some do harbour namely that it is lawful to break promise with such as are without and to deceive or use a person ill when we can plead that he is not of our communion On the contrary it 's to these that we must shew most justice and integrity these of all men are the persons towards whom we must acquit our selves of all that we owe them with greatest religiousness and scruple And he that thinks to draw me to side with him by an act of injustice or cruelty or perfidiousness is so far from gaining any thing that way that he makes me believe with a great deal of reason the religion which permits him such things and excuseth them under colour of a good intention and pretends them serviceable for greater glory to GOD is an impious and abominable superstition and much worse in this particular than the sects and disciplines of Pagans themselves who how ignorant soever they were yet never held any of these horrible maxims GOD will not be serv'd at all with unrighteousness and treacheries and to make account or ascribe to Him that He taketh pleasure in such services is one of the greatest outrages that can be done Him They are grateful to the devil and to none but him A Christian looks not upon any man on earth as his enemy he knows that they are all the creation of the LORD his GOD and that his Master died for them and shed His blood to save them He respects this character in them however disfigured by vice or error And his rendring them these dues is not out of a fear he hath of their power or their ill will as some would perswade us that the primitive Christians submitted not to their heathen Emperors and Magistrates but only out of prudence or rather a world-like craftiness because they were the stronger and themselves the weaker and that had they had the means they would have pluck'd the scepter out of their hands and without scruple trampled that diadem under foot which they made semblance to honour with such humbleness No dear Brethren this is not the nature or the foundation of a Christian's carriage towards those that are without It is GOD it is his conscience and not simply some other consideration that obligeth him to live with them as he doth according to the Apostle's doctrine in another place where he says we must be subject Rom. 13.5 not only for wrath that is for fear of vengeance and of the sword which the Magistrate bears in his hand but also for conscience sake which in like manner extendeth to all other duties that is we must pay our creditors keep our word perform our promises honour our fellow-subjects live honestly with them though they be not of our religion not only for avoiding of the evils we should incurr by doing it not but also for conscience sake so as what impunity yea what salary soever we might expect for neglecting such duties we yet do never neglect them accounting our selves bound to do them by a supreme and indispensable law namely the just and holy will of GOD. But besides these things which we owe Christian prudence in its conduct towards those without maketh use of others also which in rigour of right we owe not For in this behalf it aimeth not simply at our discharging our selves but at the winning of those whom we treat withal so that if any thing unto which otherwise justice obligeth us not may be serviceable to this its end that reason is that reason is sufficient to make us do them On which account it opens the bosome of our humanity courteousness and beneficence to those that are without to give them all the assistance favour and succour that we can in their need as often as they ask it of us yea when they ask it not We should in this case imitate the goodness of our LORD who maketh His Sun to shine and His rain to fall even on them that blaspheme Him Make me not those frigid and frivolous excuses that they are out of our communion that they hate us that they do us evil that they are ungrateful This is good discourse for a worldling who measures his devoirs by nothing but his own interest As for you that are a disciple of JESUS CHRIST it 's the least thing you should consider You should principally respect the glory of GOD the service of his Son and the edification of men Do you good to all as your Heavenly Father doth disdain no one whom He hath made Account any one your neighbour that hath need of you be he Samaritan or Pagan It imports not so he be a man There is nothing more effectual to perswade him that your religion is holy and divine than this vertuous and generous deportment At least you will hereby take from him all pretext of calumniating your profession You will remain justified in his thoughts and oblige him if he be ever call'd to give testimony of you to speak in that glorious and honourable language which the probity and innocence of the primitive beleevers sometime drew from the mouths of Pagans such a one is a good man and there is nothing to be blamed in him but that he is a Christian Again for our living prudently with those that are without it 's one principal duty incumbent on us to accommodate our selves to them as far as piety will permit not needlesly contrarying them at any time nay willingly yielding them some part of our rights bowing and conforming themselves to their laws their humours and wills in things indifferent that they may see it 's not capriciousness nor hatred but the force of our consciences alone that constraineth us to dissent from their religion and that setting this aside and our consciences salved there is nothing but we would both do and suffer to pleasure them Such was the Apostle's practice and he hath left us an excellent pattern of this holy prudence which he proposeth and representeth at large in the ninth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians I have made my self saith he a servant to all 1 Cor. 9.19 c. that I might gain the more Vnto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews and unto the Law as if Jew that I might gain the more Vnto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews and unto them that are under the Law as if I were under the Law to them that are without the law as without the law to the weak became I as weak and all things to all men that in conclusion I might save some Imitate we this holy example of the Apostle only take heed to limit as he did this complacentialness unto things which we have power to dispose of that is such as are free and indifferent for us not extending it to those that are evil and prohibited in the School of CHRIST as contrary to piety or sanctification remembring
yea a glorious light that is to say great and sparkling Why then saith he that the treasures of wisdom are hid in Him whereas it seemeth he should say on the contrary that they are manifested in Him that they shine out and appear clearly in Him I answer that the one and the other may be said in divers respects For if you consider the thing in its self the treasures of wisdom are manifested to us in JESUS CHRIST and there is no purifyed Soul but sees them in Him and acknowledgeth them immediately when it views Him as the Gospel represents Him But if you have respect to the eyes and perceptions of men as they naturally are even obscured and corrupted by Sin I confess it 's hard for them to discern in JESUS CHRIST the riches of wisdom and knowledg which the Father hath put in Him and that this proceeds in part from that veil of meanness and infirmity wherewith He is as it were covered all over And this makes S. Paul say elswhere that CHRIST crucified whom He preached was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness though to the faithful who were called He was the Power and the Wisdom of GOD. Therefore it being necessary for our Salvation that He should be born and live poorly on earth and there suffer in the end the death of the Cross which surpassed all others for cruelty and ignominy the Father who sent Him in this form cloath'd with this sad and shameful mantle that assrighteth men hath both manifested and hidden His treasures in Him He hath manifested them in Him since it is in Him and by Him that He exhibiteth to us whatsoever we ought to know for the attainment of Salvation He hath hidden them in Hun since He hath covered this treasure with such a veil as by its poor and contemptible look discourageth men and makes them say as Isaiah prophecyed He hath no form nor comeliness in Him and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him But they which have their eyes purified by light from on high do discern under this appearing simplicity and humility all coelestial riches in their stateliest and most glorious form This is the Apostle's meaning here when he saith that these treasures are hid in CHRIST He advertiseth us that we must not stop at that infirmity and emptiness which appeareth at first sight in Him and disgusteth vain and earthly spirits but look within and contemplate the great wonders which GOD hath there manifested for our compleat instruction and consolation Hitherto we have examin'd the words of this Text. It remaineth that we now consider the truth in it We shall do it but summarily For the prosecution of this rich subject in its whole extent is above the ability of Man or Angel to be worthily performed so great is the heighth and depth of it But we will briefly touch its chief heads Mans true wisdom in his present state is to know His misery with the means to escape it and his felicity with the way that he must take to attain it As for our misery nature indeed hath given us some perception of it there being scarce a man in the world who sees not some depravation and irregularity in himself and whose conscience doth not reproach him with his faults and threaten the judgment of a supream justice The Law hath taught us much more of it representing GOD unto us as armed with inexorable severity against sinners and fulminating his curse upon them But beside that these knowledges are weak and are easily smothered in security there is this sorrow with them that having shewed us our misery they do not inform us of the remedy so as if they be necessary to draw us out of that folly wherein the most are plunged who confidently sleep amid the tempest and presume they are well while they have a mortal impostume in their brain or in their bowels yet it cannot be said that they suffice to make us wise seeing that for the just possession of this title a man must know not only his malady but also the means to cure it And yet though we knew it too nevertheless this would not be sufficient because besides deliverance from evil we desire also the fruition of good yea the chief Good But neither the light of nature nor even the light of the Law does reveal to us what this supream felicity is which without distinct knowing it we do desire so far are they from shewing us the way to it But in JESUS CHRIST as proposed to us in the Gospel these Verities that are necessary to render us wise are found clearly and fully all of them For as to our misery He declareth it exactly to us not by some surd and inarticulate sounds as nature doth nor by circuitions and essaies as the Law did but by the fullest and most moving way of information that ever was in the world even crying aloud to us from that Cross to which our sins had nailed Him Behold ye sons of men how horrid your crimes are since that it was necessary for the washing them away that I should come down from the Heavens shed forth my blood Behold how great irreparable your fall was since there was none in heaven or earth that could raise you up again but my self As much as the life of the Son of GOD is more precious than the life of all mankind so much clearer is the proof which his death giveth us of the horror of sin than that which we might take from the death of all that ever sinned though we should we see them stricken down together and punished by the avenging justice of GOD. But if this great Saviour do make us so feelingly perceive the horridness of our misery his end is only to make us the more ardently desire and embrace the remedy which he offereth us fully prepared from that same Cross to which he He was fastned for us I grant that the forbearance and kindness of GOD in his conduct of men though sinful might give them some sparkle of hope and his promises under the old Covenant had highly confirm'd it betimes But the Sword of his Justice dreadfully flaming in the hand of the Law perplexed them not a little and it was very difficult for them to accord His inflexible righteousness with the mercy that was necessary for them JESUS CHRIST hath removed all these difficulties and exhibiteth unto us in his Cross the solution of all our doubts Fear nothing sinner I saith he have contented the Justice of God and satisfied his Law Boldly trust his promises and approach his Throne with full assurance This blood which hath opened to you the entrance thither is not the blood of a beast nor an earthly ransome it is the blood of GOD a ransome of infinite value more than sufficient to take away your sins how infinite soever the demerit of them be But you will say This
upon them So in Grace if we may take leave to compare the mysteries thereof with natural things JESUS CHRIST the true Sun of righteousness hath not only in himself all the fulness of the Deity dwelling there bodily He also communicateth his fulness to all the souls of men that look on him and do move and live in his communion He filleth them with his abundance and clotheth them with his light changing them into his Image and of dim and dark lumps as they were originally in themselves making them so many Starrs and lightsome bodies Now if you take the Apostle's word here in another manner as importing that we have been made compleat in JESUS CHRIST the sense will still be very pertinent For besides that we being naked of all perfections meet for our nature the saying that we have been made compleat in CHRIST will excellently well express his Grace as signifying that it is he who hath fill'd up our breaches and repaired in us what the other Adam had ruined by giving us all that we wanted Besides this I say this term will also very aptly answer to that title which the Apostle gave a little before to the Ceremonies of Moses's Law where he called them the rudiments of the world that is the beginnings the first and plainest Lessons of Piety Heb. 7.19 Gal. 4. such as consequently were unable to bring to perfection as he saith expresly in another place by reason whereof he stileth the time of the Law the infancy of the Church that is the age of its imperfection Opposing therefore JESUS CHRIST unto the Law in this respect he now saith that we are compleat in Him and that for good reason in as much as He hath the body whereas the Law had but the shadow He hath fulness whereas the Law had but some small parcel of the requisites of our salvation For the same cause he elsewhere calleth the Ceremonies of it weak and poor or beggarly elements Gal. 4 9. As for the Law saith he it did but begin with us and only draw some slight and dark lineament upon us of that true form which GOD did purpose to imprint whereas JESUS CHRIST hath finish'd us In Him it is we have that perfection that entire body that truth and fulness whereof the Law had but the beginning the shadow and figure Hereby now this holy man deals those seducers whom he hath undertaken an handsom blow discovering the foolishness of their design who would still oblige persons to the Ceremonies of the Law that were made compleat in JESUS CHRIST an attempt no less ridiculous than if one should put a man to his ABC again who had received the last tincture of highest erudition in the University pretending that he could not be throughly intelligent and accomplish'd except he still daily studied the rudiments and plainest lessons of Children But that which follows in the Apostle's words namely that JESUS CHRIST is the Head of all principality and power is adjoined to prevent another error of those men's who as we shall hereafter hear did teach the worshipping and serving of Angels pretending it necessary we should address our selves to them as to Spirits capable of interceding with GOD for us and of obtaining by their interposal with that Supreamest Majesty those graces and perfections which we need S. Paul doth shew in these few words the vanity of this false doctrine For since the LORD JESUS is the Head of Angels who sees not but that we have most abundantly in Him whatsoever these people could expect from them and that possessing JESUS CHRIST as we do by faith in His Gospel we have no need to run to Angels who depend upon Him and have nought but what is found much more richly in their Head As if a man that doth possess a Prince's Son would yet needs make use of the favour and interpositions of his servants with him Members have neither motion nor sensation nor life but the same is much more abundantly in their Head Subjects and Servants possess nothing but the Prince can far better and far more easily communicate it to us than any one of them Since JESUS CHRIST is the Head and Prince of Angels it is clear that having Him we want nothing of all that which the Angels can give us From the same ground appeareth further the impiety of the error of these Seducers For since the Angels are subject unto JESUS CHRIST it is evident by the light of Scripture that no one can give them that religious worship which these people attribute to them without becoming guilty of idolatry the greatest and sensiblest outrage that man can do to his Creator For no Christian can be ignorant but that GOD throughout his whole word doth forbid us to serve any creature how high and excellent soever it be religious worship being an homage which belongs to the Divine Nature and cannot be performed without sacriledg to any other As for other things I presume you all know that they are the Angels whom the Apostle means by these principalities and powers of which he speaks as we formerly explained it Col. 1.16 upon the precedent Chapter He saith that JESUS CHRIST is their Head that is their Lord. And this quality belongeth to Him not only as He is the Eternal Son of the Father of the same essence and power with Him who having created them at the beginning and continuing to preserve them by His Goodness and Might is by all kind of right their true Master and natural Lord but also as He is the CHRIST and Mediator For since He in this relation and under this quality hath been constituted the Lord of all things both superior Phil. 2.10 inferior and intermediate having in consequence of His humiliation receiv'd such a Name as is above every name and unto which every knee boweth both of those that are in Heaven and that are on Earth and that are under the Earth it is evident that in this sense He hath dominion and empire over Angels 1 Pet. 3.22 as well as others And thus also S. Peter expresly teacheth us saying that Angels and Authorities and Powers have been made subject to Him For this cause these Spirits are often called the Angels of CHRIST as in S. Matthew Matt. 13.41 24.31 Rev. 1.1 and 22.16 The Son of Man shall send his Angels and in the Apocalypse where S. John saith that JESUS CHRIST sent him by his Angel the things that were revealed to him and in the same Book I JESVS saith the LORD have sent mine Angel Only we must observe that the L. JESUS is not called Head of the Angels in the same manner and sense as He is stiled Head of His Church The former Title signifieth only the Empire and Lordship which he hath over the Angels The second signifieth further the union He hath with His faithful ones who were saved and redeemed by the merit of His Death and are animated