towards His Church For He enliveneth all the members of it from the greatest even to the least and gives them not the power and authority only as Princes give their subjects but the very strength and ability to act communicating to each of His faithful ones such a measure of His Spirit as is necessary for sensation and motion and all the other functions of heavenly life as St. Paul teacheth us in the Epistle to the Ephesians and more at large in the First to the Corinthians Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 12. Moreover the Head hath this advantage above the rest of the body that it is of a more exquisite constitution and temper than the other members according to the rule that nature prudently observes in general which is to frame those things best that are designed to the choiâ—est employments Kings and Captains do deserve also the name of Heads in this respect their dignity being very high-raised above their subjects But their advantage in this particular is nothing in comparison of that which JESUS CHRIST hath above His Church not only by His being incomparably more holy more wise and more powerful than any of all the faithful but especially in that He is GOD blessed for ever Finally as you see the Head is placed highest in the body of man this scituation being necessary for its commodious exercising the functions of its government a thing that Kings and Princes imitate dwelling ordinarily in Palaces and sitting on Thrones raised above the houses and seats of their subjects so JESUS CHRIST hath this advantage but in a far greater degree sitting on high in the Heavens upon the Throne of GOD above the whole Church both militant and triumphant And whereas He conversed sometime on earth that was only for a while and by dispensation for the good of His body which obliged Him to do it even as the head boweth down it self somtimes when the necessity of any of its members doth require it But the proper and natural place of JESUS CHRIST is that lofty Sanctuary of immortality where He now appears in highest glory from thence governing by His Spirit all the parts of this mystical body of the Church both those that are in Heaven and those that are yet on earth Thus My Brethren you see wherein this dignity of our LORD JESUS doth consist and with how much reason St. Paul expresseth it here and otherwhere by saying that He is the head of the Church Whence evidently follows what the Apostle also evidently says that the Church is the body of CHRIST For if JESUS CHRIST be call'd the Head thereof for having and exercising towards it all the functions and prerogatives of a natural Head towards its members it is clear that the Church must also be called His body since this whole Divine society depends on JESUS CHRIST and receives of Him all the light all the aptitude all the sense and motion that it hath Upon this doctrine of the Apostle we have divers things to consider before we pass any further First by fixing this position he timely fortifies the Colossians against that errour which we shall find Him expresly opposing hereafter the errour of those that would subject the faithful to Angels and to Moses introducing into the Church the worshipping of the one and the Pedagogy of the other For since the Son of GOD is the Head of this sacred society who seeth not that it ought to depend on Him alone that 't is to Him it oweth its obedience and service and of Him it ought to receive its discipline and guidance But it must also be observed that the Apostle giveth this title to JESUS CHRIST with a design to glorifie Him enroling it among the other praises of His Soveraign dignity Indeed since the Church is the most Divine society in the world since it is acompany of Kings of Priests and of Prophets the Assembly of the first-fruits and a new world much more excellent than the old a world immortal and incorruptible it is evident that to be the Head thereof is a quality more sublime then to have been the Creator and Prince of the Universe at first Whereby you see in the third place how unrighteous to say no more the rashness of those is who give this name to another beside JESUS CHRIST acknowledging a mortal man for the true Head of the universal Church Let them colour this usurpation how they will they shall not be able to justifie it This is evidently to despoil JESUS CHRIST of His royal robe and to take the Diadem from Him which none but He can bear They alledge that the Scripture verily communicates to others beside JESUS CHRIST the names of Pastor of Priest and of Teacher and of Light and such others It is true but it never gives that of Head of the Church to any but Him And the difference of these titles is evident the former signifying charges whereof the faithful do exercise some portion and some shadow whereas that of Head of the Church signifies the Supremacy which is incommunicable to any other but the Son of GOD. As you see that in a State the name of Prince and of Governour and Captain and others of like sort are not given to the King only they pertain to others also But no other may be called the Soveraign or the Head of the State besides Him without incurring the guilt of Sacriledge or Treason Yet they endeavour to excuse them and say they make the Pope but the ministerial and subordiate Head not an essential and soveraign one But this is nothing but words arising from their interest and not founded in the truth of things There is no Prince that would be satisfied with such language if any one of his subjects that had made himself the head and Monarch of His State should alledge for his excuse that he had no intention save to pass for a ministerial head In the nature of men whence this similitude is taken we see no bodies that have two heads of a different rank and if any such be found at any time they are accounted for monsters which cannot be said of the Church the most perfect master-piece of all the works of GOD. In a word it is not enough to say that the Pope is the ministerial head of the Church it must be proved We plainly read in Scripture that JESUS CHRIST is Head of the Church Let us believe it and adore Him under that quality But that there is another head in the Church be he visible or invisible be he ministerial or soveraign this we meet not with at all in the writings of the Apostles not to say that we meet with divers things in them wherewith such a doctrine is incompatible Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of GOD. Let it therefore be permitted us to suspend our believing this other pretended head of the Church since we have heard nothing of it in the word of GOD. But that which the
the same infirmities and to the same necessity of dying and indeed they dyed after they had lived again awhile Their death was rather deferred than abolished Their bodies did corrupt and in the end return to that dust from which they were preserved for some years But with JESUS CHRIST it is not so He in coming forth from the dead retook not the life He had quitted that is the life of the first Adam that infirm natural and earthly life a life still subject unto death He left it in the Sepulchre where it must remain as in eternal oblivion He put on a new life and nature such as is spiritual and celestial as the Apostle elsewhere termeth it a life wholly full of strength and glory that is not subject either to the use of meat or sleep not subject to dolour or death a life appropriate to the second world and not to the first a nature peculiar to the future age not to the present Accordingly you see that being vested therewith he remained not on the earth This is the old Adam's element the habitation of corruption and death But having only sojourned there fourty days so long as was needful to assure His Apostles of the truth of His resurrection and to shew them in His own person the first-fruits of the mystical Canaan He ascended up above the Heavens to the true element of the new man and the Sanctuary of eternity Conclude we then that He is truly the beginning and the first-born from the dead since He is the first of all the dead that was born and raised again in incorruption But these titles signifie yet another thing namely that it shall be He who shall raise again all the members of the Church in like glory that He is the master and the Lord of the dead for the investing them one day in their order with a nature resembling His own according to what St. Paul elsewhere saith that He will make our vile body Phil. 3. like unto His own glorious body For He would not be the first-born from the dead if He did not communicate the priviledge and the possession of this second birth to all His brethren that is to say all the faithful The Apostle adds to the end that He might have the first place in all things Those that are well versed in the reading of these divine Books do know that the word to the end that is often put in them for so as that or in such a sort as even to signifie the event and consequence of an action rather than the intention or design of the agent I account that it must be so taken in this place For the intention of our LORD in being made Head of the Church and the beginning of the new life was rather to Save us and glorifie His Father then to obtain unto Himself the first place in all things Yet true it is that such was the success of this His undertaking as He actually hath the first place in all things For there are but two sorts of things one of those that pertâ—â—â—â—o the first world and its creation the other of those that are of the second world and of the regeneration CHRIST therefore being already the Master and Creator of the former it is evident that having been also established Head of the Church which is the State that consists of the latter and the beginning and first-born of the resurrection of the dead He doth obtain by this means the first place in all things that is to say both in those of the first creation whereof He is the author and in those of the second whereof He is the Head This is the conclusion which the Apostle deduceth from his whole precedent discourse there he said that the LORD is the image of the invisible GOD the first-born of every creature the Creator of the Elements and the Angels and moreover the Head of the Church the principle and the first-fruits of the new Creation now he addeth so as He hath the first place in all things This being as seems to me from hence clear enough there is no necessity we should make any longer stay upon the exposition of this Text. It remains that to conclude we do briefly touch at the duties to which the doctrine of the Apostle doth oblige us and the comforts which it doth afford us JESUS CHRIST saith he is the head of the body of the Church These few words if we meditate them as we ought will teach us all that we owe both of obedience to the LORD and of charity to our brethren and of care and respect to our selves As for the LORD since He hath vouchsafed to become our Head it is evident we ought to honour Him with utmost devotion and submit all the actions of our life to His conduct See with what promptitude the body obeyeth the head and with how absolute a submission it follows all its movings The body neither stirreth nor resteth but as the head ordereth It depends entirely on its guidance and never crosseth its orders or resisteth its commands The head hath no sooner conceived a thing but the spirits forthwith present themselves at the place it desireth and each of the members employeth all the vigor and strength it hath to execute its will This is an image of that obedience which the LORD our mystical Head demands of us and this is that which the Apostle meaneth elsewhere Eph. 5.24 when he saith that the Church is subject to Him It 's in vain therefore that they boast themselves to be the Church who do contrary to what the LORD ordaineth who are subject to another beside Him and instead of His orders follow the will of a mortal man owning another head adoring another oracle keeping what He hath forbidden Blessed be His Name for that He hath granted us to disclaim their errour and to hang all our religion upon His sacred lips believing only that truth which He hath revealed to us in His Gospel and engraven in our hearts by His Spirit But what will it profit us to follow Him in our faith if we resist in our manners How can he avouch for His Church a body subject to Mammon to pleasure to ambition and other idols of the world a body wholly bended down to the earth whereas this divine Head is lift up above the Heavens Dear Brethren let us not deceive our selves We cannot be the Church of CHRIST except we be His body and we cannot be His body except we depend absolutely on Him except we cast out of our members the spirit of the Flesh and of the world and take in His to follow it's light and obey it's movings Henceforth then let us so compose our life that it do not contradict our profession Let the LORD JESUS be truly our Head let Him be still above us let Him preside in all our designs let Him conduct our steps and govern all our motions and inspire into us
maintaineth its flatulency But it is time to come to the third point which containeth the worst and most pernicious effect of this serving of Angels here condemned by the Apostle namely that they that promote it or stick in and practise is do not hold the head from which the whâ—le body being furnished and fitly knit together by joynts and bands encreaseth with encrease of GOD. You know this head he speaks of is our LORD JESUS CHRIST Eternal and true GOD made man who dyed and râ—se again for the salvation of the world and that the body of this head is the Church the whole multitude of the faithful This compâ—rison is so frequent in Scripture and the reasons upon which it is founded are so clear and so known that there is no need I should stand upon deducing them We have to observe only the operation of this divine head upon the body and the benefits it communicates thereto both which the Apostle toucheth at He saith first that this Head furnisheth the body of His Church Then in the second place that â—â—â—tly knits the same together by joynts and bands And lastly that by this means He makes it to encrease with an encrease of GOD. All this is taken from the resemblance of natural bodies whence this comparison is drawn For you see that in nature the head does first distribute to all the parts of the body such strength as is necessary for the exercising of their motions and sensations it being as it were the common Source whence the animal spirits as they are called the principles of motion and sensation are by the nerves as by so many Channels shed forth into all the parts of the whole frame as well higher as lower the farthest off as well as the nearest and when this influence and communication of the head happens to cease you see the members which are deprived of it to be presently paralytick and insensible Then further the head does the body this office that it binds and keeps decently fastned to each other by means of the same nerves all the parts whereof it is made up both the harder ones as the Bones and Cartilages and likewise the softer as the Muscles and other substances Finally the Head by means of this continual influence doth give its body the ability to grow and extend its self and rise up by little and little to the measure of its due magnitude The Apostle therefore makes use of this natural image for the representing unto us of those spiritual benefits which we receive from the communion of the LORD JESUS our mystical Head and sayes First that He furnisheth His body that is gives it abundantly spiritual sense and motion and in a word all graces necessary for the exercise of an Heavenly life diffusing them into all His mystical members that is into all the faithful by means of his not animal as that of nature is but Divine and Eternal Spirit This Spirit which He distributes to all and every of His members doth replenish our eyes and senses with that light and vigour which is requisite for the seeing feeling and tasting of Divine things It sheds abroad peace and joy into our hearts and curing our benummed limbs and opening our hands which vice had locked up doth give us the operations and motions of the life of GOD and in fine formeth in us all the conceptions and vertues of the new man But he saith in the second place continuing this excellent Metaphor that this Divine Head doth fitly knit together His body by joints and bands expressing by these words that spiritual Union which bindeth and joyneth the faithful all of them to their Head and each of them to the other For as every member of the body hath its particular temperature and qualities very different from the rest one being hard another soft one cold another hot one dry another moist and yet being linked by those secret and unperceptible bands which descending from the head do fasten them all together do make up but one only and the same body so is it with the Church The faithful of whom it is composed are upon the account both of nature and of grace infinitely different one from another In nature for some are of one Nation of one Age of one Sex of one condition and others of another one rich another poor one learned another ignorant one noble another of low extraction In grace likewise for who can utter all the differences of their gifts in this respect But JESUS CHRIST their mystical Head notwithstanding this diversity reduceth them all into one and the same body as S. Paul saith elsewhere We being many are one body in CHRIST He sets us together and uniteth us aptly one with another by these mystical joynts and bands of which the Apostle here speaks that is the gifts and graces of His Spirit and first of all Charity the univeral bond of all the faithful which ties them inseparably together by the sentiments of a sincere and ardent love and by all the motions offices services and assistances which depend upon it It 's this Spirit of Charity that mixeth all their souls into one that renders them sensible of each others weal and wo that inspires into them the same Prayers and wishes and so governs their actions that though different they yet all aim at the same mark the glory of their Head and the common edification of His members Among these joynts and ligaments of the LORD's body I also place the divers graces wherewith He doth invest them giving to this man one Talent and to that man another different to one zeal to another knowledge to one utterance to another judgement To the same too must be referred the divers offices which He hath instituted in His Church Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons this various distribution approximating them to one another the need they have of their Brethren and the succour they may afford them admirably knitting and keeping up the commerce of their common Charity Eph. 4.12 as S. Paul expresly noteth in the Epistle to the Ephesians where speaking of the divers Ministries which the LORD JESUS formed and erected among His people he saith that He made them for the coaptation or setting together of the Saints for the edification of His body In fine he addeth here a third benefit of CHRIST's which is as the sequel and fruit of the two former that His body thus furnished and compacted by its Head doth encrease with an increase of GOD that is with a Divine and spiritual increase arising from the efficacy of GOD and tending to His glory in as much as the Church thus united to its Head and filled with the influences of His grace is established is strengthened and compleated by little and little in faith in hope in charity in light and in sanctity untill it attain unto the measure of its perfect stature in CHRIST Such is the Communion of the Church with its Head
it sets before our eyes though under a different resemblance that same mysterie of our union with the LORD which is represented and communicated to us at His holy Table For the Apostle to accomplish his design and fully shew us the infinite excellence and dignity of JESUS CHRIST our Saviour after He hath told us what He is in regard of the Father namely the image of the invisible GOD and what in regard of the works of the first Creation to wit the first-born that is the Prince and Master of all the Creatures as having created them all made and formed them from the very lowest to the highest of them the Apostle I say after this dispatched considers Him finally in regard of the new Creatures that be that is to say the Church and informs us that He is the head thereof and the Church His body and for the greater illustration of it adds moreover that He is the beginning and the first-born from the dead whence he deduceth this conclusion that so He hath the first place in all things These are the three points which we purpose the Grace of GOD assisting to treat of in this action for the exposition of this Text and your edification The first that JESVS CHRIST is the head of the body of the Church The second that He is the beginning and the first-born from the dead and the third and last that He hath the first place in all things As for the first of these three points it is not here alone that the Apostle calleth JESUS CHRIST the head of the Church He useth the same language in diverse other places of His Epistles as in that he writes to the Ephesians Eph. 1.22 23. where he saith that the Father hath set His Son above all things to be head of the Church which is His body the fulness of Him that filleth all in all and elsewhere again that CHRIST is the head from whom the whole body fitly joyned together Eph. 4.15 16. and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the body unto the edifying of it self in love And a little after in this Chapter of our Text we shall find him repeating that the Church is the body of CHRIST and in the first to the Corinthians Col. 1.24 speaking to the faithful You are saith he the body of CHRIST and members each one on his part In truth it is a figure very common in all languages to call him the Head of a Society who guideth and governeth it or who at least possesseth the first place in it As you see that every one calls a King the Head of His Estate and a General the Head of the Army wherein he commandeth and those the Heads of their Regiments or Companies who have the leading of them Whence comes our vulgar word Captain which according to its derivation signifies nought else but the Head The master of an houshold is in like manner termed the Head of it and so in all other societies of what nature soever they be But this manner of speaking is exceedingly familiar with the Hebrews as you may see in very many places of the Old Testament where every thing that hath the first place whether iâ— be for its authority or for its excellency or even for its birth and meer precedency in time is called the head of other things of the same kind And the reason of this figure is evident For the head standing highest of all the parts of the body of man and having the conduct of it because it is the seat of the eyes and other senses upon which the directing of our life dependeth the name thereof is very justy used to signifie by way of similitude whatsoever holdeth the first place in any society and which consequently hath in this respect a manifest resemblance of the Head properly so called It need not therefore be thought strange that this holy Apostle makes use of this figure to express the superiority the dignity and imperial power which JESUS CHRIST hath over the Church saying that He is the Head thereof And sure if there be a superiour in the whole universe who may and ought to be called head of the society which is under him JESUS CHRIST doth merit it infinitely beyond any other there being none at all in whom the reasons and respects which are necessary for the founding of this appellation are so clearly found as in Him For all the qualities actions and functions proper to the head of the body of man which give it its name and dignity JESUS CHRIST hath and doth exercise them much more nobly and magnificently than any General in reference to His army or any Monarch in reference to His State The first and most known office which the head doth the members is that it directs and guides them in their operations and governs their motion and their rest by the light of its eyes and the perceptions of its other senses Now Princes and Captains have some shadow of this perfection in that they discover and observe and sent at distance the things that concern those bodies over which they preside watching and viewing all that respects their interests while their people mean time quietly labour each of them in his own employment But JESUS CHRIST doth these offices to His Church much better and more perfectly For it 's in Him that all the light of this mystical body doth reside He considereth not only its interests in general He knoweth all that concerneth the least of His members He never slumbereth nor sleepeth He hath eyes and senses alwayes open He seeth all the parts of this His State and discerneth the posture and disposition of all that is its friend or foe be it neerer hand or further off He charily preserves it by this Providence of His governing it so prudently that there is no danger from which He doth not deliver it nor any difficulty but He surmounteth it It is He that ordereth His people warrs and over-ruleth their fights and dispenseth their truces and will one day give them an entire and eternal peace The second duty the Head performs to the body is that it influxeth into all the members of it all the motion and sensation that they have by means of the animal spirits which from the head as from their spring do spread themselves through the whole body flowing in the nerves as in so many channels which nature hath cut out and laid forth for the maintaining of this communication And I acknowledge that the authority and powers which a Prince distributeth into all the parts of His State and which cause His subjects to act diversly each one according to the degree they receive thereof I acknowledge I say this is a very good resemblance of the way of the heads governing the body But it is far beneath what we find in the LORD JESUS His conduct
Apostle addeth namely that the Church is the body of CHRIST this further clearly sheweth that none but CHRIST is the Head of it For if the Pope for example were head of it the universal Church should be the Popes body as it is the LORD's But where is the Christian ear that doth not tingle at so strange so unheard of and so profane language And so we see how vehement and inordinate soever the passion of men hath been for this title of Head of the Church no man hath ever hitherto called the Church His body every one confessing that it is no ones body but JESUS CHRIST's alone They should then grant in like manner that none is its Head but He only Since it cannot have any for Head but Him whose body it is In the next place note I pray in opposition to another error of the same adversaries of ours that CHRIST His being Head of the Church doth not at all infer that the Church toucheth Him corporeally or that the bodies of the faithful are properly and substantially joyned to Him as the members of a natural body are joyned to their head Every one confesseth that this must be understood figuratively and mystically and after the same manner all men take the other expressions for the most part by which our union with the LORD is represented as when He is called the Foundation of the Church the corner stone the vine-stock of the Faithful and their raiment No one concludeth that it is necessary for the verifying of these passages our bodies should really touch His substance Why then will they infer it from other places where to set forth the same mysterie it is said that He is our bread our meat and our drink If He be our Head if He be our Raiment if He govern and clothe us without touching our bodies with His why may not He be our bread and nourish us without real entring into our bodily throat and stomach If the one be mystically and figuratively understood why will you force me to take the other corporally and literally I say the same upon the Apostles express declaring that the Church is the body of CHRIST Our adversaries do conclude no Transubstantion from hence and they confess that for salving the truth of these words there is no need that either the Church should lose its own substance and nature or be really changed into the substance of the body of CHRIST Nevertheless they will by all means have it that the same words when the Gospel saith of the bread which our LORD took that it is the body of CHRIST As if it were not rational and easie to say that the bread as well as the Church is the body of CHRIST figuratively and in a mystical way If they admit this sense in one of these places why do they reject it in the other where the nature of things themselves and the truth of heavenly doctrine doth no less necessarily require it In fine not to make any longer stay here St. Paul cleareth up to us in two words another question which the passion of Rome hath so horribly embroyled in these latter times namely what is the nature and the true definition of the Church The Church is saith he the body of CHRIST These two words overthrow all the Philosophizing of our adversaries about this subject in order either to the straitning or enlarging the Communion of the Church beyond what ought to be I say the straitning For they admit to the possessing of this name those only that acknowledge the Bishop of Rome whereas St. Paul alloweth it to all those that belong to JESUS CHRIST and that have His Spirit no one of these but being of His body and by consequent of His Church in whatever place and under whatever Pastors he live I say also the enlarging it For these Doctors who are so severe on one hand as that they give the name of the Church only to the Roman Communion are so loose and so very indulgent on the other hand as they yield it up to the most desperate and prophane Hypocrites that are provided they addict themselves to their Pope not requiring as they affirm Bellarm. 3. de Eccl 〈…〉 2. as any interiour vertue in them to be members of the true Church but only an exteriour profession of the Roman belief and Communion But St. Paul fulminates down this no less impious then extravagant doctrine by saying that the Church is the body of CHRIST For no one can be of His body without being quickned by His Spirit Rom. 8.9 He that hath not the Spirit of CHRIST saith the same Apostle elsewhere is none of His. Certainly then it is not true that the prophane or hypocritical are parts of the Church There is no communion between CHRIST and Belial The body and the members of the one cannot be the body and members of the other Forasmuch as the Church is the body of CHRIST it must of necessity be concluded that these people of whom our adversaries compose their Church which have not as they say any piety or internal vertue and by consequence are members of Belial may well be since they will have it so true members of the Roman but assuredly not of the Christian Church And if the Pope do own them for his sheep we are very certain that the LORD JESUS will never avouch them for His. But it is time to come to the two other titles which the Apostle here giveth in the next place to our LORD JESUS CHRIST adding that He is the beginning or the principle and this first-born from the dead Even as when he had said before that JESVS CHRIST is the first-born that is the Lord of every creature he presently brought the reason of it taken from thence that all things were created by Him In like manner now having said that He is the Head of the Church he foundeth this truth upon His being the author of the Church He that formed and constituted it and the Prince of this new generation He that will give it the true and utmost perfection of its being For the word which we have rendred the beginning signifies also the principle that is to say the cause and origine of a thing and first-born denoteth likewise both Him who is born before the rest and him who is the Master or the Prince of the rest he saith therefore first that the LORD JESVS is the beginning or the principle Certainly this appertaineth unto Him upon the account of the first creation inasmuch as He is the Author of it the word and wisdom which did produce the Universe and it may be 't is in this sense that He calleth Himself in the Apocalypse Rev. 3.14 1.8 21.6 22.13 the beginning of the creation of GOD and elsewhere in the same Book Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end But speech here being of the Church and the resurrection the word beginning must
the service or Religious worship of Angels We are now to consider by the assistance of GOD that which the shortness of time hindered us from explicating then to wit the marks of these false Teachers and the pernicious consequence of their errour For though the Apostles intimation of the thing it self be sufficient His authority in the Church being such as it is not lawful for any man whoever he be to teach or believe any thing in Christian Religion contrary to the sentiment of this great servant of GOD Yet not content with injoyning the Colossians that they should not let themselves be master'd over by these pretended Doctors who would cause them to serve Angels for the adding of more weight to his exhortation he discovers to them those Seducers their true motives and the cause of their errour and remonstrates also the dismal issue in which it did engage them For as you have heard he noteth first their audaciousness and ignorance when he saith that they intrude into things they have not seen Next he shews the source of them to wit their foolish presumption when he adds that they are rashly puffed up with the sense of their flesh And lastly he represents us the pernicious consequence of their doctrine the fruit and success wherein all their striving did terminate which was that in effect by their glorious services they debauched and disunited men from JESUS CHRIST the true and only Head of believers and so depriv'd them of that life that light and salvation which this Divine Head influxeth into the members of His mystical body For this is in substance the sense of the latter part of the Text in which the Apostle saith that these people did not hold the head from which the whole body being furnished and fitly knit together by joints and bands encreaseth with the encrease of GOD. In these three heads the whole meaning of this Text seems to me to consist Wherefore if it please GOD we will examin them distinctly one after another and in the Apostles order treat first of these Seducers boldness secondly of their presumption and lastly of the consequence of their doctrine which tendeth to the disuniting of men from JESUS CHRIST the Head of the whole body of the Church As for the first point this temerity to intrude into things one hath not seen is ordinary enough with all sorts of men ever since the venom of pride impoisoned their hearts and in special with all hereticks But it is remarkable particularly in those that teach the service of Angels it being manifest that those blessed Spirits whose worship they erect are of a nature much superior to us the order and operations whereof are open to no sense of ours But when the Apostle saith they have not seen the things into which they intrude his meaning is not simply that the eyes either of their body or of their natural reason never received the Species of these objects nor apprehended or conceived the consequences and conduct of their being but moreover that they neither had nor could have by the word or revelation of GOD any certainty of the things they affirmed For though the greater part of the matters of Religion be above our senses yet when GOD hath discover'd them to us and as it were rendered them visible in His word it becomes easie for us to know them by this means and the Scripture too doth call the knowledge that we have of them this way a sight of them Ezek. 13.3 Thus Ezekiel means when he reprocheth the false Prophets with following their own hearts when they had seen nothing that is they predicted and assured things for true which the foolish imagination of their own Spirit suggested to them though in truth GOD had shewed them no such matter in the light of His revelation It is just so that those Seducers did whom the Apostle taxeth in this place They dogmatized and affirmed it as a clear case that Angels were to be serv'd and invocated and to perswade men of it they delivered many things concerning their nature and their intervention between GOD and us Yet the truth is that of all this they neither had nor could have any certainty as being things which they had never seen either in the School of nature or the revelation of GOD. All our knowledge and assurance necessarily comes from one of these three sources namely either from sense and such is the knowlege we have of the things we see hear smell touch and taste or from reason and so doth humane science which is acquired or formed by discourse and natural reasoning or lastly from the revelation of GOD who discovereth to us by the light of His word divers objects and divers verities which neither our sense nor our reason could perceive in nature Now though reason doth cause men by the consideration of things that are or are done in the world to discern some principles and verities of Religion yet the whole of this is so small a matter and withal so confused and imperfect by reason of the corruption of our understandings that the Word of GOD ought to be held for the sole assured foundation of Religion according to that which the Apostle signifies to us elsewhere Rom. 10.17.1 even that faith cometh by hearing and hearing from the word of GOD. When therefore he saith here that the Seducers do intrude into things they have not seen he doth it 's true respect in general all those Sources of our knowledge and absolutely deny that these men had by them any of the things they dogmatized but he does particularly referr to the third that is the revelation of GOD. And his meaning is that the LORD had not shewed them nor made them see by His Word any of the things they preached and would set up in the Religion of Christians And though indeed they neither had nor could have any certain knowledge of them nevertheless they discours'd of them blindfold and did divulge their phantasies the visions of their brain and dreams of their own Spirit for indubitable necessary and wholesome truths A carriage which the Apostle doth excellently well set forth by that word of his which we have translated intruding a word that properly signifies entring into setting foot on and marching forth in some quarter as in ground we have title to Whereby he noteth out the vanity of these false Teachers who did not meerly busie themselves in a research of things above their capacity which is in it self a vain and ridiculous labour but also dared to speak of them and make peremptory decisions about them so going above ground and walking as may be said in the vacuum of their own imaginations mounting their thoughts unto a Region far above them like that poor Phrenetick of whom the Poets speak who having presumed to enter upon a strange Element and fly there soon found his rashness punished with his ruine The Prophet makes use of a like phrase
of the world why doth any one burthen you with ordinances as if ye lived in the world XXI To wit eat not taste not touch not XXII Which all are things that perish in the using being instituted after the commandments and doctrines of men DEar Brethren Seeing the Apostle plainly sheweth in diverse places that the use of meats is a thing indifferent and that if we eat 1 Cor. 8.8 we have not thereby the more nor the less if we eat not and even injoyneth us somewhere to accommodate our selves to the infirmity of our brethren Rom. 14.21 declaring that it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor to do any thing whereby our brother stumbleth or is offended or made weak it may seem strange to some that in this Epistle and in the first to Timothy and elsewhere he doth so earnestly insist upon this point and employ so many words and reasons against those who did prohibit certain sorts of meats to Christians But if you throughly consider this holy man his whole procedure and the motives of his taking such order you will find it full in all the parts thereof of reason and profound discretion For first there is a great difference between such as he bears with and those whom he rejects The one were infirm and the other insolent The former through want of knowledge could hardly count those things permitted which the School of Moses whence they were but newly come forth had prohibited The latter did in their headiness enterprise the bringing of Christians under the yoke again The errour of those reached no further than their own persons These would dogmatize and give the Church new Laws Wherefore the Apostle is sweet towards the one and severe against the others according to the difference of their faults And as to the thing it self though it be no more a crime to abstain from than it is to eat any of the meats which GOD hath created for our use yet to make this abstinence pass for a matter of necessity is a penicious attempt First it 's an overthrowing or a diminishing of our liberty which having been purchased by the blood of CHRIST ought to be very precious to us for since He would buy it us at so high a price it is not just that the fancy or the tyrannicall humour of men should bereave us of a thing that cost him so dear Moreover such injunctions do make that to be thought necessary which is indifferent and that to pass for a part of the service of GOD which is not so An opinion which hath dangerous consequences For men once possessed with this imagination do in such exercises loose a good part of their time which should be wholy spent in the study and practice of the true commandments of our LORD JESUS But which is yet worse they easily imagine that they get a licence to commit things prohited without danger by such abstaining from things permitted and the priviledge of being dispensed with for obedience to GOD by that they render unto men a conceit which as you see does undermine the foundations of that true and real sanctification without which no man shall see GOD. The Apostle well-knowing therefore the venom of these doctrines and seeing on the other hand the strong inclination that men have to them being likewise not ignorant as experience hath but too much verified that there would be alwaies people sound to set them on foot among Christians did account it necessary for the securing of our faith to give us in diverse places of His divine Epistles strong Preservatives against the Contagion of this pernicious error You have heard already heretofore how he said concerning it Let no man condemn you in cating or in drinking irrecoverably overbearing by those few words the temerity of all those who for such things bring the faithful to the Bar and condemn them to the fire of Hell for having but tasted of meats which they prohibit He now resumes the same discourse and having in the two precedent verses refuted the serving of Angels which the Seducers did set up in religion he comes to their other Ordinances which concerned certain abstinences and devotions that they imposed on Christians as salutiferous and of necessary use for humbling the spirit and mortifying the flesh and first he refutes them by three excellent reasons which he urgeth against them next he rejects the vain and specious pretexts under colour of of which they were recommended The first of those three reasons which he advanceth against these pretended devotions is taken from the liberty which JESUS CHRIST hath purchased for us by His death freeing us from all carnal and ceremonial services If therefore ye be dead with CHRIST saith he why doth any one burthen you with ordinances as if you lived in the world to wit Eat not Tast not Touch not The second is drawn from the nature of those things themselves from which an abstaining was ordered they all are things saith the Apostle that perish in the using And the third from the rise of such ordinances instituted not by the authority of GOD but after the commandments and doctrines of men These are the three points we purpose to treat of in this action by the assistance of GOD beseeching Him to grant that we may meditate them to our common Edification and Consolation The Apostles last words were concerning the communion of the Church with JESUS CHRIST its head who furnisheth His whole body and fitly knitteth it together by joynts and bands causing it to increase with an increase of GOD. Hereupon he takes occasion to set before us again that enfranchisement from the yoke of Ceremonies which we have by this holy and mystical communion with our LORD That is his meaning in these words we are dead with CHRIST as to the rudiments of the world For as we have shewed afore the Apostle does usually call the Ceremonial ordinances of Moses's Law the elements or rudiments of the world because they were the first and lowest lessons of GOD's people standing all of them in material and worldly things and in the usage of or in an abstinence from either elements or plants and animals and other fruits and productions of the world But he seems in this place to signifie by these words generally all services of this nature whether those that Moses sometime instituted for the exercise of the childhood and minority of Israel or those that other men erected afterward of which sort were the devotions and ceremonies which the Elders of the Jews and the Pharisees added to the Law and made to pass for traditions of antiquity as we understand by the Gospel where our Saviour notes them and very sharply reproves them in diverse places Such again were the disciplines and devotions of those Seducers whom the Apostle here opposeth and all other like them which though set up by diverse authors and at different times yet joyntly consist in one
Creature DEar Brethren As the salvation of mankind the true end of the coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST into the world did oblige Him to expiate sin and destroy the Dominion of Satan so the performing of these great works did require an infinite dignity and power in His person For as it was not possible He should give us eternal life without voiding our guilt and satisfying the justice of the Father and delivering us from the hold of Devils so it was alike impossible that He should perfect these effects without an infinite merit and a divine strength that is to say without being GOD none but a true GOD being capable of having an infinite either dignity or power As then the streams conduct us to their spring branches to their stock and root the house to the foundation that sustaineth it So the salvation which is of the LORD JESUS leadeth us to the acts by which He obtained it for us and from thence to the quality that was necessary in His person for the executing of those acts Salvation is the fruit of this tree of life The infinite merit of His cross is as the branch that bore this noble fruit and His almighty most holy and most divine person is the stock or root that did shoot forth this beautiful and blessed branch This order the Apostle observes here in the consideration of our LORD JESUS CHRIST He sets forth to us first His fruit that is our salvation or redemption the last end of His whole mediation Next He represents the means by which He acquired this salvation for us to wit the effusion of His blood for the remission of our sins from thence He now ascendeth to the Quality of His person which he magnificently describeth in the Text that you have heard saying that He is the image of the invisible GOD the first born of every creature forasmuch as by Him all things were created Wonder not Faithful Brethren that JESUS should give us life and eternity Us I say poor sinners that had deserved death and the curse of GOD. For He purchased remission of our sins by His blood and did by the sweet savour of His sacrifice perfectly appease the wrath of GOD which alone withstood our entring into His heavenly Kingdom Neither account it any more strange that this JESUS so infirm cloathed with frail flesh subject to all our sufferings should be able to offer so great and so precious a sacrifice to GOD. For how weak and despicable soever that form was under which He appeared here below He is nevertheless in reality the true Son of GOD His wisdom His word and His power the perfect pourtrait of His person His living and essential image the soveraign Lord and Creator of the Universe In this description of the dignity and excellency of the LORD JESUS the Apostle compares Him first with GOD the Father saying that He is the image of the invisible GOD. In the second place with the Creatures saying that He is the first-born of them and adds the reason of it in the two following Verses which is taken from His having made and established them all as their Creatour their preserver their last and highest end Afterwards He finally proposeth the relation He hath to the Church saying in the eighteenth verse that He is the Head thereof the beginning and the first-born from the dead having the first place in all things In these three points the soveraign dignity and excellency of the Saviour of the world is as you see comprised But because it would be difficult to explain them all three in one only action the richness and profoundness of the matter constraineth us to fix for this time on the two first and remit the remainder to another season We shall then have to handle in this exercise the two heads that are contained in the verse which we have read One that JESUS CHRIST is the image of the invisible GOD the other that He is the first-born of every creature The same LORD who shall be by His grace the subject of our discourse please to be the direction and light thereof too inspiring us with conceptions and expressions worthy of Him illuminating our understandings with the knowledge of His high and supereminent Majesty and enflâ—ming our hearts with a fervent love to Himself for the glory of His own great Name and our salvation As for the first Head the Apostle telleth us two things in it the one that JESVS CHRIST is the image of GOD the other that the GOD whose image JESVS CHRIST is is invisible For understanding aright how the LORD JESUS is the image of GOD we must observe at the entrance that the word image is of great extent signifying generally every thing that represents another so as things being very variously represented it comes to pass that there is great variety and difference of images Some are perfect which have in them an entire an exact and adequate resemblance of the subjects which they represent others are imperfect and express but some particular nay that too with some defect having not properly in them the same features and same essence which is in their original I place in this second rank all artificial images whether drawn by Painters or engraven or cut by Carvers or fashioned by Founders or woven by Embroiderers and workers of Tapistry which represent nothing but the colour the figure and the lineaments of men and animals and plants and such like subjects and to say true have nothing in them of their life and nature To this same order must be reduced that which Moses writeth that Adam was made after the image of GOD. It 's not to be thought he had such an essence as that of GOD is but this is said because the conditions of His nature had some resemblance of the properties of GOD namely in that He was endowed with intellect and will and had the dominion over animals and earthly creatures In the same manner must we take what St. Paul saith when comparing the two sexes of our nature 1 Cor. 11.7 he termeth the man the image and the glory of GOD whereas the woman is the glory of the man He calleth the man the image of God because of the advantage and superiority he hath over the woman having nothing above himself but GOD who is His head whereas man is the head of the woman because she was created of him and for him as the Apostle teacheth But beside these kind of images which represent their originals but imperfectly there are others that have a perfect resemblance of them Thus we call a Child the image of His Father a Prince the image of His Predecessour For a Son hath not meerly the shadow or the colour or the figure of his father he hath his nature his qualities and properties and if we may so say the whole fulness of his being a soul a body a life the same with those his Father hath A Prince
Grace the same GOD hath given us one JESUS CHRIST alone the true Sun of righteousness whom He hath filled with all the treasures of wisdom and life that He might be as an exceeding abundant and inexhaustible fountain of joy and immortality whence are diffused upon all the parts of the new world which is created in righteousness and in holiness all the spiritual perfections and benedictions they have This is that Dear Brethren which the Apostle divinely teacheth us in the Text you have now heard wherein speaking of the LORD JESUS he saith it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell He represented to us in the precedent words the excellency of the Lord JESUS's person in that He is the Image of GOD the Lord and the Creator of all things visible and invisible then next His dignity in that He is the Head of the Church the beginning and the first-born from the dead concluding that He hath the first place in all things The Apostle now produceth the reason of it taken from the decree and will of the Eternal Father For it was His good pleasure saith he that in Him should all fulness dwell And that we might discern the wisdom of the Father in this disposal of the thing he sets before us in the words following the work for the effecting whereof He defigned and sent His Son a work so great and so wonderful as it is evident that without this fulness which He caused to dwell in Him it was not possible it should be brought to an end For it is by Him that He purposed to reconcile and actually did reconcile all things in Himself as well those that are in Heaven as those that are in earth And for the more full discovery of the greatness of this Divine master-piece he toucheth also at the means by which it was accomplished to wit Peace which he made by the blood of His Son's Cross It was not possible to reunite Heaven and Earth and reconcile these parts of the Universe that were divided each from other but by making peace by extinguishing their hate and removing the cause of their enmities Neither was it any more possible to procure this peace otherways then by the shedding of a Divine blood and the offering up a sacrifice of infinite worth and by the intervention of a Mediator who should have in him all the perfections and excellencies of the parties that were to be reconciled The greatness of the work shews us the quality of the means that was requisite to finish it and the quality of the means doth regulate the faculties and nature of the person that was necessary to do it To reconcile earthly and heavenly things in GOD there was need to make peace To make peace there was need of a blood and a sacrifice of infinite value To offer such a sacrifice there was need of a person in whom all fulness dwelt that is who had in Him fully and perfectly all the graces and excellencies of Heaven and Earth Certainly then it was an order highly reasonable and most worthy of the Divine wisdom of the Father to make all fulness dwell in His CHRIST for the reconciling of Heaven and earth by making peace through the blood of His cross That we may have the fuller view of it for His glory and our own consolation we will consider by His grace in this action those three points that are distinctly proposed us in the Apostles Text. First the good pleasure of the Father that all fulness should dwell in CHRIST Secondly the work He hath wrought by the hand of His CHRIST thus furnished namely the reconciling of all things in Himself as well those that are in earth as those that are in Heaven and finally the means by which He hath executed this great design to wit making peace by the blood of the cross of His well-beloved Son For a right understanding of the first of these three points we must enquire at our entrance what this fulness is which the good pleasure of the Father hath made to dwell wholly in CHRIST especially seeing that Interpreters do not well accord about it Some referring it to the Divinity of our LORD others to the graces which were accumulated on Him after His manifestation in our flesh It is certain that the word Fulness is variously taken in the Scripture and not to speak of other senses it hath which are beside our purpose it is somtimes referred to the greatness of things and signifies their just their whole and due measure As when it is said that Saul fell on the earth to the fulness of his stature that is all along 1 Sam. 28 2â— so as his whole body lay stretcht out on the ground and it is very likely that it is thus that St. Paul calleth the Church the fulness or the compleatness of CHRIST Eph. 1.23 forasmuch as being His body 't is in it that His just and due magnitude consisteth Without the Church He would be an Head without a body that is withot a magnitude and a stature proportionate to His supereminent Majesty It seemeth we might so take the Fulness mentioned in this Text even as signifying all the graces and excellencies requisite to the full and entire greatness that becomes the CHRIST of GOD but the word Dwell which is annexed to it doth not comport with it For it would be an harsh phrase and without example in any language to say that a man's stature dwelleth in him Upon the same consideration I exclude hence another sence which else would sute not ill with the matter I mean that which the term fulness hath when it is put for a full and whole measure and such as wanteth nothing We are to observe therefore beside what hath been said that the word fulness doth very commonly in Scripture set forth that which filleth any thing as when one Prophet calleth men and other creatures which the earth is full of the fulness of the earth and another the fulness of a City all the people Psal 24. â— Amos 6.8 Isa 4â— 10 that dwell in it and again another the fulness of the sea the Isles whereof it is full with all their inhabitants And because the forms of things as Philosophers speak their perfections and qualities do fill them up and give them all the beauty they have like as plants and living creatures are the ornament of the earth people the glory of Citys and Isles so many crownes of the Sea thence it comes that by a very elegant figure the graces and perfections of such or such a subject are termed the fulness thereof for that without them it would be empty and of such a condition as that rude and uncouth mass that Moses describeth in the beginning of Genesis the earth saith he was without form and void Gen. 1.2 before the LORD clothed it with these stately ornaments and filled it with that rich abundance which
Lordly and absolute authority and a dispotical power to Ministers of the Church over the LORD's flocks For the steward or dispenser hath power not to do any thing of his own head and after his own phantasy but only to dispense what the Master hath given him and precisely in such manner as he hath prescribed him If he license himself to do more he exceedeth the bounds of his commission and all that he doth or saith beyond them is null and of no force nor doth it oblige any one of the houshold to obey it But the Apostle adjoyneth in the third place the object of his Ministry that is who they are towards whom he ought to exercise it This dispensation of GOD hath been given me towards you saith he These Colossians to whom he wrote being Gentiles by birth and extraction he considereth them here in that quality and his meaning is that it was for them and others like them that he had been called to this sacred ministry that is to say in a word for the Gentiles It 's true an Apostleship was an universal charge which extended generally to all men of what nation or condition soever having the whole earth for its praecinct according to that clause of the commission which the LORD gave His Apostles when He sent them Go and teach all nations And that the Ministry of S. Mat. 28.29 Paul was of the same condition doth appear evidently by his procedure and by his writings For he often preached the Gospel to the Jews as you may see in divers places of the book of the Acts and he directed to them particularly that excellent Epistle to the Hebrews which remaineth in the Church to this day But though the extent of His charge was such originally and by right nevertheless that He might exercise it with more commodiousness and fruit GOD assigned him peculiarly to the Gentiles and would have him labour particularly for them as He gave him express notice when He directed His call from Heaven to him Act. 26.17 18. I send thee saith he to the Gentiles to open their eyes that they may be turned from darkness to light And afterwards in pursuit of this heavenly order Peter and Paul by a voluntary Oeconomy parted mankind in two Peter with the other Apostles taking the circumcision to preach to that is to say the Jews and Paul the uncircumcision that is the Gentiles as himself reports elsewhere Which must be understood of the ordinary exercise of their charges it being otherwise not prohibited either that Peter should undertake preaching to and the converting of the Gentiles Gal. 2. or Paul the like for the Jews if any opportunity inviting them to it were at any time presented them in the course of their Ministry Whereby you see in general how necessary this appropriating of a determinate flock to each Pastor is and how vain and exorbitant the pretention of Him is who calls himself the universal Pastor and Bishop of all Christendom For if the Apostles themselves who had the power did yet account the exercise of this charge so difficult that to acquit them of it they voluntarily parted the district of their commission between them each of them taking a portion of it only how can we believe that a man who is infinitely inferior in regard of the gifts of these great Ministers of GOD should be capable to govern alone the whole Church of CHRIST But the Apostle alledgeth this very pertinently to the Colossians to keep them fast in the purity of the faith For since he had been sent of GOD to illuminate and teach the Gentiles it is evident that being Gentiles as they were they owed him a particular respect and were to receive nothing into their belief which was unconform to his instructions considering him as the Minister of their faith whom GOD had particularly set over them Whence it follows that they neither could nor ought to embrace that novel doctrine which certain seducers did offer them seeing it was neither preached nor approved by S. Paul And since we our selves are by extraction Gentiles this consideration my Brethren obligeth us also to the same reverencing of this holy man He is our Apostle and the Minister whom GOD hath given us for an interpreter of His will and a conductor of our souls to salvation Let us respect Him among all the Ministers of CHRIST Let us hear him diligently Let us peruse His divine instructions night and day let us abide fixedly hanging on His sacred mouth and not hear ought beside Whatever others may be there was never any but he that received from heaven the particular commission to instruct us Lastly he sheweth us what the work is and the end of this Office of his the dispensation of GOD hath been given me towards you saith he to fullfil the word of GOD. Some there be that understand by this word of GOD whereof the Apostle speaketh the ancient oracles which foretold the converting of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true GOD in the days of the Messiah as that for instance Isai 42.6 49.6 Zech. 2.11 Mic. 4.1 which we read in Isaiah that CHRIST shall be a light to the Nations and in Zechary Many nations shall be joyned to the LORD in that day and shall become my people and in Michah Many nations shall go and shall say come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD and unto the house of the GOD of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in His paths And other such which are found in great number in the books of the Prophets As if the Apostle meant that he was appointed the Minister of the Gentiles for the accomplishing of these predictions Now sure it cannot be denied but the thing in its self is true it being clear that his preaching was one of the most excellent means which the LORD made use of for the effecting of what he had promised in those oracles namely the conversion of the nations Nevertheless the putting of this sense upon the Apostles words is in my opinion a doing them some violence For first the word of GOD in his stile doth signifie the Gospel which is so called by reason of its excellency being without controversie the most excellent of all the words of the LORD and these terms are alwaies constantly so understood when he coucheth them simply and absolutely as in this place he doth and I do not think that so much as one passage can be produced wherein he takes them otherwaies And though this were not so yet it is impossible to understand them otherwise here where the Apostle to explain what this word of GOD is for the fullfilling whereof he was sent immediately addeth the mystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations but hath now been manifested to His Saints which is as you see an illustrious description of the Gospel And as for this phrase of
float in your head to be pluckt away by an enemy on the first occasion It must be engraven on your heart with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond that is you should be so firmly perswaded of it as nothing may be able to efface it and enfeeble your belief of it I know well every one boasteth to be so But there is a great difference between words and things themselves Shew it me by your lives and I will credit it If you be fully perswaded of the truth of the Gospel How is it that you have not the charity which it so necessarily commandeth us How do you hate men whom it commandeth you to love and love the vices which it enjoyneth you to hate Let us lay by words and possess in deed that full certainty of understanding which the Apostle wisheth us This is the true way for us to abide all joyned together in charity to conflict with and overcome our enemies to edifie and preserve our friends to attract those that are without to retain those that are within to enjoy much consolation in all the trials of this world and to obtain in the end the Salvation and the glory of the other through the grace of our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD be all honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen The SEVENTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER III. Vers III. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledg IGnorance of the natures and qualities of the LORD JESUS is the source of all the errors and heresies which have exercis'd the Christian Church from its beginning down to this day 1 Cor. 2.9 And as S. Paul said of the rulers of the Jews that if they had known the true wisdom they would never have crucify'd the LORD of Glory So may we say of the authors of all the false and pernicious Doctrines which men have lusted to introduce into Religion that if they had duly known JESUS CHRIST they would not have ever troubled the Church I pass by the scourges of the first ages the impiety of the Arrians and the Dokites the extravagancy of the Nestorians and the Eutychians together with the numberless branches of the one and the others they all evidently sprung from ignorance of the true being of our LORD JESUS CHRIST and strike directly at Him ruining either His natures by attributing to Him the one a created and imperfect Divinity the others an imaginary and phantastique Humanity or His Person some of them dividing others confounding the natures which are united in it From the same original its clear have come those abuses and disorders which had the vogue in the following ages and which raising themselves by little and little from weak and obscure beginnings have at last got a superiority and suffocated the genuine simplicity and verity of the Gospel Hence proceeded that invocation of Saints which is at this day practised throughout all the Roman Communion Hence hath issued that second sacrifice which they call of the Altar and wherein the heart of Religion is made to consist If men had rightly known the excellency of our LORD's mediation and the effectual extent of His Cross they would never have address'd them to any other Intercessor never have had recourse to any other oblation From the said ignorance also as from a common spring of error have flowed in among people satisfactions and merits of condignity and congruity and indulgences and the rules and odly various Disciplines of Monks and in summ all Superstitions If people had well known what an one JESUS CHRIST is they would have been assuredly content with His Satisfaction and with his infinite merit and with that eternal indulgence which He hath purchas'd for all that believe and with the perfection of His Gospel Hence again hath come the setting up of another Head in the militant Church to be there as the Vicar and coadjutor of JESUS CHRIST If this JESUS whom the Father hath given over all things for an Head to the Church if the fulness of His power and of His wisdom and His infinite love had been well known never had this second Monarchy been erected in His Kingdom In fine we may say to these and to all others that err in Religion Joh. 4.10 as sometime our LORD Himself said to the Samaritan If you knew the gift of GOD and who this JESUS is that speaketh to you in His Scriptures you would seek all your Salvation in Him alone and demand of none besides Him any of the things that are necessary for the refreshment and consolation of your Souls Judg faithful Brethren how much it concerneth us to know Him well and to have Him still before our eyes Since this knowledg sufficeth to secure us from error Accordingly you see with what care the Apostle S. Paul represents Him to us and with what affection he lays out before us all the marvels of this great and divine Subject He described Him before to the Colâ—ssians in a sublime manner and to fasten their hearts to Him alone shewed them that in Him is found all fulness But he contents not himself with this He now informes them further in the Text which you have heard that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg In these few words there is a great deal of sense and truth Therefore we will employ this whole exercise in the explaining of them to you if GOD permit noting in order all that shall seem to us necessary both for the understanding of the Text and for the instruction and edification of your Souls I know well that the relative word whom is in the Original indifferently whom or which and may be referred either to JESUS CHRIST or to the Mystery of GOD whereof he spake just before if referred to the latter it is as if he had said that in this Mystery are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and I deny not but the words so construed do make a veritable sense it being certain that our LORD's Gospel here called His mystery is an inexhaustible treasury of all saving wisdom and knowledg But it is not needful to come to this and in my mind it s more pertinent and more fluent to refer this word to the Name of CHRIST which immediately preceded and to account the Apostle's meaning is that in JESUS CHRIST are hid these treasures which he doth intend Yet at the bottom as you shall see the sense is the same which way soever of the two you understand it And for a right conceiving of it we must first refute the exposition which some do give of this Text and then assert the true meaning There are some that take these words as if Paul would say that JESUS CHRIST knoweth all things and hath so rich and so abundant a knowledg that He is ignorant of nothing It 's a mistaking of the Apostle's
JESUS CHRIST here described by the Apostle And hence it appears how grievous the errour of those is who serve Angels there being not any thing in these words but does evince it First then the Apostle says they hold not the head 'T is true they do not make profession of letting it go For they affirm themselves Christians and do own JESUS CHRIST for the Prince and Author of their Religion But at the bottom and in effect they break the union which they should have with Him in quality of Head since they address themselves to Angels as their Mediators and Intercessors with GOD. For it 's a giving them the office of Head which pertains to one alone it being clear that this mediation which is the Source of our life is the office of our Head Again their impudence doth plainly appear in that JESUS CHRIST our Head doth furnish His body with all necessary graces For to what end should we go seek in Angels or Saints what we have abundantly in JESUS CHRIST Is there any grace any light any blessing which we may not have from Him Nay saith the Apostle it is he that furnisheth the whole body He is the fulness of grace an inexhaustible abyss of good Sure then it 's extream vanity to address our selves to any other and to seek the waters of life and of salvation in petty by-streams rather than in that so full so fresh and so abundant an only Source which the Father hath given us in this Divine Head Though the serving of Angels and Saints were permitted which yet it is not however 't is evident it would be unprofitable since we most assuredly have in JESUS CHRIST alone all the succour and assistance we can possibly pretend to from those creatures But that which the Apostle adds in the second place to wit that this Divine Head doth compact and knit together His whole body doth further potently oppose this error which divides the Church and brings a very manifest odd variety into its Services for that it multiplyeth the objects of its devotion causing some to serve one Angel or one Saint and others another some have a devotion for one and call themselves after him and others adhere to another as you plainly see by the example of those of Rome who are divided into divers bands and fraternities according to the Angels the Male and Female Saints to whom they engage their devotion not to say how each of them hath a particular service for his Angel guardian differing from the service of all others by reason of its object forasmuch as according to them every one hath his particular Angel different from those of others Whereas the true body of CHRIST is all knit together in a perfect union having but one only head JESUS CHRIST and one only religious service one and the same faith and one and the same Worship Lastly the Apostle yet again strikes at the Authors of this errour when he saith that the body of the Church being united guided and governed by its Head JESUS CHRIST increaseth with an increase of GOD. For these people are wont to vaunt of perfecting and increasing the Religion of Christians by the addition of such services as they invent But S. Paul informs us that this is not the increase that the Church receives which must be an increase of GOD an augmentation and advancement in things which He hath commanded an instituted whereas these people do grow only in the traditions of men and inventions of the flesh which add nothing to the true and legitimate magnitude of the body it becomes by them more blown up not fuller more deformed not greater They are like warts and wolfes and empostumes which disfigure and incommodate the body but are far from enriching or perfecting it Dear Brethren let us lay by all these strange doctrines Let us hold fast to this Holy and blessed Head JESUS the Son of GOD who hath vouchsafed to take us for His body Let us enjoy with awfullest respect the great honour He hath therein done us Be not we so ingrateful or so unadvised as to give that glory to any other which belongs to Him alone Let vain men submit to other heads let them profane this Divine quality of Head of the Church attributing it either to Angels or which is yet worse to a mortal man For our parts O LORD JESUS we neither have nor ever will have other head than Thee As it is Thou alone that hast redeemed us formed and associated us in the Communion of thy body So never will we address our Devotions our Religion our Services and invocations to any but to Thee It 's on Thee alone that we will live and of thy springs alone that we will draw Likewise with Thee are the words of Eternal life To what Saint besides should we go Without Thee we can do nothing and in Thee alone we can do all things Beloved Brethren this is the Vow which I now present to the LORD JESUS in the behalf of us all and I assure my self there is not one of you but heartily sayes Amen thereto It remaineth that we do faithfully acquit our selves of this great vow rendring up our selves to be guided and governed by the LORD JESUS CHRIST since He is our Head having no motion nor sentiment but what descends from Him and receiving into our Nerves and Arteries His Coelestial and divine Spirit sincerely renouncing the spirit of the Flesh and of the Earth which animates the world Remember that you are the body of CHRIST and live in such a pureness as may be worthy of so great a name Above all let us have those Sacred bonds between us which do fitly knit all the members of our LORD together that is to say the sentiments of a vigorus Charity communicating readily and chearfully to one another the graces which our common Head hath furnished us with for our mutual edification the rich their alms to those that are poor the knowing their instructions to the ignorant the strong their succour to the weak those that are in prosperity their Consolations to the afflicted encreasing all of us continually with an increase of GOD in Faith and Sanctification and advancing daily some paces towards the mark and prize of our supernal Calling This is the Discipline of the LORD JESUS This is that He hath commanded us His Apostles Preached and left in their Writings to us not the serving of Angels and other such inventions of superstition of which those holy men say not one Word except it be to refute and condemn them Rest we in their Doctrine and we shall have part in their bliss through the grace of JESUS CHRIST their Head and ours To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the only true GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to Ages of Ages Amen THE XXX SERMON COL II. Vers XX. XXI XXII Verse XX. If then ye be dead with CHRIST as to the rudiments
faithful it mingleth and consociates them changeth them into one body and one spirit gives them the same will and the same affections Now surther it is to form and conserve this holy union among us that the Apostle does recommend to us the peace of GOD in the second part of this Text. Let the peace of GOD saith he hold the first place in your hearts to the which you are called in one body For this peace of GOD is not that which we have with GOD by faith in JESUS CHRIST His Son when as being appeased by the satisfaction of His Crosse He looks upon us in Him with a propitions and favourable eye as a Father and not as a Judge not imputing our sins to us which may be termed Peace of conscience But it is the peace we ought to have with one another all of us living amiably together as children of one and the same Father and heirs of one and the same grace and glory It 's the daughter of Charity and a fruit of that holy and Christian love which binds us perfectly together The Apostle calls it the peace of GOD first because He loves it above all things and upon this account is often stil'd in the Scriptures the GOD of peace hating nothing in the world more than trouble and discord and contentions and wars Secondly because He commands it us every where in His word And lastly because He is the Author of it who gives it and inspires it by His Spirit into all those that are truly His children And the Apostle hath expresly given it this title in this place for the more effectual recommending of it to us and that He might induce us to receive it with the greater respect as a thing of GOD's holy sacred and divine which we cannot violate without offending grievously that Soveraign Majesty to whom it doth belong 〈◊〉 many waies He willeth that this Peace of GOD do hold the chief place in our hearts The term he makes use of in the original is admirably expressive and elegant for it properly signifies to have the super-intendance of a thing to be the judge and arbiter of it to govern and regulate it and give it law That is the Apostle means that this Divine peace be the Queen of our hearts the mistresse and governesse of all your motions that that keeps them in due respect and with-holds them from ever attempting ought that tendeth to violate or disturb it And if the resenting of an offence for instance or an opinion of our own worth or any other such consideration do begin to kindle wrath or hatred or animosity against our brethren or excite some other passion of like nature in our hearts that this Peace do forthwith advance and stay the commotion and agitation of our minds calming the storm and speedily repelling all these sentiments of the flesh as so many incendiaries or evil spirits without giving them entrance or audience That it do enjoyn us and inspire into us humility and patience when we have been offended regret and the making of satisfaction when we have offended any other and cause us to seek carefully after all that it shall judge necessary to maintain amity and good intelligence among us as kind words and obliging deeds banishing both from our mouths and from our manners all that 's apt to cause or keep up our dividing from our neighbours The advertising of us that this is the peace of GOD were enough to perswade us to give it such place in our hearts But that the Apostle might overcome all possible obstinacy he here further represents unto us two considerations besides which oblige us to give it this super-intendency over our souls The one is that we are thereunto called and the other that we are one body For the first you know that our LORD and Master JESUS CHRIST doth every where call us to this Peace of GOD and that He hath given us precepts for it in His Gospel and examples of it in His life For what was there ever in the world more meek and peaceable than this Divine Lamb He contended not Mat. 12.19 nor cryed and His voice was not heard in the streets as the Prophets fore-told of Him He was gentle and lowly in heart He never repulsed any and received sinners with open arms how bad and abominable soever they had been He invited His greatest enemies unto His salvation and offered His grace to the most obstinate and bore their contradictions without answering again and their reproaches with silence and their rage without exasperation and did weep bitterly for that Jerusalem that rebellious City would not know the things of her peace Such is the pattern He gave us commanding us likewise expresly to be sweet Mark 9.50 and simple as doves without gall and without bitternesse and to be in peace among our selves And His Apostles repeat this lesson to us in divers places Rom. 12.8 as St. Paul here and other-where again If it be possible as much as in you lyeth have peace with all men And it 's for this that JESVS CHRIST came into the world even to pacifie Heaven and Earth Jews and Gentiles Isa 2.4 11.6 7 8. to extinguish enmities and wars and change swords into plow-shares and spears into pruning-books to take away the poison of asps and the cruelty of wolves and the fierceness of lions and transform bears and the savagest beasts into lambs Isa 66.12 and make them all live and dwell peaceably and amicably together finally to make peace overflow as a river as the ancient oracles had magnifically foretold Isa 9.5 by reason whereof He is also expresly stiled the Prince of Peace And you know it was the legacy He bequeathed us when He was preparing to dye for us Joh. 14.2 Peace I leave with you said He my peace I give unto you not to speak of the blessing and the dignity He promiseth those that shall love the same Blessed saith He are the Peace-makers Matt. 5.9 for they shall be called children of GOD. After all this who can doubt but He calleth all His unto peace as the Apostle here affirms Since He forms them to it by His voice by His lise by His promises and by the whole design of His Mediatorial Office But besides the command and order He hath given the very estate and condition He hath by His vocation put us in doth manifestly oblige us thereunto and this the Apostle represents unto us in the second place when having told us that we are called unto peace he adds in one body or to express the full and whole force of the Greek words in one only body It 's a doctrine universally received and most expresly asserted in divers places of Scripture that the whole Church doth make up but one only mystical body of which JESUS CHRIST is the head and the faithful are the members being animated under Him with one and the same
of their sex Moreover the interest of their Religion requires this performance at their hands though law and reason had not impos'd subjection on them to the end it might appear by their obedience that JESUS CHRIST doth not disturb the just order of humane societies but on the contrary form both men and women to all kind of righteousness and honesty much more exactly and effectually than other Religions do Lastly the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST having in divers places taken Marriage for a symbole of the union which is between Him and His Church he hath by that usage authorized and confirmed the duties of both the two Married parties and particularly the subjection of the wife since she is the image of the Church which ought to be subject unto CHRIST a matter which the Apostle hath elsewhere excellently made use of in this subject Eph. 5 23.24 The Husband saith he is the bead of the Wife even as CHRIST is the head of the Church Therefore as the Church is subject unto CHRIST so let wives be to their own husbands in all things Thus you see with how much truth and wisdom the Apostle here alledgeth unto Christian women that it is meet in the LORD that is in JESUS CHRIST they should be subject to their husbands it being clear by all we have been saying that all the considerations of the discipline of this same LORD and of the communion they have with Him do so strictly oblige them to this duty that if they fail of performance beside the fault and the disorder which they commit against the Law and institution of GOD and nature they also particularly offend the LORD JESUS and outrage the mysteries of His Gospel and scandalize His people But I have said that the Apostle does also by these words regulate and limit that subjection which the wife oweth her Husband For adding to the rest that in the LORD or according to the LORD he evidently sheweth that it reacheth no further than to such things as do not offend JESUS CHRIST She is subject to her husband I acknowledge but in things wherein she is not rebellious against GOD. She ought to please him but on condition she displease not their common LORD She owes him her obedience and her assistance and her service in adversity and in all the troubles of houshold affairs but not in sin The will of JESUS CHRIST is the true boundary of her subjection and complacency She ought to put on so far but further she may not pass without perrishing Whatever tye we have to any creature it still leaves the rights of GOD entire because our obligation unto Him is the first and most ancient the strictest and most necessary of all that we are under And if the Husband pretend to oblige his Wife or the Father his Child or the Prince his Subject unto any violation of the commands of GOD that is either to do what He forbids or not to do what He injoyns Acts 5.29 Luke 14.26 Matt. 10.37 in this case the faithful soul is to remember that we ought to obey GOD rather than men and that if we love father or mother husband or wife children or brethren or sisters or even our own lives more than CHRIST we are not worthy of Him nor can be His disciples But having thus heard the lesson which the Apostle gives the wife let us now hearken unto that he gives the husband Husbands saith he love your Wives and be not bitter against them He commands 'em to love them and forbids 'em to be bitter against them and in these few words compriseth all their duty This duty is no whit less just but indeed more sweet and pleasing than that which he prescribed the wives And observe I pray the Apostles prudence For when he had allotted the woman subjection for her share consequence seemed to require that he should give the man command and government for his But he doth it not He established the man's authority sufficiently by putting the woman in subjection to him and for the most part his strength and the other advantages of his sex do cause him to assume but too much Wherefore in stead of saying Husbands govern your wives or command them or of using some such word importing authority he saith unto them Love your wives to sweeten on one hand the subjection of the wife and to temper on the other hand the authority of the husband Wife let not your subjection fright you the Apostle subjects you not but to a person who loves you Husband let not your authority make you insolent If the Apostle subject your wife unto you it 's only to the end you love her Derive no vanity either the one or the other of you from the advantages he gives you If the love which the husband owes his wife make her haughty let her remember that withall she is subject unto him that loves her And if the authority which GOD giveth the husband flatter him let him not forget that the wife is not submitted to him but for the obliging him to love her the more Further this love which the Apostle would have husbands bear their wives is a sacred and sincere affection produced in their hearts not simply by that pleasing form and that grace and sweetness which naturally makes men love and seek unto this sex and which how perfect and charming soever it may be is at most but a flower of a very short and uncertain duration but principally by the will of GOD who hath joyned them with 'em who hath given them to them for companions in their good and bad fortunes for helps in all the parts of their life for a perpetuating of their name and lineage for the diminishing of their troubles and the augmenting of their joyes This perpetual and indivisible union which bindeth them together and which of two persons hath changed them into one flesh which hath mingled together all their interests and in their dear Children inseparably combined and confounded their blood and very nature all this I say must kindle in the foul of husbands a pure and an inviolable love unto their wives then again this love must flow forth from the heart into the external actions discovering and evidencing its self by such continual effects as may be truly worthy of it For love is not a dead picture nor a vain phantasie nor an idol without life and action It 's the liveliest and most active of all our sentiments It 's a will that affecteth and sets all the power one hath on work to procure some good to the person whom it loveth The first effect of this love is to be pleased in the presence of that which a man loves and not be able to suffer the absence of it long without disquiet The second to communicate to it all a man possesseth that is good and the third to guard and preserve it from all incommodity and molestation It 's thus the