor lying indebted unto any Let Soveraigns see us zealous for their service private men round and sincere and trusty in all the affairs we have with them religious observers of our contracts and our words honest debtors milde and humane creditors courteous and helpful neighbours Let them not find us faulty in reference to any of the offices of an honest and a civil life For GOD forbid that we should ever admit into our hearts so impious and barbarous and inhumane a conceit as
some do harbour namely that it is lawful to break promise with such as are without and to deceive or use a person ill when we can plead that he is not of our communion On the contrary it 's to these that we must shew most justice and integrity these of all men are the persons towards whom we must acquit our selves of all that we owe them with greatest religiousness and scruple And he that thinks to draw me to side with him by an act of injustice or cruelty or perfidiousness is so far from gaining any thing that way that he makes me believe with a great deal of reason the religion which permits him such things and excuseth them under colour of a good intention and pretends them serviceable for greater glory to GOD is an impious and abominable superstition and much worse in this particular than the sects and disciplines of Pagans themselves who how ignorant soever they were yet never held any of these horrible maxims GOD will not be serv'd at all with unrighteousness and treacheries and to make account or ascribe to Him that He taketh pleasure in such services is one of the greatest outrages that can be done Him They are grateful to the devil and to none but him A Christian looks not upon any man on earth as his enemy he knows that they are all the creation of the LORD his GOD and that his Master died for them and shed His blood to save them He respects this character in them however disfigured by vice or error And his rendring them these dues is not out of a fear he hath of their power or their ill will as some would perswade us that the primitive Christians submitted not to their heathen Emperors and Magistrates but only out of prudence or rather a world-like craftiness because they were the stronger and themselves the weaker and that had they had the means they would have pluck'd the scepter out of their hands and without scruple trampled that diadem under foot which they made semblance to honour with such humbleness No dear Brethren this is not the nature or the foundation of a Christian's carriage towards those that are without It is GOD it is his conscience and not simply some other consideration that obligeth him to live with them as he doth according to the Apostle's doctrine in another place where he says we must be subject Rom. 13.5 not only for wrath that is for fear of vengeance and of the sword which the Magistrate bears in his hand but also for conscience sake which in like manner extendeth to all other duties that is we must pay our creditors keep our word perform our promises honour our fellow-subjects live honestly with them though they be not of our religion not only for avoiding of the evils we should incurr by doing it not but also for conscience sake so as what impunity yea what salary soever we might expect for neglecting such duties we yet do never neglect them accounting our selves bound to do them by a supreme and indispensable law namely the just and holy will of GOD. But besides these things which we owe Christian prudence in its conduct towards those without maketh use of others also which in rigour of right we owe not For in this behalf it aimeth not simply at our discharging our selves but at the winning of those whom we treat withal so that if any thing unto which otherwise justice obligeth us not may be serviceable to this its end that reason is that reason is sufficient to make us do them On which account it opens the bosome of our humanity courteousness and beneficence to those that are without to give them all the assistance favour and succour that we can in their need as often as they ask it of us yea when they ask it not We should in this case imitate the goodness of our LORD who maketh His Sun to shine and His rain to fall even on them that blaspheme Him Make me not those frigid and frivolous excuses that they are out of our communion that they hate us that they do us evil that they are ungrateful This is good discourse for a worldling who measures his devoirs by nothing but his own interest As for you that are a disciple of JESUS CHRIST it 's the least thing you should consider You should principally respect the glory of GOD the service of his Son and the edification of men Do you good to all as your Heavenly Father doth disdain no one whom He hath made Account any one your neighbour that hath need of you be he Samaritan or Pagan It imports not so he be a man There is nothing more effectual to perswade him that your religion is holy and divine than this vertuous and generous deportment At least you will hereby take from him all pretext of calumniating your profession You will remain justified in his thoughts and oblige him if he be ever call'd to give testimony of you to speak in that glorious and honourable language which the probity and innocence of the primitive beleevers sometime drew from the mouths of Pagans such a one is a good man and there is nothing to be blamed in him but that he is a Christian Again for our living prudently with those that are without it 's one principal duty incumbent on us to accommodate our selves to them as far as piety will permit not needlesly contrarying them at any time nay willingly yielding them some part of our rights bowing and conforming themselves to their laws their humours and wills in things indifferent that they may see it 's not capriciousness nor hatred but the force of our consciences alone that constraineth us to dissent from their religion and that setting this aside and our consciences salved there is nothing but we would both do and suffer to pleasure them Such was the Apostle's practice and he hath left us an excellent pattern of this holy prudence which he proposeth and representeth at large in the ninth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians I have made my self saith he a servant to all 1 Cor. 9.19 c. that I might gain the more Vnto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews and unto the Law as if Jew that I might gain the more Vnto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews and unto them that are under the Law as if I were under the Law to them that are without the law as without the law to the weak became I as weak and all things to all men that in conclusion I might save some Imitate we this holy example of the Apostle only take heed to limit as he did this complacentialness unto things which we have power to dispose of that is such as are free and indifferent for us not extending it to those that are evil and prohibited in the School of CHRIST as contrary to piety or sanctification remembring
Barnabas had wrote them in recommendation of him And thereunto the Apostle adjoyns his own counsel to them Acts 15.39 saying if he come unto you receive him Some conceive that he thus writes because of that ill understanding that sometime hapned between him and Barnabas on the occasion of Mark to shew now that there was no relique of it in his heart However that be 't is certain as we read in the Acts that Mark bewray'd a little weakness at the beginning Acts 13.13 quitting Paul and Barnabas in Pamphilia without any reason amid their conquests But afterward the Grace of GOD so mightily strengthened him and so eminently employed him in converting of Nations that beside the memory of it which remains in all the monuments of antiquity he hath also drawn from the pen of St. Paul two or three very honourable testimonies this here for one Phil. 24. and another like it in the Epistle to Philemon where he mentions him among his fellow-workers and the most advantageous of all in the second to Timothy 2 Tim. 4.11 Take Mark saith he and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the Ministry The third of those whom the Apostle mentions here is Jesus called Justus 'T is probable that his true name was Jesus and that Justus was but the name which the Latines and Greeks gave him calling him Justus instead of Jesus it being usual with them to alter foreign names in that manner when they pronounc'd them in their own dialects We have of this servant of GOD no other memorial at all For though some conceive that it 's the same Justus of whom speech is in the 18th Chap. of the Acts unto whose house St. Paul retir'd at Corinth when he saw the Jews resist his preaching yet this seems not possible because this man was by extraction a Gentile and uncircumcised though he had some knowledge and fear of GOD as appears by St. Luke's terming him a religious man or one that worshipped GOD a character he ordinarily gives to persons of this condition as to Cornelius the Centurion and divers others whereas that Justus who is in question here was indeed a Jew and circumcised as St. Paul sheweth adding immediately of him and the two other afore-named who are of the circumcision and he praiseth them all three in commune saying that they alone to wit of their Nation were his fellow-workers unto the kingdom of GOD and protesteth that they were a consolation to him A great and an illustrious testimonial given them that they laboured with him in preaching the Gospel for the advancement of the kingdom of GOD that is to say for the edifying of the Church which the Scripture ordinarily calls the kingdom of Heaven and in the same sense the kingdom of GOD. Now this is that that the Apostle says of these three servants of the LORD It remains for a conclusion that we intimate unto you briefly what edification you ought to draw from those particulars which we have noted in the Apostles present Text. And first by the pain the Colâ—ssians were in for St. Paul and by the care St. Paul takes for their consolation you may see the ardent and cordial affection which the flocks and Ministers of CHRIST should have for one another Make your profit of it ye the LORD's sheep and tenderly compassionate the labours and the sufferings of your Pastors Ye Pastors do likewise and prefer before all interests of your own the edification and consolation of those sheep whom the great Shepheard hath redeemed with his blood Then again the love which these five faithful men here mentioned did bear unto St. Paul they keeping ever neer him and cheerfully and constantly obeying his orders shews us with what fervour we should serve such as suffer for the Gospel and with what zeal we should inseparably adhere to the Apostles of JESUS CHRIST the Teachers and Founders of the Church For though their persons be no longer here below yet their doctrine is and will remain here to the end and in this respect they are still in their sacred writings sitting as it were on twelve thrones thence judging all the Israel of GOD. Moreover the Apostle's praising all the persons he here speaks of so liberally as he doth may inform us with what candor we should acknowledge the graces which GOD hath imparted to our brethren diffusing the sweet savour of their good name through the Church and honouring their zeal and their fidelity with our testimonials to their comfort and the edification of their neighbours Far from us be envy and malignity and pride passions of a base alloy and unworthy of a truly noble Christian disposition Let not the graces and dignity of Paul induce him to despise Onesimus I mean let not the advantages of such as are greatest cause them to disdain the least But consider we particularly the examples of each of those five faithful men and imitate them For it 's to this end that the holy Apostle hath proposed them and thought meet to consecrate the memory of them in his divine and immortal Epistles not that he might oblige us to dedicate festivals to them or render them religious worship or invocate them as our Mediators away with such a thought for all this appertaineth to GOD only The true honour we owe them is to serve GOD after their example and conform our lives to theirs and draw the pourtraict of their high and holy vertues on our dispositions and our actions Imitate we the fidelity of Tychicus the repentance and faith of Onesimus the courage and the patience of Aristarchus the laboriousness of Marcus and of Justus in the matters of the Kingdom of GOD. Let not meanness of birth or of condition let not the greatness of sins discourage any JESUS CHRIST rejecteth neither the poor nor the peccant that come to him with faith witness Onesimus who though a bondman and fugitive yet so effaced all this ignominy that he hath praise from the mouth of the Apostle and his name engraven here in the temple of GOD among the names of the most illustrious Servants of His. If you have followed the LORD constantly and evenly as Tychicus and Aristarchus did thank Him for the grace He hath shewed you and go on from good to better If it hath befaln you as it did Mark to slacken sometime in the work of your heavenly calling resume likewise as he did your former vigour and reduce your selves to that pass as it may be said of you that you are useful for the LORD's service In general Beloved Brethren let us all be as these holy and happy persons were fellow-workers with the great Apostle unto the Kingdom of GOD burning with him in an holy zeal to glorifie JESUS CHRIST living with him in all pureness and sanctity employing with him our tongues our hands and our pens for the converting of men and edifying of the Church and finally couragiously suffering with
such as have had the curiosity to enquire what this letter might be have faln upon different opinions as in a matter both obscure and besides of no great necessity Some of the Ancients say that it is the first Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy written from Laodicea as is expresly reported by an old tradition which is read still to this day at the end of that Epistle And the truth is it cannot be deny'd but this Epistle containeth divers instructions fit to edifie the Colossians about the business of those seducers whom St. Paul here opposeth they dogmatised a discrimination of dayes and meats and this is there expresly condemned And whereas it is alledged against these Authors that the Apostle had not been in the City of Laodicea by means whereof he could not have thence written any letters either to Timothy or any other they perhaps would answer with an Ancient Author Theodoret by name that the History of the Acts assuring us St. Paul had traversed Phrygia it is not very probable but that he pass'd through Laodicea the capital City of the Province And whereas he saith in the 2. chap. to the Colossians that he hath a great conflict for them and for those at Laodicea and for all such as had not seen his presence in the flesh this shews indeed that the Apostle had care even of those of the faithful whom he had not seen but not that they of Laidicea or of Coloss were of the number and that the sense of these words is he was in pain not only for them whom he had seen and known but even for the Christians he never saw Yet because this exposition may seem a little forced it is better and more easie to stick to the common opinion follow'd by the greater part of Expositors both Ancient and Modern even that the Epistle from Laedicea here mention'd by the Apostle was a letter written by the Church of Laodicea to St. Paul which letter he desireth the Colossians should read in their Assembly because it contained things which he judged helpful to their edification perhaps concerning the persons or the errours or the procedures of those very seducers whom he combateth in this Epistle This in my opinion is that which may be said in the matter with greatest probability There remaineth the third and last order he gives them say to Archippus Take heed to the Ministry thou hast received in the LORD that thou fulfill it We learn from the Epistle to Philemon that Archippus was a fellow-souldier of the Apostle's that is a Minister of the holy Gospel The meaning then is that the Church do advertise him on St. Paul's behalf to mind both the quality of that excellent Ministry and the Authority and Divinity of the LORD in whose name he had been called to it that he might acquit himself worthily in it and diligently fulfill all the functions of it leaving no part of them unperformed It is thought that some negligence or other defect of this Pastor might oblige the Apostle to cause this advise to be given him But for my part I would not without a more pressing reason suspect such a thing of a person whom the Apostle had so much honoured as to call him his fellow-souldier in the Epistle he wrote at the same time to Philemon and should rather beleeve that Archippus having been newly receiv'd into this sacred charge the Apostle would encourage him by this advertisement to a good discharge of his duty in it However it were you see he gives the body of the Church a power to address some remonstrances sometinâ—es to it 's own Pastors An evident sign that they are not the Masters and Lords of it as those of Rome pretend but Ministers and Officers only In fine he adds for a conclusion The salutation by the own hand of me Paul The rest of the Epistle had been dictated by the Apostle and written by another hand He writeth these and the following words himself with his own hand 1 Thes 3.17 and it was his ordinary use so to do as he declareth elsewhere 2 Thes 2.2 to assure his letters by this mark against the fraud of falsifiers who even then impudently dispersed forged letters under his name as himself in another place intimates unto us Yet before he shuts up he conjures them to remember his bonds as an excellent seal of the truth of his Gospel and an irrefragable testimony of the affection he bore to them and to the rest of the Gentiles for whose sake he suffered these things which consequently obliged them to love him and to pray the LORD ardently for him and above all to imitate his constancy and his patience on the like occasions if they should be called to them After this he gives them his blessing in these words Grace be with you Amen He means the Grace of GOD in JESUS CHRIST His Son our LORD and it was not possible to crown this divine Letter with a fairer and a fitter close Bless we GOD my Beloved Brethren who hath vouchsafed us the grace to read and to explain it throughout in these holy Assemblies and pray Him that he would please to continue the same liberty and tranquility still unto us causing His word to fructifie among us At present let us particularly meditate the remarkable Lessons which this conclusion doth contain to the end we may sedulously practise them each of us according to our Vocation Let Ministers mind the advertisement given to Archippus and imitate the example of Epaphras in loving cordially their flocks in striving for them both by prayer and by word and by deed fulfilling their Ministry and so demeaning themselves in it as may be worthy both of the excellency of the charge and of the respect and love they owe to the son of GOD who hath honoured them with it Let Flocks have reverence and amity for their Pastors and live an good intelligence with their neighbours as Coloss and Laâ—dicea mutually communicating all things that tend to their common edification Let the Epistles of St. Paul and the Books of his fellow-brethen the Prophets and Apostles of the LORD resound eternally in our Assemblies Let their Voice alone be there heard and their Doctrine alone receiv'd and every tradition not marked with their zeal be banish'd thence Let heads of Families imitate the zeal of Nymphas so conscionably forming their children and their people unto piety and so regularly establishing the exercises of it among them that it may be truly said of them they each have a Church in their house And all of us together of what order or condition soever let us study to be perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD and persevere unto the end in this holy profession remembring also the bonds of St. Paul and the sufferings of the faithful by which GOD hath confirmed the truth of His Gospel and so walk in the steps of these blessed ones enjoying the favours of
float in your head to be pluckt away by an enemy on the first occasion It must be engraven on your heart with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond that is you should be so firmly perswaded of it as nothing may be able to efface it and enfeeble your belief of it I know well every one boasteth to be so But there is a great difference between words and things themselves Shew it me by your lives and I will credit it If you be fully perswaded of the truth of the Gospel How is it that you have not the charity which it so necessarily commandeth us How do you hate men whom it commandeth you to love and love the vices which it enjoyneth you to hate Let us lay by words and possess in deed that full certainty of understanding which the Apostle wisheth us This is the true way for us to abide all joyned together in charity to conflict with and overcome our enemies to edifie and preserve our friends to attract those that are without to retain those that are within to enjoy much consolation in all the trials of this world and to obtain in the end the Salvation and the glory of the other through the grace of our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD be all honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen The SEVENTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER III. Vers III. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledg IGnorance of the natures and qualities of the LORD JESUS is the source of all the errors and heresies which have exercis'd the Christian Church from its beginning down to this day 1 Cor. 2.9 And as S. Paul said of the rulers of the Jews that if they had known the true wisdom they would never have crucify'd the LORD of Glory So may we say of the authors of all the false and pernicious Doctrines which men have lusted to introduce into Religion that if they had duly known JESUS CHRIST they would not have ever troubled the Church I pass by the scourges of the first ages the impiety of the Arrians and the Dokites the extravagancy of the Nestorians and the Eutychians together with the numberless branches of the one and the others they all evidently sprung from ignorance of the true being of our LORD JESUS CHRIST and strike directly at Him ruining either His natures by attributing to Him the one a created and imperfect Divinity the others an imaginary and phantastique Humanity or His Person some of them dividing others confounding the natures which are united in it From the same original its clear have come those abuses and disorders which had the vogue in the following ages and which raising themselves by little and little from weak and obscure beginnings have at last got a superiority and suffocated the genuine simplicity and verity of the Gospel Hence proceeded that invocation of Saints which is at this day practised throughout all the Roman Communion Hence hath issued that second sacrifice which they call of the Altar and wherein the heart of Religion is made to consist If men had rightly known the excellency of our LORD's mediation and the effectual extent of His Cross they would never have address'd them to any other Intercessor never have had recourse to any other oblation From the said ignorance also as from a common spring of error have flowed in among people satisfactions and merits of condignity and congruity and indulgences and the rules and odly various Disciplines of Monks and in summ all Superstitions If people had well known what an one JESUS CHRIST is they would have been assuredly content with His Satisfaction and with his infinite merit and with that eternal indulgence which He hath purchas'd for all that believe and with the perfection of His Gospel Hence again hath come the setting up of another Head in the militant Church to be there as the Vicar and coadjutor of JESUS CHRIST If this JESUS whom the Father hath given over all things for an Head to the Church if the fulness of His power and of His wisdom and His infinite love had been well known never had this second Monarchy been erected in His Kingdom In fine we may say to these and to all others that err in Religion Joh. 4.10 as sometime our LORD Himself said to the Samaritan If you knew the gift of GOD and who this JESUS is that speaketh to you in His Scriptures you would seek all your Salvation in Him alone and demand of none besides Him any of the things that are necessary for the refreshment and consolation of your Souls Judg faithful Brethren how much it concerneth us to know Him well and to have Him still before our eyes Since this knowledg sufficeth to secure us from error Accordingly you see with what care the Apostle S. Paul represents Him to us and with what affection he lays out before us all the marvels of this great and divine Subject He described Him before to the Colâ—ssians in a sublime manner and to fasten their hearts to Him alone shewed them that in Him is found all fulness But he contents not himself with this He now informes them further in the Text which you have heard that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg In these few words there is a great deal of sense and truth Therefore we will employ this whole exercise in the explaining of them to you if GOD permit noting in order all that shall seem to us necessary both for the understanding of the Text and for the instruction and edification of your Souls I know well that the relative word whom is in the Original indifferently whom or which and may be referred either to JESUS CHRIST or to the Mystery of GOD whereof he spake just before if referred to the latter it is as if he had said that in this Mystery are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and I deny not but the words so construed do make a veritable sense it being certain that our LORD's Gospel here called His mystery is an inexhaustible treasury of all saving wisdom and knowledg But it is not needful to come to this and in my mind it s more pertinent and more fluent to refer this word to the Name of CHRIST which immediately preceded and to account the Apostle's meaning is that in JESUS CHRIST are hid these treasures which he doth intend Yet at the bottom as you shall see the sense is the same which way soever of the two you understand it And for a right conceiving of it we must first refute the exposition which some do give of this Text and then assert the true meaning There are some that take these words as if Paul would say that JESUS CHRIST knoweth all things and hath so rich and so abundant a knowledg that He is ignorant of nothing It 's a mistaking of the Apostle's