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
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
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
Lordly and absolute authority and a dispotical power to Ministers of the Church over the LORD's flocks For the steward or dispenser hath power not to do any thing of his own head and after his own phantasy but only to dispense what the Master hath given him and precisely in such manner as he hath prescribed him If he license himself to do more he exceedeth the bounds of his commission and all that he doth or saith beyond them is null and of no force nor doth it oblige any one of the houshold to obey it But the Apostle adjoyneth in the third place the object of his Ministry that is who they are towards whom he ought to exercise it This dispensation of GOD hath been given me towards you saith he These Colossians to whom he wrote being Gentiles by birth and extraction he considereth them here in that quality and his meaning is that it was for them and others like them that he had been called to this sacred ministry that is to say in a word for the Gentiles It 's true an Apostleship was an universal charge which extended generally to all men of what nation or condition soever having the whole earth for its praecinct according to that clause of the commission which the LORD gave His Apostles when He sent them Go and teach all nations And that the Ministry of S. Mat. 28.29 Paul was of the same condition doth appear evidently by his procedure and by his writings For he often preached the Gospel to the Jews as you may see in divers places of the book of the Acts and he directed to them particularly that excellent Epistle to the Hebrews which remaineth in the Church to this day But though the extent of His charge was such originally and by right nevertheless that He might exercise it with more commodiousness and fruit GOD assigned him peculiarly to the Gentiles and would have him labour particularly for them as He gave him express notice when He directed His call from Heaven to him Act. 26.17 18. I send thee saith he to the Gentiles to open their eyes that they may be turned from darkness to light And afterwards in pursuit of this heavenly order Peter and Paul by a voluntary Oeconomy parted mankind in two Peter with the other Apostles taking the circumcision to preach to that is to say the Jews and Paul the uncircumcision that is the Gentiles as himself reports elsewhere Which must be understood of the ordinary exercise of their charges it being otherwise not prohibited either that Peter should undertake preaching to and the converting of the Gentiles Gal. 2. or Paul the like for the Jews if any opportunity inviting them to it were at any time presented them in the course of their Ministry Whereby you see in general how necessary this appropriating of a determinate flock to each Pastor is and how vain and exorbitant the pretention of Him is who calls himself the universal Pastor and Bishop of all Christendom For if the Apostles themselves who had the power did yet account the exercise of this charge so difficult that to acquit them of it they voluntarily parted the district of their commission between them each of them taking a portion of it only how can we believe that a man who is infinitely inferior in regard of the gifts of these great Ministers of GOD should be capable to govern alone the whole Church of CHRIST But the Apostle alledgeth this very pertinently to the Colossians to keep them fast in the purity of the faith For since he had been sent of GOD to illuminate and teach the Gentiles it is evident that being Gentiles as they were they owed him a particular respect and were to receive nothing into their belief which was unconform to his instructions considering him as the Minister of their faith whom GOD had particularly set over them Whence it follows that they neither could nor ought to embrace that novel doctrine which certain seducers did offer them seeing it was neither preached nor approved by S. Paul And since we our selves are by extraction Gentiles this consideration my Brethren obligeth us also to the same reverencing of this holy man He is our Apostle and the Minister whom GOD hath given us for an interpreter of His will and a conductor of our souls to salvation Let us respect Him among all the Ministers of CHRIST Let us hear him diligently Let us peruse His divine instructions night and day let us abide fixedly hanging on His sacred mouth and not hear ought beside Whatever others may be there was never any but he that received from heaven the particular commission to instruct us Lastly he sheweth us what the work is and the end of this Office of his the dispensation of GOD hath been given me towards you saith he to fullfil the word of GOD. Some there be that understand by this word of GOD whereof the Apostle speaketh the ancient oracles which foretold the converting of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true GOD in the days of the Messiah as that for instance Isai 42.6 49.6 Zech. 2.11 Mic. 4.1 which we read in Isaiah that CHRIST shall be a light to the Nations and in Zechary Many nations shall be joyned to the LORD in that day and shall become my people and in Michah Many nations shall go and shall say come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD and unto the house of the GOD of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in His paths And other such which are found in great number in the books of the Prophets As if the Apostle meant that he was appointed the Minister of the Gentiles for the accomplishing of these predictions Now sure it cannot be denied but the thing in its self is true it being clear that his preaching was one of the most excellent means which the LORD made use of for the effecting of what he had promised in those oracles namely the conversion of the nations Nevertheless the putting of this sense upon the Apostles words is in my opinion a doing them some violence For first the word of GOD in his stile doth signifie the Gospel which is so called by reason of its excellency being without controversie the most excellent of all the words of the LORD and these terms are alwaies constantly so understood when he coucheth them simply and absolutely as in this place he doth and I do not think that so much as one passage can be produced wherein he takes them otherwaies And though this were not so yet it is impossible to understand them otherwise here where the Apostle to explain what this word of GOD is for the fullfilling whereof he was sent immediately addeth the mystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations but hath now been manifested to His Saints which is as you see an illustrious description of the Gospel And as for this phrase of
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
is the only source thereof to render Him thanks for it This is the just and reasonable Tribute this liberal LORD demandeth of us for so many benefits as he communicateth daily to our Brethren and our selves If our lowness and poverty render us incapable of other acknowledgement let us at least faithfully acquit us of this so easie an one and so rightful and say with the Prophet Psalm 116.12 13. What shall I render to the LORD All his benefits are upon me I will take the cup of deliverances and call upon the Name of the Eternal One. Let us study with so much the more care to render this sacred due to the LORD by how much more black and detestable the ingratitude of men is in this behalf Far from blessing Him for the benefits he doth their neighbours they scarce give Him thanks for those they receive of Him themselves They impute them to their own industry or fortune and as saith the Prophet Sacrifice to their Drag for the good successes that betide them yea some so insensible there are as it is not godliness it self but they give the glory of it to their own will and the strength of their free determination But it is not enough to render thanks to GOD for our Brethren there must be also prayer for them For as it is He that gives them all the good things they possess So there is none but himself that can preserve or augment them to them and thus our thanksgivings should be ever followed or accompanied with Petitions as the Apostle sheweth in saying that be giveth thanks to GOD for the Colossians praying alwayes for them The Title He giveth to GOD calling Him the Father of our LORD JESVS CHRIST is not put here in vain but to distinguish and specifie the object of our prayers and thanksgivings The appellation of GOD under the Old Testament was The GOD of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob the Patriarchs with whom He contracted the Old Covenant and to whom He promised the New Now His Name is the Father of JESVS CHRIST by whom He hath abolished the Old Testament and accomplished the New Besides hereby St. Paul remindeth us of that we can never enough meditate that it is by the mean of this sweet and charitable Saviour GOD hath communicated Himself to us and if we have the honour to be His children 't is by JESUS CHRIST of whom He is properly the Father having not adopted Him as us but begotten Him from all eternity of His own substance by reason whereof that also which He assumed to Himself in the Womb of the Virgin hath the same glory according to what the Angel said The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee said he to the Holy Virgin and the Vertue of the Highest shall overshadow thee Luke 1 35. whence also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of GOD. But the Apostle addeth in his process what were those blessings of the Colossians for which himself and Timothy so assiduously rendred their thanks to GOD the Father of our Saviour Having heard speak of your faith in JESVS CHRIST saith he and of the charity you have towards all the Saints He had never been among them as He will say hereafter putting them after the opinion of most Interpreters Col. 2.1 in the number of those Who had not seen his presence in the flesh Therefore he saith it was by hearing that he understood of their faith and charity Here is faithful Sirs the true matter of our joyings and thanksgivings for our neighbours not that GOD hath given them vigour of health abundance of riches the favour of the great the glory of fame the knowledge of Sciences and such other worldly good things which to say the truth are but figures dreams and shadows that secure no person as we daily see either from diseases of the body or death or from trouble and disquiet of conscience or true misery But indeed for that Heaven hath revealed JESUS CHRIST to them and shed into their souls that holiness without which none shall see GOD. For these two Graces Faith and Charity comprize within their compass the whole Kingdom of GOD. Faith is the entrance thereof and charity the accomplishment The one cleareth our understandings the other sanctifieth our affections The one is the light of the soul the other is the heat thereof The one believeth and the other loveth The one beginneth and the other finisheth the happiness of our life Now Faith respects indeed generally the whole doctrine of GOD revealed in His Word believing it undoubtedly true but yet it fixeth particularly on the Promise He hath made us to give us Eternal Life in JESUS CHRIST His Son 'T is this properly that renders Faith saving and vivifying Without this it would not differ at all from the faith of Devils who believe there is a GOD and tremble at it But this love of GOD which it apprehendeth and embraceth giveth it salvation and enables it to produce in us all that 's necessary for getting in to the celestial Kingdom according to the assertions of JESUS CHRIST and His Apostles in divers places of the Scripture that whosoever believeth in the LORD is already passed from death to life That there is no condemnation for him and that being justified by faith we have peace with GOD. Hence St. Paul to describe here true faith addeth expresly these words Faith in JEVS CHRIST He sheweth us in like manner the object of Charity by saying The Charity you have towards all the Saints that is as we have intimated afore towards all Christians all the faithful I confess that Charity extendeth it self to all men generally there being none to whom we owe not love and on occasion the offices which a true and sincere affection is apt to produce since all men are the Works and Images of GOD since in Adam they all have one common nature with us and all are called to the participation of faith and of eternity in JESUS CHRIST by the Gospel which without distinction or exception inviteth all Nations and persons to repentance and grace But so it is notwithstanding that Charity embraceth not all men equally It hath divers degrees in it's affections and loveth it's neighbours more or less as it perceiveth more or less in them the marks of the hand of GOD and the tokens of His CHRIST and Spirit Seeing therefore they appear no where more clearly than in the Saints that is in true believers it is evident these make the first and principal part of the object of Charity Gal. 6.10 according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere Let us do good to all but principally to the houshold of faith Besides that Union we have with them a much more strict and intimate one than with any others their necessity also doth particularly oblige us thereto the hatred and persecution of the world putting them for the most part in such
case as none of Creatures do more need the offices of our Charity neither is there any object worthier of the affection and succour of a good and generous soul than innocence hated and oppressed unjustly therefore it is that the Apostle noteth here by name the Charity of the Colossians towards all the Saints He joyneth these two Vertues together Faith and Charity because in effect they are inseparable it being neither possible nor imaginable whatsoever error list to say of it that man should believe and truly embrace GOD as his Saviour in JESUS CHRIST without loving Him and His neighbours for His sake or that he should love Him sincerely without believing in Him He puts Faith before Charity not for that it is more excellent on the contrary he elsewhere openly giveth the advantage unto Charity but because it goes first in the order of things requisite to salvation It is the blessed root whence Charity springs forth 1 Cor. 13. and all other Christian Vertues It is the foundation of the spiritual building the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven the first fruits of the workmanship of GOD and the beginning of the second Creation As in the old Creation Light was the first thing He created so in the new one Faith is the first thing He produceth which the Apostle divinely expresseth to us elsewhere 2 Cor. 4.6 GOD saith he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of GOD in the face of JESVS CHRIST After the Faith and Charity of the Colossians the Apostle adds in the third place the Happiness that was kept for them in the Heavens For the hope saith He which is reserved in Heaven for you Some knit these words with what he had now said of the Faith and Charity of the Colossians and understand that these faithful people laboured with alacrity in the exercise of these Vertues for the hope they had of the celestial Crown and reward according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere of Moses that He chose rather to be afflicted with the People of GOD Hebr. than to enjoy for a little time the delights of sin and esteemed the reproach of CHRIST greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt because saith he he had respect to the recompence And he teacheth us in general of all those that come to GOD that they must believe that GOD is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek him Ibid. v. 6. And from hence it followeth not at all either that our works do merit the glory of Heaven or that our affection is mercenary If we should not hope but for what we merit our hopes would be very miserable But knowing that GOD is faithful and constant we hope with assurance for the bliss which He of His meer grace promiseth us and the less we merit it the more love we conceive towards GOD who giveth it to us and the more acknowledgement and service ought we to render Him for the same And for this gratuitous salary which He promiseth us we look not on it as a prey after which we hunt and without which we would have no love for the LORD but as an excellent evidence of His infinite goodness as a testimony of His admirable liberality that love of GOD which shines forth in it is the thing pleaseth and ravisheth us most of all and which enflameth our faith our zeal and our affection to the service of so good and amiable a LORD though then we should bind what the Apostle saith of the Charity of the Colossians with the hope they had of the heavenly glory there would be nothing in this but what were conform to Evangelical Truth Yet it seems to me more simple and fluent to refer it to the third Verse where he saith that He giveth thanks to GOD for the Colossians having understood their faith and charity for the hope He addeth now which is reserved in Heaven for you For to consider the condition of these believers on the earth it seems there was no great cause to congratulate them for their faith and charity the afflictions which they drew on them rendring them in appearance the most miserable of men But though the flesh make this judgement of it the Spirit that seeth above visible things the Crown of glory prepared for the faith and charity of the faithful holdeth them for the happiest of all Creatures congratulates them and rendreth thanks to GOD for the inestimable treasure he hath communicated to them I know saith the Apostle that your piety hath it's tryals and exercises in this world But I forbear not to bless the LORD affectionately for that He hath given it to you I know the bliss that is prepared for you on high in the Sanctuary of GOD. He takes the word Hope here as often elsewhere for the thing we hope for to wit the blessed immortality and glory of the world to come I confess we possess it not yet for hope is the expectation of a good to come Rom. 8.23 That we are saved saith the Apostle is in hope but hope that a man seeth is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for But this good though absent and to come is as assured to us as if we had it already in our hands The Apostle shews it when he addeth that this Hope is reserved in Heaven for you It is a treasure which GOD hath set apart having fully prepared it already keeping it faithfully for us in His own bosome Whence it is that we make an assured account thereof for He hath deposited it in the hands of JESUS CHRIST in whom is hid our life and immortality so as if we make an assured account of things which a man of probity and honour keepeth in trust for us how much more certain should we be of the life and glory to come seeing GOD hath put it for us in the keeping of so faithful and powerful a depositary The place where this rich treasure is kept deposited for us confirms yet more the hope and excellency of it to us for saith the Apostle it is reserved for us in the heavens Fear not ye Faithful Your bliss is not on earth where the Thief steals or infidelity and violence make spoil where time it self ruineth all things where Crowns the best establisht are subject to a thousand and a thousand accidents Yours is on high in the Heavens in the Sanctuary of eternity lifted up above all the odd variations and inconstancies of humane things where neither our changes nor the causes that produce them have any access But this same place sheweth you besides the excellency and perfection of the bliss you hope for inasmuch as all celestial things are great and magnificent Weakness poverty and imperfection lodge here below Heaven is the habitation of glory and felicity In fine the Apostle toucheth briefly in the
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
here to the Colossians opposing it to that of the Law the rudiments whereof some endeavoured to re-establish among them Secondly we must observe what is the object of this knowledge the knowledge saith he of the will of GOD. All men naturally desire to know and I avouch that every knowledge is beautiful and grateful and there is none truly such but addeth some ornament to our understanding Yet it must be confessed that they are for the most part incapable of giving us the perfection and happiness we desire and which is necessary for our nature Such are all mundane sciences found out and cultivated by the sages of the World not only their Philosophy about nature and the motions of the Heavens and the Elements and about the properties and effects of things animate and inanimate but also that part of their Doctrine which more neerly respecteth us and explaineth what our carriage should be both in particular and in respect of those that govern us or are governed of us either in the family or in the State For to say nothing of the variety and extream uncertainty of their opinions which change every day and float continually in infinite doubts after having passed an whole life in this study and made the greatest progresses that may be no man is by it either more content or more happy or more assured All the pretended light of their School will not be able to dissipate in us either the horrour of death or the fear of the Judgement of GOD. It is only the knowledge of the LORD that can free us of it and by consequence it alone is necessary for us the rest will not render us either more happy if we have them or more miserable if we have them not It 's then this alone which the Apostle wisheth unto the Colossians But we must yet consider in the Third place that He wisheth them the knowledge not of the nature or the Majesty or the other essential properties of GOD but of His will For as to the essence of this supream and incomprehensible LORD as to the infinite and immense greatness of His power as to the ineffable manner of His understanding and the marvels of His judgement it is not necessary for us to know them clearly It is sufficient for us to adore them and many have lost themselves in lusting to sound them It is His Will that we must know to attain salvation as the true rule of our duty and His judgement He hath fully declared it to us by the Ministry of His Heralds the Apostles and Prophets who have published it by word of mouth and configned it in writing in the Holy Books which they have left us There it is that we must seek it and not in the discourses of vain men There we shall find it manifested as far as is necessary for us to know and do it It hath two principal parts faith and obedience For the will of GOD as the Apostle understands it here is nothing else but that which GOD would have us believe Joh. 6.40 and do to be happy For faith His will is saith our LORD that whoever seeth the Son and believeth in Him have eternal life and be raised up at the last day 1 Thes 4.3 For action This is the will of GOD saith the Apostle even your sanctification These are the two first and principal heads of the will of GOD to which all other instructions in Scripture do referr It 's in the knowledge of these things that St. Paul prayeth GOD the Colossians might be perfect and accomplished He addeth in all wisdom and spiritual understanding We call them Wise men in the world that know how to compass their ends that use means fit for this purpose and skilfully avoid all that might put them from it so dextrously conducting their affairs that of two things the one follows either they finish that which they desire or if they prosper not in it it is some mishap and not their fault that is the cause of such ill success But because they propose unto themselves ends vain and evil and unprofitable to their happiness thence it comes that how wise soever they be esteemed by the world all their industry yet is to say true but folly and errour Those then on the contrary are wise after the Spirit who constantly hold the right course of piety guiding themselves in it with such skilfulness that they beware of scandals and all that might set them off from their mark avoiding what is contrary to it and practising what is useful And though the world commonly account them extravagant yet so it is that their conduct proves to be true wisdom since at the end and after all it will be found that none but they attain unto salvation It is then this skilfulness which the Apostle termeth here a spiritual wisdom both because it respecteth the things of the Spirit that appertain to a Celestial and spiritual life as also for that it is a gift of the Spirit of GOD coming from on high from the Father of lights neither the sense nor the reason of Nature being capable of giving it to any knowledge of the Divine will is as it were the matter and subject of wisdom Wisdom is as it were the use and employing of the knowledge of GOD. For to be wise after the Spirit it is not enough to know what is the will of GOD There must be use of this knowledge first by laying down for a certain and unmoveable maxime that it is in it our bliss consisteth and consequently that therein we must bound our desires Secondly by practising what we know of this Divine will aiming at the mark it sheweth us and employing to attain it the means it prescribeth us watching and labouring continually thereto For certainly that servant in the Parable who knew his Masters will and did it not was nothing less than wise As for the spiritual understanding which the Apostle wisheth in the last place to the Colossians it is a quick and exquisite prudence to judge aright of things that are presented and discern the good from the evil the true from the false and the real from the apparent and this gift as you see is also a fruit of the knowledge of GOD and consisteth only in an exact application of what we know of His will to the doctrines and counsels which the flesh and its Ministers set before us to turn us out of the way of salvation It 's this was wanting to Eve when she was seduced by the Serpent and to the Galathians when they were abused by those impostors the Apostle fearing lest the same should betide the Colossians to divert this fatal blow supplicates the LORD to give them understanding necessary for the happy severing the false colours the paintings and baits of untruth from the simplicity that is in CHRIST Therefore he demandeth not of Him only that they might be filled with the knowledge of His
the same infirmities and to the same necessity of dying and indeed they dyed after they had lived again awhile Their death was rather deferred than abolished Their bodies did corrupt and in the end return to that dust from which they were preserved for some years But with JESUS CHRIST it is not so He in coming forth from the dead retook not the life He had quitted that is the life of the first Adam that infirm natural and earthly life a life still subject unto death He left it in the Sepulchre where it must remain as in eternal oblivion He put on a new life and nature such as is spiritual and celestial as the Apostle elsewhere termeth it a life wholly full of strength and glory that is not subject either to the use of meat or sleep not subject to dolour or death a life appropriate to the second world and not to the first a nature peculiar to the future age not to the present Accordingly you see that being vested therewith he remained not on the earth This is the old Adam's element the habitation of corruption and death But having only sojourned there fourty days so long as was needful to assure His Apostles of the truth of His resurrection and to shew them in His own person the first-fruits of the mystical Canaan He ascended up above the Heavens to the true element of the new man and the Sanctuary of eternity Conclude we then that He is truly the beginning and the first-born from the dead since He is the first of all the dead that was born and raised again in incorruption But these titles signifie yet another thing namely that it shall be He who shall raise again all the members of the Church in like glory that He is the master and the Lord of the dead for the investing them one day in their order with a nature resembling His own according to what St. Paul elsewhere saith that He will make our vile body Phil. 3. like unto His own glorious body For He would not be the first-born from the dead if He did not communicate the priviledge and the possession of this second birth to all His brethren that is to say all the faithful The Apostle adds to the end that He might have the first place in all things Those that are well versed in the reading of these divine Books do know that the word to the end that is often put in them for so as that or in such a sort as even to signifie the event and consequence of an action rather than the intention or design of the agent I account that it must be so taken in this place For the intention of our LORD in being made Head of the Church and the beginning of the new life was rather to Save us and glorifie His Father then to obtain unto Himself the first place in all things Yet true it is that such was the success of this His undertaking as He actually hath the first place in all things For there are but two sorts of things one of those that pertâ—â—â—â—o the first world and its creation the other of those that are of the second world and of the regeneration CHRIST therefore being already the Master and Creator of the former it is evident that having been also established Head of the Church which is the State that consists of the latter and the beginning and first-born of the resurrection of the dead He doth obtain by this means the first place in all things that is to say both in those of the first creation whereof He is the author and in those of the second whereof He is the Head This is the conclusion which the Apostle deduceth from his whole precedent discourse there he said that the LORD is the image of the invisible GOD the first-born of every creature the Creator of the Elements and the Angels and moreover the Head of the Church the principle and the first-fruits of the new Creation now he addeth so as He hath the first place in all things This being as seems to me from hence clear enough there is no necessity we should make any longer stay upon the exposition of this Text. It remains that to conclude we do briefly touch at the duties to which the doctrine of the Apostle doth oblige us and the comforts which it doth afford us JESUS CHRIST saith he is the head of the body of the Church These few words if we meditate them as we ought will teach us all that we owe both of obedience to the LORD and of charity to our brethren and of care and respect to our selves As for the LORD since He hath vouchsafed to become our Head it is evident we ought to honour Him with utmost devotion and submit all the actions of our life to His conduct See with what promptitude the body obeyeth the head and with how absolute a submission it follows all its movings The body neither stirreth nor resteth but as the head ordereth It depends entirely on its guidance and never crosseth its orders or resisteth its commands The head hath no sooner conceived a thing but the spirits forthwith present themselves at the place it desireth and each of the members employeth all the vigor and strength it hath to execute its will This is an image of that obedience which the LORD our mystical Head demands of us and this is that which the Apostle meaneth elsewhere Eph. 5.24 when he saith that the Church is subject to Him It 's in vain therefore that they boast themselves to be the Church who do contrary to what the LORD ordaineth who are subject to another beside Him and instead of His orders follow the will of a mortal man owning another head adoring another oracle keeping what He hath forbidden Blessed be His Name for that He hath granted us to disclaim their errour and to hang all our religion upon His sacred lips believing only that truth which He hath revealed to us in His Gospel and engraven in our hearts by His Spirit But what will it profit us to follow Him in our faith if we resist in our manners How can he avouch for His Church a body subject to Mammon to pleasure to ambition and other idols of the world a body wholly bended down to the earth whereas this divine Head is lift up above the Heavens Dear Brethren let us not deceive our selves We cannot be the Church of CHRIST except we be His body and we cannot be His body except we depend absolutely on Him except we cast out of our members the spirit of the Flesh and of the world and take in His to follow it's light and obey it's movings Henceforth then let us so compose our life that it do not contradict our profession Let the LORD JESUS be truly our Head let Him be still above us let Him preside in all our designs let Him conduct our steps and govern all our motions and inspire into us
all this for it was founded upon a Rock But on the contrary he compares the second sort to a foolish man that built upon the sand And saith he when the rain fell and the torrents came and the winds blew and smote upon this house it fell and the fall thereof was great Dear Brethren this is an excellent Parable and worthy to be deeply engraven on the hearts of the truly faithful For it shews us first That to have part in the LORD's salvation it is not enough to call Him our Master and make Profession of His Discipline They that have but this will fall sooner or later and be infallibly ruin'd Secondly It further teacheth us That it sufficeth not to have begun except a man do presevere to the end without ever giving back And lastly It declares to us what the cause is both of the perseverance of some and of the revolting and fall of others those that are founded on the rock do stand firm and resist the scandals with which the Devil and the world do combate the truth those that are built only on the sand are easily born down even at the first assaults which the adverse powers make upon them This Doctrine S. Paul yerst represented to the Colossians in the Text we have now read to you In the words foregoing as you heard in its place he did set before their eyes the wonders of the love of GOD which had been gloriously shewed upon them by JESUS CHRIST their Saviour who had called them to His Communion and of strangers and enemies as they were made them friends of His Father reconciling them by the body of His flesh through His death to render them holy without spot and unreproveable before Him But the Apostle knowing there were Seducers and deceitful workers among them who laboured to turn them away from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel that they might be preserv'd from those mens poysons he now advertiseth them that this great salvation whereof he had spoken could not be assured to them without perseverance For qualifying and in some sort correcting His simple and absolute assertion That GOD had reconciled them to Himself he addeth the condition upon which this Divine grace was promis'd them If indeed saith he you continue in the faith being founded and firm c. This Lesson my Brethren is no less necessary for us than it was erewhile for the Colossians since the floods the winds and storms that were then raised against the Edifice of their faith do in like manner at this day beat upon ours divers deceitful workers both without and within endeavouring to overthrow it Take we therefore this sacred Preservative against their malice which the Apostle here giveth us and that we may the better make our profit of it let us meditate in order the three particulars which his Instruction containeth For to confirm the Colossians in perseverance he sheweth them first The necessity and the manner of it in those words If indeed you continue in the faith being founded and firm and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard Secondly He sets before them an excellent Argument of the truth of that Gospel which they had heard to wit That it was preached in all the world And lastly He further alledgeth a second proof of its verity taken from his own Ministry of which saith he I have been made a Minister These are three points we will handle if it please GOD in this action noting briefly upon each of them what we shall judge most proper for our Edification and Consolation As for the first the Apostle explains himself about it in those terms If indeed ye continue c. Where you see he lays down first As Above That Faith is the means by which we enter into possession and use of the good things of OOD which He promiseth us in His Son The old Covenant had also its good things but the condition which it required of men for their obtaining the same was quite different For it demanded of them an exact and perfect obeying of the Law and upon any failure of an entire accomplishing of the same threatned a curse leaving the sinner no hope of life at all according to that dreadful clause Do these things and thou shalt live and Cursed is every one that doth them not But the Gospel beside that the good things which it sets before us are much greater and more Divine than those of the Law differs moreover from the Law in this especially that it demands of men for their having them nothing but Faith * Only 1 alone according to the sentence of our LORD GOD so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life This the Apostle sheweth us here with much clearness when having said That GOD hath reconciled us to Himself by the body of the flesh of His Son to render us spotless and unreproveable he addeth If indeed ye continue in the faith This Connexion of the two parts of his Discourse doth evidently infer that it is Faith which makes us to have part in the Reconciliation and Peace of GOD and in the holiness which is by the Gospel So likewise you know that in a multitude of other places the Scripture informeth us expresly that it is by Faith we are justified and have peace with GOD and that it is by Faith our hearts are purified Faith is the means of our union with GOD it is the root of our Charity and the Source of our comfort and in a word the only cause of our felicity For as a Medicine how excellent and healthful soever it be does no good save to those that take it So the LORD's Redemption and the vertue of His Sacrifice how great and infinite soever though able to heal all our sins and to give us Eternity yea not us alone but to all the men in the world yet notwithstanding will communicate none of those benefits to us except we receive it by Faith It is Faith that applies it to us and sheds abroad the efficacy of it into all the parts of our nature But because very many deceive themselves in this matter and take that for true Faith which hath but the shadow and name of Faith the Apostle telleth us that to have part in the salvation of JESUS CHRIST our faith must be constant and such as we do abide and persevere in For as in Games and Combates for Prizes none are crowned but they that hold out to the end So in the heavenly Lists or Race GOD glorifieth them only which run with constancy home to the mark Those that turn aside or stop in the midst of the course lose their labour according to that the LORD did declare Whoever shall persevere to the end shall be saved And therefore the Apostle in another place assuring himself of the Crown among other causes on
which he grounded this assurance â— Tim 4 7. saith particularly That he had kept the faith Whence appears that there are two sorts of persons which shall be excluded from the salvation of GOD purchased by the merit of JESUS CHRIST First all the rebellious and unbelieving that give no faith to the Promises and Declarations of the bounty of GOD as our Saviour said He that shall not believe shall be condemned Mark 16.16 John 3.36 He that disobeyeth the Son shall not see life but the wrath of GOD abideth on him Secondly they that believe but it is for a time only such as abide not in the faith but having receiv'd it at the beginning afterwards quit and reject it Whether it be that the scorching heat of persecution doth dry up and consume the tender bud or the overflowing irruption of pleasures or of worldly affairs doth carry it away Whether it be that the cares of covetousness or ambition do suffocate it or the deceitfulness of error and the hand of false Teachers do pluck it up out of their heart The Apostle therefore requires of the Colossians that to the end they might partake of the salvation of GOD they not only have faith but do persevere in it If indeed saith he you continue in the faith Yet this is not all he willeth moreover That they be founded and firm I grant it seldom happens that this vain and feeble faith which consists only in a naked profession and some slight movings of heart doth endure to the end in those that have it Scandal or tentation most commonly plucketh off their mask and openly carrieth them out of the fellowship of the Church Yet it seemeth not impossible but they may continue even to the last in this estate As a little chaff may abide in the floor if the wind blow not So there is some probability that these same persons in like manner may remain mingled with the truly faithful even until death if persecution or offence do not fasten on them But suppose that this do happen for all that they shall not be saved because the faith they have and in which they will have persisted is a nullity to which GOD hath promis'd nothing it s the shadow and the Idol not the substance and reality of faith Whence it follows that as chaff though it remain in the floor yet is not lock'd up in the Granary with the Wheat but left out or burned as an useless thing So likewise these people that have but this vain faith suppose they do abide in GOD's floor that is in the external Communion of the Church unto the end yet shall not for all this enter into His heavenly Garner that is His Kingdom but be excluded thence and rejected as having no lot or portion with true Believers They will think it fair to alledge that they have lived in the Church of CHRIST that they have perhaps even prophesied and cast out Devils and done wonderful works in His Name the LORD will openly tell them I never knew you Depart from me ye that make a trade of iniquity Mat. 7.22.23 The Apostle therefore to shew that he speaks of perseverance not in this vain shadow of faith but in true faith doth not simply say If ye continue in the faith but addeth being founded and firm If the Hypocrite or the Temporary do continue in the Profession or in the rudiments of Piety it is not because they are founded but because they are not tempted as a woman that remaineth chaste only for not having been sollicited to evil They ow their perseverance to the enemies favourableness and not to their own firmness This false constancy may deceive a man who seeth but the outside and the event of things But it cannot deceive GOD who knoweth the inside of it and who soundeth hearts and judgeth of things by what they are not by what they appear or by the events they have The Apostle therefore willeth that for partaking of His salvation we have true perseverance and do continue in the faith not simply and in any sort whatever but through being founded in it and firm GOD doth save such only It is but for them that He hath prepared His Kingdom The former of these two words here used by the Apostle is taken from buildings which being founded deep in the earth upon a rock are firm and solid and of proof against time and storms whereas buildings which have no foundation or but on sand are feeble and unable to resist the shock The LORD made use of this same comparison in the Parable we touched at the beginning and He reâ—â—â—ects on it too in that famous promise which He made S. Peter of building His Church in such manner on the stone that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The other word which the Apostle useth hath the same meaning and properly signifies in the Original a thing in such a settlement as 't is difficult to move and stagger it A thing that is fixedly seated and placed and neither branleth nor changeth This is the settlement of true Believers who shall have part in the salvation of GOD. Their faith founded on the Eternal Rock JESUS CHRIST their Lord seated and placed upon this immovable Basis abideth firm and not to be shaken The torrents and the winds do shock it in vain the tempests and the floods may beat upon it they cannot overthrow it Upon this Doctrine of the Apostle we shall raise two Observations The first is That the faith of those who persevere in the sense he intendeth doth differ from the faith of them who revolt not only in the event for that the one faileth and the other persisteth and abideth but also in the nature of the thing it self For the one are founded and firm and the others are not so Who sees not that there is a great difference between a house which is well founded and an house which is but built upon the sand JESUS CHRIST and His Apostle expresly declare that such as stand are founded and that such as fall are not Certainly then the faith of the former is quite different from the faith of the latter and this different success of the one and the others in that the one do fall and the others bear up doth indeed discover to us the difference which is between them but doth not make it It is the effect of it not the cause an argument of it not the original The same thing appears also from the comparing of the one elswhere to wheat and the others to chaff The wheat is not wheat because it abideth in the floor but clean contrary it abideth in the floor because it is wheat and in like manner the chaff becomes not chaff because it goeth out of the floor but on the contrary it goes out thence because it was chaff This diversity of events doth evidence the weightiness and firmness of the one and the levity of
the other Even such is the case of true Believers and such as are but temporary Persecution and offence do not make the difference which is seen between them when the former do retain the Gospel and the others quit it This event only sheweth that the one were GOD's wheat and the others but chaff according to what S. John saith of Apostates They went out from us because they were not of us 1 John 2.19 that it might be made manifest that all are not of us The same is to be further seen evidently in the Parable of the Sower where the LORD saith expresly Mat. 13.13 19 21. that he that persevereth had heard the word and understood it and receiv'd it in an honest and good heart Whereas He saith of them who do revolt that one heard but understood it not another had no root in himself An evident sign that their disposition was different at first before the perseverance of the one and the fall of the others Whence appears how impertinent the Argument is which our Adversaries draw from the Apostacy of the latter to prove that the faith of the former may fail and on the contrary For if the wind carry away the chaff it doth not therefore follow that it shall also bear away the corn and if the storm beat down an house that 's planted on two or three stakes it is not to be said it may do as much to an House that 's founded on a rock If the blade that shoots forth and grows up suddenly in the sand without any bottom happen to wither at the first extreme heat that smites it this implieth not that the like may betide the corn which is deeply rooted in a good and fertile soil The other point which we have to observe is the assurance of true faith excellently represented here by the Apostle in these words which are full of a singular Emphasis If you continue in the faith being founded and firm contrary to what is taught in the Church of Rome that faith is in a continual agitation so as a Believer can have no assurance that he is for present in the state of Grace and much less yet that he shall persevere in it for the future In Conscience can it be said of these people as the Apostle saith here of the LORD 's true Disciples that they are firm and founded How may it be seeing they incessantly float in doubt and uncertainty and are miserablely in suspence between the hope of heaven and the fear of bell I pass by that other error of theirs which is yet more contrary to the Apostle's Doctrine namely their maintaining that the choicest faith may fail If it be thus how can it be affirm'd that those that have it are founded and firm Let us then hold fast the truth that 's taught us here and in divers other places of Scripture to wit that true faith abideth always and being founded on the Merit and the Death and the Intercession of JESUS CHRIST doth never fail The wind makes but the chaff to fly away it prevails not upon good grain It overthrows only the trees that are feeble and ill grounded It leaveth in their place those that stand upon good and deep grown roots And as an Ancient sometime said Tertul. de Paersc We may not account them prudent or faithful whom Heresie hath been able to change None is a Christian but he that persevereth to the end But I return to the Apostle who for the fuller Explication of this firm and not to be shaken faith which he requireth in us for the obtaining of salvation addeth further And if ye be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Justly doth he joyn Hope unto Faith these two virtues being so straitly link'd together that they mutually succour each other and one cannot be had or lost without the other For first Hope is the suit of faith expecting with assurance the fruition of the the things that we believe so as when the perswasion that we have of them comes to totter it is not possible but the hope which was founded on it must come to ruine Again in the combats which we sustain for the faith hope is one of our principal supports while it is firm and vigorus in us it repelleth without difficulty all the strokes of the Enemy opposing to the fear of the evils wherewith he threatneth us and to desire of the good he promiseth us the incomparable excellency of the glory and felicity which we look for in the other world He that hopes for heaven cannot be tempted by the paintings and appearances of the earth For this cause the Apostle in another place compares hope to an Anchor which penetrating within the vail fastned and grounded in Heaven holdeth our vessel firm and steady amid the waves and agitations of this tempestuous Sea whereon we sail here below And it 's this in my opinion which the Apostle aims at here that the faithful might be established in the faith he willeth them to have still in their hearts the hope of heavenly bliss and never to suffer this Sacred and Divine Anchor to be taken from them They are in safety while it holds them fast But for the better expressing it he calleth it peculiarly The hope of the Gospel that is the hope which the Gospel hath wrought in us the expectation of those good things which it promiseth And so you see he referreth Hope to the Gospel as to its true and genuine object All the hopes that we conceive from other grounds are vain and failing There are none but those which embrace the promises of JESUS CHRIST that are firm and solid and such as never confound them that wait for them The Gospel promiseth us first the entire expiation of our sins and the peace of GOD in JESUS CHRIST His Son They therefore that seek this benefit in the Ceremonies and Shadows of the Law as the Galatians somtime did and the false Teachers who would have seduced the Colossians or that seek it in their own merits and the merits of Creatures they all I say and all that are like them let themselves be carried away from the hope of the Gospel Then again the Gospel promiseth us eternal life in the heavens by the grace of GOD in His Son Those therefore quit the hope thereof also who seek their felicity either in the earth or in heaven otherways than by the sole mercy of the LORD Whereby it doth appear how very pertinently S. Paul doth recommend this hope of the Gospel unto the Colossians For in the combat wherein they were engaged it was sufficient to preserve them from all the attempts of the Impostors What have I to do saith this Hope with the observation of your Disciplines or the quirks of your Philophy since I abundantly have in my Gospel all the good things which you vainly promise me But because it is ordinary with false Teachers to abuse the name
which we trust and the Worship we give Him in Spirit and in truth and the Heaven we hope for and the Sacraments we celebrate and all the other Articles of our Religion do they not every where appear in the Books of Paul and of the other Apostles Are they not to be seen in all the Monuments of these great men as well in their Writings as also in the Churches which they planted through the earth Let us therefore my Brethren abide firm in this faith since it most assuredly is the Gospel which was heretofore preached in all the world and was commited to S. Paul's ministring And if those of Rome do alledge to us their Devotions and Traditions let us boldly tell them that if those things were any part of the Gospel they would appear in what the Apostles preached to whom JESUS CHRIST gave the Ministry thereof And in the mean time there is not found any one of them in the Sacred Volumes which they have left us to be the rule of our faith Neither the adoration of the Hoast nor the veneration of Images nor the invocation of Saints departed nor the other points for which they have Excommunicated us And herein their Head doth evidently discover how Apostolical he is to banish those from his Communion whom S. Paul here expresly declares to be at peace with GOD holy and unreprovable before Him For to have this happiness he doth not oblige us to believe or practice this pretended Gospel of Rome He requireth us only abide firm in the belief of his the Gospel which he preached to the faithful and left in his Epistles In them our Religion is to be seen full and whole But not one Article of that which Rome would by all means constrain us to receive But there is no need we should make further stay upon this matter the truth of that Doctrine which we embrace being so clear that no man who understands Christianity and owns the Divinity of it can call it into question And on the other hand the absurdity of the Doctrine we reject is so palpable and so rudely beats against the foundations of Reason and Scripture that it s very difficult for a man who hath had any taste of the Gospel ever to yield up his consent to the errors we contest except GOD have blinded him in punishment of his ingratitude The great combate which we have most cause to fear is that of the passions of our flesh It 's these properly that enfeeble faith that darken its light that hide the truth from its view and paint up error These are the true causes of their change who desert us and of the offence of many that are infirm among us Experience shews it us daily And accordingly you see Matth. 13.21 22. our Saviour hath advertis'd us of it having said in one of His Parables that it is either the fear of persecution or the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that makes the seed of heaven unfruitful in the hearts of men and obstructs their perseverance And S. Paul somwhere imformeth us 2 Tim. 1.19 that they that reject a good conscience make shipwrack also in respect of faith When a man is once sold over to pleasure or avarice or ambition it is no wonder if in the sequel he disgust the truth and fall into error The passage is easie from the one to the other Besides the slaves of sin not finding the contentation of their passions in the profession of Truth which is for the most part under the cross their interest carries them to seek their satisfaction in the world this gives an huge shake to their minds and brings them by degres to relish the worlds side and party as it is natural to us to believe easily the things we desire Here therefore it is dear Brethren that we must put to our might and fight in good earnest if we would continue firm in the faith Give me a man that embracing JESUS CHRIST hath cast off the lusts of the flesh and of the world and I will be secure of his perseverance Take me away the colours wherewith avarice and ambition and vanity do paint-over error in the thoughts of the worldly-minded and I will not fear its seducing of any Cleanse your Conscience and your Faith will be out of danger The Devil without doubt made use of his best weapons against our LORD and you know that having represented to Him the hunger and the necessity he was in he omitted not to spread before His eyes the pomp of the Grandeurs and riches of the world It is a wile he still puts in practise and his Ministers do not forget this piece of his play they fail not to tell such as they would destroy that they will give them wonders Faithful Brethren let us fence our selves seasonably against this tentation Mortifie we in us all the lusts of Flesh and Earth accustom our selves to a not-dreading the Cross and the sufferings of our LORD suffer not the world to dazle our eyes Look we upon it as a deceitful shew unable to content its own adorers To the false goods wherewith it feedeth its bond-servants let us oppose the true ones which the Gospel promiseth Let the sweet and noble hope of these enflame our souls with an ardent desire of heaven and its immortality Let it sweeten all the bitterness that attends our profession and make execrable to us all that tendeth to turn us away from so blessed a design Courage Christian yet a little patience and you have overcome Your faith if you abide firm in it will open in your heart for the present a living spring of such joy as is a thousand times sweeter than all the pleasures of Worldings And it shall be crowned one day with that supereminent and immortal glory which the Gospel that you have believed doth promise to all those which shall constantly persevere in the Vocation of the LORD JESUS To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be all honor and praise to ages of ages Amen THE XIII SERMON COL I. Ver. XXIV Vers XXIV Whereupon I now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and to fill up the remainder of the afflictions of CHRIST in my flesh for His body which is the Church THE Gospel of the LORD JESUS hath many admirable evidences of its divinity and among them the sufferings of its Confessors and Martyrs are in my opinion not the least illustrious For if you seriously consider them you will find that there never was any doctrine in the world that drew more persecutions upon its followers or that inspired them with so much courage and resolution to undergo the same or was in effect sealed with such a deal of blood and patience Other religions as being sprung from the earth are welcome there and the world that well knoweth its own blood and its own spirit shews them kindness and
the senses or the reason of men yet the truth of them is so evident so beautiful and so well marked that as soon as the clouds of those passions and prejudices which hide it from us are removed from before the eyes of our understanding by the hand of the holy Spirit â—t beams forth and shines into our hearts with exceeding brightness and makes it self to be believed and embraced for what it is indeed Thus must it be known with certainty and not with doubting that we henceforth be no more children Ephes 4.14 wavering and carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and by their cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive as the Apostle speaks elswhere Whereby you see how false the opinion of Rome is which makes the belief of Christianity to depend upon the authority and testimony of her Prelates I pass by the extream weakness and vanity of this pretended foundation which hath been verify'd by a thousand experiments Whatever it be in other respects this is manifest that since they fasten the people's knowledg there they must of necessity confess that their faith ought to change if any change do happen in the doctrine of their Prelates whence it follows that then it is not certain nor assured nor such a knowledg as the Apostle requireth in us whose property is such that though Paul himself or Angels from heaven should come and preach the contrary it would abide not withstanding even under such a supposal still firm and unmoved and rather anathematize Apostles and Angels from heaven than let go that Divine verity which it hath believed and known so strong is the sense it hath of its excellency But the Apostle having thus described the nature of true faith or a Christian's understanding doth lastly confine it within the bounds of its true subject when he adds the knowledg of the Secret of our God and Father and of Christ This restriction is necessary because seducers do boast of their traditions too as if they were a piece of wisdom worthy of our faith and it may not be doubted but that the false teachers against whom the Apostle intends to dispute did deal in such manner To arm us against their vanity he declares expresly that the understanding he requireth of us is a knowledg not of what Philosophers do talk in their Schools about the nature of the world nor of what Seducers do bring forth from their vain imaginations but only of the Gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST without which there is nothing but error and folly He calls it a Secret or a Mystery because it was a verity hidden with GOD and incomprehensible to our minds as we have said otherwhere He saith that it is the Secret of GOD our Father both because He is the Author of it who hath reveal'd it to us of His Grace and because He hath manifested Himself therein discovering to us in the Gospel all that we need to know of His nature and will for attaining to Salvation He adds in the end and of CHRIST for the same reasons it being evident that it is the LORD JESUS who brought this holy doctrine from the bosom of the Father and set it in our view by the Ministry of His Servants and that also it is He who is the principal Subject of it as our only Mediator without whose conduct and merit it is impossible to have any part in true happiness It s of this mystery of CHRIST JESUS that the Apostle desired the Colossians might have a full firm and distinct knowledg for to abide knit together by charity and by this means enjoy a true and solid consolation This is the treasure which he is afraid least they should lose It 's to preserve it to them that he undergoâ—th so much pain and so many combats Dear Brethren his desire teacheth us our duty Since we aspire to the same happiness that the Colossians afore us have done since we serve the same Master and live under the same Discipline let us labour to get and keep for ever the same good things which the Apostle wisheth them GOD of His great mercy offereth them liberally to us and the fault will be ours if we do not partake of them â— for the Knowledg of his Mystery He presenteth us the treasury of it in His hoâ— Scriptures This source of light is not shut up and inaccessible unto you as it to a great part of the world and even to many that call themselves Christians but opened and made obvious Draw out of it the wisdom of heaven reading studying and searching those Divine books night and day We do not envy you this sweet and happy communication as the Pastors of our adver saries dea with their flocks We could wish as yerwhile Moses did that all GOD's people werâ— Prophets It 's a science that admitteth all ages all sexes and all conditions of men the Author of this holy doctrine having so temper'd it as it is accommodated to the capacity of every sort of persons There are in it deeps to exercise and humble the greatest Spirits there are facilities to instruct and content the least It is an abyss where Elephants may swim and a shallow where Lambs may wade But as all are capable of this science so there is no person but it is necessary for It 's the key of the Kingdom of heaven the spring of piety the root of sanctity the seed of true life Study it carefully Hearken to the teaching of it here meditate on it at home with deep intentiveness beseeching GOD with prayers and tears to open your hearts and write His doctrine in them Content not your selves with having learned some points of it Take no rest till you know all its wonders till you have attained not simply understanding but all riches of understanding as the Apostle here speaketh Urge not to me that vain and cold excuse which is in the mouths of many that you are not Ministers and therefore need not be so knowing These Colossians were Ministers no more than you and yet you see what the Apostle doth desire for them and afterwards he will enjoyn that the word of CHRIST do dwell plenteously in them in all wisdom Why are you less exposed to temptations for your not being Ministers are the Devil and the World less ardent or less obstinate in setting upon you We are all engaged in the same war and have all need of the same arms Is it Captains only and Officers that ought to be armed Is it not necessary for private Soldiers The knowledg of the Mysteries of the Gospel is the armor of all Christians and the Scripture is the publick Magazine whence both one and the others should fetch it But that it may do you service at your need this knowledg must be also deeply radicated in your hearts you must have it with a full assurance as the Apostle saith It should not sleightly
circumcision we have that truth and fulness in JESUS CHRIST whereof it had but some part shadow'd out by its figure If the matter be the Sacrament it self the LORD hath given us one highly excelling to wit Baptism So as which way soever it be taken there is no reason at all that any man should desire still to retain circumcision But to proceed it is not here only that the Apostle attributes so great an effect unto Baptism He speaks thus of it constantly as for example when he saith that CHRIST sanctifieth the Church Eph. 5.26 Gal. 3.7 cleansing it with the washing of water by the word and elsewhere that we all who were baptized have put on CHRIST and in another place again 1 Cor. 12.13 that we have all been baptized into one spirit to be one body For the Sacraments of CHRIST are not vain and hollow pictures wherein the benefits of his death and resurrection are nakedly pourtray'd as in a piece of Art that feeds us barely with an unprofitable view of what it represents They are effectual means which He accompanieth with his virtue and filleth with his grace effectively accomplishing those things in us by his heavenly power which are set before us in the Sacrament when we receive it as we ought He inwardly nourisheth by the virtue of his flesh and blood the soul of him that duly takes his Bread and his Cup. He washeth and regenerateth that man within who is rightly consecrated by Baptism And if the infirmity of age do hinder that the effect does not at the instant appear in Infants baptized yet his virtue doth not fail to accompany his institution and conserve its self in them and bring forth its fruits upon them in their season when their nature is capable of the operations of understanding and will Heretofore in the primitive Church this double effect of Baptism was more clearly represented in the external action of the Sacrament than it is at this day For the greater part of those that were baptized being persons of age who came over to Christianity from Judaism or Paganism they were uncloth'd and then plunged into the water whence they immediately came forth and so were baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost whereby they testifi'd that they did put off the body of sin the habit of the first Adam and buried it in the saving-waters of JESUS CHRIST as in its mystical grave and came forth thence risen up to a new life for a symbol whereof they took up a white habit and wore it an whole week Now though the water wherewith we baptize doth not carry so express a figure of this mystical Sepul cher and Resurrection as that of the Ancients did since this ceremony cannot be practis'd towards Infants without very great inconvenience and even danger of their lives in so tender an age and especially in such cold Countreys as ours nevertheless the virtue of holy Baptism is still the same that JESUS whom in it we did put on communicating to us by the virtue of his Spirit the mystical image of his Burial and Resurrection that is as we have shewed the annihilation of the old man and creation of the new If we meet with any baptized persons as there are but too many such in whom the old man is so far from being buried that he lives and reigns with absolute power and the new man hath neither life nor action at all it may not be imputed unto JESUS CHRIST who always accompanieth his Sacraments with his saving virtue but unto the persons own unbelief who doth wretchedly repell the operationof the grace of CHRIST and deprive it of all the effect which it would have assurâ—dly produced in them if their unworthiness had not frustrated its efficacy towards them For I acknowledg that neither Baptism nor the Word do work in any but such as receive them with faith And in this as in all other things the admirable wisdom of our LORD doth appear For the subject being Man a reasonable Creature he dealeth with him in a way proper and suitable to his nature The means he useth for his salvation do not operate in him as drugs and simples by a Physical action and such as takes its effect whatever otherwise be the mind of the man that takes them But the operation of the Word and Sacraments doth depend upon the preparation of their hearts to whom they are administred They work when they are receiv'd with faith they produce nothing when they are receiv'd with unbelief And thus it is meet that the understanding which is the Guide and Ruler of all our moral actions be first perswaded of the truth of GOD and then our wills and affections take impression and be changed by the efficacy of his power This very thing the Apostle here doth shew us with much clearness by adding besides Baptism that we are buried and raised again with CHRIST by faith an evident token that the Sacrament doth mortifie sin in us and raise us up unto sanctity according to the faith it meets with in us It left the heart of Simon Magus in the bonds of iniquity and in the gall of bitterness because it found in it no faith at all but a naughtiness hardned in unbelief and full of Hypocrisie But as for Lydia and all those that have a true faith it doth assuredly mortifie sin in them and makes the new man live in them unto righteousness and holiness For it is not possible but that the person who is firmly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel should renounce sin the venom and horror whereof this Divine Doctrine doth so clearly discover and on the contrary embrace that holiness whose beauty and blessedness it doth so magnificently set before us man naturally flying from what he believes mortal and pernicioâ—s to him and adâ—ering with like necessity to what he judgeth healthful and advantageous But the Apostle who does every where exalt the grace of GOD and cast down the 〈◊〉 of man lest any one should imagine that this â—â—â—th upon which 〈…〉 doth depend were a production of our own will doth by the way advertise us that it is a gift of our LORD's when he nameth it the faith of the efficacy or of the operation of GOD that is to say which the efficacy of his hand produceth in us Whereby their error is refuted who hold that GOD for the producing of faith in us doth meerly set before us either outwardly by his Word or inwardly by his Spirit the object of truth leaving it to the liberty of our will to believe it or reject it By this account faith should not be the faith of the efficacy of GOD since that according to this supposition he should exert none at all upon us But the Apostle stileth it the faith of the efficacy or operation of GOD. We must conclude therefore that for the giving of us faith he operateth in
us powerfully forming our hearts and opening them by the might of his Spirit that they may receive his truth yea that he doth imprint and engrave it on them himself by a most efficacious action The term Energy for such is the Original and 't is that which we have render'd efficacy deserves great consideration properly signifying in the stile of the Book of GOD a powerful operation which surely accomplisheth its design and infallibly produceth its intention such as is the action by which GOD created the World an evident sign that the operation by which he produceth faith in us is so strong as that it bears down all contradiction so as none of those upon whom he vouchsafes to put it forth can resist it or hinder their understanding from believing The Apostle addeth that GOD hath raised JESUS CHRIST from the dead either to determine the object of our faith which is principally JESUS raised from the dead by the glory of the Father or which I think to be more pertinent to compare our mystical Resurrection with JESUS CHRIST's For seeing it is GOD who by his efficacious action giveth us that faith by which we rise again in CHRIST and seeing it is He again who hath raised our LORD from the dead it is evident that both the one and the other of these two works hath the self-same principle to wit the Almighty Power of GOD. Christians judg with what Power He worketh in his faithful ones since that he exerteth the same virtue to give them faith by which he raised his own Son from the dead as the Apostle informeth us yet more clearly in another place Eph. 1.10 20. where he prayeth that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he shewed in CHRIST when he raised him from the dead Neither let his saying that the Father raised him disquiet you as if this did cross the Scripture's asserting elsewhere that the LORD JESUS himself rais'd up the Temple of his Body when the Jews had overthrown it Joh. 2.19 It is true that he raised up himself but since his Power is the Power of the Father as being one only and the same GOD with him 't is evident it may be truly said that the Father raised him up the working of one of these two Persons being the working of the other as our Saviour declareth in S. John Joh. 5.19 that whatsoever the Father doth the Son doth in like manner also Whence it comes that the Scripture attributes the Creation of the world indifferently to the one and to the other Dear Brethren This is that which the holy Apostle the great Minister of GOD doth tell us in this Text. Oh how happy should we be if we had these Divine Instructions written in the bottom of our hearts and engraven in Capital Letters upon all the parts of our lives If our actions did justifie as our words profess That we are buried and risen again with JESUS CHRIST by Baptism and by the faith of the operation of GOD who raised him from the dead But alas it must be confessed to our shame there appears in the lives of most of us no print of the burial and least of all of the resurrection of JESUS The flesh lives and exerciseth as horrible tyranny in them as it doth in the lives of the men of the world It hath all its sentiments and all its motions at liberty The new man that breathes nothing but Heaven and loves nothing but Holiness hath no place in them it is so far from reigning there that it 's banish'd thence and acts no more than a dead body fast shut up in the grave Yet if nothing depended on the matter save our shame impudency would bear it out But the worst is our salvation and our eternal damnation doth depend upon it for JESUS CHRIST saves none but his Members such as are made conform to him and have been buried and raised again with him Awake we therefore from this mortal Lethargy which hath benummed our senses to this day Labour we day and night in prayer with sighs and tears and not cease until we feel the old man dye and the new live in our hearts As for the former both Nature and Experience do sufficiently shew us the extravagancy of its desires and the vanity of all its motions For I beseech you what profit does the flesh receivâ— from all the trouble that either its self takes or that it gives to others What benefit hath it from the turmoiling of its avarice or the burning of its ambition or the shamefulness of its pleasures or the sweetness of its revenges It torments its self it toils its self it embraceth wind and smoak and then perisheth oftentimes shortning its own duration by the violence of its agitations It hath but a little body which daily weakens to lodg and seâ—d and clothe for some years yet it travels and disquiets its self as much as if it had a million to maintain for the space of many ages Was there ever a greater folly Certainly should a man of composed mind behold our busie employments in the earth with the motives and designs of so many motions and troubles as we consume our selves in I make little question but he would take well-nigh all men for frantick or foolish and cry out not simply with the Wise man Vanity of vanities all is vanity but yet louder and in a tone more tragical O madness O phrensie All the World is but a company of sensâ—ess men But the seeing of the vanity of the flesh is not sufficient for the conceiving of a due horror at it Christian enter into the Sepulcher of your Saviour and you shall perceive there that besides vanity the life of the old man is all full of venom and wretchedness This sacred Body which you see lying in that Tomb in so pitiful an estate was pierced with nails potion'd with gall crowned with thorns cover'd with the reproach of men and the curse of GOD separated from its Soul and brought down to the dust to divert from you the punishments justly prepared for the disorders of your flesh Think what Hells it deserved since it was necessary that the LORD of Glory should suffer such strange usage to redeem it from them Having once discerned by such sensible evidences the vanity and malignity of the old man and the perdition into which he leads his Vassals how can you have the heart to let him live within you Beloved Brethren crucifie him and out him of the world He is unworthy to live Pierce him through with the thorns and nails of your JESUS Give him his gall to drink Put him to death with him and bury him in his Sepulcher to come forth no more Let his Avarice and Ambitions and all his Concupiscences remain eternally extinct in the dust of that salvifique grave that there appear no more
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
and Parrots are capable of prayer and of devotion if the uttering of a few words without understanding them be praying to GOD. In fine the Apostle would have us further add to prayer giving of thanks And truly with great reason For how can we ask of GOD new favours if we make not our acknowledgments to Him for those we have already received This duty is so rational that though no other consideration did call for it the thing it self would oblige us to perform it The having receiv'd a benefit is cause enough for rendring of thanks It 's an odious ingratitude to have and use the gifts of GOD without expressing to Him our resentments of them But besides ingratitude it 's impudence too to present our selves to GOD and ask new benefits of Him if we thank Him not for the old It 's herewith therefore that all our prayers should begin and there is no kind of Rhetorique so powerful to perswade His giving for the future as an acknowledgment of what is past He loves to sow His mercies upon such ground as receives them with gratitude He readily hears the vows and prayers of those who have a deep and respectful sense of the favours He hath done them Now tell me not that ye have not yet received any thing from His liberality There 's not a man how wretched and forlorn soever but this Divine Sun of grace and bounty hath visited and imparted some of his benefits unto How much more hath he done it towards you whom He hath honoured with his covenant and unto whom He offereth His Gospel and his CHRIST and in Him all the treasures of His grace and of His glory For I omit this body and this soul this breath and light and that multitude of other good things which he communicateth unto all men in the course of nature But how can you without being dead or at least utterly stupid have no resentment of the grace He hath shewed you in calling you to His communion and thereby to the hope of salvation and eternity Yet though he hath done you so many favours already He forbids you not to crave more of Him His goodness is an inexhaustible deep Beg and pray boldly All that he requireth of you is that ye do it with thanksgiving that ye tender Him your resentments for His first favours if ye would have Him grant the requests ye make Him for further graces This is it Dear Brethren which the Apostle enjoyns the Colossians concerning prayer in general even that they persevere in it and watch unto it with thanksgiving He next sollicits them in the second part of our Text to pray particularly for Him Pray ye saith he together also for us that GOD do open c. As to this I will not stay to chastise the silly subtility of the superstitious who do conclude from the Apostle's requiring the Colossians to pray for him that therefore we may also pray the spirits of the faithful departed which are in Heaven to do us the same office As rationally as if I should infer from St. Paul's writing this Epistle to the Colossians that therefore we have warrant to write letters to the dead These Colossians of whom St. Paul demands the assistance of their prayers were persons living here beneath on earth persons with whom he had mutual commerce in such offices of charity He wrote to them they answer'd him He knew his words would reach them and he look'd again for theirs whereas we have no such commerce with the deceased And as for the reply which is made that they do know our desires and hear our prayers it 's a phansie asserted without proof and without reason such as nothing but the passion of a bad cause hath inspired errour with and which we may not believe since the word of GOD which is the rule and measure of our faith says nothing of it However it be since GOD who everywhere commands us to pray doth no where order us to pray to men departed since the Apostle who presseth the Colossians and divers other believers that were alive to pray unto GOD for him doth no where sollicite them either by his order or by his example to do him the like office by addressing prayers to Saints deceas'd we cannot be faulty in keeping religiously as we do to the commands of GOD and the examples of St. Paul and the other Saints of the Old and New Testament who have indeed prayed unto GOD and verily required the aid of the prayers of living faithful people but never invocated or sollicited the dead to pray for them All that can be duly concluded from this example of the Apostle is that while we war here below under the ensigns of JESUS CHRIST the charity that uniteth us all into one body obligeth us to pray for one another and not only Pastors for their Flocks but also Flocks for their Pastors Who was then or who hath since been greater then St. Paul Yet you see how he disdaineth not the prayers of private Christians He disdaineth them not said I He demands them and requires them expresly Elsewhere he demands the same assistance of the Ephesians and the Thessalonians Hence we may conclude that for any one to have the title given him of a Mediator between GOD and us it is not sufficient that he pray unto GOD for us For by this account the Colossians praying for St. Paul according to the warrant he gives them for it and the request he makes them about it might and should be stiled his Mediatours towards GOD which is infinitely absurd as every one would confess Whence first is refuted the abuse of those that give this glorious quality unto Pastors calling them Mediators between GOD and the people an abuse against which St. Augustine cried out long ago saying That if any man boasted Lib. 3. cont epâ— Parmen c. 8. he was a Mediator between GOD and his Flock good and faithful Christians could not suffer him but would look upon him as an Antichrist and not as an Apostle of JESUS CHIST and concluding that all Christian men recommend one the other unto GOD by their prayers but that we have one onely true Mediator Him that maketh request for us and for whom none makes request to wit our LORD JESUS CHRIST Hence secondly appears further that supposing the faithful departed do pray to GOD for each of us in particular as those of Rome pretend yet this would not be sufficient to acquire them that title of Mediator which they give them since that Flocks praying for their Pastors are not therefore their Mediators it being evident that for the meriting of this title there must be offered to GOD for us besides prayer a propitiation capapable of supporting it and of acquiring us the favour of the Father a thing that pertains to none to do but the LORD JESUS the prayers we make for one another having no other efficacy then what our common Head doth
said in those two places concerning him doth oblige us to believe it was the same man but rather inferrs the contrary For it seems that Epaphroditus was Pastor of the Church of Philippi in Macedonia whereas Epaphras of whom question is here was Pastor of Coloss in Phrygia two Cities and Provinces very different and distanced from one another by much Land and Sea the second situate in Asia and the former in Europe The Apostle contenteth not himself with telling the Colossians that Epaphras saluteth them Unto this testimony of his affection for them he addeth divers others that he may gain him their hearts and streiten the tye of amity and good correspondence more and more between this Pastor and his Flock He saith first that he alway striveth in prayer for them that saith he ye might abide perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. Prayer is the best office that we can perform to those we love But Pastors particularly owe it to their Flocks not only in their Assemblies where they serve for the mouth of the company to present their requests their vows and their thanksgivings unto GOD but also in private and even then when they are absent upon some occasion of importance for the good of the Church as doubtless that was which at that time held Epaphras at Rome by St Paul's order Though he was far from their abode he had them incessantly in mind and eloignment hindring him from rendring them his other devoirs he assisted them with his prayers The Apostle signifieth both the assiduity of them when he saith he prayed alway and the fervency and earnestness of them when he saith he strove or fought for them This word is admirable and excellently represents the efficacy of his prayer Think not Christian that he that prays for you contributes nothing to your welfare and that his prayers are but words and voices cast into the air It 's the best part of your battles you have no succour more active then the repose of a man of GOD who prays for you with faith and perseverance It 's he that as Moses heretofore standing on the mountain and rapt up in spirit into the heavenly sanctury defeated Amalek your spiritual enemies and by the uplifting of his hands draws down the blessing of Heaven upon your arms He oftentimes even takes those rods out of the hand of GOD which He is about to display upon you and couragiously wrestling with Him after Jacob's example quits Him not until he hath obtained his demand Such is the combat that Epaphras sought in the behalf of his Colossians being night and day in prayer for them But what is it that he demanded of GOD for them The Apostle shewsit us expresly when he saith he strove for them in prayer that they might abide perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. He desired not for them the riches and honours and contentments of the world he usual passion of men sleight and perishing goods unprofitable and oft-times even pernicious to those who possess them He prayed GOD to give them the best blessings perseverance in His love and in His fear and in the obeying of His will For it is this that the Apostle's words do signifie He demanded first that they might be perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD and secondly that they might abide firm in this perfection By the will of GOD he meaneth those things which GOD willeth which He hath a liking to and doth command us in the Gospel of His Son in the same manner as he elsewhere saith our hope for the things we hope to obtain and the promise of GOD for the things He hath promised us 1 Thes 4.3 He thus explains himself when he saith expresly in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians that the will of God is our sanctification which as you see is no other but that the thing which GOD willeth is that we be holy It 's that will of GOD which elsewhere he calleth good and acceptable and perfect which comprehendeth in it all the particulars of our duty that is in few words faith and piety towards GOD and charity towards our neighbour For this is that which GOD willeth that which He ordaineth and commandeth all men in the Gospel of His CHRIST even that we believe in Him embracing with a pure and thorough faith the verities He hath vouchsafed to 1. veal unto us and chiefly the promise of our salvation by the Cross of our LORD JESUS and that in sequel we serve Him religiously renouncing all impiety and love our neighbours living with them in all justice temperance and benignity This Brethren is that will of GOD which the Apostle doth intend and observe he saith not simply in the will but in all the will of GOD. For there are people that would be content to do some part of what GOD willeth provided they might be dispens'd with for the rest as for example to believe the truth which GOD hath revealed but not do the good works He hath commanded or to exercise some of them but utterly fail in others as they who live fair with men but remain in impiety and in the profession of errour or those on the contrary who make profession of errour or those on the contrary who make open profession of the pure service of GOD but spare not either the goods or honour of their neighbours or who absteining from one vice do licence themselves unto others are chast but covetous or liberal and beneficial to the poor but debauched and incontinent This partition is unjust injurious unto GOD impossible in truth and incompatible with the nature of the things themselves And it 's to advertise us hereof that the Apostle saith here expresly in all the will of GOD to the end no man might imagine it sufficient to embrace a part only of what GOD willeth Epaphras desired therefore that his Colossians might be perfect and compleat in all this will of GOD that is as we have now explained it in all the things that GOD willeth that He requireth of us that He commandeth men to do that they might be perfect in saith perfect in piety perfect in charity and in all vertue and sanctity The two words he expresseth himself by to wit perfect and compleat do signifie well nigh one and the same thing and the Scripture useth them indifferently to set sorth a being entire in one whom none of the parts of piety and sanctification are wanting Now this perfection or integrity in all the will of GOD doth comprehend two things the one is that we know it that we understand exactly all that GOD willeth all that He requireth of us as He hath reveal'd it in His word The other is that we pursue and effectively practise this will of His which we do know The first of these two points the Apostle recommends to us elsewhere Eph. 5.17 Be ye not unwise saith he but understanding what
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