see one that should sinke when any thing were laid on him we would say hee were but a weake man Which convinceth that valour falsely so called Vse many thinke that valour to challenge the field and cast their gauntlet of defiance downe upon any trifling provocation to sweare GOD out of heaven if any thing crosse them but blinde men discerne not of colours this is notable impatience and weaknesse As a man whom with halfe a finger we may throw downe to the ground is a weake body So thy soule which every thing moveth out of place is a very weake spirit Marke how Long-suffering is an argument of great spirituall strength Obs 2 This is a vertue which maketh us hold out in patience under the continuance of evill on us it maketh Patience have her perfect worke and be at length no lesse than in the beginning it is not counterfeit biting in of anger by two yeares together like as in Absolom but a continuance of true patient bearing our crosse to lift up a quarter of wheat or two were rare strength though one should stand under it but a while but to carry it foure or five miles were a token of ten-fold strength So to beare our burthens any time is a fruit of glorious strength but to carry them at length argueth treble vertue To convince the false estimation of men touching this matter To assure those that long have endured Vse 2 of GOD's strength dwelling in them Now as Paul desireth these three things for the Colossians so he teacheth us thus much Obs 3 That wee have need of these vertues we have need of Patience saith the Scripture Heb. 10.36 need indeed to beare our evils to forbeare and expect the receiving of our good things wee looke for a Porter whose calling is to beare had need of shoulders So we that are called to beare many afflictions had need of patience but wee have no lesse need of long-suffering for so deepe are our staines that they will not come out unlesse we be long dowsed in these waters of afflictions which maketh GOD many dayes continue our evils Now how shal we hold under long afflictions without long-sufferance yea we have need of the joy of the HOLY GHOST No life can last without delight and though to the being it be not so necessary yet it is altogether needfull for the well being of us that like Paul and Silas we sing not able to sleepe for joy To seeke these things Vse we have need of them and may have more it is not good to seeke them when we should use them begge them before Observe how hasty and impatient thou art short-spirited not able to beare any thing Pray the Lord to give thee wisdome patiently to endure his will he will give it and not upbraid thee think how though thou art patient now yet ever and anon it is ready to be crazed yea broken in thee pray for long-suffering treasure up joy against evill houres fire doth well against winter and while thou mayest take it deny thy foolish rejoycing exercise thy heart with godly sorrow Such as sow in teares Psal 126.5 shall reape in joy We live neither having exercise of these things nor feeling want of them nor seeking after them our hearts love to be in the house of vaine mirth woe will be to this security and this laughter shall end in mourning Woe to you that now laugh Luk. 6.25 yee shall weepe VERSE 12. Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light THus having laid downe his Prayer he commeth to mention expresly the matter of his thanksgiving which was first named in the third Verse In it two things are to be considered 1 The fact it selfe of giving thankes with the person to whom they are offered of which we have spoken something above Verse 3. 2 The arguments moving him or the things for which he is thankfull The first in those words Giving thankes to GOD the Father The matter is two-fold first a benefit a great good thing given them even an inheritance Part in an inheritance which is set downe with three circumstances 1 Their qualification which maketh them capable this goeth before 2 From the quality of their being fellow-heires with whom they were joyned the Saints 3 From the matter of this inheritance in light The second argument of his thankesgiving is a great evill from which they were delivered in setting downe which 1 Hee sheweth the point or passe from which GOD did deliver them From the power of darknesse 2 The state to which hee brought them and hath translated us into the kingdome of His deare Sonne Now to amplifie the greatnesse of this last benefit he describeth the Sonne first from the effect Verse 14. which is propounded in whom wee have redemption after expounded that is the remission of Sinnes Secondly he describeth the nature of His Person to the nineteenth Verse three wayes 1 As He was in reference to GOD Who is the Image of the invisible GOD. 2 As He was in relation to the creature in generall in those words The first begotten of every creature Verse 15. and sustainer of them Verse 16 17. 3 As He is in regard of His Church And Hee is the Head of the body the Church Then followeth the reason how came this man to be personally GOD the Creator of all things the Head of the Church It pleased the Father that in Him all fulnesse should dwell Vers 19. How come we to have redemption by Him It pleased the Father by Him to bring us to these benefits the benefit is repeated First in generall Verse 20. Secondly with application to the Colossians Verse 21 22 23. Where first he setteth downe what they had their state antecedent Secondly their state present where we have the worke of their reconciliation and the manner of working Verse 21 22. Thirdly to shake off security the condition of all is annexed Verse 23. Whence the Apostle taketh occasion to digresse in signifying his Apostolical affection to them to the eighth Verse of the second Chapter Giving thankes Observe first From his suffixing thanksgiving Obs That we must as well give thankes for the things given us as begge for that we want Many are suiters when any necessity presseth but few returne to give thankes we see it in the ten Lepers one onely returned to give thankes Eaten bread is soone forgotten that we have we take no further thought of but we must remember to couple these together For first in this is GOD's chiefe honour Reas 1 He that offereth praise honoureth me Psal 50. This is forcible to make us speed in that wee intreat Reas 2 a thankfull petitioner hath alwayes gracious hearing We have more cause when GOD hath given us faith c. to give thankes than to intreat Reas 3 for the things we have are more than those we desire the Apostle maketh
because He doth worke them only but because He doth conserve them in us Christ doth not leave His worke when He hath made it as a Carpenter leaveth his house when it is built but that is true he speaketh Ioh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I worke That Hee did though without labour put forth His power in the preserving of all things for all things that have not being and moving of themselves but from another they cannot be nor move longer than that first cause doth preserve them in it As let us beare up a thing that cannot stand of it selfe longer than we hold it up the thing cannot but fall So take a thing that moveth not of it selfe make it move while you stirre it stirreth cease your motion it standeth still So all these things they have not being of themselves and moving of themselves but from God and therefore longer than God doth beare them up and move them they cannot consist in either Take for comparison the aire this is not light of it selfe as we see in the night yet it is inlightened by the Sunne with day-light when the Sunne therefore commeth and continueth the ayre waxeth light continueth so while it continueth and returneth to darknesse when the Sun setteth So God being the fountaine of being and motion which are not of themselves doth begin these things doth make them stand in their state and if He should totally withdraw himselfe they would returne to nothing Now this doth first much make unto the dignity of this our dread Soveraigne Vse 1 What is the glory of a King but to maintaine numbers depending on him to make King-like provision to carry after a sort their kingdomes on their backes and beare up all their Countries yea to support forren States as our dread Lady of blessed memory did the Low-countries Geneva c But if this be so full of renowne how then is He to be extolled that beareth up the whole frame of Heaven and earth and all the hoasts of them How blessed are they that have so mighty an Emperour over them This letteth us see what cause wee have to cleave unto our LORD IESUS CHRIST Vse 2 and to kisse His beloved Sonne seeing that we have our being in Him all our good is in His hand We see in what respect we have such from whom we have our maintenance who support the small matter of state we have in the world How much more should we win and keepe to us His favour that susteineth life being yea though we see Him not giveth us our lots and maintaineth our portion This strengtheneth our faith on Him touching our preservation Vse 3 Hee that upholdeth all the Creature shall he be unable or unwilling to underprop our weake soules and stablish them in every good way Saint Paul strengtheneth the weake Christian thus He shall be confirmed for God is able able indeed Shall He that carrieth up the whole world not be able to support thy poore spirit Lastly Vse 4 we must learne to acknowledge God as the upholder of the being of things the preserver and chiefe worker in all this ordinary course of Nature God maketh the Sunne to rise God raineth on the just and unjust Psal 134.7 8. For God calleth the Sunne forth Esay 46.26 And though vapours dissolved are meanes of raine yet God chiefly doth prepare and worke it in them whatsoever the second causes doe God doth it much more for these are but instruments to Him the Sithe cannot be said to cut downe grasse so properly as the Mower nor these causes to doe any thing so properly as God who doth it by them VERSE 18. And He is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first borne from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence NOw he commeth to describe His Person as in relation to the Church which he setteth downe 1 Generally He is the Head of the Church 2 Particularly in regard of a particular preeminence which he had in respect of the dead with the consequent of it The first fruit and first borne of the dead that in all things He might have the preeminence First then wee see Obs that CHRIST hath not Lordship over the Creatures only but over the Church also which doth still according to the scope in the whole description intended amplifie the excellencie of His Person the Church is the Lords peculiar select treasure though all the earth bee His besides how great therefore is hee that hath not the Lords dearest possession excepted from him Secondly Obs for our selves marke hence What kinde of Head is given us of God even such a one as is God with the Father the Lord of all the Creature the Creator of Angels eternall the upholder of all the Creature He it is that is made of God the Head unto us His Church So Ephes 1.22 Who is farre above all Principalitie and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not onely in this world but also in that which is to come under whose feet all the Creature is put He is our Head given of God Which doth argue the exceeding love of the Father unto us in giving us such a mysticall Head an Head of pure gold indeed if we may allude to those words of the Spouse This must teach us to rest only upon Him as our Governour Vse 2 inward and outward as an all-sufficient store-house of all grace for us We must not supply Him with vice-ministeriall heads How needeth Hee one in His roome who is not only present but beareth up and moveth all the Creature It is true that CHRIST doth admit though present the ministery of men with Himselfe yea when Hee was in His man-hood upon the earth He did associate such as laboured under Him giving them calling but a ministeriall Vice-roy through His visible Church is a thing the Scripture nor sound Antiquitie acknowledge not But CHRIST His manhood is absent As if Kings cannot governe all their Countreyes though their Persons be at their Court onely How much more our King who is with us in Spirit where two or three are gathered in His Name Secondly there can be no ministeriall head for the work of ministery CHRIST hath bestowed not upon Popelike monachs but upon Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 Againe none is able to doe these things which the nature of an head inforceth as to quicken us to governe us by internall influence which when the Papists confesse no man can doe why should they inforce an head under CHRIST as Kings have viceroyes under them for a Lord Deputy can doe what the King in person should doe but no man can doe what the Head of the Church is to doe Againe the Wife is next in authority to the Husband the Church visible is the spouse of Christ not one man but the whole Church hath all authority next to Him Is it fit the Wife should be kept
under the government of a flagitious servant such as the Papists grant Popes may be Let us therefore take heed that while we set up other heads then Christ over the Churches we doe not reject this glorious Head Iesus Christ from ruling over us as the Israelites when they refused that Aristocraticall governement in which God ruled and would have a King like other Nations the Lord chargeth them not only to have cast off Samuell but himselfe and what is more foolish then to thinke it needfull to have a visible universall high Priest on earth because CHRIST is in heaven invisible to us touching His corporall presence should the people of Israell have erected another High Priest to themselves when Aaron was at any time in the Holy of Holies where he was not visible to them so we stand here below in the entry our High Priest is but gone into the Holiest Sanctuary and we though His Divine nature be with us will set up another Sooner shall the heaven have two Suns then the Church two heads and though metaphorically one may be said to be the Head of a Church for the name of God Himselfe is thus Communicable yet in proper analogy none can be so termed For then the Church might be said His body properly which is such sacriledge as He I thinke in whose forehead blasphemy is written dare scarce commit A double head and a double husband become not the Church the latter is not for her honesty the former fitteth not to decency Thus much who is over us 2 Marke from this Observ that He is called the Head of His Church what neere compassionate and beneficiall superiority or authority that is which Christ hath over His Church He is the Lord of all Creatures yea the hellish fiend must bow the knee to Him But He is not an head to every creature if we take it in that proper analogicall accommodation which the Scripture looketh to in this terme The head hath the highest place and power in the body but yet it is so intimately conjoyned with every member so amiable and beneficiall a superiority that the like cannot in nature be shewen For first looke at the head it is by sinewes and other ligaments straitely conjoyned to every member so is Christ through the spirit of faith coupled with us Secondly from this union the head commeth to have a sense if any part be disturbed so hath Christ He knoweth how to compassionate our infirmities Saul Saul why persecutest thou Me Thirdly the head what ever it hath hath in a sort for the good of the body The perfect comlinesse of the head is the ornament of that body whereof it is the head the body being but a deformed trunke if the head be remooved Againe the sense and motion which are originally in the head as a fountaine they are derived from it to every member Fourthly The head giveth full direction to the other members So Christ is our glory He quickeneth us He giveth us direction both inward and outward We see then that His superiority He hath is most intimate fellow-feeling and commodious unto us Which first doth let us yet farther see what cause we have of thankesgiving who are come into His kingdom Vse 1 who is rather an head unto us then a King over us as the head is to the body To have a powerfull wise King is a great guift but to have one who is rather Pater then Rex Patriae is greater but to have one who should so affect his subjects as to condole with the poorest of them this were a miracle This must breed willing subjection to CHRIST our Lord Vse 2 looke at the members of the body doe they feele it a burthen to doe that which the head directeth to This must strengthen our affiance towards CHRIST Vse 3 that He will not faile to take notice of our griefes to succour and direct us That is a blockish head which can goe on in a Stoicall dedolency when the members are ill affected yea it must assure us that we shall have direction and protection from him Marke Obs 3 Who they are that have Christ so neere so beneficiall to them viz. the Church that is such only who are truely faithfull who shall one day be presented glorious in the heavens such as shall at length have salvation by Him There are in the visible Church many who are by outward profession members of Christ but if they have not learned Christ as the truth is in Christ they shall be found not to be of His body though they seeme so a while A glasse eye may be so set into the head that one would take it verily to be a naturall part of the head yet it hath but an externall insition which art affordeth and is nothing lesse then the naturall eye So many are externally by the Sacrament and externall profession tyed to Christ which are not native members and have no spirituall combination with Him Nay if like some temporisers thou dost get some quicknance of the spirit of Christ yet not such as purifieth the heart bringeth thee above all things to rejoyce in Christ Iesus thou art not of His body nor a true member having Him thy head but art like a wenne or warte mole or such like thing which hath a life in the body but is no member of it Wherefore as you would have any benefit by Christ Vse labour to come into this body not to be as wennes and wooden legges but to be living members such as have Christ living in you teaching you by His spirit to thinke speake and doe all things it is good being members of good Corporations which have good endowments priviledges and Charters but there is not a body like to this which hath all the unsearchable riches of IESUS CHRIST given it in which onely there is salvation That nothing is betwixt Christ and His body Obs 4 and that all the Church is his body and every one in the Church a member of the body not a substitute head unto it Where then shall we find the Pope let him take heed least while he strive to be a secondary head he doe not deprive himselfe of roome in the body out of which there is no salvation I know a Papist will say that the Pope as he is referred unto Christ is a member of the body but as he is referred to men subjected to him he is a head under Christ Answer that every one is a member we reade it and therefore beleeve that any one is a head to all but Christ we reade it not and therefore reject it Beside it is likely that betwixt Christ and the visible Church Saint Peter should have come in thus God is Christs head Christ of the Spirits with Him and Saint Peter and his successors the Churches head but this is no where found yea the contrary God over Christ Christ over the Church the Churches above Cephas Objection Emperours are
It is therefore a very comfortable thing to suffer for the truths sake And they that fly it by unlawfull meanes being called to it eschew their owne comfort and in seeking to save their life shall loose it 2 His second reason is because it is for the good of the Church in generall and of them in particular Then the martyrdome of the martyrs in suffering Object merits for them The afflictions of the godly Answ and specially of the Ministers for the truth tends greatly to the good of the Church to the confirmation comfort and good example of it but as for merits it neither needeth any but the merits of CHRIST neither if it did could they availe But the Papists that would wring these things from hence are evidently discovered to be blasphemers of God and of CHRIST His Sonne The Apostle opposeth this everywhere 2 Tim. 2.10 Therefore I suffer all things for the elects sake that they might also obtaine the salvation which is in IESUS CHRIST with eternall glory 2 Cor. 1.6 whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation And Phi. 1.12 13. He wills them to understand that his sufferings turned to the furtherance of the Gospell his bonds for Christs cause were famous in Court and Country whereof there was this excellent fruit that many of the brethren were imboldened and not as men would thinke discouraged and did more boldly speake the Word Here therefore we are taught Observ that the Church looseth nothing but gaineth much by the sufferings of the godly specially the ministers Which should incourage and comfort us greatly in our sufferings Vse 1 seeing both we our selves and many others reape such fruite thereof And here behold the admirable wisedome and goodnesse of God defeating the plots and turning upside downe the pretences of the Divell and his cursed instruments in their persecutions of the Ministers turning that to the singular good comfort and confirmation of the Church which they intend and directed to their ruine and overthrow Here further observe Obs That the Church is called the body of Christ we are as neerely knit to Christ as the body is to the head so Eph. 1.23 To comfort us who are so neerely knit unto Him Vse 1 bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh How can we perish if He be our head or what affliction can separate us from Him Rom. 8. And ought not this to make us ready to suffer for the Churches sake Vse 2 seeing it is the body of Iesus Christ And if wee ought to doe good and to rejoyce in doing good to the Church though it be by sufferings how much more ought we so to doe when we may doe it without suffering for it VERSE 25. Whereof I am made a Minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to mee for you to fulfill the Word of GOD. HAving thus remooved that which might have beene objected he commeth now to the commendation of his ministery wherein he setteth forth 1 The object and causes of it verse 25 26 27. 2 His diligence and faithfulnesse in the execution of it verse 28 29. The object of his ministerie is here noted to be the Church whereof hee saith of which Church I am become a Minister In which words he resumeth that he had said in the end of the twenty third verse for the twenty fourth verse is interposed to prevent an Objection The Ministers of CHRIST Observ are the Ministers of the Church which Church is the body of CHRIST this company of men this selected and choyce company as the Word translated the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie such as labour in the worke of the Gospell and none but these these are given of Christ for the repayring and building up of the Church Eph. 4.11 12. Wherein appeareth the great dignity of the Church Vse 1 and the great account God maketh of it who hath given His best guifts to men to doe them service for their salvation the rest of the world having no portion in these men nor in their guifts or labours It sheweth the great account Ministers ought to make of their people Vse 2 and the great care they ought to have of their edification being of so great account with God and committed to their charge How unkinde and unnaturall a thing it is for this Church or any member of it Vse 3 to molest and persecute these ministers given of God in His great love to doe them good even to bee His blessed instruments to save their soules The causes of his ministery are two The efficient The causes of his ministery are two The end The efficient is the dispensation of GOD given him Observ whereof the meaning is that his Ministery was freely committed unto him by the most wise and holy government of GOD wherewith He governeth His Church as His owne house so much the Word dispensation signifies and appointeth His Ministers as overseers and stewards thereof GOD is the Lord the Church is His house the ministers His stewards the Word and Sacraments the foode and rayment which they must from God minister to their brethren and fellow-servants This should make the Ministers wise and faithfull Vse 1 happy is that servant Mat. 24.46.47.51 whom when his master shall come shall finde so doing 1 Cor. 4.2 It is required in stewards that a man be found faithfull But if that evill servant say in his heart my master deferreth his comming and shall beginne to eate and drinke and to smite his fellowes the Lord of that servant will come in a day that hee thinketh not and will cut him in pieces and give Him his portion among hypocrites And this should make the people diligent and dutifull in receiving their spirituall foode and rayment as from God at the hand of those that are appointed stewards and overseers for them Heb. 13.17 that they may doe it with joy and not with griefe for that is uncomfortable indeede to the minister and unprofitable to the people Of this dispensation he saith That it was given to them-wards or for them His ministery doubtlesse was given for the use and behoofe of the whole Church for his commission as of the rest of the Apostles was generall Goe teach all Nations Mat. 28.20 2 Cor. 11.28 c. and he professeth the care of all the Churches lay upon him howbeit having now to doe with the Colossians he applyeth it to them affirming that it was given him for them as if it had beene for them alone teaching Obs That the Minister should have such care of every part of his charge as if his Ministery had beene committed to him for their behoofe and profit onely and that every one pertaining to a Ministers charge every family and every person should make such use of their minister as if he had received his ministery for them alone And great reason there is of this latter
not of an humane but a divine Person for though the Nature according to which they are wrought be humane yet the Person working is the Person of the Sonne of God Saint Paul giveth graces by laying on of hands with Prayer But 1 Not as if this were any way His worke but as intreating it from God in CHRIST whose it is 2 Not from power any way within His person but without Him even the power of another 3 Not conjoyned with God as the body with the soule but as an instrument with God as when I use another thing or person in doing this or that without my selfe bence it is that CHRIST-Man doth give graces authoritativè and effectivè yea according to humane action doth effect them in the highest degree that an instrumentall operation cān effect any thing Whereas Saint Paul giveth them Ministerialitèr signifiing what God doth in Christ rather than what Himselfe doth He that planteth and watereth is nothing all the efficacie of his action is to get CHRIST GOD-Man give the graces he intreateth The use is Vse that we should hence be exhorted not to rest in man The flesh profiteth nothing the spirit quickeneth that is my humane nature could not give all these precious benefits unto you unlesse the quickning Spirit did dwell in it in Him in whom all fulnesse dwelleth you are compleat 2 From the words observe That being in CHRIST Doct. we receive all kinde of graces and benefits that we lacke nothing Eph. 4.11 He is said to have ascended above all these aspectable heavens that He might fill all viz. with the gifts of grace as the context following cleareth Eph. 1.3 We are blessed in Christ with all kinde of spirituall blessings and they are said to be full of love and filled with all knowledge Rom. 15.14 These gifts may all be reduced to these two Ioh. 1.17 By Christ commeth grace and truth GODs favour pardoning our sinnes and restoring the life of God and true holinesse for so truth with Saint Iohn often signifieth There is a double fulnesse the one of gifts infused into us or to be given us the other of condition when the state is so full that there is no lacke Now for the first the Saints receive not that plenitude of inherent graces in this life though respectively in regard of such as have small degrees others may and are said to be full as the Romans and others 2. In regard of condition when we have all things so bestowed that nothing is wanting now this in Christ all the Saints have They have not that fulnesse in themselves but in Him their Head who is made of God every thing unto them wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption and this Text is most fitly construed this way they need no other Teacher no other Law-giver no other Mediatour The use of it is against the Papists Vse 1 they are not compleat in Christ other mediators workes their owne righteousnesse satisfactions indulgences imputing the sufferings of men to them they have left the LORD IESUS and are run a whoring with their owne inventions This must make us rest only in Christ Vse 2 like Paul caring to know nothing but Him counting all things dung and drosse in comparison of Him Fill your selves with Christ and there will not be roome for ought else Were a vessell full of any liquor it would receive no more if a womans heart be full of her husband she hath no roome for other lovers So shall it be with you if you see by faith that your estate is full in Christ lacking nothing what will you care to looke further Lastly Vse 3 on this ground invite men to Christ how is the case altered if a poore woman should marry the Prince So if we blinde naked beggarly things marry this Prince of glory our poverty shall be exchanged with riches Who is the Head of all Principality and Power That is of all supreame and inferiour powers which are seene in the creatures visible or invisible Doct. Obs What is the dignity of Him who is every thing to us Hee is the chiefe above all the creatures this is it we beleeve of Christ as man ascending into heaven fitteth at the right hand of GOD He is placed at GODs right hand in heavenly places Eph. 1.21 above all principalities and powers and might and domination and every name that is named not in this world onely but also in that that is to come 1 Pet. 3.22 Which IESUS is at the right hand of GOD gone into heaven to whom the Angels and powers and might are subject To whom of the Angels said He Hebr. 1. Sit at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy foot-stoole Which the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. construeth thus He must reigne till His enemies be put under His feet There are three Preeminencies subordinate 1 GOD above all 2 The Mediator under God but Head over all the Creatures 3 Creatures over other creatures but under Christ and God Looke as if a mighty King doe marry any woman he maketh her Queene next in dignity to himselfe above all subjects So our great GOD IESUS CHRIST coupling our Nature with Himselfe hath in so doing extolled it above all creatures which are but the workmanship of His hands a part of whose Person this Nature is The Vse is the more to binde us to Christ Vse to have so great benefit as to lacke nothing is a great matter yet if we receive or hold good things from meane persons we weigh them the lesse and doe the easilyer part with them but when wee have great things and that from great personages in highest authority we joy as much that we hold under such as in the things which are our tenure Oh worldly wisdome will hold in Capite they will forfeit any thing rather than their Princes favour the LORD make us all as carefull to hold in this head Still remember from these descriptions Vse 2 thus interserted what causeth our looking further than CHRIST we know not His excellencie that rest not in Him And secondly what is the next way to bring us from turning to any lying deceit not according to CHRIST even this to insist much in inculcating the dignity of Christ and all-sufficiencie of Him thus Iohn the Iewes Oh their Moses had seene GOD CHRIST was not so ancient as himselfe they would leave him to follow Christ Oh saith Iohn He that commeth after me is before me none ever saw GOD but CHRIST all have received from His fulnesse that they had He is the Fountaine of grace and truth VERSE 11. In whom also yee are circumcised with Circumcision made without hands by putting off the sinfull body of the flesh through the Circumcision of CHRIST NOw he commeth to set downe more definitely what blessings Christ had brought them they may be recalled to two heads 1 The removall of their evill 2 The conferring of good The first is in the
supremum numen Yet the Councell of Laodicea condemned it in them and what did the King in Daniel require to be esteemed the highest GOD No but to have a divine worship more than humane which yet Daniel would rather dye than yeeld unto Religious worship is not capable of subdivisions as but one GOD so but one religious worship all other worship is Charitatis as Saint Augustine saith not Servitutis such as we worship one another with not religious Saint Augustine doth not distinguish religious worship into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as two kindes of it but worship in generall into religious every degree whereof is Latria and into humane which he calleth Dulia Servitus corporis non animae such as subjects give their Prince servants their masters who are over them but according to the flesh therefore can have but an externall worship done to them In the second place Vse 2 let us not religiously adore any Creatures Revel 19.10 the most excellent are but our fellow servants If any subjects doe looke at some noble personage about the King with honour and acclamation a little more than usuall though farre lesse than that the King receiveth is it not derogatory to the highest Majesty Even so we cannot enter the least degree of honour above that which is civill due to fellow Citizens with us but so much as is above proveth detracted from the LORD's glory to whom all religious worship entirely belongeth Intruding into these things he hath not seene This hath the force of an argument Hee that voucheth matters hee hath no knowledge in you are not to passe for such a ones sentence But these doe so Obs then Doct. What is the property of a false deceiver to speake that he hath not certainely knowne The Apostles of Christ they often interlace this as a circumstance winning credit and testifying their fidelity The things wee have seene doe wee shew unto you Thus Saint Iohn in his first Epistle Chap. 1.1 So Saint Peter ◠Pet. 1.20 Yea our SAVIOUR telleth them that he spake nothing but what he had seene and heard from the Father So all the servants of GOD testifie nothing which they doe not by faith discerne in the Word of GOD. But false teachers will broach the speculation of their owne braines tell things as CHRIST speaketh in their owne name which they have not received and learned from GOD But as thus it is generally erred of false teachers So they then runne into this fault principally when through curiosity and metaphysicall speculation they will runne into descants of their owne imagination in nice points not contenting themselves to be wise within those bounds which God hath revealed in His Word To which vice the Popish schoole is exceedingly addicted for what hidden point of the divine Trinity have they not determined What things about offices gifts order of Angels have they expressed as if they had been amongst them as they are called Scraphicall and Angelicall What is in Heaven or Hell that they have not particularized I so farre as to set downe the smells the dinnes the nature of the fire as if they had come thence locally But you will say Object when may we know that a man speaketh things he hath not knowne nor seene When he voucheth any thing in GOD's truth or worship Answ any matter of beliefe or practice without the Word of GOD for then he is and needs must be in the darknesse of his owne naturall reason which discerneth not things spiritually perceived As these vouched a point of worship which GOD's Word had not taught As no man knoweth what is in another Countrey unlesse hee goe to it or have true information from it So no man can tell what is in Heaven till GOD take him thither or send word hither to informe us for here is no third Not to let ungrounded subtilties dazle our eyes Vse 1 seeing the truth is they have no being but in the phantasie of those who imagine them Let us be wise Vse 2 not so much to looke what is said by false teachers as to consider how they prove it Let us take heed of this arrogancie in God's matters Vse 3 and not speake that we have not seene by faith in His Word Not that we may not speake things which wee know but weakely but wee must not speake any thing which in some measure wee have not warrant for from the truth of God for Saint Iohn preached of CHRIST when he knew Him not so fully as afterward he did Passed up by his fleshly minde Obs What is the cause of vouching Doct. yea of diving into hid things viz. Pride Let none be high minded let none be wise above that which is written But one may aske in what standeth this Pride Answ In leaving the direction of GOD's Word and following the dictamen or suggestion of our owne reason How doth he condemne himselfe that taketh upon him being a novice to make conclusions of an art he never entered And what a Pride is it for some ignorant schollar to put by the direction of his Tutor or Schoole-master So for us in these things which are onely taught of God not to respect the Lectures read to us in His Word or by His Vshers in whom He teacheth for us who are borne altogether rude and ignorant of the Kingdome of heaven that is as ignorant of saving knowledge in heavenly matters as any beast is in civill affaires for us to set downe determinations beyond our element VERSE 19. And not holding the head from which all the bodie by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of GOD. NOw he commeth to the third Argument Such as hold not CHRIST the Head you are not to stand upon their condemning of you These that teach you worship of Angels hold not Him who is sufficient for all the body of His Church Ergo. The verse containes two things 1 The state of these Sect-masters in as much as they did not hold CHRIST 2 The description of CHRIST our Head from His efficacie in all His members In which three things are set downe 1 What groweth in CHRIST the Head viz. the whole body 2 How it commeth to grow viz. being furnished and coupled by joynts and ligaments unto the Head 3 The growth it selfe groweth with the encrease of GOD. Before we enter the verse observe thus much That looking to the Creatures for helpe and grace Doctr. doth make us fall from CHRIST Such as are worshippers of Angells hold not CHRIST if saith Saint Paul ye will be justified by your owne working CHRIST will profit you nothing He is dead in vayne And this is most true in the Roman Church where amongst Saints and Angells CHRIST can have little roome little respect in comparison It is with faith and religious service so that they cannot be lent unto any other but they are made one with it and are
withdrawen from CHRIST So that as a Wife yeelding her love and conjugall benevolence to another cleaveth no longer to her husband is one flesh no more with him So a soule bestowing the religious adoration of it here or there doth joyne it selfe with the thing so worshipped and leaveth God This is to be marked against them that are reconcilers Vse 1 that thinke why may they not doe thus and thus and yet cleave to CHRIST well enough yea this doth detect the wicked judging of Papists that will perswade us that this leadeth us unto CHRIST to go to Saints and that honouring them in religious manner we honour Christ in them 2 We must keepe onely to God in Christ Thus much from this that these religiously worshipping Angells held not Christ For understanding the verse We must open some conclusions concerning the head and Naturall body 1 The head is the supreame part in a humane body from which commeth outward direction and inward influence of sense and motion into every member So Christ hath both the soveraignty of outward directing and by his powerfull influence he quickeneth and mooveth all that are his 2 No member hath any thing from the head which is not by joynts and sinewes coupled to the head and by the same bands and joynts furnished from the head So we have nothing from CHRIST till by faith and love we are knit with Him and His body and by the same 〈◊〉 furnished from Him with spirituall grace and heavenly nutriment 3 We must know that the soule from the head doth 〈◊〉 forth a nutritive faculty a vitall faculty which nourisheth and augmenteth every member as the nature of it requireth The first continueth as long as life augmentation till wee come to that perfection of growth which nature affordeth Being come to this augmentation ceaseth about thirty sixe yeares So the quickning spirit from Christ our head doth by all holy meanes nourish every believer and make him grow as his condition requireth and that till he come to be a perfect member of one perfect man in Iesus Christ 4 The last thing to be marked is that a Naturall body groweth up in every part proportionably the hand for a hand the legge with the growth of a legge the toe with the growth of a toe So here all the body thus coupled furnished and wrought upon with the quickning spirit groweth to that perfection in every member which Christ hath appointed The summe is They keepe not to Christ who is an all sufficient head by whose efficacy all that believe on Him being coupled to Him receive all grace needfull and take encrease growing up till they come to perfection with such a growth which God Himselfe causeth in them That wee have not many but one head Doct. not holding the head not Christ and Saint Peter the Scripture knoweth but one head neither was any of His Apostles a head of the Churches for all had alike and the chiefe authority Now if any were a head above others He must have the chiefe alone no other having it with Him thus the Pastor that succeeded Peter at Rome should have beene head over Saint Iohn the Evangelist who lived long after Peter But we neede no better argument then this in the Text. If CHRIST be one head and it is monstrous for a body to have two then the Church hath no other But CHRIST is the head and for one body to have two is monstrous therefore the Church hath no other then Christ The Papists say that a ministeriall and secondary head may be with a principall and it is not monstrous As there may bee a Viceroy under a King yea they say it maketh with the union of the Church to have a visible head and doth no more derogate from Christs glory in being our head then when men are called lights GODS Apostles foundations from Christ who is called the light GOD the foundation the Apostle of our profession For answer First this distinction of a secondary ministeriall head it is contradictory for it is such an essentiall property of a head to be principall and have rule that what is not thus is not a head 2 Who ever heard of any secondary head in a naturall body without deformity now it is a naturall body with which CHRIST doth compare Himselfe in this respect 3 That which is a ministeriall head must doe the worke of a head but that none can doe The worke is double internall or externall influence regiment or direction Of the first it is granted for the other of regiment the Scripture denyeth it to any but CHRIST the Prince of Pastors leaving to all other a power ministeriall onely to serve the Churches as superior unto them Againe the truth is no direction which is dependent is the direction of a head as the hand leading and drawing up the foote directeth it but is not a head to it because the direction of the hand commeth from the principality of the head reported unto it As for those instances First a Viceroy is in a body politique but CHRIST in calling Himselfe a head of his body doth draw the comparison from a body Naturall Againe the proportion is not kept for to have a Viceroy under a King in some Province is one thing but to have a head under a head is another For a head is to the body as a King to the kingdome Now to have another King in a kingdome under the Chiefe is a thing unheard of The union of the Church the Scripture teacheth to depend on CHRIST and His spirit not on a visible head Yea the Grecians continew to this day their rent from the Church and all for the pride of this head Men have many names properly attributed to them and these above repeated but improperly but the names of head and husband the Scripture and all sound antiquity appropriate unto Christ Kings may suffer men to be called Noble Wise Rich but to be called Kings within His Kingdome is not permitted for there is nothing more derogatory from the glory of his Crowne so here c. Let us then cleave to this head CHRIST IESUS Vse and renounce such most lewd usurpation as is detected in the Pope Woe to that body which hath a third thing thrust in betwixt the head and it so that they meete not to close each to the other So it is with the Papists for betwixt Christ and them the Pope hath thrust in so that their immediate conjunction with Christ is hindered and his beneficiall influence intercepted Oh how absurd is it that any but Christ should bee thought head of the Church It is as if the King should put his Queene under the power of a Subject or a mans wife should be made an underling to a servant which never was the Apostles themselves though in their message from Christ they might command the Church in His Name yet in regard of their persons they were under the Churches as a servant who
delivereth to his masters sonne Commandes from his master he bringing his message doth command her and yet his condition is inferior to her The whole body For opening the true meaning First wee must know what is meant by the Whole body Secondly in what regard the Church is sayd the body To the first a whole body sometime is put absolutely conteyning the head under it as well as other members Secondly a whole body is put respectively for that whole frame of the body which consisteth of all members beside the head and thus alwayes it is used in the Scripture for the body is spoken of as distinguished by opposite relation from the head now when the body is spoken of as a distinct thing from the head the head cannot then be comprehended under it thus here the whole body increaseth Christ our head hath all fullnesse Christ therefore is not meant in the whole body Againe Christ is not head of the whole body consisting of Himselfe and His members for Christ is not His owne head but God GOD is the head of Christ 1 Cor. 11.3 This is to be marked against some Papists that say they make not the Pope head of the whole body but of the mysticall body which standeth of men Christ excepted and this they thinke not absurd But Christ Himselfe is not the head of the whole body in that former acception but onely of His body mysticall beside Himselfe Some againe thus reason He that is head of a whole body he is head of a body having a head beside him for else say they it were not a whole body But Christ is head of a whole body beside Himselfe The first part is false or the second if not rightly understood according to the distinction above named Christ is head of a whole body not absolutely called whole as comprehending a head within it but respectively so called because it is whole for a body distinguished apart from the head For the second thing a body may be sayd the body of one two wayes 1 In respect of the whole Person in whom it had or hath being thus we say of one buryed here lyeth such an ones body meaning the whole body that had the personall being of it in such a man 2 The body is sayd to be the body of one in regard of reference it hath to the head as a distinct eminent part distinguished from it thus we say such a man is dangerously wounded in his body but his head is not touched Now though we have our mysticall being from Christ yet the Scripture calleth us his body for the respect we have to Him as our head as being another more eminent part who with us maketh up that whole mysticall man Christ Iesus And therefore Christ is as properly sayd to be our head as we His body Now though this or that body may be sayd such a persons body yet the person cannot properly be sayd the head of such a body These things being premised to exclude Popish errors and to helpe us in the true conceaving of this matter wee will come to the doctrine First then we see Doct. That in Christ mysticall there is nothing but the head giving growth and the body receiving growth from him This is to be marked for where is the Pope found the head giving growth he is not his owne men grant that he cannot infuse any grace he hath no influence of this nature then he is not the head in which the Church groweth for the body of the Church growing he will not be of the body for he that will be the head of a body is not of the body To say a head is properly a head of a body and properly a part of the same body is a contradicton as no subject can bee truely made a King and yet remaine a subject he must then bee found in that body whereof the Divell is head for here is no roome for him 2 Marke hence Doct. That even for the whole multitude of believers there is sufficiency in Iesus Christ the whole body those who lived in all times before us have found him every thing unto them Abraham saw his day afarre off and rejoyced what place soever they live in his virtue reacheth them Alas then Vse what meane any to looke unto others then Christ Shall not hee who hath brought all the Saints from the beginning of the world to that growth they have attained that doth quicken every believer through the face of the earth shall not he be sufficient for thee It is as absurd as if the little finger for by fiction we will lend it reason should thinke that soule not enough to quicken it which not withstanding did give to the whole frame of the body besides it The not beholding this with the eye of faith doth make so many rest unsatisfied in Christ 3 By joynts and bands furnished and knit together Obser That before we can take spirituall growth from Christ Doct. we must be knit unto Him and furnished from Him Even as the naturall members of the body can receive no growth if they be not coupled to the head and if it have not supply of nutriment and that faculty of nourishing and encreasing sent forth into it So if we bee not so knit to Christ and have not his Word outwardly and His virtue inwardly to make us grow by it we can never take increase in Him Life is in Christ saith Saint Iohn 1 Ioh. â— 12 but when we come to have Christ we have this life Wee must first have CHRIST get into him by faith true it is that there are branches in Christ which are dead and fruitlesse but as I sayd before they are not ingrafted into Christ by true faith but tyed on him by the string of an outward profession Wherefore wee must hence bee exhorted to get into Christ as ever we looke for benefit by Him Vse 4 Marke hence Doct. That every true believer groweth up in Christ He doth not stand at a stay or goe backe 1 Pet. â— â— but groweth from faith to faith 2 Pet. â— 18 As new borne babes desire the sincere milke of the Word that yee may grow thereby We must grow in grace Let him that is righteous bee more righteous still and he that is holy let him be more holy still Having such promises let us grow up to perfect holinesse 2 Cor. 7.1 Even as in Nature she groweth from that which is lesse perfect to that which is more perfect So in grace the LORD doth leade us by degrees on to perfection What a deformity is it in Nature when one is a dwarfe and groweth in yeares but not in stature So here before GOD an old Christian in yeares but a babe in knowledge and grace Wherefore such as fall from their first love may suspect themselves Vse 1 such as count it a part of commendable constancy still to be the same and esteeme it greene-headed new
which faith layeth hold on onely CHRIST IESUS this is the only matter that Faith claspeth for righteousnesse before God and life everlasting So God loved the world Ioh. 3.16 that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in Him should not perish but have life everlasting He is lifted up as the brazen Serpent that eying Him crucified we might be healed Rom. 3.25 Him hath GOD set forth for a reconciliation through faith in his bloud True it is the same saving faith beleeveth all that is set downe of GOD in the Scripture all particular promises for the passing of this life for these distinct offices doe not make three distinct faiths in us as the reasonable sensitive and naturall functions doe not make three soules in man but one whose effects are three-fold Neverthelesse Faith though it lay hold of all truth as it is taught yet so farre forth as it justifieth it buildeth and leaneth it selfe on Christ onely like as the Israelites they with their eyes did see divers things and looke on sundry objects as occasion served but so farre as they got themselves healed of the stings of firy serpents they looked with their eyes at nothing but the serpent lifted up To rebuke the worldlings faith Vse 1 which is grounded not on CHRIST crucified but such a mercy in GOD as is generally so good that it will save all The Papists their faith is grounded on their good workes with CHRIST and on the treasury of merits and satisfaction but the Arke and Dagon wil not stand together CHRIST and this stubble will not agree Wee may trie the truth of our faith this way Vse 2 it layeth hold on CHRIST Eph. 3 17. Phil. 3.3.7 bringeth Him to dwell in the heart rejoyceth in Him counteth all things drosse in comparison of Him Toward whom our love especially must be shewed Obs 2 to Saints Gal. 6.10 Rom. 12.13 Doe good to all especially to the houshold of Faith Distribute to the necessities of the Saints My good reacheth to the Saints Psal 16. all my delight is in them All in their order are to have the fruits of our love but those most who are nearest us as in nature every one is next himselfe then next to such as are of his bloud in neerest degree or otherwise made one body with him as the wife with the husband Thus in grace after GOD and our owne soules the Saints are neerest us as who are by faith and love fellow-members knit to CHRIST the Head of us all Againe a wise man will sow his seed in the best ground which will returne it with most increase So a Christian will sow the fruits of his love chiefly on the Saints for GOD taketh that which is done to them as done to Himselfe Againe this love of the brethren the Saints is a token we are translated from death to life for as this is a token the world doth not know GOD and so have not life everlasting in them because they know not His children So it is an evidence when we acknowledge such as are begotten of GOD that God hath brought us to know him who is the begetter of them To stirre us up to our duties Vse 1 our eyes should be to them that are faithfull our affections with them Birds of a feather will fly together good fellowes love one another And shall not the fellowship of grace in those that are members of one body whereof CHRIST is the Head knit the Saints together in the strongest band of love This rebuketh the weaknesse of some Vse 2 they are afraid to give any countenance to a Saint though like Nicodemus they have some good affection and liking to the godly yet they dare not be seene to hold any neere communion and familiar converse with such lest they should be thought Puritanes and favourers of men in disgrace with the State Blessed is he that is not offended at CHRIST in His poore members This rebuketh the prophanenesse of othersome Vse 3 who as the Philistims brought out Sampson when they would be merry So out must some Saint come and beare their flouts and derision when they are more pleasantly disposed Ismaeliush mockers of Isaak Yea others worse than the former hate the Saints wish there were not one in a towne of them like Cain who hated his brother to death because his workes were better than his It is an evidence of a godly heart to cleave more affectionately to those who are more godly than other And it savours of a carnall heart in a great measure when any one doth equally impart his favour If any have points of service and can apply themselves to their humour though they have small acquaintance with GOD they shall be countenanced this maketh their religion linsey-woolsey this confirmeth the hands of such in their carnall course this maketh those that are good more remisse than they should be should they finde from Christians better incouragement Davids delight was in the Saints Psal 16.3 Ps 101.6 he did purge his family of such as were unprofitable and gracelesse he set his heart on such as did set their hearts to please GOD in all things not such as could get the length of his foot were precious in his eyes Can a loyall wife take pleasure in such men who are observant and officious about her but devoid of all respect to her husband Are your soules betrothed to GOD in CHRIST and can you abide their service about you who are carelesse in dutie toward your LORD with whom you are by faith contracted this shewes there is but a forme of godlinesse or that it is much decayed when wee can like of men not as wee see them sincerely serve GOD but as their behaviour is more or lesse pleasing and contentful to our selves VERSE 5. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof ye heard before in the Word of truth the Gospell FOr the hope Hope is put for the quality of hope or the thing hoped for we are to take it here in the latter sense Observe hence Obs 1 What is a spurre quickning us to all duty the recompence which our GOD hath in store for us Heb. 11.25 26. Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of GOD then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of CHRIST greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward We faint not knowing that our labour is not in vaine in the Lord. If the Lord kept nothing in store for us we might thinke as good play for nothing as worke for nothing but no office of love no not a Cup of cold water shall goe unrequited How doth this provoke to obedience but we must not hence thinke wee merit and grow mercenary minded serving for our Penny not of love to our Father for we looke not at these hopes this recompence of reward as
for the people yet not inferior to them Answer Emperors are so for the people that they are Lords over them and the people are for them even their Subjects and bodies politique but Saint Peter nor no Apostle are so for the Church that they are Lords of it and that the Church is their Church and body mysticall therefore they are so for the Churches that they are inferiors to them Object Was not Saint Peter and the rest immediate legates from Christ Object and had they not authority which all the Churches were to obey Answer They had yet their persons still under the Church and their worke of Ministery not to domineere over the Churches the reason is because it was the message and order of the Churches Husband which was of authority above her not their persons that did relate it If a man send one of his servants with a command to his Wife the servant when he hath got this errand is not a Lord over the Wife but a servant under her though his message from her Lord is such which she may not gainesay Fiftly Observe Obs the dignity of the faithfull and their neere conjunction with Christ they are the body of Christ not the naturall body united to the second person nor the Sacramentall body but a mysticall body such who by force of Christ His Spirit are knit to Him and receive all things from Him proportionably as the body naturall doth from the head Many other comparisons as of Vine and branches Man and Wife c. doe set it downe but none more lively then this which is the oftenest frequented To shew us the excellent condition to which we are brought Vse 1 to assure us of Christs love who ever hated His owne flesh He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of Mine eye This letteth us also see the fearefulnesse of abusing the godly that are truely faithfull Vse 2 they lift at mill-stones Lastly Obs seeing Christ is risen from the dead we must labour and strive thither also if a Captaine hath made a breach and entered the hold of the enemy will not the souldiers presse after and ambitiously affect who should get next him so we Christ hath led us the daunce and broke through the gates of death into the City of God we should affect to come after as Saint Paul did strive for conformity with Christ in this point both in the first and second Resurrection The third point is Observ That Christs Resurrection hath speciall priviledge above all others for all others before were not begotten from among the dead because they were raised up with mortality tending to death againe but our Saviour Christ in that He dyed He dyed at once not long to be held of it but in that He is risen He is raised to live for ever death shall no more have dominion over Him 2 All other rose as private and singular men not as publique persons in the name of other making hope to all the dead of their resurrection therefore they were not the first fruits duely gathered but like a singular eare of corne by occasion more timely gathered Now Christ is risen as He dyed not for Himselfe onely but for all us so Christ is risen in al our names so that as we all dyed in Him so we all are raised in Him as a Burgesse of a Parliament what he doth or speaketh it is in the name of the Corporation who doth it in him When God created Adam He made all mankinde in as much as He made him who was to be a Principle of naturall generation to all mankind conveying life and being to them in their order so when He raised Christ He raised us all in as much as He hath raised up a second Adam a Principle of spirituall regeneration even of the first and second resurrection to all Gods chosen in their order Hence it is that Paul saith Eph. 2.6 We are raised up in Christ and set in heavenly places in Him that Peter saith 1 Peâ— 1.3 God hath begotten us to that happy hope in the Resurrection of Iesus Christ Lastly He raised Himselfe as who was the Lord from heaven the quickening Spirit Destroy this body and in three dayes I will raise it up Great therefore every way is the prerogative of our Lord IESUS CHRIST even in regard of that Nature which was dead but now is alive He was slaine before the foundation of the world Hee is raised up as the hope and fore-runner of all our immortality Thou lookest at His death as thy death and against all guilt of sinne and terrour of conscience threatning the Curse doest say I have borne the Curse in my Lord Gal. 3.13 made a curse for me So against all terrours of bodily death hold this I am raised up in CHRIST for He is risen in all our names who beleeve on Him If wee beleeve that IESUS is dead and risen againe 1 Thess 4.14 so also God shall bring those who are slept in Iesus say to life eternall with Him VERSE 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulnesse dwell NOw he commeth to give a reason of the former opening the fountaine where the Man IESUS CHRIST found such grace as that in Him all of us should be redeemed that Hee should be God in Person over all creatures yea the Head of His Church filling all in all Now the Reason is here set downe to be the good pleasure of God the Father First that the fulnesse of the God-head for so it is best construed out of the second Chap. Vers 9. and not only that the fulnesse of created gifts should dwell personally in this humane Nature as a Temple 2. That this Person God-man should by the Sacrifice of Himselfe reconcile all unto God First then in generall we see Obs That whatsoever the manhood of CHRIST is lifted up unto it is the meere grace of God not the merit of the Creature What could this Man doe which could deserve this grace that it should be personally united with God and so lifted up to be incomparably above all the Angels in heaven And therefore Saint Augustine doth not doubt to make CHRIST the Sampler of GOD's free Predestination the free grace of God appearing in none so much as in Him which is the Head of all This CHRIST looketh to in His members Lord I thanke thee that thou hast beene pleased to reveile these things unto babes and sucklings and hast kept them from the wise and learned Even so O Father because it pleased thee Yea I doubt not but as God did predestinate him of grace to this honour of being God in fellowship of Person and of being the Prince of our salvation So God in the Covenant He did make with Him and the commandement He gave Him of laying downe His life did strike it and fulfill it of grace not requiring any thing Hee imposed on His Sonne more than duties of free
should be three severall Wills in the Trinity Againe there is no conversion of these Natures for that which dwelleth with another is not converted into it And all Nestorius his dreame of two distinct divided Persons said to be one through singular assistance love dignity consent for the Text saith Bodily and Saint Iohn saith They so dwell together that God is made flesh which cannot be said by vertue of any Vnion which is not substantiall We see what reason we have to hold to CHRIST Vse 2 if we had Moses or Daniel or Saint Paul upon the earth with whom the LORD pleased to dwell so abundantly by the effects of grace and gifts of prophecie Oh how would wee sticke to them how would we rest in their words or oracles but behold him who is the substantiall flesh of our GOD. This sheweth us whither wee must come Vse 3 if wee will finde God to no other but this Temple All old worshippers under the Law they went to the Temple when they would come to God and before the Temple was built to the Arke and Tabernacle but these were but types here is the true Temple looke to CHRIST-man to that body of which he said Destroy this Temple and I will build it againe in three dayes Looke hither and God shall over-shadow thee for the God head dwelleth with Him personally Consider the wonderfull love of God Vse 4 that vouchsafeth thus to dwell in our Nature If some mighty Prince should come and dwell in some poore cottage for his subjects good what a rare part of his singular love would it be counted How much more is this And thus answering briefly an objection of the Lutherans we will come to the next Verse The Nature in which God dwelleth is every where Object where God is but God dwelleth in the humane Nature viz. Christ-Man then in the humane Nature Let this answer the first part of the reason Answ I answer it with limitation That in which God dwelleth as a thing contained in a place containing that must needs be where ever God is not that in which God dwelleth in other manner as here he doth or that in which God dwelleth per aequipatentiam I illustrate the vanity of their argument with this That in which the light dwelleth that is every where where the light is But the light dwelleth in the body of the Sunne Therefore the body of the Sunne is every where where the light is VERSE 10. And yee are compleat in Him which is the Head of all Principality and Power NOw he commeth to the Reasons taken from the all-sufficient benefits wee receive in Him which first are laid downe in this tenth verse indefinitely after by particular enumeration The reason from this verse standeth thus You must not looke to others leaving Him in whom you have the fulnesse of all grace behoovefull given you But in Christ who is the Head of all Principality and Power you are compleat Ergo c. The Verse then containeth 1 Our most full blessednesse in CHRIST 2 A repetition of His dignity from whom we are replenished Now in the Verse we must first marke the coherence In whom having all the fulnesse of the divine Nature in Him you are compleat or full Observe hence Doct. Whence it is that CHRIST Man doth send out all the streames of grace and good things to all His members even hence that this fountaine dwelleth in Him Did not the divine Nature which is the fountaine of all life naturall and supernaturall Psal 36.9 For with Him is the Well of life Did not this dwell with this man or humane Nature we could not be enlightned and quickned by it So that when we reade Ioh. 6. he that eateth my flesh hath life in him we must know that these things are spoken truely of the man-hood not that this Nature of it selfe can doe these things but because the Deity dwelleth with it and by it as by an instrument joyned personally with it doth properly and efficiently worke these things Even as we see the body of the Sunne doth enlighten all but as an instrument of the first created light which GOD hath united to it This must be held that neither the omnipotent power of ereating spirituall graces nor yet the omnipotent action which doth produce them is in the humane Nature or proceedeth from the humane Nature but in God onely and from God in and with this humane Nature working to the same effects according to the propertie of it As a Scrivenour writing with a pen the effect viz. writing may be ascribed to the pen for we say this pen did write this but the faculty of writing and the proper action which produceth it is in the scribe and goeth not from the scribe into the pen So here after some sort for the pen hath no reason and will to worke with the scribe in that to which it is used but he is an instrument having this humane understanding and will whereby hee worketh The pen is an externall instrument without the person of Him that useth it but CHRIST's humane Nature is an internall instrument united within the Person of God the Sonne as a part of His Person as the body of a man is to his soule yea more nearely for death severeth this but not the other yet in this they are like that one is the effect viz. the thing written is properly and efficiently from the Scribe from the pen instrumentally with efficiencie of inferiour degree So these divine workes which CHRIST the Mediatour worketh the chiefe vertue and action which properly effecteth them is in God not communicated really with the other Nature though it doth worke them in this humane Nature with it yea and by it as a most neerely conjoyned instrument which within the person of God the Sonne hath His proper actions concurring in an inferiour degree of efficiencie to that which the divine Nature principally and properly worketh GOD worketh graces CHRIST-Man worketh the same Saint Paul by laying on of hands giveth grace as to Timothy the divine Nature that createth them and infuseth them into this or that man through CHRIST Man being as a common conceptacle and conduit-pipe of them the humane Nature worketh them not by powerfull creating them but by taking away fin and the cause that so way might bee made for this promised Spirit Galath 3.14 2 By interceding Mediator-like for them 3 By willing the going of such graces from Him as who is with God the Sonne but one Worker though a distinct principle of working that is though distinct in Nature yet the same in Person Hee therefore worketh them as His owne workes from His owne power for God's power is by Vnity of Person made His the divine power not being without Him as the power of another Person than He is but being personally with Him Those things which His humane Nature worketh or which are wrought after His humane Nature they are the workes
Christ working through that death in the behalfe of all His the death of the creature so farre forth as by the just judgement of God it hath a power through Sathans working to draw us from God to it selfe 3 A death of our corruption Galath 6.15 By the Cxosse of Christ the world is crucified to me and I to it that is by Christ crucified Briefly as Adam becomming mortall and dying to this mortall life wee all so soone as wee are borne members of Him are mortall and tend to death by force of that mortality in the roote of us So Christ dying spiritually to this world and the sin of all us His members that thus they might be abolished we so soone as by faith we are made His members or are borne of Him we begin to dye spiritually till in death we are fully mortified by vertue of that radicall death in Christ our Saviour who dying according to his flesh did so worke by His omnipotent spirit that as the guilt was at once remooved so the life of it was mortified that it lost the raigne and was successively to be abolished in the being of it in all those who by faith should come to be engrafted into him or all those who should spiritually descend from Him 4 Lastly He brought into our nature supernaturall life that so He in our nature might propagate it to all who were His. The use hereof is to stirre us up above all things to seeke with Saint Paul Vse 1 that we may know what is the power of His death the communion of His sufferings while I feele my selfe made like to Him in dying to this world and sin for by this we know that we are untied to Him suffering and dead to sin and this world while we feele our selves by virtue thereof in like case as I know my communion with Adam that I dyed in him while I see my selfe mortall hastening every day to death as he is dead The Lord Iesus make the scales fall off our eyes that we may see the vertue of His most powerfull death toward all that are His. This also letteth us see what we must doe when this world and the things of it are forcible upon us Vse 2 when our hearts feele the life of sin strongly making to them come to Christ dying speake to Him Thou Lord hast crucified this world thou hast overcome the strength of it thou didst dye not regarding the allurements of it why doe I feele it have so mighty a hand over me even bewitching me as it were at the sight of it So when I feele my sin stirring lively in the lawes of it then to fly hither Lord thou dying hast beene the death of the sin of thy people why doe I who am in thee find it stirre as if it never had received wound The more we get to see our selves in Christ dying for the abolishing of all our sins the more we shall feele them wasting in us Let us give glory to this glorious death which maketh us all to dye Vse 3 As in the naturall body kill the head and all the members dye after so here c. This sheweth us why it is that sin liveth in so many men in the world Vse 4 even from this that they are not engrafted into Christ and so doe not partake of the influence of that spirituall life which from Christ the head floweth into all His members Buryed with Him in baptisme you have put off your sins being set into Him dying and buryed ingrafted with Him buryed in or by your baptisme Observe hence Doct. God doth unite us with Christ even by our baptisme the Lord doth by baptisme signifie to us and confirme thus much yea worke it as by an instrument namely the putting His Christ crucified upon us and our ingrafting into Him dying and rising Rom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For first by baptisme is sealed our communion w th Christ dying and rising secondly our communion in the effects which are mortification and vivification but yet wee must not think though God useth outward baptisme of His minister that this ministeriall action bringeth forth grace as the Papists doe who hold that God doth so use the ministeriall baptisme that He lifteth up that action as an instrumentall cause to worke grace so that it neither commeth solely from God nor yet immediately For this must be held that the power and act of producing grace is only and immediately from God There are two sorts of instruments some worke somthing with the Principall worker others doe not operari aliquid but ad aliquid they worke to something but not any thing having force to cause that whereto they worke such are Gods meanes which He useth and coordeyneth with him selfe in working of all such things which are not wrought but onely by power omnipotent thus he healed the blind with clay and spittle thus He overthrew the walls of Iericho with the blowing of Rams hornes But one may say this is absurd Object to use meanes which shall doe nothing doth any man doe thus Men use meanes which worke something in that they doe with them Answ because their force doth not reach alone to the effect they intend without the helpe of the meanes concurring with them but Gods force being alsufficient it is not absurd for Him to take to Him selfe such instruments in giving grace which are of no force to produce it especially when hereby he exerciseth our obedience faith c. He that planteth and he that watereth is nothing 1 Cor. 3.7 in regard of working in the soule that they tend to the Gospell is sayd to be the power of GOD to salvation Rom. 1.16 because through GOD it is powerfull who accompanyeth it immediately and enty rely working faith by it Yet Papists will not say that the Preachers syllables are elevated by GOD to rayse up the dead in sinnes and trespasses This then is to be firmely held that GOD useth baptisme of engrafting us with Christ and mortifying and quickning us in Him Vse yet the baptisme of water doth not conteyne any force nor is not lifted up to any such agency whereby grace is properly produced But it may be asked Quest how we are set into Christ with baptisme when none must be baptised but those if they be adulti who have faith in appearance and so are already in Him Things are sayd to be done when they are manifested and done in a further degree then before they were Answ thus the believer baptised is by baptisme manifested to be so before the Church yea often to Himselfe the more plentifull grace of God comming into Him while he useth it faithfully and his faith being more strengthened the union is more confirmed The use is to stirre us up that we would looke backe to our baptisme Vse which sealeth unto us so great matters if we have sealed bonds we will have them sometime read to us that we may know what
dying was after a sort all of us for in our Nature Hee made Himselfe one with us and had us all by name as a body unto Him and all our sinne He tooke as His owne having made Himselfe one mysticall Person with us Secondly you must know that CHRIST thus having us all with Him as members belonging to Him through the gift of His Father and having all our sinne made His He dyeth for us all and for the abolishing of all our sinnes so that we all lye dead with Him and out sinne is all crucified with Him for it beginneth not to be crucified when wee dye to it no here was the beginning of it Thirdly CHRIST lying dead with all His dead in Him having taken away the guilt and wrought the death of sin in all His or the death of all His members to sin CHRIST with His body being dead is raised and receiveth that treasury of supernaturall life which is to be derived in the order of it to all His so that CHRIST rising all of us rise in Him as our Head for the members have society in whatsoever is done in the Head 2 As a thing may be said to be in the cause of it so was all our resurrection in His which was to be the cause of all our resurrection As Adam and Eve were the cause of propagating a naturall life to all mankinde Fourthly CHRIST thus raised and made the conceptacle and fountaine of supernaturall life sendeth out His vitall influence into such as belong to Him 1 By faith giving them a being spirituall or an union in Him even as Adam gave a naturall being or participation of his substance unto his members 2 He doth send into them thus united with Him the Spirit of life from Himselfe that is the HOLY GHOST to dwell in them by the created gifts of grace which is life supernaturall They shall heare my voice who are dead that is they shall beleeve and they shall live 3 CHRIST doth successively perfect this life never leaving till He have in soule and body conformed us for our module to His blessed Soule and glorious body And these may serve to open this point of beliefe The difficulty of conceiving it commeth hence 1. That we know not how straitly and neerely we are united to Him for as all were within the loynes of Adam by the determinate Counsell of GOD to come from Him so all the Elect by GOD's predestination and donation were within CHRIST as one in Him and with Him 2. Wee are not able to see that vertue of His resurrection The use is first Vse to incite us to seeke to have our eyes opened that we may know the treasury of good things we have in CHRIST and the power which Hee hath put forth in us We should love CHRIST a thousand times more if wee knew feelingly what Hee were to us We are not able to see how we in the womb are formed how much more will our eyes dazle here further than GOD doth cleare them This also must make us hold to our head CHRIST even as we will have life in us get a member away from having communion with the Head it is presently livelesse having neither sense nor motion So in us with CHRIST We see whither we must have recourse for life Even to CHRIST Come to me and your soules shall live to GOD in our Nature looke at thy owne flesh in heaven and draw from it as a Conduit-pipe increase of grace sent thee from it by the Spirit which dwelleth with it Having forgiven you all trespasses Now he commeth to the order of our new quickening which hee setteth downe by three antecedents which made way to it 1 He pardoned our sinne 2 He crossed our Bill 3 He freed us from the power of Satan and all infernall spirits Before I enter them let this in generall be premised to cleare the text Suppose that we stood in great debt unto any say againe that he had to shew for all the debt under his owne hand Put the case thirdly that wee were cast into prison and in the custody of some Gaolour or any officers to that purpose If hee at whose suite wee are in hold be willing to set us free what doth he first he doth pardon the debt Secondly he doth Cancell our bills and bonds for he that keepeth our bonds seemeth not to forgive nor willing to let us goe otherwise than that he may have a saying to us when he pleaseth Thirdly he doth release his action and setteth him out of bands that held him and after all this dismisseth him to his liberty So here we are in for debt such debt as toucheth life it selfe the matter is under our owne confession the Divell holds us under chaines of darknesse GOD is willing to restore us to life 1 He pardoneth our faults 2 Rendeth the Articles of our confession 3 Taketh us out of their hands who were ministers of His justice in the close keeping of us This shall suffice to illustrate it in generall We see hence Doct. That in order of nature first we have pardon of sinne before wee have the life of grace begun in us there must be a removall of evill before there can be a conferring of good Thus in CHRIST Himselfe He was acquit from all our sinne which was upon Him before He was raised up yea if the least sinne of any of us who are His had beene unanswered Hee had not beene raised up and for this cause Rom. 4.25 The raising of CHRIST is said to be our justification that is God in raysing Him up did manifest that Hee was fully answered for all our sinnes so that we now are quit from all our sinnes in CHRIST our Head Even as if one lye sentenced a dead man for treason against the King he cannot have His life given him but pardon of his fault is first given So here answerably we are not restored to feele the life of God take place in us till our sins which caused our death are removed In a sinners restoring this is the order 1 God by faith setteth Him into CHRIST who is His righteousnesse in whom belongeth to Him forgivenesse 2 God when by beliefe He is in CHRIST doth pronounce Him just or acquit Him from sinne 3 The LORD doth send the Spirit of His Son into His heart This is the order in Nature though in time these things goe together This is to be noted against the Papists who when a sinner hath by deadly sinne lost the life of grace as they say though he after come to have never such love to God yet will not have the sinne forgiven till the Priest hath absolved him As if God did restore the life of grace before He gave the pardon of sinne This out of the order The words have foure things to be marked 1 Who forgiveth God the Father He raised up both CHRIST and us when He had forgiven 2 The manner of forgiving in
heavenly newes that our King hath subdued all our spirituall enemies yea triumphed over for this argueth full conquest when no wise man will ante victoriam cantare triumphum We must hence strengthen our faith Vse 2 for this triumph was all our triumphs the like being to be done in every member through the power of this begun in the Head in behalfe of all the members Is not the victory of a King the victory of all his subjects Likewise can we be in danger of them whom the King hath surprised so that they are altogether within his power So it is betweene us and our spirituall King the LORD give us faith This letteth us see what a potent Vse 3 all sufficient SAVIOUR we have If death and the power of hell could not prevaile against Him under death and in the grave in His lowest humiliation how much lesse shall any creature take from Him now in glory those things which He hath in keeping for us Finally that He saith in that His Crosse We see hence that in CHRIST crucified all victory is obtained against these infernall enemies this must be read in that Crosse not in Himselfe For the antecedent in all these is GOD the Father working these things in His Sonne Iesus Christ crucified In this unlike those great Potentates they never celebrated triumphs while they were receiving the assault of the enemie but stayed till they were returned into their owne Countries to their Imperiall Cities as Claudius who when he had conquered this Countrey of Britaine he went home to Rome there to rule in triumph But our LORD while He receiveth all the hot assault of these powers of darknesse triumpheth Nobile genus vincendi Patientia to let them doe all their worst and by His suffering it to overcome them is a most triumphant kinde of conquest The very fight it selfe is triumph It is reported of the Lion and the Vnicorne that there being deadly hostility betweene them when the Lion spyeth the Vnicorne he taketh a tree the Vnicorne following him eagerly runneth his horne into the tree in which case the Lion spoileth him at his pleasure So betwixt our Lion of the tribe of Iudah God-man and these proud Vnicornes those spirituall sons of Pride there being great hostility these Principalities hating GOD and oppugning His glory in the salvation of mankind it pleased Him to dwell under the vaile of our nature even with such a body and soule as we have sinne excepted that while the Divell did run with all his strength and lodge his horne as it were in this man his power might be broken for ever every stroake he gave returned on his owne head being the death of this man hee killed himselfe the head of him in which you know lyeth the life of a Serpent was bruised for ever And as angry Bees foolishly stinging once make themselves drones ever after So these wily Serpents but foolish here if ever foolish stinging our SAVIOUR CHRIST have made themselves stinglesse to all that are CHRIST's for ever their wisdome had beene not to have stirred up any sinful men to have attached this sacred Person they should have fled from Him to the most remote quarters of Hell rather than have made Him suffer the least thing from them Had they done thus their power in the world had still remained For as the sparkles of fire lighting on water are extinct so sinne and death falling on the GOD of Holinesse and life were extinguished in Him The use is first to arme us Vse 1 that wee take not offence at the scandall of the world at this that our GOD and Saviour dyed was a man hanging upon a Crosse Looke by the eye of faith what victory was gotten by this Crosse what was the powerfull worke of this death and then it shall no more hinder us in beleeving when we know that GOD created light out of darknesse Nay that our GOD did thus by His death as a second Adam abolish spirituall death and bring immortality and life to mankind is more wonderfull than the Creation of the world Wee see that when Satan seemeth the most to prevaile on CHRIST Vse 2 or His members that then hee is most of all foiled and subdued Now his power was comming now hee made Him feele the sting of the Crosse he killed Him c. all this was against himselfe Thus it is in all that are CHRIST's when hee thinketh to have the greatest hand over them all turneth to their good when by death they are stricken death it selfe dyeth and his power is almost quite abolished Wherefore let us not faint in our straits but stand still looking to the salvation of GOD Thus that type of him Pharaoh when he sore tasked the Israelites they most encreased when hee had them so hemmed in betwixt mountaines and seas that there seemed no evasion then was their deliverance at hand and his confusion VERSE 16. Let no man therefore condemne you in meat and drinke or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moones or of the Sabbath dayes YOu have heard at the sixth Verse of this Chapter that there began the exhortatory part of this Epistle and the Exhortations were generall concerning all sorts or speciall The generall you heard were either principall as that in the sixth and seventh Verses or secondary pertaining to the Principall the lesse principall assistant to that great duty of walking in CHRIST were prohibitions of things to be avoided In this Chapter are rules of spirituall practice in the next the Prohibitions are given first in generall Verse 8. Goe not after Philosophy and vaine deceit after the tradition of men and elements of the world the which generall prohibition hath beene propounded and by reasons hitherto enforced Now he commeth to some particular prohibitions which doe open unto us what things he meant by vaine deceit which leaneth on mans tradition and is carnall The dehortations are two-fold 1 From a servile respecting the censures of men so walking in CHRIST that they meddle not neither with Iewish nor Philosophicall superstitions to the twentieth Verse 2 He dehorteth them from the practice of every carnall and elementary fashion of worshipping GOD from the twentieth Verse to the end of the Chapter To returne this dehortation in the sixteenth Verse may be divided into the prohibition and the reason The Prohibition Let no man condemne you in these things The Reason they are shadowes of things which now in Christ and His Church are exhibited for this hath a secret force enforcing what by the Apostle is urged That which is a Shadow vanished that is not so to bee regarded as to feare lest you bee censured in the neglect of it But these are such Therefore passe not though you be condemned for omitting these But the former part of the sixteenth Verse may be diversely construed Let no man condemne you First it may sound to this sense Let no person in heart Iewishly affected take on him
dead in Christ from these why as if yee lived in the world No they cannot live in that which their head is dead to How can we that are dead to sinne live yet therein and therefore he saith as if you lived in the world for hee knew it was impossible for true believers to live unto the fashions of the world either in regard of civill duties or religious ordinances the children of God being set into Christ have presently wrought in them a death of their sinfull and sensuall life It is mortally wounded at the first though it liveth in us long after yea though the Lords children doe not often perceave it for many a man goeth awhile with his death and yet discerneth not till sometime after that he is deepely wounded Even as we our selves feele nothing lesse when we come into the world then that we are dead in our Father Adam and yet with our nativity entereth mortality which never resteth till we are utterly extinct by death The use is to reproove us who live in sinne after the fashion of the world Vse we have forgotten to what we dyed in Christ As if yee lived in the world Observe hence Doct. That Gods children live out of the world while they are in it this maketh CHRIST say they are not of the world for though they are in it for place yet their affection and conversation is in heaven and hence it is Phil 3 2â— that the Church is called by the name of heaven in some propheticall Scriptures and this is here taught while he saith as if yee lived in the world insinuating that it could not be that they lived in the world for they are called out of the world to a heavenly hope and to bee of another body even of that Corporation whereof CHRIST is the head So that as a Townsman in the Vniversity if he be taken to be a Scholars servant though he live in the towne he is no longer of it as who is gone from them and belongeth to another body So it is here Wherefore Conforme not your selves to the fashions of the world you are pilgrims forreyners Vse sojourners at the most here is not the place of your aboad And how farre they are from knowing CHRIST and the power of His death whose life is altogether carnall whose conversation doth not so much as smell of Heaven may hence be convinced to them VERSE 21. Touch not taste not handle not Now he commeth to lay downe more distinctly these rites enjoyned them from Pharisaicall seducers and he doth unfold it by a mimeticall expressing the charge that these false teachers gave Touch not taste not handle not O take heed you know all the old people were tyed from the eating and touching of many things as upon the touch whereof they were uncleane God out of His most wise pleasure annexing a legall uncleannesse unto them as the touching of a dead body of a garment spotted with leprosie of one troubled with a bloudy issue c. Now the Divell that soweth tares did by some pharisaicall spirits which so received Christ that they would still hold the Law he did set on foot by these amongst the Gentiles that unlesse they kept the Law they could not be saved this occasioned the first Councell about some eighteene yeares after CHRIST'S death and within some yeares after this occasioned the Apostle to write that Epistle to the Galathians the same kinde of men began to vent the same wares amongst the Colossians and gave them these caveats Touch not taste not handle not 1 Observe from this practice of theirs Doct. How exact and precise men are in their outward observancies who know not the power of godlinesse It is the Property of all pharisaicall spirits that care not for the great things of the Law and the true spirituall obedience of it they will tithe mint and cummine precisely wash hands and cups their hearts being all foule and full of lusts For looke as idle bodies which will not follow due labour they will go with their tales as a Pedler with his packe from one to another yea their fingers shall goe and their feet shall speake they will occupie themselves busily in that which is superfluous So here when men will not exercise themselves in the power of godlinesse it is strange how they will abound in c. This may be seene in the Church of Rome who not knowing the powerfull ordinances of God have turned all into such dumbe shewes as are the Masse their Precessions c. as full of superfluous observations as emptie of substance To teach us how to know these spirits Vse 1 he that stands precisely on every little trifle is at least halfe a Pharisie Wee must take occasion by them to be precise in the least points of spirituall obedience and not to stand so nicely on externall rites and empty shadowes those that doe diligently looke to themselves this way have no leasure and lesse affection to follow such bawbles Even as a man seriously occupied hath no fancie to dally and sport as others will who have little to doe So here Who more in heavenly labour than Saint Paul Hee laboured through the grace of GOD in Him more abundantly than they all who more despised those kinde of Iewish legall rites who cryeth them downe as beggarly things which profit nothing 2 Marke in this their enforcing these things Doctr. What a hard thing it is to forgoe such old rites to which we are accustomed these had beene brought up in them and had seene no other and loe they will not part with them no not when GOD will have them cease and CHRIST nailes them to the crosse Nay they are more fond on them than before for such is the malice of our wils that when GOD will not then commonly we will like those Israelites when they should have gone up to bid battell to the Canaanites discouraged with the Spies they murmured and refused when GOD would have them go backe into the wildernesse and not goe on against them then they would have no nay to battell they would to die for it Besides as in other things man taketh on like a god so in affecting a kinde of immutability which maketh him hee will not be beaten off that whereunto he hath beene accustomed thus it is in opinion likewise that one is bred up in is often maintained too too stiffely the first things make the deepest impressions Let a false tale get the start and come the first to us truth spoken in the second place is lesse beleeved Wherefore let us take heed Vse and not thinke therefore things must stand because they have beene so since our knowledge and long before but let us see how all customes agree with GOD's Word and will and so accordingly be affected to them If this had beene a good reason These Mosaicall rites have ever beene observed since we can remember any thing yea by all our ancestours these