or avarice or any of those loathsome defilements that do disfigure the whole life of worldlings The LORD JESUS who hath given us this excellent Divine Doctrine who hath founded it by his death and set it up by his resurrection who also hath in these latter times purged it afresh both of the vanities of Philosophy and of the traditions of men and of the elements of the world please to confirm us in it for ever by his good Spirit and to make it so efficacious for the sanctification of our life that after we have finished this earthly pilgrimage we may receive one day at our going forth of this vale of tears from his merciful hand the Crown of immortality which he hath promis'd and prepar'd for all true observers of his Discipline Amen The Twenty-first SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER IX Ver. IX For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily AS the Christian Religion doth consist in Principles and Practises incompably more sublime and salutiferous than any that the world ever learned in the Schools of Nature and the Law so was it delivered and instituted by an Author infinitely more excellent than any of those were who ever erected other Disciplines among men I will not insist upon the Authors of those various Religions which bore sway heretofore in the time of Paganism who though they were in esteem among Nations and raised to an high reputation of wisdom and vertue yet had the taint of an extream ignorance and vanity as their own Institutions sufficiently discover to any one that will take the pains to examine them in the light of Reason It would be injurious to the LORD JESUS the Founder and Prince of Christianity to compare him with such people But even Moses himself the great Teacher of the Hebrews and the Prophets who commented on explained and confirmed his Law are all insinitely beneath the dignity of this new Law-giver They were I grant Ministers of GOD the Mouth and Organs of his Majesty the Interpreters of his Will and Heralds of his Truth being endued as was suitable to so high Offices with an excellent sanctity a rare and extraordinary Wisdom and an heavenly Power which evidenced it self in them by miraculous effects But after all they were men and never pretended to be ranked above that feeble nature which was common unto them and us nor did receive any of those Honours which belong to the Divine whereas the LORD JESUS is so Man as he is likewise GOD blessed for ever and was so far from refusing Divine Honours that he hath expresly required them at our hands and enjoined us to adore him with the Father and to acknowledg him his Eternal Son This same difference the Apostle observes between the LORD JESUS and those other Ministers which GOD made use of in the former Ages God saith he having at sundry times and in divers manners in time past spoken unto the fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son Ebr. 1.1 Moses and the rest were Prophets of GOD JESUS is his Son The others were his Ministers JESUS is his Heir The others were faithful as Servants Ebr. 3.5 6. JESUS as Son is over the whole House In the others there did shine forth some marks of the commerce they had with GOD that Soveraign Majesty imprinting on their faces as upon Moses's in particular some sparklings of his glory But JESUS is His very Light the resplendency of his glory and the character of his Person Dear Brethren it doth highly concern us to know rightly this great dignity of our LORD and Saviour not only for the rendring to his Person the worship we owe him and of which we may not fail without offending the Father as himself hath told us John 5.23 He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father who hath sent him but also for our embracing with so much the more zeal the Religion he hath delivered us without ever admitting the perswasion that either men on earth or even Angels from Heaven can add any thing to the light the goodness and the perfection of the discipline of so great and so perfect an Author For this cause doth S. Paul here hold forth to the Colossians the Divinity of our LORD JESUS CHRIST In the precedent Verses he exhorted them to constant perseverance in the belief of his Gospel confirming themselves in it more and more and taking heed they gave no car to Philosophy and the vain traditions of seducers who endeavoured to corrupt sound doctrine by the mixing of divers inventions which they would add to it as if it were not perfect enough of it self to guide us to salvation The Apostle to bereave Error of this pretext and shew the faithful not only the sufficiency but even abounding of the Gospel represents unto them the soveraign perfection and divinity of its Author For in him saith he dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Since you have JESUS CHRIST saith he there is no need of recourse to others In Him as in a living and inexhaustible spring is all good necessary to your happiness a divine Authority to found your Faith an infinite Wisdom to direct you in all truth an incomprehensible Goodness and Power to give you grace and glory a quickning Spirit to sanctifie and comfort you All other things compared to Him are but poverty and weakness See how the Apostle fortifies the faithful in the doctrine of the LORD and in few words overthrows all that the presumption of flesh and blood may dare to set up beside or against his perfect truth For a right understanding of his words we must consider them exactly For though the number of them be small their weight is great they are rich and magnifick in sense and do contain within their narrow compass one of the noblest and fullest descriptions of JESUS CHRIST that is found in Scripture Let us see then first what all this fulness of the Godhead is whereof the Apostle speaketh And then in the second place how it dwells in JESUS CHRIST to wit bodily The LORD please to conduct us by the light of his own Spirit in so high a Meditation that of his fulness we may receive grace for grace and draw from it what may fill our souls with that life and salvation which overfloweth in him and can be no where found at all but in him As for the subject it self whereof S. Paul speaketh and in which he saith that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth none can doubt but that it is our LORD JESUS CHRIST For having said at the end of the verse immediately foregoing that the traditions of men and rudiments of the world are not after CHRIST he now addeth For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead Whence it is clear that the LORD JESUS CHRIST whom he had even then named is the Person of whom he speaks and to whom he attributes
and Powers let us conclude that it must be taken as in other places where it is couched after the same manner simply and absolutely that is to say taken for the first and not the second Creation If there be liberty to do otherwise and to give it any where the sense we please without other reason then that of our own fond imagination who seeth not but that by such an overture there will be no longer any thing certain or assured left in Scripture For as these Hereticks by this cavilling gloss would deprive the LORD JESUS of the glory of the first Creation another might bereave the Father of it by the same means interpreting the passages of Scripture which affirm that GOD created the world not of its first Production by which it came out of nothing into being but mearly of a Reparation or a Renovation of the Universe and in consequence hereof pretend with some Philosophers that it was surely long before it was created but not in the condition and the form it afterward obtained But GOD forbid that Christians should ever suffer impiety to have such a licence over the Word of GOD. Let us keep religiously to the truths which the Scriptures teach us and receive their language with a candid and and sincere belief Let Heresie rise in commotion and be as unquiet as it will since the Apostle the mouth of Heaven and the trumpet of GOD proclaimeth That all things were created by the LORD JESVS receive we this sacred Verity believe it and confess it so much the rather for that it is not here alone but in divers other places beside that the Scripture teacheth it us For not to repeat here that which we touch'd afore out of the Epistle to the Ephesians where it is said That the Father created all things by JESVS CHRIST what can be said more expresly or directly then that we read in the beginning of S. John where this Divine Author speaking of the Word which was made flesh and whose glory himself and his Fellow-brethren saw and who was in the beginning with GOD saith aloud That all things were made by Him and without Him was not any thing made that was made and that the world was made by Him What can be uttered or conceived more clear than what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews where the Apostle not content to have said at the entrance That the Father made the Worlds by his Son doth say of the Son a little after what the Prophet singeth LORD thou hast founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of thine hands Hebr. 1.10 Certainly this proof is so firm that all the Devils of Hell shall never be able to pluck it from us And nothing can be imagined more bruitish than that evasion which despair hath here inspir'd the Hereticks withal Though say they the Apostle have alledged these words of the Psalm yet his intention was not to apply them to CHRIST but the following words only Thou remainest and art the same and thy years shall not fail For is not this a plain giving the Apostle the lye who directly affirmeth that it is to the Son the holy Spirit saith LORD in the beginning thou hast laid the foundations of the earth Besides if this alledging of the Psalm do infer nothing else but that the Son is permanent and shall not fail it will be impertinent and not at all suffice for the Apostle's design in this place For his aim is to exalt the Son above the Angels but if the passage he brings for this purpose do conclude only that the Son is immortal and immutable who sees not that by this reckoning he attributes nothing to Him but what agreeth to the Angels also whose nature is likewise incorruptible and immutable Since then the Scope of the Apostle is to shew that JESUS CHRIST hath qualities which appertain not to the Angels and since on the other side the passage he alledgeth doth represent nothing of that kind but the creating of the world it must of necessity be acknowledged that it is the holy Apostle's intention to apply to the LORD principally this first part of the place wherein is said That He hath founded the earth and that the heavens are the work of His hands And so you see that the Supreme Wisdom begotten of the Father before all Ages which neither is nor can be any other than the LORD JESUS doth protest in the Book of Proverbs that it was with GOD its Eternal Father Prov. 3. when He created the World to shew us that it was the Governess and Superintendant of that great work And Moses represents it to us in the beginning of Genesis as far as the nature of the time and of the Old Testament would suffer For he reporteth GOD not creating any thing but by his Word He sheweth Him speaking at every part of His Work GOD said Let there be light GOD said Let there be a Firmament GOD said Let the waters be divided and let the day land appear and so in all the rest Whence comes it that so sage a Writer makes this Supreme and unspeakable Nature speak thus for the creating of each of His Works Let the Jew toil himself to the utmost he will never be able to give us a good and pertinent reason of it John 1.1 such as may content our minds But S. John calling the Son of GOD the Word unvails this secret to us shewing us that it is by this His Word the Father did create the world And Moses to signifie it mystically and in such sort as became that time represents GOD not creating ought but by speaking Be it then concluded against the obstinate fury of Hereticks that the LORD JESUS is the Creator of all things And this is so clear that the most part of those very men that deny His Eternal Divinity have not refused to acknowledge it as they in particular who after the name of their old Leader are commonly called Arrians these avouching that it is by Him the Father created the Universe at the beginning yet forbear not to deny that He is Eternal GOD of the same Essence with the Father Wherein as I confess they shew more modesty than the rest not having the forehead to reject what the Scripture doth so clearly exhibite So I must needs say they discover less perceivance and acuteness admitting a truth incompatible with the error which they hold For if the LORD JESUS did create the world as they say in concurrence with the Scripture do confess it must of necessity be granted that He is very JEHOVAH whom in time past Israel did adore which notwithstanding is the thing that they oppose This consequence appears first from what we noted afore That the Scripture never ascribes the action of Creating to any but GOD only Secondly from that in Isaiah the title of Creator is given to the true GOD to distinguish Him from creatures
CHRIST hath given us in raising us again with Himself doth oblige us These thoughts and works of Heaven are necessary productions of the principles and faculties of that life unto which we have been raised up You can neither be Christians without having part in the resurrection of our LORD nor have part in His resurrection except you walk with Him and wear that lightsome robe of sanctity wherewith He vesteth all the associates of His resurrection He Himself calleth us hereto from that lofty Throne whereon He sitteth at the right hand of GOD Faithful soul saith He to each of us look unto me and I will give thee light Fear not for I govern the Heavens and the earth Only fix thine eyes thy thoughts and thine heart on me and I will guide thee by my counsel and receive thee one day into my glory Dear Brethren this He doth promise us and of this He will give us earnest next LORD's-day at His holy table Let us do what He demands of us or to say better let us pray Him to do it in us and He will assuredly do what He promiseth us Unto Him unto the Father and unto the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen THE THIRTY THIRD SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER III IV. Verse III. For ye are dead and your life is hid with CHRIST in GOD. IV. When CHRIST who is your life shall appear then shall ye also appear with Him in glory DEAR Brethren The LORD JESUS being not only the author and the cause but also the pattern and exemplar of that great Salvation which GOD of His infinite mercy offereth to mankind in the Gospel it is not possible that we should have part in it or assuredly enter into this rich possession without having in us a resemblance of the same soveraign LORD and being as so many copies of this Divine Original where all His features and lineaments may appear though in a form and measure much less perfect and eminent than His. Rom. 8.28 Of this the Apostle expresly informeth us in his Epistle to the Romans saying that those whom GOD did fore-know that is love and discriminate from the rest of men according to His good pleasure to communicate really faith and eternal salvation unto them He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son Heb. 2.12 13. For this cause He doth us the honour to call us sometimes His children and sometimes His brethren by reason of the resemblance we have with Him the nature the condition the quality and as 't is commonly termed the fortune of children following the fathers and of brethren being like their elder brothers Whence the Apostle concludes in the Epistle to the Hebrews that He who sanctifyeth that is the LORD JESUS Heb. 8.11 and they who are sanctified that is the faithful are all of one that is of one and the same mass of one and the same form and nature And to make it plain to us the Scripture compareth Him sometimes to a Vine-stock Jo. 15. Rom. 11. otherwhile to an Olive-tree of each of which we are branches all of them things between which there is by nature a strict communion the one and the others having the same constitution and qualities And thence again it is that Saint Paul calleth Him our first-fruits when speaking of our death and the resurrection which is to succeed it he saith that CHRIST was made the first fruits of them that slâ—ep 1 Cor. 15.20 the first-fruits as you know being of the same condition and nature with the rest of those things out of the mass whereof they are taken Now although this consormity of the faithful with the LORD JESUS be of a large extent yet it doth principally appear in two heads wherein the Scripture doth particularly consider it to wit in His Death and in His Resurrection the happy remembrance whereof we have celebrated this morning For the death of JESUS CHRIST hath produced a death like it in all true believers reducing them by its efficacy and virtue unto a state conform to His when He was stretched out on the Cross and lay in the Sepulchre In like manner His Resurrection transmitteth into them a life like that which He resumed when having overcome death He issued out of His grave His Death is not only the cause but also the pattern of ours and likewise His Life is both the principle and exemplar of ours It 's of this death and this life Dearly beloved Brethren the effect and the image of the Death and Resurrection of the LORD that we make account to entertain you in this action For after our having celebrated the memory of the death and resurrection of this Great Saviour and participated of the one and the other by the vertue of His Spirit and our Faith what can we more pertinently meditate than the precious fruit which each of them produceth in us and the images of the one and the other of these mysteries which this Divine dead and again risen perâ—â—â— doth draw and form in us inasmuch as He changeth us after a sort into Himself by an impression of His omnipotent vertue so as if we have truly receiv'd Him we are become dead and risen again with Him St. Paui teacheth us this excellent and saving truth in the series of our ordinary Texts by these words which we have read for the subject of this exercise In those that preceded which we expounded eight daies since this great Apostle drew us from the earth that he might elevate us to Heaven where JESUS sitteth at the right hand of the Father Seek saith he the things which are above and not the things which are on the earth But because he knew how difficult such a transportation would be for persons who are still so many waies fastned to the earth to work so high a design thoroughly into us besides the reasons already represented which were taken from our resurrection with the LORD and from His presence and glorious soveraignty in the places he would elevate us to he further proposes two more for that end in this passage The one taken from our death For saith he ye are dead and the other from that new life which we have received a life hidden it 's true for the present in GOD but such as will be plainly and plenarily discovered one day at the manifestation of the LORD JESUS Your life saith he is hid with CHRIST in GOD. When CHRIST c. These are the two principal points we will treat of in this action the grace of our LORD assisting and Him we invocate praying that this word of His may be effectually in us His power to salvation throughly changing us into the similitude both of His salutary death and of His glorious life that being dead unto our selves we may not live henceforth but in Him unto His honour and the edification
that the Apostle did the honour to write this Epistle S. Paul qualifieth the Christians at Colosse Saints and faithful Brethren He calleth them Saints a name he ordinarily giveth to all true Christians and which belongeth to them indeed forasmuch as GOD separating them from the rest of men by the effectual working of His Word and by the Sacrament of His Baptism cleanseth and purifieth them from the filth of Sin and delivereth them from the servitude of the flesh and consecrates them to His own name and service to be to Him a peculiar people addicted to good works Whence it comes that the whole body of the faithful is called in the Creed The Holy Church Mark this well my Brethren and make account that you cannot be Christians except you be truly Saints Suffer not your selves to be abused by the deceitfulness of those who promise you this glorious Name provided only you make profession to believe in CHRIST and that ye will live in the Communion of their Church how naught and impious soever ye be other wayes the body of the LORD is too lively and precious to have dead and rotten members I confess if you have the industry to hide your Vices under the false appearances of an outward profession you will gain thus much that men will give you the name of Christians and reckon you among the members of the Church as it might well be that among those whom the Apostle honours here with the Name of Saints and faithful there were some hypocrites But GOD who seeth the secrets of our hearts and upon whose judgement our whole condition doth depend will never count you Christians or members of his Son if you be not truly Saints Paul likewise and the Church who by a charitable judgement call you now Disciples of the LORD will change their opinion and rank you with profane men and worldlings when they shall discover your Hypocrifie The Title Faithful which the Apostle gives in the second place to the Colossians is common to all true Christians too and is taken from that Faith they give to the Gospel of the LORD The word Brethren that follows signifieth the holy communion they had with the Apostle and with all other believers of whatsoever quality or condition they were as persons all begotten of the same Father namely GOD all born of the same Mother Jerusalem from on high all partaking of the same Divine Nature all nursed in the same spiritual family bred up in the same hopes destined to the same inheritance consecrated by one and the same Discipline In fine He adds in CHRIST because it is of Him and by Him and in Him that we have all this Sanctity Faith and Fraternal union the titles whereof he hath given to the Colossians After having thus denoted and qualified the persons He writes unto He wisheth them according to His custom Grace and Peace from GOD our Father and from the LORD JESVS CHRIST By Grace He meaneth the favour and good will of GOD with the saving gifts and divine assistance wherewith he gratifieth those He loveth in His Son By Peace He signifieth that of GOD which is nothing else but the calm and tranquility of a soul that looketh to the LORD with assurance having remission of its sins by JESUS CHRIST and is delivered by the effectual operation of His Spirit from the importune tyranny of the lusts of the flesh It may yet well be that beside this first and chiefest peace the Apostle intendeth also that of men a sweet and calm estate exempt from their hatred and persecutions that they might without justling them or being troubled of them lead a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty You should also know that in the stile of Scripture the word Peace signifieth generally all kind of welfare and prosperity to which sense it may without inconvenience be interpreted in this place But he wisheth them these benefits From GOD our Father and from our LORD JESVS CHRIST From GOD because He is the first and highest spring of all good the Father of lights from whom cometh down every good gift From JESVS CHRIST for that He is as the channel by which the benefits of GOD stream down upon us it being clear that without the death and resurrection and in a word without the mediation of JESUS we could have had no part in the least of the Graces of GOD. He calleth GOD our Father because He hath adopted us freely in His Son and it is properly upon this relation that He communicateth His Grace and Peace to us whence it cometh that JESUS CHRIST hath given us order to call Him our Father in the prayer He hath taught us He calleth JESUS CHRIST the LORD because he is our Master who hath all power and authority over us as well by the right of Creation as by that of Redemption Such is the Inscription of this Epistle Let us come now to the second point of our Text wherein the Apostle congratulates the Colossians for the part they had in JESUS CHRIST We give thanks saith he to GOD for you who is the Father of our LORD JESVS CHRIST praying alwayes for you having heard speak of your faith in JESVS CHRIST and of the charity you have towards all the Saints for the hope that is reserved for you in Heaven which you have before heard of by the word of truth to wit the Gospel Here is as the Preface or Exordium of the Epistle which extendeth as far as the thirteenth Verse wherein the Apostle by the true praises he giveth the piety of the Colossians winneth their benevolence and declares to them His affection to prepare them for a right and faithful reception of the instructions he will hereafter propose to them as proceeding from a soul desirous of their salvation He protesteth therefore to them First In general that as often as himself and Timothy prayed GOD for them they did it with most humble thanksgivings for the happy estate wherein in Spirit they saw them Next he toucheth more particularly the grounds of this thanksgiving and proposeth three of them First The faith of the Colossians Secondly their charity and in the third and last place the inheritance reserved in Heaven for them Three particulars which comprize all the felicity of man The part He taketh in the happiness of the Colossians teacheth us one of the most necessary offices of our charity which is to interess our selves in the affairs of our Brethren to mourn with them that mourn to rejoyce with them that joy and be as nearly touched with their good and evil as our own Far from our practice be the envy and malignity of worldlings to whom the prosperity of others giveth trouble and their adversity gladness who feed themselves with their miseries and are sad at their mercies But the Apostle sheweth us moreover by this his example that the joy we have for the good of our neighbours should be elevated unto GOD who
last words of this Text whence it is that the Colossians had conceived so high an hope Of which saith he you have heard heretofore by the word of truth to wit the Gospel This Soveraign bliss which is reserved for us in the Heavens is so highly raised above nature that neither subtility of sense nor vivacity of reason nor even the light of the Law could discover it to us much less give us the hope thereof 2 Tim. 1.10 That same JESVS CHRIST who hath destroyed death hath brought to light life and immortality by the Gospel Before this they were either entirely unperceived or imperfectly known and hoped for It 's therefore precisely from the Gospel that we draw both the faith and the hope of them He calleth the Gospel the word of truth not as some will have it because it is the Word of JESUS CHRIST who is the Truth and the life for this exposition is more subtil than solid but because it is the most excellent of all Verities those that are learned in the School of Nature and of the Law being mean and unprofitable in comparison of those which the Gospel doth discover to us It may well be that the Apostle would also secretly oppose the doctrine of the Gospel to those of the seducers which still recommended shadows and figures as we shall hear in the following Chapter whereas the Gospel presenteth us the substance and the truth of things And it seems to be in this sense that St. John after he had said The Law was given by Moses addeth in form of opposition John 1.17 But grace and truth came by JESVS CHRIST because the Law had only dark lineaments and shadows whereas the LORD JESUS brought us the lively image the body and the truth of celestial things The Apostle remindeth the Colossians that they had already heretofore heard this Word of truth as it were to protest unto them that he would promote no novelty among them having no other design but to confirm them more and more in the holy doctrine they had already received with faith from Epaphras and other Ministers of the LORD See well beloved Brethren that we had to say to you for the exposition of this Text. It remaineth that we briefly touch at for you the principal points we should gather of it as well for the instruction of our Faith as the edification of our Charity and the consolation of our souls As for Faith 't is for it's security that St. Paul telleth us at the entrance He is an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the will of GOD advertising us by this quality He assumeth to receive no doctrine into our belief which hath not been annunciated by these great and highest Ministers of the LORD Let us examine the Spirits and admit only the word of the Apostles If any one Evangelize beyond what they have preached let us hold him for an Anathema We have their Scriptures Let us assuredly believe all that we read in them Let the doctrine which appears not there be suspected to us and praised be GOD that according to this rule we have banished from our Religion that which error and superstition had thrust into Christianity You know that the GOD the CHRIST the Heaven the Worship and Sacraments we preach have been given us by the Apostles of the LORD established by the Will of GOD and do appear throughout in their Gospels and in their Epistles Whereas the Mediators whom our Adversaries invocate the High Priest they acknowledge the Traditions they maintain the Purgatory they fear the greatest part of the Sacraments they celebrate the adoration of the Host the veneration of Images and the voluntary Worships which they practise are not found at all either in the Old or the New Testament Let us therefore firmly retain our Religion as instituted by the Will of GOD and constantly reject what is beyond it as come of man and not of the LORD from the Earth and not from Heaven But it is not enough to make profession of it we must plant this doctrine in our hearts by a lively belief in such sort as we may be able to say with truth That we have faith in JESUS CHRIST and charity towards all the Saints We render thanks to GOD with the Apostle for that of His great mercies He hath vouchsafed to communicate this treasure of His Gospel to us and not in vain since there are among us that have truly made their profit of these spiritual riches But the life of the greater part renders them unworthy of the praise which St. Paul here giveth the Colossians For is this to have Faith in JESUS CHRIST to serve Him so loosely as we do and testifie so little zeal for His glory so little respect to His Commandments so little belief of his documents and so little affection for the interests of His Kingdom As for Charity I am ashamed to speak of it so cooled is ours For if we loved all the faithful should we leave the life of some of them and the reputation of others without succour Should we injure them instead of defending them Should we take away their substance instead of communicating to them our own Should we black their honour instead of preserving it Would their prosperity offend us Would their miseries content us Faithful Sirs remember they are the Saints of GOD His Children and the Brethren of His CHRIST Respect those so sacred names and spare persons that have the honour to belong so nearly to your LORD He will judge you by the treatment you shall give them and write on his account the good and the evil which they shall receive from your hands recompensing it or punishing in the very same manner as if you had honoured or violated Him in His own person He will cut you off from His communion if you do not carefully regard and practise theirs and will never avouch you for His Children if you acknowledge them not for your Brethren And here alledge not to me I beseech you that you have faith I know well that this divine light cannot be in souls which are cold and destitute of Charity But suppose that this were possible I tell you and declare that all your pretended faith should you have the highest degree thereof that may be in the world without charity would be but a shadow an Idol and an illusion and as St. James saith a stinking carkass James 2.26 Do all you will Have as much faith and knowledge as you please if you have not charity you are not a Christian you are but a false and deceitful image of one Charity is absolutely necessary to the perfection of a Christian It is the badge of this holy Discipline it is the honour and the glory of it and the Apostle as you see sets it down here among it's essential parts Faith shall cease in Heaven when we shall see instead of believing But charity shall remain for ever Have then a
his Brethren presented him GOD be gracious unto thee my Son Gen. 43.29 From such sentiments do flow those benedictions which we are wont to pronounce upon persons that are imployed in things beneficial and useful whether natural or civil as to instance with the Psalmist when we see the busie Reapers of a fair Field in Harvest time and say The blessing of the LORD be upon you Psal 129.8 we bless you in the name of the LORD But if this kind of natural beauty and perfection doth engage our affections and good wishes to the subjects in which we perceive it the gifts of divine grace which are incomparably more excellent should much more lively touch us my Brethren and kindle in our hearts greater flames of love and of desire for those that possess them For as high as Heaven is above the Earth and as much as eternity is preferable to time so much advantage have the beauties and perfections of Grace above those of Nature If therefore we judge rightly of them and estimate them according to their worth it cannot be that we should see them shine out in any without running to them and fastning forthwith on them as holy and as happy persons An eminent example of this motion of Christian Charity we have in our Text for the Apostle St. Paul here sheweth us he no sooner understood by Epaphras's report the Colossians faith and love but his soul was presently seized with ardent love unto them and his absence hindring him from giving them other evidences of it he incessantly presented prayer and earnest suits to GOD for their persevering and perfiting in piety that is for the continuation and the perpetuity of their happiness The summ of his desires for them is contained in three Verses as they evidently relate to three sorts of benefits for he wisheth them first in the ninth Verse the benefits that respect perfect knowledge of the truth next in the tenth those that respect the exercise of sanctity and finally in the eleventh such as concern perseverance in faith and patience in afflictions For present we will meditate only on the first of these three Articles remitting the two next to another action And for this cause saith the Apostle we also since the day we heard it cease not to pray for you and to crave that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding For right understanding this Text we will consider in it three particulars by the help of the grace of GOD which we implore for this effect First The Motive of the Apostle's prayers Secondly Their form manner and quality and in fine which is principal and most important the subject of them that is what He requested of GOD in His prayers As for the Motive that induced the Apostle to pray for the Colossians He signifies it to us in these first words And for this cause since the day we heard it we cease not to pray for you For these words sending us back to the precedent Verses with which they have a tye do shew us that the knowledge which the Apostle had by Epaphras's relation of the faith of the Colossians towards JESUS CHRIST and of their charity towards the Saints of their heavenly hope and of their other spiritual graces whereof He spake afore that this knowledge I say having filled Him with love towards them made Him continually pour out His Vows and prayers before GOD for the compleating of their salvation I confess the affection they bore Him in particular and whereof He maketh mention in the Verse immediately preceding contributed something also to this care he had to pray for them But it 's principal cause was their piety and sanctification that they had the first fruits of the Spirit and the beginnings of the Kingdom of Heaven Seeing the foundations of the Gospel and of the building of GOD so happily laid and established among them He beseecheth the Supream Master and Architect of this spiritual work to finish it and powerfully set the last hand to it The same reason made Him in like manner present His prayers to GOD for the Ephesians as he testifies at the beginning of the Epistle Ephes 1.15 16 17. he wrote them using almost all the same words that serve Him here Having saith he to them heard of the faith you have in the LORD JESVS and the charity you have towards all the Saints I cease not to render thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers that the GOD of our LORD JESVS CHRIST the Father of glory would give you the Spirit of Wisdom and of Revelation Faithful Sirs learn by this example of the Apostle to pray the LORD principally 〈◊〉 those in whom you see the work of His Spirit appear Rejoyce ye for their faith and their zeal and love them for the honesty and purity of their life But remember that the first and principal office which your charity oweth them is the continual succour of your prayers Object not that they are too far advanced to need them During the course of this life the progress of a Christian is never so great but the prayers of his Brethren are necessary for him It 's then when he is most advanced that the enemy maketh most attempts and layeth most ambushments for him The nearer he is to the Crown the more need he hath of divine assistance As there is none in the lists whom we favour more with our wishes acclamations and applauses than those that come nearest to victory so in this carrier of the Gospel we should affectionate and accompany with our vows prayers and benedictions those most that run best and are nighest to the mark of the heavenly calling We never make more wishes for a Vessel than when after a long and dangerous voyage it comes upon our Coast or we see it ready to arrive in the Haven When the believer having escaped the shelves and tempests of the world steers the true course of Heaven and makes if we may so say with Oars and Sails to the Port of Salvation 't is then we should redouble our wishes and benedictions for his safety 't is then we should fear more than ever lest some mishap marr all his progress and bereave him of the reward of his pains But let us now consider the manner and the quality of the Apostle's prayers Since the day saith he that we heard these good news we cease not to pray GOD and to make request for you First He did not pray alone We cease not to pray saith he where you see he speaks of more praying with him comprising in this number Timothy whom he had expresly named already at the beginning of this Epistle and the other faithful that were at Rome with him Being put on by one and the same charity animated with one and the same desire they all lifted up their hearts and Votes to GOD together with the Apostle for the
spiritual prosperity of the Colossians As there is nothing on earth more grateful to the LORD than this divine consort of many souls thus mingling their voices and supplications together so there is nothing more effectual to draw down His blessing and obtain His graces in the behalf of our neighbours Matâ—h 1â— 1â— If two of you agree on earth concerning any thing they shall ask saith our LORD it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven But beside that the Apostle's prayers were conjoyned with those of some other believers that prayed unanimously with him for the Colossians they had also two other qualities which gave them much force assiduity and the devotion of heart whence they did issue He expresseth the assiduity of them when he saith that he ceaseth not to pray for them since the day he heard of their piety of their zeal in the Gospel As soon as he received the news of it he deferred not this duty to another time He set himself on praying presently for them demanding of GOD the compleating of their faith so ardently did this holy soul affect all that bore the badges of his LORD But he contented not himself with praying once or twice for the salvation of these dear Disciples of his Master He went on constantly and ceased not still to sollicite the goodness of GOD for them For it is not enough that Moses do lift up his hands once or twice for Joshua's victory To defeat Amalek entirely this holy man must hold his hands still stretched out towards Heaven Whence it comes that Isaiah commandeth the Gards of Jerusalem that is it's Pastors Isaiah not to hold their peace nor give the LORD any rest until He re-establish and set Jerusalem in an estate of renown on the earth And our Soveraign Master teacheth us expresly in one of His Evangelical Parables that we ought alwayes to pray and not faint Luke 18.1 Col. 4.2 Rom. 12.12 1 Thess 5.17 And His Apostle enjoyneth us here beneath to persevere in prayer and elsewhere also to continue instant in prayer and again in another place to pray without ceasing So you see he very carefully practised himself what he commanded others Think not under shadow of this that this holy man was on his knees from Morning to Evening without addicting himself to ought but the reciting of prayers as was the use of a certain Sect of Hereticks in time past named the Messalians or Euchites noted and condemned by the ancient Church who made profession of being alwayes in prayer and under this fair mask did hide a most profound and infamous laziness As the greater part of the Monks of the Communion of Rome at this day who in the Cloysters whither they retire as in so many refuges of idleness pass their time in saying Litanies and Orisons most commonly without any attention or devotion under pretext of this vain service which they pretend to do the publick drawing unjustly the Tribute of huge Alms due of right to the true poor and not to them that are so only of their own will by a Vow directly contrary to the command of GOD. The prayer of a faithful man doth not cross his other duties The same LORD that commands him to pray orders him also to labour To oblige him to the one He doth not dispense with him for the other He intends that he acquit himself of them both Let prayer begin guide and end his labour let his labour seal follow and accompany his prayer Let him pray with his hand upon his work let him work with heart and eyes lift up unto prayer Let these two exercises fill up his whole life parting the dayes and hours thereof between them and keeping faithful and indissoluble company all along St. Paul prayed but this devotion did not hinder him from preaching to the present from writing to the absent from instructing the teachable from reprehending transgressors from confirming them within from drawing those without from fortifying the faithful from convincing the adversaries from employing his time in a multitude of good and holy actions What means he then by saying that he ceaseth not to pray for the Colossians He would only say that he is very assiduous at it that he doth it as often as time and place permit it that there passeth neither day nor night but he doth them this charitable office not to alledge here Augustine in Psal 37. what an Ancient elegantly saith that our desires being prayers these are continual when our desires are continual This example of the Apostle teacheth Pastors in particular that beside preaching the Word they owe also to their flocks the succour of their prayers not only the publick but their private ones also For how can they without crime forget persons that are so strictly united to them Their Crown and their Glory The ground of their joy and the subject of their most precious labour But the Apostle besides the assiduity of his prayers for the Colossians shews us also the ardour and devotion of them when he saith that he prayeth and demandeth for them For the first of those words signifieth the elevation of the soul to GOD when fixing its eyes on the greatness of this supream Majesty it adores Him and gives Him the glory of a perfect goodness power and wisdom This is as the exordium and Preface of Prayer to move the LORD that He do give us favourable audience After which comes that which the Apostle calls here The demand that is the very request we make the LORD beseeching Him to give liberally to us or to our brethren the benefits we have need of From which we have to observe by the way the order we should keep in our prayers that they may be legitimate and grateful unto GOD namely that at the entrance we present Him an heart full of humble and affectionate respect to Him that reveres Him as Almighty and All-wise that loves Him as infinitely good and praiseth and glorifieth Him as perfectly blessed The requests which are presented to Him otherwise heedlesly and without this preparation are more apt to provoke His wrath than attract His beneficence After this first motion we should next make our requests with a great and ardent desire and a filial confidence It 's thus the Apostle prayed for the Colossians Let us now come to the third point and see what was the matter to subject of his Prayer We cease not saith he to demand of GOD that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding It sufficiently appears by the praises he gave the Colossians before that they were already much advanced in the knowledge of GOD and of His Gospel therefore he doth not simply demand of the LORD that they may be made partakers of this knowledge but that they might be filled with it For there are great differences in knowledge First in regard of its extent
will in wisdom and understanding but in ALL wisdom and understanding that is to say very abundantly and in so great and 〈◊〉 a measure as none of the parts none of the operations of this divine ability be wanting to them after the same manner as when He saith elsewhere have all faith to signifie so high and raised a measure of it as no kind and no degree of faith is wanting Such is well-beloved Brethren the ardent and affectionate Prayer which the Apostle made continually for these Colossians That they might be filled with the knowledge of the will of GOD in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that is in such sort as this knowledge might form in them an exquisite sageness and spiritual prudence It Remaineth that to end we briefly touch at the principal lessons we are to take out of it for the instruction of our faith and the amendment of our manners First you see how far the judgement of the Apostle is from the doctrine and practice of Rome The Apostle willeth that the faithful do know the will of GOD that they be filled with this knowledge Rome teacheth that their faith is better defined by ignorance than by knowledge and that it is sufficient for them to have and I know not what implicite faith as they call it which without knowing ought its self referrs its self to the faith of another The Apostle willeth that the faithful be endowed with all wisdom and spiritual understanding Rome seareth nothing so much as this and desireth that without knowing or understanding ought themselves they leave this whole study to their Curates contenting themselves with saying they believe what the Church believes not knowing mean time what it believeth indeed Darkness is not more contrary to Light than this pretended faith to wisdom and understanding Their practice is conform to their doctrine For they hide the Scripture from their people the sacred and authentick evidence of the Will of GOD the living and teeming source of all wisdom and heavenly understanding and if in their service they repeat any passages of it they repeat them in a strange language that their people may hear it and not understand it Faithful sirs thank GOD for that He hath withdrawn you from this Kingdom of darkness Enjoy with gratitude the light He hath set up in the midst of you Learn in the brightness thereof what is the will of the LORD the head and the foundation of true wisdom Make account that this knowledge is the gate of Heaven the entrance of eternity the seed of the divine nature and the principle of Celestial life Without it how will you love GOD since none loves what he knows not Without it how will you obey GOD since to obey Him is no other thing but to do His will Without it how will you resist the enemy how will you free your selves from his wiles how will you discern his impostures from divine truth Judge what account the Apostle maketh of it since it 's the first thing he asks of GOD for these Colossians whom he so ardently affected If you will attain the salvation to which he directeth them have that which he with so much passion desireth in them Remember you are the people of the Sun of righteousness of the eternal wisdom and word the workmanship of His Comforter who is a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding Deut. 33. Isai 1. and that one of the greatest reproaches GOD ever made to His Israel is the calling them a foolish people and unwise that hath neither knowledge nor understanding And since you see that the Apostle demands of GOD this divine wisdom for the Colossians address your selves also to that Father of lights from whom cometh down hither every good gift Press Him importune Him quit Him not till He have revealed His mysteries to you till He have lightned your eyes and your hearts to make you see the wonders of His wisdom But unto prayer add also study Read and hear His word carefully meditate it both here and at home render it familiar to you commune of it with your neighbours and instruct your Children in it As I grant this labour is unprofitable without the grace of the LORD so I maintain that with it it is most efficacious Paul would Preach to Lydia in vain if GOD did not open her heart But if GOD set to His hand it is not in vain that Paul labours for it And to attract this saving hand of the LORD joyn unto prayer the Offerings of your alms the perfume of a good and holy life Make use of what you know Mannage these first fruits of light which you have received already Employ the Talent that hath been given you and the Master will give you on it others greater How would you He should communicate new graces to people that so vilely abuse the first You know His will and do that of the Devil and the Flesh He â—â—th made you a present of the Gospel and you drag it in the dirt He hath marked you with His seals and you foul them in the ordures of vice You impudently bear His Liveries into the debauches of the world and the Disciples of Heaven are as ardent as the Children of this Generation after the dissoluteness of the time GOD forbid that wisdom and spiritual understanding should lodge in hearts so profane It 's a jewell too precious to shine otherwhere than in Heaven that is in pure and holy souls So far will you be from encreasing your light if you change not manners that GOD will take away this little which remaineth and let you return into Aegypt to live once more in its miserable darkness But GOD keep us from so great an unhappiness my Brethren well-beloved and to prevent it let us in good earnest convert us unto Him renouncing the lusts of the world and the filth of the flesh living in an exemplary purity and honesty that the LORD may take pleasure in the midst of us that He may make the knowledge of His will abound in us in all wisdom and spiritual understanding and after the faith and hopes of this life receive us in the eternity of the other unto the Vision and fruition of His glory So be it and unto Him Father Son and Spirit the true GOD blessed for ever be all honour and praise Amen THE IV. SERMON COL I. Ver. X XI Vers X. That ye may walk worthily as is beseeming the LORD unto the pleasing of Him in all things fructifying in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of GOD. XI Being strengthned with all might according to the power of His glory unto all sufferance and patience of mind with joy PHilosophers both Pagan and Christian do commonly divide the Sciences into two sorts The Speculative which seek only the knowledge of their subject resting in it when they have once acquired it without pretending any further and the Practical which aim at action and consider things
good works so the exercise of good works cleanseth the eyes of our understandings and encreaseth true wisdom on the contrary the neglect of sanctification diminisheth this divine clearness in us and bringeth back by little and little the darkness of ignorance upon us For as the LORD giveth new graces to him that faithfully manageth His first presents so takes He away His Talent from Him that abuseth it Those that cast away a good conscience make shipwrack also of Faith and they that withhold the truth in unrighteousness are given up to a mind disfurnished of all judgement and GOD sendeth the efficacy of errour to those that receive not his Holy doctrine with love On the contrary He revealeth His secret and augmenteth His light to them that seek His commandments and are bent to do His will Let us hold fast therefore these two precious gifts of the LORD knowledge and good works Faith and Charity and studiously apply us to encrease the one by the other meditating and learning the mysteries of GOD that we may obey His will and obey His will that we may confirm our selves more and more in the knowledge of His mysteries Dear Brethren That which the Apostle hath desired for His Colossians is very much an accomplished knowledge of the Divine will a life worthy of the LORD a spiritual secondity fructifying in every good work and a continual advancement in heavenly wisdom Yet this is not all For how great and excellent soever these things be they suffice not without perseverance to conduct us to salvation and it 's impossible to persevere in them without a supernatural strength and firmness Therefore St. Paul wisheth again in the last place for these faithful people that they may be strengthened in all might according to the power of His glory in all suffering and patience of mind with joy This succour is necessary for us as well because of our own infirmities as for the multitude violence and obstinacy of our enemies For as to our selves though that celestial spirit wherewith GOD baptizeth us at the beginning of our vocation doth invest us with a new vigour yet so it is that there remaineth much weakness in us while we live on earth our inward man being yet but in its infancy a weak age and which easily lets it self sink if it be not sustained And as for our enemies we have a vast multitude of them that watch night and day to destroy us and ranged in diverse bands under the ensignes of the Devil the world and the flesh the principal heads of this black Army conjured to our ruine cease not to trouble us leaving nor wile nor forcible attempt nor malice nor violence nor threatning nor promise un-employed against us If we have repulsed one of them 〈◊〉 return again upon us diverse others which essay us on all sides espy where 〈…〉 weak and oftentimes turn our own weapons against us If we have overthrown avarice voluptuousness sets its self on foot If we defeat it also ambition enters in its place Hatred unites with it Desire of revenge pusheth us on Wrath provoketh us Envy seizeth us Persecution troubleth us Prosperity pusseth us up the success of our own combats tickleth us Oftentimes that which helps us on one hand hurts us on another as in a complicated disease in which the remedies cross one another or that which is good for the liver is dangerous for the Stomach Who seeth not that to preserve our selves in such a mingled Combate and against so many charges so confused and so obstinate for they last as long as our lives we have need of an extraordinary might we who of our selves have so little that we are insufficient even for one good thought But GOD armeth us with the power of His Spirit as with an impenetrable buckler under which we stand in covert amid that thick hail of blows that falls continually about us It 's this Divine power the Apostle wisheth here to the Colossians when he prayeth that they might be strengthened in all might that their souls might be confirmed their hearts hardned as a Diamond to resist all assaults their courages vested with an heroick ardour and firmness which all the rages of Hell or earth may never be able to overcome He prayeth they may be strengthened in all might because as we have to do with divers enemies and are sick of divers infirmities we have need to receive not one or two kinds of strength only but many different ones For even as in nature you see the strength of bodies is different one resisting one thing and yielding to another one having the vertue to repulse the force of one element but not to gard it self from another So in a manner is it in the souls of men Such a man will bravely free himself from the tentation of one Vice that will not be able to defend himself from another Such a man shall resist the violences of the world as will yield to the charms of its caresses Since that to lose a Victory it is enough to be overcome though by but one of their enemies 't is with great reason that the Apostle for preserving to these Colossians the honour of their Crown and Triumph wisheth them all strength that is a perfect strength which may be of proof against all the strokes of the enemy which may boldly undertake good and holy actions how high and difficult soever they be which may valiantly combate vices resolutely despise earthly things vigorously repell tentations and generously suffer afflictions He sheweth us also by the way the source of this heavenly might when after having wished that the Colossians might be strengthned in all might he addeth according to the power of the glory of GOD that is according to His glorious power by a manner of speaking ordinary in the style of the Hebrews Whence is it that these faithful people do receive this admirable strength necessary for their salvation From the glorious power of the LORD saith the Apostle that is from that immense and efficacious puissance of GOD which nothing can resist The Holy Spirit is so named in St. Luke Lâ—k 24.49 where the LORD commandeth His Apostles to tarry at Jerusalem untill they be indued with power from on high that is the Spirit he had promised them And St. Paul elsewhere making for the Ephesians a petition altogether like this which he here presents to GOD for the Colossians clearly termeth that the Spirit of GOD Ephes 3.16 which in this passage he calleth the Vertue or Power of His glory GOD grant you saith he that you may be powerfully strengthned by His Spirit in the inner man He calleth this Vertue of the Spirit of God glorious to express its admirable and unsurmountable force which triumpheth magnificently over all that opposeth its action which with the weakest means accomplisheth the greatest things which changeth when it will Shepheards into Law-givers and Kings Cow-heards into Prophets and Persecutors
into Apostles which beats down the proudest fierceness and preserves invincible the most despicable weakness which hardneth the bodies of it's humble Warriours as Steel maintaineth them in the flames and confounds with their lowness the fury of Elements of Men and of Devils For this is that the Sacred Writers ordinarily call glory even an abundance of beauty of power and perfection so rich as it over-bears our senses and makes to bend under it all the vigour of our Spirits reducing them to admiration and astonishment And St. Paul somewhat frequently useth this word in this sense as when he saith that CHRIST was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father that is by His great and unspeakable power Whence it appeareth that the Vertue which converteth us to GOD and that which conserveth us in His grace is not a common and ordinary might but an invincible efficacy which nothing can resist Seek it not in your own nature Christian soul seek it in GOD and acknowledging your weakness ask of Him the remedy of it If it betide you to resist the enemy and to remain victorious in any combate render all the glory of it to this Soveraign LORD without attributing ought of it to your self But the Apostle sheweth us in what follows what is the use and effect of the succour which the glorious power of the LORD giveth us who strengthneth us unto all suffering saith he and patience of mind with joy These are the two productions of the Spirit of GOD in a faithful soul patience and long waiting in which principally our strength consisteth These are as the two hands of Heaven that sustain us in perils and keep us from sinking under the weight of those evils wherewith we often find our selves surcharged And though both the two are of a very like nature yet they have each of them something particular Sufferance beareth the evil without bending submitting to it at its inflicting humbly and standing firm under this rude load The Spirit patient or long-waiting for so the term used here in the Original doth properly signifie lends it the hand afterward and attendeth without murmuring for deliverance from the evil it suffers and for enjoyment of the good it hopeth Sufferance respecteth the very weight and heaviness of the affliction The long-waiting of the patient Spirit respects the duration of it These two vertues are absolutely necessary for a Christian For without them how should he support either the chastisements of GOD or the persecutions of the world How should he be firm in the exercise of other vertues to discharge the Offices of them against the impediments that thwart them every hour Tertull. de patient Patience saith an Ancient is the Superintendant of all the affairs of GOD and without it it is not possible to execute His commands or to wait for His promises 'T is it that defeateth all its enemies without toil It s repose is more efficacious than the motion and action of others 'T is it that makes healthful to us things of their own nature most pernicious It changeth for us poisons into remedies and defeats into victories It rejoyceth the Angels it confoundeth Devils it overcometh the world It mollifieth the hardest courages and converteth the most obstinate hearts It is the strength and the triumph of the Church according to the saying of the ancient Oracle By keeping you quiet and by rest you shall be delivered your strength shall be in silence and in hope But the Apostle to shew us what this patience is to which the Spirit of GOD formeth His children saith that it is with joy This is the true Character of Christian patience The Hypocrite suffers sometimes but it is murmuring And the Philosophers yere while made a great shew of their patience but it was only an effect either of their stiffness or of their stupidity which was no wayes accompanied with the joy which the Holy GHOST sheds into the souls of those that suffer for the name of GOD. Not that they are insensible or that they receive the evil on them without grief But if the evil they suffer do sad them this very thing rejoyceth them that by the grace of their LORD they have the strength and the courage to suffer it and do know that their suffering shall turn to their good and that from these thornes they shall one day reap the flowers and fruits of blessed immortality To which may be added the sweetness which is then shed into their heart by the vive and profound impression of that only Comforter who communicates himself to them on such occasions more freely than ever and can by the ineffable Vertue of His balm their most bitter wounds This is that Dear Brethren which we had to say to you on this Text of the holy Apostle Let us receive his doctrine with faith and religiously obey his voice He sheweth us what our task is here below Let us acquit our selves in it with care GOD of His Grace hath raised up among 〈◊〉 a great light of knowledge let us employ it to its true use and walk with it in such a sort as may be worthy of so holy and merciful a LORD whose name we bear Let this great Name awaken our sences and affections let it pluck them off from the Earth and elevate them to Heaven where He reigneth who hath given it to us Let this Name put into our hearts a secret shame to do or think ought that may be unworthy thereof Faithful Sirs remember you are Christians as oft as flesh or earth sollicits you to evil Put the world by 'T is not to please it that you have been regenerated by the Spirit from on high The World is so unjust so humorous and so changing that 't is impossible to content it See in what pain and torment they continually live that attempt it And though you should compass it the success would cost you dear By pleasing the world you would displease your own Conscience the contenting whereof is infinitely more important to you than any thing else But with GOD it is quite otherwise His will is constant and still the same without any variation or change Nothing is pleasing to Him but what is just and reasonable Your Conscience will find in it its entire satisfaction and never reproach you for having served so good a Master Not to alledge to you that the World after you shall have killed your self to serve it will pay you only with ingratitude and contempt as experience daily shews us whereas the LORD will magnificently reward the care you shall have taken to do His will comforting and blessing you in this world Crowning and glorifying you in the other If you demand what must be done to please Him the Apostle shews you in a word Fructifie saith he in every good work As often as the LORD shall cast His eyes on this Vineyard let Him see it still laden with good fruits Let Him never
have cause to complain of it as He yerst did of that of Israel I expected saith He it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes Sure He hath had no less care of ours than of theirs He hath planted it in like manner with choice Vines He hath also environed it with a brave and admirable hedge He hath watered it with the rain of His Clouds and made the beams of His Sun of Righteousness to shine on it and may justly say of it What was there more to be done to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Be we not ungrateful to so sweet a Master Let not our sterility confound His expectation Let our fruits be answerable to His cares and our secondity to His husbandry Let there be no soul barren and unprofitable among us Let each one Fructifie of that He hath each one improve the dressing and sap the LORD hath given us Let the sinner present Him his repentance the Just his Perseverance the Rich his Almes the Poor his Praises Old Age its Prudence Youth its Zeal Let the Knowing abound in Instruction the Strong in Modesty the Weak in Humility and all together in Charity And since it is the good pleasure of our Heavenly Father that we have here divers combats as none may live piously without persecution prepare we also for this other part of our duty and supplicate the LORD with the Apostle that He do strengthen us with all strength according to the power of His glory that He do give us a firm and unmoveable patience to persevere constantly in the Holy Communion of His Son so as neither the promises nor the threatnings of the World neither the Lusts nor the fears of Flesh may be ever able to debauch us from His Service O GOD our task is great and we are feeble Our enemies are Giants and we but Dwarfes Therefore thy self work in us merciful LORD the work which thou commandest us Perfect thy glorious power in our weaknesses Strengthen our hands and confirm our hearts that we may combat vigorously and atchieve great things in thy Name and after the trials and tentations of this life may one day receive in the other from the Sacred and Sweet hand of thy Son the glorious Crown of immortality which we breathe after So be it THE V. SERMON COL I. Ver. XII XIII Vers XII Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us capable to partake of the inheritance of Saints in light XIII Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His well-beloved Son DEar Brethren Though the first Creation of man be a most illustrious master piece of the goodness power and wisdom of GOD this great worker then making Adam of the dust and forming Him after His own image to live and reign on earth in a soveraign felicity Yet it must be confessed that our restauration of JESUS CHRIST is much more excellent and admirable For whether you consider the things themselves which have been given us or have respect to the quality of those to whom they have been communicated or to what the LORD did for the communicating of them you will see that the second of these two benefits of His doth surpass the first every way The first gave us an humane nature the second hath communicated to us a divine one The first made us a living soul the second maketh us a quickning spirit By the one we had an earthly and animal being by the other we receive a spiritual and heavenly one The one seated us in the garden of Eden the other elevateth us to the Heaven of Glory There we had a Lordship over living Creatures and the Empire of the Earth here we have the fraternity of Angels and the Kingdom of Heaven There we enjoyed a life full of delight but infirm and depending as that of other living Creatures on the use of meat and drink and sleep Here we possess one full of vigour and strength which like that of blessed spirits is sustained by its own vertue without need of other nourishment The one was subject to change as the event hath declared the other is truly immortal and immutable and above the accidents that altered the first The advantage of the first man was that he might have not dyed the priviledge of the second is that he cannot dye But the difference will appear no less in the disposition of the persons to whom the LORD hath communicated these benefits if you attentively consider it I confess that dust which GOD invested with an humane form merited not a condition so excellent and received it from the meer liberality of the Creatour But if it were not worthy of such a savour at least it had nothing in it which rendred it uncapable thereof in the rigour of justice Whereas we not only have not merited the salvation which God giveth us in His Son but have over and above merited that death which is opposite to it If the matter upon which the LORD wrought in the first creation of man had no disposition for the form He put in it so neither had it any repugnancy thereto whereas in our second Creation that is in our redemption by JESUS CHRIST He findeth in us souls so far from complying with His operation that they potently resist it So you see that to effect the first work He employed only the single out-going of His will and word whereas for creating the second it was necessary He should shake the Heavens send down His Son to earth deliver Him up to death and do miracles that astonished men and Angels It 's with this grand and incomprehensible mysterie of GOD that the Apostle entertaineth us my Brethren at this time in the Text which you have heard For having finished the exordium that is the Preface of this Epistle and intending from thence to enter on His principal subject to slip the more gently into it after representing to the Colossians the Prayers he made to GOD for them he now adds the thanks he offered Him for their common salvation and by this means opens the entry of his dispute touching the sufficiency and inexhaustible abundancy of JESUS CHRIST for saving of believers which leaves no need of making any addition to his Gospel Giving thanks unto the Father saith he who c As this Text consists of two verses so it may be divided into two articles In the first the Apostle giveth thanks unto GOD for His making us capable of entring into the inheritance of His Saints In the second is proposed what he hath done to make us capable of this happiness namely delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son These are the two points we will handle if it please the LORD in this action humbly beseeching Him to guide us in meditating so excellent a mysterie and touch our hearts so vively with it as that it
and against the seditious within It 's with this Science he buildeth the House of GOD it is with the same also that he cleanseth and keepeth it pure Whatever the enemy be that appears he sets against him nothing at all but his Crucified JESUS For even as in nature no sooner doth the Sun appear in our horizon opening its beautiful and brightsome visage to the world but the shade and cloudiness that filled the air doth immediately vanish away so in the Church when the LORD JESUS ariseth in the hearts of men there shedding abroad the riches of His saving light and shewing His fairness to open view at the same instant errour and abuse do disappear being unable to sustain the force of this divine brightness and as the Psalmist sings on another occasion If He arise His enemies are dispersed and they that are against Him flee before Him He driveth them away as wind doth the smoke This then is the only assured means either to preserve or recover truth and the purity of heavenly doctrine even to propose JESUS CHRIST incessantly to the faithful and diligently shew them all His riches all His Vertue and His Grace This is the Apostle's method Thus he doth on all occasions still reducing his Schollars to JESUS CHRIST So you see in the Epistle to the Hebrews that he might put-by the shadows of the Jewish Law wherewith some of that Nation endeavoured to darken the Gospel he sheweth them at the beginning the majesty and divinity of the LORD JESUS setting Him up above men and Angels on the Throne of a super-eminent glory Thus he doth in this Epistle and indeed he combateth here a like errour For after he had saluted the Colossians and given them some tokens of the affection he bore them as you heard afore he now beginneth to speak to them of JESUS CHRIST discovering His Divine glory and the fulness of His goodness to them that being content with so rich a treasure they might not go beg either the succour of Moses or the assistance of Philosophy for the saving of their souls It is precisely at the Text we have read that he beginneth this excellent discourse For having before thanked GOD for the grace He had shewed the Colossians in translating them into the Kingdom of His well-beloved Son he takes occasion from thence to speak of Him adding In whom we have deliverance by His blood to wit the remission of sins This is the great benefit we have received from GOD by means of JESUS CHRIST Then he describeth in connexion herewith the excellency and divinity of His person Who is saith he the image of the invisible GOD the first-born of every creature But for this time we will content our selves with the first point the meditating whereof as you see My Brethren is very suitable to the action of the Holy Supper to which we are invited wherein the remission of sins which we have in JESUS CHRIST is sealed to us by His Sacrament wherein the blood by which He hath purchased it is represented and communicated to us wherein JESUS the Author of this benefit is pourtrayed before our eyes as broken and dead for us and as feeding us to everlasting life Lift we up then our hearts with religious attention that having rightly comprehended both the greatness of the grace of GOD and the excellency of His CHRIST we may present Him souls lively affected with sense of His goodness and may receive in consequence of it that joy and blessed life which He promiseth to all those that shall approach Him with such a disposition To aid you in so necessary a meditation I will examine if the LORD please what the Apostle teacheth us concerning the benefit which we receive of God in His Son saying that we have in Him deliverance by His blood to wit the remission of Sins In these words he briefly pointeth out who is the Author of deliverance even JESUS CHRIST what is the deliverance it self namely the remission of sins what the means is by which JESUS CHRIST hath obtained it for us even by His blood and lastly who they are that receive it from GOD namely we that is to say the Faithful He had said afore that GOD hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into His Kingdom Now he sheweth us by whom He effected that great work adding that we have deliverance in JESUS CHRIST He is the Author of our redemption our only deliverer the Prince of our salvation But whereas the Apostle saith that it is in Him we have deliverance this may be taken two wayes both of them good and commodious First as signifying that it is by Him we have been delivered For it is an Hebrew manner of speech frequent in Scripture to say in instead of by And after this sense the Apostle declareth how it is by JESUS CHRIST His Son that GOD hath accomplished the work of His good pleasure towards us having constituted Him the Mediator of mankind who according to the will of Him that sent him perfectly executed all those things that were necessary to put us in possession of salvation But this word in may also be taken in the sense it hath in our vulgar language as signifying our spiritual communion with the LORD by reason whereof we are said to be in Him and He in us 1 Jo. 2.2 For though He be the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world and the worth of His sacrifice so great as that it abundantly sufficeth to expiate all the crimes of the universe and although the salvation obtained by Him be offered in effect and by His will unto all men yet none actually enjoy it but those that enter into His communion by Faith and are in him by that means as that clause of His covenant expresly importeth Joh. 3.16 GOD hath so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life 1 Jo. 5.12 When it is that St. John protesteth aloud He that hath the Son hath life He that hath not the Son of GOD hath not life which is as much as if He had said He that is in JESUS CHRIST hath life and he that is not in Him hath not life according to what our LORD Himself said to His Apostles Joh. 15.3 Out of me ye can do nothing So you see this sence is good and clear and containeth an excellent doctrine That to enjoy salvation by JESUS CHRIST we must be in Him Nevertheless because the Apostle in this place designeth to shew us what the LORD hath done for our salvation rather than what He requireth of us for our participating thereof I would more readily take the words the first way in whom that is by whom we have deliverance And this indeed is the commonest exposition which the most and best Interpreters both ancient and modern do follow Let us next consider what the benefit of
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
doth whatsoever He will The Son hath all power in Heaven and in Earth and there is nothing but is facile to Him The Father is super-eminently good hating evil and loving rectitude and justice The Son is the Saint of Saints entirely separate from sinners goodness and justice it self The Father is merciful and inclined to pity The Son is the bottom of His compassions The Father maketh His Sun to shine on and His Rain to bedew even the men that blaspheme Him The Son dyed for His enemies and prayed for those that crucified Him In short the Father hath not any other essential quality but the Son hath it likewise and in the same measure with the Father I come to His Works Certainly the Son Himself informeth us how perfectly He represents the Father in this respect Joh. 5.19 saying in general that what thing soever the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise The Father created the Universe The Son founded the Earth Heb. 1.10 Joh. 1.3 and the Heavens are the work of His hands All things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made of all that was made The Father conserveth the world by His providence the Son sustaineth all things by His mighty word The Father hath set up the Princes and Magistrates who govern mankind Prov. 8.15 and there is no power but of Him It 's by the Son that Kings Reign and Princes decree justice The Father saved and redeemed the Church the Son is our righteousness our wisdom and our redemption The Father loved us and delivered up His Son to death for us the Son gave Himself a ransome for our sins If the Father raised up the Son the Son also raised again His own Temple when the fury of the Jews had beaten it down If the Father quicken the dead the Son quickneth them likewise and the last judgment the punishing of the wicked in Hell the glory of the Faithful in Heaven and all that refers to it is the work both of the one and the other The Father hath elected us so likewise hath the Son Joh. 13.18 I know saith He whom I have chosen It is the same in all the other actions and operations of the divine nature If you read the Scriptures exactly you shall not see any of them attributed to the Father but is likewise attributed to the Son And as for that right and soveraign authority which accreweth unto GOD over all things from these great and high qualities and operations this glory shineth in the person of the Son as it doth in the person of the Father If the Father be Judge of the earth King of ages and Monarch of the world the Son is in like manner the LORD of glory the head of the Armies of Heaven the Prince of men and Angels the Judge of all flesh If the Name of the Father be great and dreadful that of the Son is above every name which is named in this world or in the world to come If all creatures both superiour intermedial and inferiour do owe a soveraign homage to the Father and cast down themselves before Him adoring His Majesty with the profoundest respect they are capable of so it is clear that before JESUS every knee doth bow both of things in Heaven and things on earth and things under the Earth the Father Himself proclaiming when He bringeth Him into the world Let all the Angels of GOD worship Him So you see Dear Brethren that the LORD JESUS is truly the image of His Father since He hath and discovereth perfectly in Himself the Nature the Properties and the Works of the Father An admirable a singular and a truly Divine image which possesseth the whole form of its original without any variation and faithfully and naturally representeth all the features of it in their true and just greatness measure and nature I confess there are among men sons that resemble in some sort their Fathers but there are none in whom such resemblance is comparable with that of the Son of GOD to His Eternal Father If our Sons represent our nature and manners it is always with some difference which a piercing and a clear-sighted eye may easily observe and after all there are none that in their life do express the lives of their fathers totally entire with every one of their actions and operations Whereas the Son of GOD is a most complete image both of the nature and the life of His Father if we may speak in this manner of these mysteries all the works of the one whether small or great being also the works of the other This sacred Verity taught here by the Apostle overthroweth two heresies which though contrary and opposite to one another did sometime equally trouble the Church of GOD. I mean that of the Sabellians and that of the Arians The former confounded the Son with the Father the latter rent them on sunder Those took from the Son His person these His nature For the Sabellians did dogmatize that the Father and the Son were but one and the self-same person who according to the divers wayes and ends of his manifestations did assume sometimes the name of Father sometimes the name of Son So as in their account it is the Father who suffered on the Cross and it 's the Son who sent Him that suffered St. Paul breaketh their errour by saying that JESVS CHRIST is the image of the Father For no one is the image of himself and how great and exact soever the image's resemblance of its original be it 's of necessity that it be another subsistence than its original A child hath the same nature with the Father whose image it is said to be but nevertheless the person of the Father is one and that of the child another Since then the Apostle declareth here and elsewhere that JESVS CHRIST is the image of GOD that is to say of the Father we must either desert His doctrine or acknowledge that JESUS CHRIST is another person than the Father But if you distinguish their persons it doth not follow that you must divide their nature as did the Arians who made it their position that the nature of the Father is another than that of the Son the one increated and infinite the other created and finite These are two shelves which we must equally avoid steering our course straight in the midst shunning on one side the confusion of Sabellius and on the other the division of Arius JESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle is the image of GOD His Father He could not be the image of Him if He were one same person with Him He could not be His Perfect image if He had a nature differing from the nature of the Father How should He represent His eternity if He had been created in time How His immensity if He had a limited essence How His Majesty and glory if He were but a creature Let us then hold fast this truth full and entire
Creatures and expresseth the relation He hath to them by saying that He is the first-born of every Creature This passage hath diversly exercised the Hereticks Those of them who deny that the Son of GOD subsisted at all in nature before His being born of the Holy Virgin perceiving that these words place Him before all the Creatures to salve their errour do corrupt the word Creature and will have it signifie in this place the faithful that believed the Gospel of our LORD Wretched unbelief to what extravagancies dost thou lead miserable men For what deliration can produce a thing more empty within and even less apparent without than this exposition First it rendreth the Apostles conception frigid and impertinent If you believe these people the Apostle advertiseth the Colossians that JESUS CHRIST was born before men believed what He Preached Is not this a great secret and highly conducing to the Apostles design Then again who gave them the Authority they assume to change the sense of the words of GOD St. Paul saith that the LORD is the first-born of every creature By what right do they restrain a subject of so great and vast extent to the faithful alone The faithful say they are created anew of the LORD Who doubts it St. Paul teacheth us Eph. 2.10 2 Cor. 5.17 that they are the workmanship of GOD created in JESVS CHRIST unto good works and elsewhere that if any one he in CHRIST he is a new creature But it followeth not thence that the word Creature put purely and singly as here must be taken for the disciples of JESUS CHRIST and His Apostles only The Scripture never useth so to speak As for the eighth Chapter to the Romans where they pretend that the Apostle signifieth the faithful alone by all the Creatures which sigh Rom. 8.21 and are in travel together this is a new dream no less absurd than the former it being clear by all the circumstances of the passage that those creatures there are not the children of GOD but of another sort St. Paul plainly distinguisheth them saying of those that they also shall be delivered Rom. 8. â—2 that they may have part in the glorious liberty of these and that not only they but we also that is all the faithful who have the first-fruits of the Spirit do sigh in our selves All those Creatures are no other than the Universe the Heavens and the Elements which shall one day be set free from the vanity they now groan under and which they were made subject to by sin That which they alledge out of the third of the Revelation is no whit more to the purpose JESUS CHRIST stileth Himself there the beginning Rev. 3.14 or principle of the Creature of GOD. But nothing obligeth us to take the creature of GOD in this place for the faithful alone any more than in the other The LORD meaneth all the things which GOD hath created either in the first or in the second world He being the principle of the one and the other according to what he had said in the same Book generally and indefinitely I am Alpha Rev. 1.8 and Omega the first and the last Besides though the Creature of GOD should signifie the faithful in this place yet it would not follow that the words every Creature here must be taken for the faithful alone as when the Scripture calleth them sometimes men of GOD it followeth not from thence that to signifie the faithful alone a man may say All men The term of GOD is put there for an adjective Epithet as the Grammarians call it according to the use of the Holy tongue the creature of GOD that is a divine and celestial creature a quality which evidently restraineth the sense of the word Creature to which it is annexed unto the most excellent kind of creatures that is the faithful Whereas St. Paul saith here simply every creature without adding of GOD or divine or any other word that might contract and limit the signification of the general term Creature to one of its species only that is the faithful Rejecting therefore these mens gloss as impertinent and contrary both to the Apostles scope and stile we say that by every creature he meaneth what the Scripture and all the languages of men do ordinarily signifie by these words namely created things the Heavens and the Earth and all that in them is But here rise up the Arians another sort of Hereticks who infisting upon this interpretation conclude hence that the Son of GOD is a creature since He is called the first-born of them alledging that the first-born is of the same nature with His brethren and adding to fortine their pretention that in effect the supream wisdom Prov. 8.22 which is no other than the Son saith in the Proverbs that GOD created it in the beginning of His wayes before He made any of His works which is nothing else as they affirm but what St. Paul saith here that the Son is the first-born of every creature and they adjoyn also that which is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 3.2 that JESVS CHRIST is faithful to Him who made Him that is as they pretend to GOD who created Him But GOD forbid we should rank Him with creatures to whom the Scripture ascribeth the glory of having created them all and unto whom it commandeth us to give that supream adoration which is due to GOD alone and not to any creature The Apostle in this very place which they abuse putteth a most evident distinction between the Son and other things For whereas he calleth them creatures he saith of the Son that He is not the first-created as should have been said if He were of their order but the first-born an evident sign that He received His being of the Father by a divine and ineffable generation and not by creation As for that which they cite out of the Proverbs not to urge another exposition of it the original text importeth that GOD possessed wisdom in the beginning of his ways as our Bibles have well rendred it and not that He created it as the Greek interpreters have unrightly taken it And whereas St. Paul saith in the Epistle to the Hebrews that GOD did make CHRIST he meaneth not that He Created Him a conceit which would be quite beside his purpose but that He ordained and set Him up High Priest in His Church 1 Sam. 12.6 Even as when Samuel saith that GOD made Moses and Aaron He signifieth that He established them in the charges they bore among His people And it 's in this sense we must understand St. Peters language in the Acts Act. 2.36 that GOD hath made JESVS both LORD and CHRIST that is hath ordained Him unto these great dignities And so from these passages it duly follows that the Son of GOD was called the Annointed and setled in His office of Mâ—diator which we do confess but not that His
as being incommunicable to any other besides Him Isa 42.5 45.12 48.13 51.13 It is I saith He who have made the earth and who have stretched out the Heavens Finally the thing speaks of it self For the Power requisite for the creating the world that is to make it of nothing is so great and so infinite that the Philosophers with all the light of their Reason could not comprehend it but were so far from attributing it to any Creature that they deny'd it unto GOD Himself Whence it follows that if there be any part of Divine Glory proper and essential unto GOD it is this same without all doubt Seeing then it is found in the LORD JESUS we must necessarily confess that He is in truth the Great GOD most High Eternal and Blessed for ever above all things As for the distinction they advance to cover their error alledging that the Son was but the Instrument and Minister of the Father in the work of Creation not the first and principal cause it is vain and frivilous For this creative vertue being infinite it cannot be but in an Infinite subject and in a Soveraign and principal Agent It cannot be communicated to an Instrument seeing that every Instrument being finite is consequently uncapable of receiving and containing an Infinite vertue so as since it is in the person of the Son it unavoidably follows that He is not the instrumental as they say but the first and the principal cause in the work of Creation Rev. 1. And S. John clearly shews it in the Revelation where he saith That He is Alpha and Omega the first and the last a thing that cannot be said of an instrumental cause which hath necessarily above it another Agent of a diverse nature The Apostle also clearly refuteth this gloss when he appropiates that to JESUS CHRIST which the Prophet uttered evidently of the first the principal and supreme cause of the Creation LORD thou hast founded the earth at the beginning and the Heavens are the works of thy hands An Application which would be evidently false and impertinent if JESUS CHRIST were only the instrmental cause of the Creation The observation upon which they pretend to ground this distinction is no whit more solid to wit that the Scripture saith indeed the world was created by the Son but not that the Son did create the world For first S. Paul saith in express terms that the Son founded the earth and though he had not said it who sees not but that the one and the other do amount to the same thing and that His saving All things were created by the Son is all one as if he had said That the Son created all things But if this form of Speech would infer that the Son is not the first and principal Efficient of the Creation the same must be concluded also of the Father since S. Paul speaking of Him saith in like manner That All things are of Him and by Him and for Him But that which he saith here of JESUS CHRIST in the second place That all things were created for Him doth further demonstrate the same truth very clearly For these words do signifie that the Son is the last and supreme end of the Creation of things a matter which pertaineth only to the principal cause and not to the instrument it useth for the effecting of its work Sure it is clear that it 's the true GOD who is the ultimate end for which all things were created that the glory of His Divine Vertues might be manifested so as He might be known and served as He is worthy This falls not under contest Since therefore it is for the Son that all things were created it must be acknowledged that He is the true Eternal GOD it being not possible that a Creature should be the end for which all things were created From thence the Apostle concludes in the third place That JESVS CHRIST is before all things For since He created them all it must of necessity be that He should subsist before they were And he noteth it expresly that none might suspect Him of novelty as if he He had not been but since Moses under colour of His having not been manifested till the fulness of time John 8. He is not only before Moses and Abraham as Himself saith in S. John but before all things from the beginning before there was any thing created before the mountains were settled Prov. 8. and before the hills As saith Wisdom that is the Son himself in the Book of the Proverbs But the Apostle after having thus given to the LORD JESUS the glory of creating all things passeth on further and attributeth to Him the preservation of them All things saith he subsist by him It 's this which he expresseth otherwhere in other terms when he saith Hebr. 1.3 That he sustaineth all things by His powerful word that is to say He preserves them by His Providence as He created them by His vertue their being their life and their motion so depending on Him that when He hideth His face they are troubled and fail utterly and return unto their dust or their nothing as the Prophet singeth Whence yet again appears Psal 104.29 that He is the true GOD the Eternal one blessed for ever with the Father forasmuch as this preservation of the Universe is one of the highest and most incommunicable glories of the Deity Let us now consider what are those things whose Creation and Conservation the Apostle doth attribute to the Son of GOD All things saith he were created by Him those that are in heaven and those that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers He leaves not any Creature of higher or of middle or of lower rank without the reach of his assertion and for the enclosing of them all within it he makes use first of a division taken from their elements I mean the places where their natural abode is saying Things in heaven and things in earth The Scripture speaketh often of them in the same manner As when we are forbidden in the Decalogue to make Religious use of any Image or the likeness of any thing whatever Thou shalt not make thee saith the LORD any image of things that are in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth By Heaven he meaneth not only that vast Region where we see the Sun and the other Stars to be lifted up But also Paradise the Habitation of Angels and of the souls of Saints above and this void space where the Fowls do fly and where the Showers and the Thunders and the other Meteors are formed below By Earth he meaneth this whole Globe wherein we live with the waters that run in stream or do float here There being then no creature but is in one of these two places it is evident he doth comprize them all by saying
if the Heavens and the Elements and the Winds and the Meteors and the Plants things deaf and dumb and inanimate do preach and celebrate the wonders of their LORD all of them obeying His voyce and faithfully serving His designs what will our ingratitude be if with these senses and this excellent reason He hath given us we alone of all His creatures should cross His counsels and dishonor His Name instead of glorifying it The glory He requireth of us is only that we walk in His Commandments that we abound in good and holy works that we depart from all evil and live in such manner as may oblige our neighbours to acknowledge that this JESUS whom we serve is truly a great GOD. Acquit we us then faithfully of these duties and assure our selves that if we advance His glory He will provide for our bliss and guard us from all that opposeth the same For since all things Celestial and Terrestrial visible and invisible were created and do still subsist by Him there is nothing in the whole world that should make us afraid All the Armies of Heaven of the Elements and of Nature are in our Masters pay and neither war nor work but for His interests and by His order These very Thrones these Principalities these Powers and these Dominions which He hath exalted above all His other creatures do not employ the mightiness and the glory of their nature but for Him and for those that fear Him They are ministring Spirits sent forth to serve for their sakes that shall receive the inheritance of Salvation They keep us in all our ways They defend us in life they assist us at death and convey us up into the bosom of our true Abraham Let us live in assurance under the protection of so good and so great a LORD that we may one day receive at His hand blissful Immortality the great and last Donative His Benignity conferreth To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true GOD blessed over all things be for ever Honor Glory and Praise Amen THE IX SERMON COL I. Ver. XVIII Vers XVIII And it is He who is the head of the body of the Church and who is the beginning and the first-born from the dead to the end He might have the first place in all things IT is not without just cause Beloved Brethren that the Apostle St. Paul speaking of the union of JESUS CHRIST and His Church which was represented at the beginning of the world Eph. 5.32 by the marriage of Adam and Eve doth pronounce it aloud to be a great secret For in effect there is nothing in this mysterie which way soever you take it but is very great and worthy the admiration of men and Angels First if you weigh the thing it self is it not wonderful strange and unheard of in the world that the Creator should unite Himself with the creature The LORD of glory with worms The King of Heaven with dust and ashes The Saint of Saints with sinners Then again if you consider the foundation of this Union what can be conceived of a more ravishing nature than the birth and the death of the Son of GOD upon which this Divine alliaâ—â—e was contracted this mystical Spouse having had so vehement a passion for the Church that to make her His He made Himself a man like us and shed out all His blood upon a Cross If you contemplate the form and manner of this Union it is so strict and intimate that it perfectly mingleth together the parties whom it doth unite and makes them one only body one flesh and one Spirit joyning both their persons and their affairs and in such manner confounding their interests that JESUS CHRIST is wholly His Churches and the Church wholly Her CHRIST's The firmness of this Union is no less admirable being such as all the powers of the Earth of Hell or of Heaven are not able to dissolve it and whereas Nature hath bound nothing in the whole Universe but time doth lose it in the end the sacred clasps of this the Churches eternal Union with her LORD shall never be undone either in this world or in that which is to come by any of those innumerable ages that shall roul forth Finally if you respect the effects of it what can be mentioned of more glorious and saving import than the fruits this Union doth produce It filleth our understanding with light it purifies our affections it sanctifies our hearts it keepeth the peace of GOD in them it changeth slaves of Devils into Children of the most High it transformeth Earth into Heaven and instead of that death and curse which we deserved it giveth us eternity and glory For 't is from it alone that all those Divine graces do flow down which we enjoy in this world and all the advantages and felicities we hope for in the other It need be no wonder therefore that the Scripture doth make use of so many different resemblances to figure out to us so excellent and so rich a subject there being to be found no one so accomplished as might singly suffice to represent us all the marveils of it For this cause it borroweth to express this same one all the unions that nature or art or humane society doth afford us comparing it sometimes to the Union of a Vine with its branches or of an Olive with the graffs that are set into its slock sometimes to the knitting of a Foundation with the building which it beareth or of a corner stone with the two walls which it binds together sometimes to the conjunction of a Prince with His subjects or of an elder brother with the younger or of an husband with his wife But among all these sacred pictures of our union with the LORD there is hardly any more proper or more genuine than the two similitudes which the LORD my Brethren now sets before you the one in those words of His Apostle which we have read to you and the other on that sacred Table whither you are invited to the feast of His Lamb. The first is drawn from the natural union of the head with its members and the second from the union of bread and drink with the bodies which are nourished thereby By reason of the one CHRIST is our head and we His body By reason of the other He is called our bread our meat and our drink and we the creatures whom He feedeth and quickneth And though in other respects these two images be very different yet in this particular they agree that they excellently represent to us both our union with the LORD and the life which is thence derived to us it being clear that as well the head as the food doth each of them give life to the bodies with which they are united This hath induced me to believe that the meditation of this Text will be useful for the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper for which we prepare our selves since for the main
we now behold upon it It s in this sence that the Apostle St. John gives the name of the Fulness of CHRIST to that total abundance of perfections and divine graces which dwelt in Him His wisdom His justice His sanctification and His redemption when he saith that of His fulness we all have received Joh. 1.16 And it is after the same manner that S. Paul hereafter by the fulness of the Godhead meaneth all the qualities or properties of the Divine Nature its Understanding its Wisdom its Omnipotency it 's Goodness and Infinite Justice saying That in JESVS CHRIST dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 It is therefore in this sense also as seems to me that we must take the word Fulness in this Text referring it to the things whereof the Apostle had even now spoken when he affirmed That JESVS CHRIST is the Image of the invisible GOD the First-born of every creature by whom all things were created and do subsist the Head of the Church the Beginning and the First-born from the dead holding the first place in all things For these qualities as you see are the perfections and excellencies partly of the Divine Nature and partly of the Humane the former namely His being the Image of GOD and the Master and Author of the Creatures pertaining to the Divine the latter to wit His being the Head of the Church and the First-born from the dead to the Humane so as when the Apostle after these things addeth now For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell it is as much as if He had said For it was the Fathers will that there should appear in His CHRIST a rich and a compleat abundance of all Divine and Humane perfections all the beauty dignity and excellency that replenisheth heaven and earth that adorneth the nature of GOD and of men And so the question which Interpreters debate whether this Fulness should be referred to the Divinity or to the Humanity of our LORD is cleared for this Exposition comprizeth them both the eternal Wisdom and Power of the one with all its attributes the Sanctity and Charity of the other with all the graces which have been given it without measure This is the All-fulness that dwelleth in JESUS CHRIST And the word Dwelleth hath here a great deal of Emphasis For in the stile of Scripture it signifies an abode not transient and for a time only but such as is firm constant and durable So that the Apostle saying That all fulness dwelleth in CHRIST doth thereby shew us that this rich abundance of all Divine and Humane perfections shall eternally be in Him not as the Divine Glory and Majestie erewhile was in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Temple of Solomon where it lodg'd but for a space not as the irradiations of the Deity in the souls of the Prophets which they fill'd but for some hours finally not as the graces and perfections that do for some years only enrich the bodies and spirits of mortal men old age and a thousand other accidents and in the end death it self quickly despoiling them of the same which makes the sacred Writers say that the comliness of flesh and the fashion of this world passeth away and that it is like to flowers and herbs in whom beauty tarrieth but a few days time without delay plucking it from them and defacing all the lineaments of it Our CHRIST is an eternal Temple which the Glory of GOD filleth both continually and for ever It doth not meerly lodge there it dwelleth there as in its true and incorruptible Sanctuary Never shall the same be void of it This Fulness shall abide eternally in Him But the Apostle saith That it was the good pleasure of the Father that this fulness should dwell in Him By the good pleasure of the Father he meaneth according to the ordinary stile of Scripture the determination and order of the Eternal wisdom of GOD. For CHRIST did not violently snatch up this glory nor did He assume it to Him of Himself He receiv'd it by the will of the Father who gave Him and sent Him into the world pouring into Him all the treasures of His graces that we might draw from His fulness all the good we need for our happiness But further it must be remembred that the Apostle considereth the LORD JESUS here as CHRIST and Mediator and not simply as the Son of GOD he considereth Him in regard of His Office and not in respect to His first and original nature for if you look upon Him this second way it is clear that being GOD Eternal with the Father He receiv'd of Him His Divine Essence with all its fulness not by any Decree of His will or of His good pleasure but by a natural communication that is to say by an Eternal Ineffable and Incomprehensible generation The Creation of the world is a work of the good pleasure of GOD the Generation of the Son is a natural act of the Person of the Father The first was done in time the other is before all time The world which is the effect of Creation had a beginning of being the Son who is the fruit of the foresaid Generation is Eternal without beginning as well as without end of days But this Son who is GOD by nature is CHRIST by the will of the Father for the name CHRIST signifies an Office and not strictly an Essence or a Nature Originally this Office was not fastned to the Person of the Son He might have been the Son without being our Mediator and had subsisted so indeed if the sin of man had not intervened or if the Justice of GOD had left us in the misery whereinto sin had precipitated us But this good and gracious LORD having had compassion on us and resolved thereupon to bring us up from those deeps of death in which we lay did ordain a Mediator who might effect this great work and invested Him with all the qualities and perfections that were necessary for this end It 's therefore precisely under this respect that the Apostle considers JESUS CHRIST here when he saith It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell He thereby meaneth it was the Fathers will that in this Sacred Person of the Mediator who was established and destinated for our salvation all perfection richness grace and excellency should meet together Divinity and Humanity filled with the infinite aboundance of all the qualities and properties that pertain to them concur Such being His good pleasure He chose His Son GOD co-eternal and co-essential with Himself who uniting all the riches of His Deity with the Humane nature He assumed constituteth one only person in the bosom of which dwelleth all this fulness that is necessary for the charge of Mediator Whence it appears how vain the cavil of Hereticks is who conclude from this passage that the Deity of the
enmity to the end that being purified by the vertue of the Sacrifice of His Son and clothed with His righteousness by faith we might appear before the Tribunal of His grace without condemnation and without confusion But nothing compelleth us to pitch on this It is much better in my judgment to understand it of our sanctification than of our Justification First because the words themselves agree much better with it the Scripture as you know ordinarily expressing the gift of Regeneration by the word Holiness whereas it useth the word Justifie or pardon of our sins and not imputing them unto us when it would signifie the first benefit of GOD which we obtain by the imputation of the righteousness of CHRIST Secondly because the Apostle having already represented it unto us in those words that GOD hath reconciled us by the body of the flesh of His Son by death which do signifie that He hath received us into favour pardoning us all our sins as we have explained them it seems needless to repeat the same thing again In fine because both St. Paul and the other sacred writers are wont to joyn those two gifts of GOD our Justification and our Sanctification together as two graces that are inseparable and never go one without the other so as having spoken to us of the one it was not only convenient but also in some sort necessary 1 Cor. 1.30 1 Cor. 6.11 he should annex the other just as elsewhere having said that CHRIST is made unto us righteousness he immediately adds and sanctification and again in another place where having touched the filthiness of the former life of the Corinthians as here that of the Colossians he saith But ye are washed but ye are sanctified Here the Apostle doth not only knit these two graces together but moreover sheweth us the order and relation which they have the one to the other that the second to wit Sanctification is the end of the former that is of Justification He hath reconciled us saith he by the death of His Son to render us holy without spot and unrebukable before Him The Scripture teacheth us the same thing in divers other places as in St. Luke where Zachary saith that GOD sheweth us mercy and delivereth us out of the hand of our enemies that we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him And St. Peter in his first Epistle Luk. 1.74 75. 1 Pet. 2.24 CHRIST saith he hath born our sins in His own body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness And our St. Paul that JESVS CHRIST dyed for all that they which live 1 Cor. 5.15 might not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him who dyed and was raised again for them and elsewhere again that CHRIST gave Himself for us Tit. 2.14 that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie us to be unto Him a peculiar people addicted to good works and in another passage altogether like that which we are upon Eph. 4.5 He loved the Church saith he and gave Himself for it that he might sanctifie it have cleansed it by the washing of water by the word and might present it to Himself a glorious Church having neither spot nor wrinkle nor other such thing but that it might be holy and unreprovable I insist upon this point because it is of exceeding great importance First you see by it what the dignity of Holiness is For since the end of necessity is always more excellent than the means which are used to compass it it is clear than sanctification being the last end of all the things that the LORD employs for our salvation is the greatest and most excellent of all His graces And so you know St. Paul positively declares that Charity which is for substance no other thing but sanctity is more excellent than either faith or hope and he proves it because neither the one nor the other of these two vertues shall have any place in Heaven as being but means and helps for our conducting thither whereas Charity as the last and highest perfection of our being shall eternally remain Secondly from hence appears how much carnal Christians do deceive themselves who pretend to salvation without sanctification Wretched men what do you Your pretention is a vain Chimera You pursue an impossibility For that salvation which you do desire is nothing for the main but that very holiness which you do refuse Both that faith and those other qualities which as you say you have serve only to sanctifie men Without this they are unprofitable things Suppose then that you have them if they do not change you if they do not fill your heart with love to GOD and with charity towards your neighbour in a word if they render you not holy they will advantage you nothing So far will they be from giving you immortality that they will aggravate your misery and sink you deeper into the abyss of death Never believe that GOD gave us His own Son clothed Him with a body of flesh delivered Him up to the death of the Cross that He reconciled us by such precious blood and wrought all these grand wonders which ravish Heaven and Earth that He might acquire us the priviledge to sin freely For far be it from so wise and so holy a Deity to be thought to have ever had such an extravagant and infamous a design He hath laid forth all the marvels of grace and love upon us that He might restore His own image in our nature that He might abolish sin out of it and transform us into new creatures pure and holy and in some sort like Himself and His Son in this respect I confess the description which the Apostle here giveth us of this grace of GOD in us is high and magnifique and that it seems to surmount the reach of believers while they are in the present life For of which of them can it be truly said while he remains in this world that he is Holy and without spot and unreprovable before GOD But to this I answer first that neither doth the Apostle affirm that this great work of the LORD 's in us is compleated in this life He sheweth us only what His purpose is and what the end of His grace and how good and glorious that holiness is wherewith He will cloath us For if we be truly His He will not leave us till He hath made us such as the Apostle's Text importeth even holy without spot and unreprovable Secondly I say that though the highest degree of sanctification in this life be much beneath that which shall adorn us in the next and that in comparison of it the same is defective yet it fails not of being true and of having all its parts though in a weak degree It is sincere and without hypocrisie and such in summ as the words of the Apostle in some sort agree to For true believers while
all this for it was founded upon a Rock But on the contrary he compares the second sort to a foolish man that built upon the sand And saith he when the rain fell and the torrents came and the winds blew and smote upon this house it fell and the fall thereof was great Dear Brethren this is an excellent Parable and worthy to be deeply engraven on the hearts of the truly faithful For it shews us first That to have part in the LORD's salvation it is not enough to call Him our Master and make Profession of His Discipline They that have but this will fall sooner or later and be infallibly ruin'd Secondly It further teacheth us That it sufficeth not to have begun except a man do presevere to the end without ever giving back And lastly It declares to us what the cause is both of the perseverance of some and of the revolting and fall of others those that are founded on the rock do stand firm and resist the scandals with which the Devil and the world do combate the truth those that are built only on the sand are easily born down even at the first assaults which the adverse powers make upon them This Doctrine S. Paul yerst represented to the Colossians in the Text we have now read to you In the words foregoing as you heard in its place he did set before their eyes the wonders of the love of GOD which had been gloriously shewed upon them by JESUS CHRIST their Saviour who had called them to His Communion and of strangers and enemies as they were made them friends of His Father reconciling them by the body of His flesh through His death to render them holy without spot and unreproveable before Him But the Apostle knowing there were Seducers and deceitful workers among them who laboured to turn them away from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel that they might be preserv'd from those mens poysons he now advertiseth them that this great salvation whereof he had spoken could not be assured to them without perseverance For qualifying and in some sort correcting His simple and absolute assertion That GOD had reconciled them to Himself he addeth the condition upon which this Divine grace was promis'd them If indeed saith he you continue in the faith being founded and firm c. This Lesson my Brethren is no less necessary for us than it was erewhile for the Colossians since the floods the winds and storms that were then raised against the Edifice of their faith do in like manner at this day beat upon ours divers deceitful workers both without and within endeavouring to overthrow it Take we therefore this sacred Preservative against their malice which the Apostle here giveth us and that we may the better make our profit of it let us meditate in order the three particulars which his Instruction containeth For to confirm the Colossians in perseverance he sheweth them first The necessity and the manner of it in those words If indeed you continue in the faith being founded and firm and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard Secondly He sets before them an excellent Argument of the truth of that Gospel which they had heard to wit That it was preached in all the world And lastly He further alledgeth a second proof of its verity taken from his own Ministry of which saith he I have been made a Minister These are three points we will handle if it please GOD in this action noting briefly upon each of them what we shall judge most proper for our Edification and Consolation As for the first the Apostle explains himself about it in those terms If indeed ye continue c. Where you see he lays down first As Above That Faith is the means by which we enter into possession and use of the good things of OOD which He promiseth us in His Son The old Covenant had also its good things but the condition which it required of men for their obtaining the same was quite different For it demanded of them an exact and perfect obeying of the Law and upon any failure of an entire accomplishing of the same threatned a curse leaving the sinner no hope of life at all according to that dreadful clause Do these things and thou shalt live and Cursed is every one that doth them not But the Gospel beside that the good things which it sets before us are much greater and more Divine than those of the Law differs moreover from the Law in this especially that it demands of men for their having them nothing but Faith * Only 1 alone according to the sentence of our LORD GOD so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life This the Apostle sheweth us here with much clearness when having said That GOD hath reconciled us to Himself by the body of the flesh of His Son to render us spotless and unreproveable he addeth If indeed ye continue in the faith This Connexion of the two parts of his Discourse doth evidently infer that it is Faith which makes us to have part in the Reconciliation and Peace of GOD and in the holiness which is by the Gospel So likewise you know that in a multitude of other places the Scripture informeth us expresly that it is by Faith we are justified and have peace with GOD and that it is by Faith our hearts are purified Faith is the means of our union with GOD it is the root of our Charity and the Source of our comfort and in a word the only cause of our felicity For as a Medicine how excellent and healthful soever it be does no good save to those that take it So the LORD's Redemption and the vertue of His Sacrifice how great and infinite soever though able to heal all our sins and to give us Eternity yea not us alone but to all the men in the world yet notwithstanding will communicate none of those benefits to us except we receive it by Faith It is Faith that applies it to us and sheds abroad the efficacy of it into all the parts of our nature But because very many deceive themselves in this matter and take that for true Faith which hath but the shadow and name of Faith the Apostle telleth us that to have part in the salvation of JESUS CHRIST our faith must be constant and such as we do abide and persevere in For as in Games and Combates for Prizes none are crowned but they that hold out to the end So in the heavenly Lists or Race GOD glorifieth them only which run with constancy home to the mark Those that turn aside or stop in the midst of the course lose their labour according to that the LORD did declare Whoever shall persevere to the end shall be saved And therefore the Apostle in another place assuring himself of the Crown among other causes on
perpetual voice of the Church that though the faithful dye for their brethren Aug. 〈◊〉 tract in Joaâ— l. q. ad Bonif. de pecc mer. remiss yet Martyrs did not shed one drop of their blood for the remission of their sins And that none but CHRIST hath done this for us and that He herein gave us not what to immitate but what to thank Him for that He alone took on Him our punishment without our sin to the end that we by Him without merit might obtain the grace which is not due to us This foundation being overturned their pretended treasury and the dispensing of it which they forge doth fall to ground I confess the Church hath a treasure or rather a living spring of graces and of propitiation for its sins but it is full and whole in JESUS CHRIST her eternal High priest who was ordained of GOD from all time to be a propitiation through faith in His blood and to have possession of the same the sinner needeth but to present Him an heart full of faith and of repentance according to the direction of S. John 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to pardon them and to cleanse us from all iniquity As for the patience and the sufferings of Saints though they have not the vertue to satisfie for our sins yet notwithstanding they are not unprofitable to us Wherefore the LORD would have them put up and kept not in the pretended enchequer of the Pope but in the treasury of the Scriptures out of which every faithful person hath the liberty to fetch them at all times for his use to the edifying of his life and for the gathering from such fair examples that excellent fruit of piety which they do contain he admiring and imitating them the best he can This is that we ought to practise upon the sufferings of the Apostle in particular which are represented to us in this Text that we may in good earnest make our profit of them to the glory of GOD and our own edification Learn we from them first not to be ashamed of affliction for the Gospel S. Paul shews us that it is matter of joy Mat. 5.11 12. I rejoyce saith he in my sufferings and our LORD Himself commands us to have this sentiment of it Rejoyce saith He and be exceeding glad when men shall revile you and persâ—cute you for great is your reward in Heaven For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you CHRIST was treated thus Himself and His Apostles went to heaven the same way Blush not at the bearing of their marks If they be ignominious before men they are glorious before GOD Fortify your selves in this resolution particularly ye to whom GOD hath committed the ministry of His word If the world do thwart your preaching if it threaten you if it come so far as to imprisonments and to banishing and further yet remember that S. Paul had no better usage and that it was out of a prison that he wrote this excellent Epistle As your cause is the same so let your courage be like his Conclude as he did that these bonds are an honour to you that these sufferings are the afflictions of CHRIT Let this sacred Name and the communion you have with Him sweeten all the bitterness of your troubles But Faithful Brethren think ye not to be exempted from these trials because you are not Ministers of the Gospel You also have part in them each one according to his calling and the measure of the grace of GOD. He hath no children whom he consecrateth not by afflictions But if you suffer with JESUS CHRIST you shall raign with Him If you have part now in his Cross you shall have so one day in His glory And to assure you of it He calleth your sufferings His afflictions He protesteth that you receive never a blow but He feeleth it Doubt not but he doth take great notice of the confflicts which He vouchsafes to call His. Think also upon what He hath sustained for you and you will confess it is reasonable that you should suffer something for His Glory who hath undergone so much for your salvatition He hath taken up for you the whole curse of GOD Will not you bear the reproaches and wrongs of men for Him He hath born and expiated the penalty of your sins on the cross Will you have horror at the remainder of His afflictions He hath accomplished what was most difficult that which none but He could discharge having drank for us the dreadful cup of GOD's indignation against our sins Accomplish ye stoutly the trials that remain for us It 's He Himself that dispenseth them to us It 's not either the phancy of men or the rage of Devils God hath cut out our task for us It 's from His hand we must receive all the afflictions we shall suffer But beside that we owe this respect and subjection to GOD let us learn of the Apostle that we owe such examples also to the Church It is not for JESUS CHRIST alone that we suffer It is for His body also As our afflictions advance the glory of the Master so do they serve likewise for the edification of the Family Judge ye thereby Faithful Brethren what our affection for the Church should be The consideration of it made up a good part of the Apostles joy He accounted himself happy that by his sufferings he could testify the love he bore to this sacred body of His Master He blessed his Chain how hard soever it was because it did the Church some service Dear Brethren let us imitate this divine charity Love we our LORD's Church above all things Let us make it the chief object of our delight Consecrate we to its edification all the actions and sufferings of our lives Embrace we all its members with brotherly kindness and take good heed we despise no man that hath the honour to be incorporate in so august and so divine a society The Apostles example sheweth us that we owe them even our blood and our life And we have heard him besides at another time Phil. 2.17 professing to the Philippians that if he might serve for an aspersion upon the sacrifice 1 Joh. 3.16 and service of their faith he should joy in it And S. John saith expresly that as CHRIST hath laid down His life for us so we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren If the LORD spare our infirmity and call us not to so high trials let us at least testifie our charity towards the Church by all the offices and services whereof our condition and the present occasion is capable We owe it our blood Let us give it at least our tears our almes our good examples You that have had the heart to plunge your selves in the vain pastimes of the world while the Church was in mourning that have laught and sported while she suffered and
groaned repair this disorder Comfort her with your pious tears whom you have sadded by your vain pleasures Break with the world Have no more commerce but with the children of GOD. Remember you have the honour to be the body of JESUS CHRIST How is it that you have no horrour at defiling in the ordures of sin and vanity those members which are consecrated to the Son of GOD washed with His blood sanctified by His word and baptized with His Spirit The Church beside this purity of life which its edification requireth of you at all times doth particularly at the present demand of you the succour of your alms for the refreshment of its poor members Their number and their necessity encreaseth daily Let your charity be augmented after the same proportion Let it relieve the indigence of some let it allay the passions of others let it extinguish enmities and hatred among us all Let it seek not only to those whom you have wronged but even to them that have offended you without cause that henceforth you may truly be the body of the LORD His Church holy and unblamable having no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing patient and generous in affliction humble and modest in prosperity crowned with good works and the fruits of righteousness to the glory of our great Saviour the edification of men and your own salvation Amen THE XIV SERMON COL I. Vers XXV XXVI XXVII Vers XXV Of which Church I have been made a Minister according to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me towards you to fullfil the word of GOD. XXVI Even the secret which had been hid from all ages and generations but hath now been manifested to His Saints XXVII To whom GOD would give to know what are the riches of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles which is CHRIST in you the hope of glory THE Church of our LORD JESUS CHRIST is the fairest and most glorious State that ever existed in the world a State formed in the counsel of GOD before the creation of the heavens founded on the cross of His Son in the fulness of time governed by the Father of eternity enlivened by His Spirit the most prized of His Jewels the last end of His works and the only scope of all His marvels It 's a State not mortal and corruptible as those of the earth but firm and everlasting situate above the Sun and Moon and see all other things roul under its feet in continual change without being subject to their vanity It 's the only society against which neither the gates of hell nor the revolutions of time shall at all prevail It is the House of the living GOD the Temple of His holiness the Pillar of His truth the dwelling-place of His grace and glory Whence it comes that one of the Prophets long ago contemplating it in spirit cried out transported and in extasy Honourable are the things Psal 87.3 that are spoken of thee O City of GOD. But among its other glories this in my opinion is none of the least that GOD would employ the hands the sweat and the blood of His Apostles for the erecting of it It is for the Church that He made and formed these great men It 's for the same that He poured into their souls all the riches of Heaven And as they had received them for the Churches service so they laid them out faithfully and cheerfully in it yea to such a degree that they counted it a great honour to suffer on its occasion They blessed the reproaches that they received for edifying of it We lately heard S. Paul the most excellent of those divine men protesting that he rejoyced in his sufferings and afflictions for the Church and now in the Text we have read he goeth on and saith that he is the Minister of the Church What and how admirable must that happy Republique be whose Minister and servitor S. Paul was the greatest of men one of the master-pieces of Heaven and the wonder of the earth But beside his designing to justifie by these words the joy he had in suffering for the Church as Minister of it He would also found the liberty he took to make remonstrances to the Colossians and authorize his doctrine against the errors which Seducers were sowing among them For this cause he enlargeth on this matter and magnifieth his Ministry First he represents unto them the foundation of it namely the Call of GOD and the object of it that is those towards he ought to exercise it and the end of it in verse 25. in these words I have been made a Minister of the Church according to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me towards you to fullfil the word of GOD. After this in the following verse he extolleth the subject about which the labour of this ministry was to be to wit the word of GOD saying that it is the mystery which had been hid from all ages and generations but which hath now saith he been manifested to the Saints Lastly he addeth in the last verse the efficacy of this Divine secret towards the Gentiles and declareth in one wherein it consisteth namely in JESVS CHRIST our LORD He is the whole matter and substance of this great mystery GOD saith he would give the Saints to know what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is CHRIST in you the hope of Glory These are the three points which we purpose to handle in this action if the LORD permit the ministry of Paul the mystery of the Gospel and the riches of its glory towards the Gentiles The subject is great the time short and our abilities small May it please GOD to supply our defects by the abundance of His Spirit so powerfully strengthning and multiplying the words of our mouth in your hearts that notwithstanding their scantiness and poverty they may yet administer food for your souls even as sometime by the vertue of His blessing seven loaves and a few little fishes as you heard not long ago sufficed to satiate a great multitude As for the first of these three points the Apostle speaking of the Church doth say Of which I have been made a Minister according to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me towards you to fullfil the word of GOD. Upon which we have four things to consider First the quality of the Apostles office which he termeth the ministry of the Church Secondly the the title to this office founded on the dispensation GOD had given him Thirdly the object of the execution of this office which he expresseth by saying towards you that is towards you Gentiles as we shall shew anon and in the Fourth place the function and the proximate end of this office which he declareth to us in those words to fullfil the word of GOD. Observe then Brethren first of all how this holy Apostle to express the office to which GOD had
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
countrymen and also by the Gentiles He was beaten imprisoned scourged stoned He was in shipwracks on the Sea in dangers and deaths upon the Land He was brought to be at the mercy of robbers in desarts beset round in cities both with weapons of enemies and the ambushments of false friends He was reduced to nakedness to cold to hunger and thirst It 's this hard and terrible chain of labours and sufferings which he meaneth here when he saith Whereunto I also labour combating But Oh the deep humility of this holy Soul he immediately gives the glory of these merveilous exploits to the sole vertue and assistance of the LORD JESUS I labour and combat saith he according to His efficacy which worketh powerfully in me He exerciseth the like modesty elsewhere when having said that he had laboured abundantly more than they all he presently takes up himself and adds yet not I but the grace of GOD which is with me It is the invincible force of this grace of the LORD JESUS which he calleth here his efficacy and he saith it worketh powerfully in him or with power to signifie the admirable effects which it produced in him first in that it raised up in Him the light of knowledge the love of holiness charity towards the LORD's flock such prudence and wisdom as were necessary for the instruction and government of souls Secondly in that it endued him with a more than humane courage with an immoveable constancy and firmness both that he might not sink under the burden of such great and continual labour and that he might patiently and cheerfully bear the persecutions and tentations which were still let loose upon him the LORD making things tend to His glory and the advancement of his work which seemed so contrary thereto as He promised him elsewhere that His power should be made perfect in his infirmity Thirdly in accompanying the Apostles preaching with diverse miracles which ravished men and authorised his words Rom. 15.18 19 as he expresly testifies in another place I will not dare to speak of any of those things which CHRIST hath not wrought by me saith he to make the Gentiles obedient by word and work through mighty signs and wonders Lastly this Divine vertue of our Saviour did also magnificently appear in the success he gave to Pauls labour opening the hearts of those that heard him and causing his voice to enter into them notwithstanding all the impediments of nature with such a miraculous blessing that he made his Gospel to abound from Jerusalem and round about even to Illyricum subduing nations and converting them gloriously to the service of His Master It 's this that he represents here to the Colossians in these words even that he laboureth and combateth according to the efficacy of CHRIST which worketh powerfully in him And it excellently conduceth to his design which is to shew the truth of the Gospel he preached which shined forth clearly in those many miracles they being as seals by which the LORD confirmed it I confess now that this great example doth particularly reflect on such as GOD hath called to the sacred Ministry of His house and it sheweth them on one hand how painful their office is that it is a work as the Apostle faith otherwhere a work I say rather than a dignity 1 Tim. 3.1 2 Tim. 4.5 a labour and not a recreation For the discharging of it worthily they must toil and strive watch in all things endure afflictions and do the work of Evangelists And it teacheth them on the other hand that they must not recoil for those great difficulties but trust in the grace of CHRIST and expect from the sole efficaciousness of His assistance that light that strength that patience and constancy which is requisite for the finishing of so laborious a course since it is He alone who rendreth us meet for these things strengthning us in weakness comforting us in trouble encouraging us in difficulties susteining us under assaults and so conducting us that though we be nothing of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 yet in Him we can do all things who maketh us able to be Ministers of the new Testament But though S. Pauls example do particularly respect Pastors yet it appertaineth also to all true Christians in general since there is no one of them but is also in some sort the LORD's servant hath of Him the managing of some of His Talents and is called to labour and combat Let us consider then all of us in common and joyntly make our improvement both of the preaching and of the labouring of this great Apostle He still at this day declares to us the same CHRIST whom he preached heretofore to all the nations of the world Though the Organs that sound it to you be incomparably weaker than his were yet it is his word that you hear the same word and the same CHRIST that yer-while converted the universe The same Paul whose voyce had then so much efficacy speaks yet to you daily He addresseth to you the same doctrine He sets before you the same wisdom He admonisheth and teacheth every man among you Do not abuse so great a blessing do not frustrate the labour of this holy man of it's true and just effect The end of His preaching is that you all may be perfect This is the mark to which he calls you all in common Say not to me that he speaks but to some only I admonish saith he and teach every man that I may render every man perfect in JESVS CHRIST Object not the employments which you have in the world nor the cares to which your family and your affairs do bind you up If they be incompatible with that perfection which the Apostle requires of you you must renounce them It 's an extreme folly to excuse ones self from being happy This ought to be the first and last of our cares and if we cannot attain it but by quitting of honours by losing of riches by retrenching our delights yea as the LORD saith by plucking out our own eyes and cutting off of our feet and our hands it is better to forego all this than keep it to be cast at our departure hence into the torment of eternal fire But these are vain and meer frivolous pretences to palliate our slackness If we have truly received JESUS CHRIST into our hearts neither a wife nor children nor a family nor an estate nor the honest and lawfull employments of the world will hinder you from being perfect The fear of GOD honest deportment plain-dealing and justice charity and beneficence and in a word the fanctity wherein our perfection consisteth is not incompatible with any of these things For I beseech you is it your business or your calling which obligeth you to offend GOD and injure men to pollute your body with the filth of infamous pleasures to defraud or to rob your neighbour to drown your whole life in luxury in debauches and in
the senses or the reason of men yet the truth of them is so evident so beautiful and so well marked that as soon as the clouds of those passions and prejudices which hide it from us are removed from before the eyes of our understanding by the hand of the holy Spirit â—t beams forth and shines into our hearts with exceeding brightness and makes it self to be believed and embraced for what it is indeed Thus must it be known with certainty and not with doubting that we henceforth be no more children Ephes 4.14 wavering and carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and by their cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive as the Apostle speaks elswhere Whereby you see how false the opinion of Rome is which makes the belief of Christianity to depend upon the authority and testimony of her Prelates I pass by the extream weakness and vanity of this pretended foundation which hath been verify'd by a thousand experiments Whatever it be in other respects this is manifest that since they fasten the people's knowledg there they must of necessity confess that their faith ought to change if any change do happen in the doctrine of their Prelates whence it follows that then it is not certain nor assured nor such a knowledg as the Apostle requireth in us whose property is such that though Paul himself or Angels from heaven should come and preach the contrary it would abide not withstanding even under such a supposal still firm and unmoved and rather anathematize Apostles and Angels from heaven than let go that Divine verity which it hath believed and known so strong is the sense it hath of its excellency But the Apostle having thus described the nature of true faith or a Christian's understanding doth lastly confine it within the bounds of its true subject when he adds the knowledg of the Secret of our God and Father and of Christ This restriction is necessary because seducers do boast of their traditions too as if they were a piece of wisdom worthy of our faith and it may not be doubted but that the false teachers against whom the Apostle intends to dispute did deal in such manner To arm us against their vanity he declares expresly that the understanding he requireth of us is a knowledg not of what Philosophers do talk in their Schools about the nature of the world nor of what Seducers do bring forth from their vain imaginations but only of the Gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST without which there is nothing but error and folly He calls it a Secret or a Mystery because it was a verity hidden with GOD and incomprehensible to our minds as we have said otherwhere He saith that it is the Secret of GOD our Father both because He is the Author of it who hath reveal'd it to us of His Grace and because He hath manifested Himself therein discovering to us in the Gospel all that we need to know of His nature and will for attaining to Salvation He adds in the end and of CHRIST for the same reasons it being evident that it is the LORD JESUS who brought this holy doctrine from the bosom of the Father and set it in our view by the Ministry of His Servants and that also it is He who is the principal Subject of it as our only Mediator without whose conduct and merit it is impossible to have any part in true happiness It s of this mystery of CHRIST JESUS that the Apostle desired the Colossians might have a full firm and distinct knowledg for to abide knit together by charity and by this means enjoy a true and solid consolation This is the treasure which he is afraid least they should lose It 's to preserve it to them that he undergoâ—th so much pain and so many combats Dear Brethren his desire teacheth us our duty Since we aspire to the same happiness that the Colossians afore us have done since we serve the same Master and live under the same Discipline let us labour to get and keep for ever the same good things which the Apostle wisheth them GOD of His great mercy offereth them liberally to us and the fault will be ours if we do not partake of them â— for the Knowledg of his Mystery He presenteth us the treasury of it in His hoâ— Scriptures This source of light is not shut up and inaccessible unto you as it to a great part of the world and even to many that call themselves Christians but opened and made obvious Draw out of it the wisdom of heaven reading studying and searching those Divine books night and day We do not envy you this sweet and happy communication as the Pastors of our adver saries dea with their flocks We could wish as yerwhile Moses did that all GOD's people werâ— Prophets It 's a science that admitteth all ages all sexes and all conditions of men the Author of this holy doctrine having so temper'd it as it is accommodated to the capacity of every sort of persons There are in it deeps to exercise and humble the greatest Spirits there are facilities to instruct and content the least It is an abyss where Elephants may swim and a shallow where Lambs may wade But as all are capable of this science so there is no person but it is necessary for It 's the key of the Kingdom of heaven the spring of piety the root of sanctity the seed of true life Study it carefully Hearken to the teaching of it here meditate on it at home with deep intentiveness beseeching GOD with prayers and tears to open your hearts and write His doctrine in them Content not your selves with having learned some points of it Take no rest till you know all its wonders till you have attained not simply understanding but all riches of understanding as the Apostle here speaketh Urge not to me that vain and cold excuse which is in the mouths of many that you are not Ministers and therefore need not be so knowing These Colossians were Ministers no more than you and yet you see what the Apostle doth desire for them and afterwards he will enjoyn that the word of CHRIST do dwell plenteously in them in all wisdom Why are you less exposed to temptations for your not being Ministers are the Devil and the World less ardent or less obstinate in setting upon you We are all engaged in the same war and have all need of the same arms Is it Captains only and Officers that ought to be armed Is it not necessary for private Soldiers The knowledg of the Mysteries of the Gospel is the armor of all Christians and the Scripture is the publick Magazine whence both one and the others should fetch it But that it may do you service at your need this knowledg must be also deeply radicated in your hearts you must have it with a full assurance as the Apostle saith It should not sleightly
intention in this place But that which they add is yet worse For from this ill interpretation they infer a false and a dangerous doctrine concluding from our Saviour's having all the treasures of Knowledg that the infinite wisdom of His Divinity was really transfused into His humane nature and by consequent all the other properties also of the Divine nature as its omnipotency its infiniteness and its presence in all places since there is the same reason for all these attributes of GOD and they are so in separable that none can have one of them without possessing of the rest See I pray you how fruitful error is and how truly it was said by one of the ancient Sages of the world That one falsity and absurdity being supposed many others do necessarily follow upon it For that which hath led or to say better which hath drawn these authors into this long series of errors is nothing but a false opinion which they have about the Sacrament of the Eucharist They incommodiously and unreasonably suppose that the flesh of JESUS CHRIST is really present in the bread And this absurdity hath engaged them by little and little in those others that are so much worse For not being able to relish that Transubstantion which those of Rome make use of to uphold this real presence of our LORD's body and deservedly rejecting it as full of absurdities and contradictions yet bent to retain their own bad presupposition they have had recourse for the maintaining of it to another well nigh as great an error namely that of Ubiquity and do affirm that the body of JESUS CHRIST is every where present and consequently in the Eucharistical signes and to defend a thing so strange and so contrary to sense to reason and to Scripture they have advanced this conceit that the flesh of CHRIST through its Personal union with the Divinity hath really receiv'd all the properties thereof that is that the Son assuming it unto Himself hath rendred it omnipotent immense and infinite a thing which hath induced them to corrupt divers passages of the Word of GOD that they might form out of them some prop for their error It is not the place here to make a thorough refutation of their doctrine nor to lament at large such persons their deserting of the truth in this particular who are illuminated with the beams thereof in others Would to GOD we might bury a fault which hath caused so much scandal in Christendom in eternal oblivion I will only touch at the concernment of the Text in hand and their abuse of it for the favouring of their opinion I say then that in this ratiocination of theirs they commit two notable faults the one that they do not take the Apostle's meaning aright and the other that they conclude wrong And to begin at the latter of these they conclude wrong for from the being of an infinite science and knowledg in JESUS CHRIST it doth not follow that the Soul of His humane nature understandeth and knoweth all the things that God knoweth as from the being of an eternal Divinity in JESUS CHRIST it no way followeth that His flesh is an eternal Divinity or from His having created the World that his Flesh created it like as if at least we may compare Humane things with Divine from a man's having in him an immortal intellect it follows not at all that his body is intelligent or immortal For as in Man there are two Substances the Soul and the Body which though united in the same subject do nevertheless conserve each of them their Properties apart the Soul its spiritualness and invisibility the Body likewise its visibility and palpableness the one a capacity to understand and will the other not after the same manner there are two natures in JESUS CHRIST which though personally united yet are not mingled or confused one with the other But retain each of them their essential and original qualities in such sort that the Divine nature abideth eternal infinite omnipotent and omniscient and the humane created in time bounded in place and endowed with a limited strength power and science Now as when we say of man in general that there is understanding and sense in him that he hath a visible or invisible essence that he is mortal or immortal each of these attributions ought to be understood in reference to that part of his nature to which it agreeth and not be confusedly applied to them both So if the Apostle had said as I grant he truly might that there is in JESUS CHRIST an infinite power or knowledg it should be referred to His Divinity and not to His Humanity For JESUS CHRIST being very GOD blessed for ever with the Father who doubts but that in this regard He is omnipotent and omniscient But thence it follows not that He is so in regard of His humane nature too And for any to deduce it from that attribution is as impertinent reasoning as if because there is in JESUS CHRIST a flesh conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin and which was infirm and crucified you would inferr that therefore His Divinity was also born of the Holy Virgin and that it too was fastned to the Cross But though it should be granted them that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hid in the humane soul of JESUS CHRIST yet still they would conclude wrong to infer thence as they do that the knowledg of His Soul is infinite and the same with that of GOD. We confess that this blessed Soul having had the honour to be personally united with the Eternal Son of GOD hath also thereupon been adorned with all the shining light of knowledg and wisdom whereof its nature is capable so as it may be said in this respect that all the treasures of them are hidden in it and that the knowledg which it hath of things doth much surpass the knowledg of Men and Angels both for its extent and also for its clearness and firmness Yet the nature of the subject wherein it properly resideth being finite it self is also necessarily finite whereas the knowledg of the Father and of His eternal Word is infinite even as the nature of the one and the other is infinite And it is to no purpose to reply that by this accompt the humane nature of JESUS CHRIST will have no advantage above the Saints of whom it may be said in this sense that all the treasures of wisdom are hidden in them since GOD who dwelleth in them hath an infinite knowledg and wisdom For this consequence is evidently false First by reason of the extream difference which is found between the graces communicated to the Saints and the gifts of light and knowledg that are insused into the Soul of our Saviour Secondly by reason of the infinite difference that is between their persons for though GOD do dwell in the Saints by His grace yet no one of the Saints is GOD whereas the Eternal Word
makes him disgust it immediately and betake himself to seek out novelties for the seasoning and rendring of it more grateful The Apostles had scarce sown this sacred doctrine in the Church as in the Camp of Israel but evil workers presently rose up who to remedy men's disdain and accommodate this Celestial verity to their palate would needs add to it divers inventions and novelties of their own forgging And S. Paul foretold that more such would arise as bad or worse than the first 2 Tim. 4.3 4. Having saith he itching ears they shall assemble to themselves Teachers according to their own desires and shall turn away their ears from the truth and turn unto fables O prophecy too true How punctually hast thou been fulfilled This foolish itch of the ear hath caused a thousand and a thousand fantasies and novelties to be by little and little entertained among Christians which have so born down and as it were overwhelm'd the Gospel that it is hardly to be discerned any longer as you may see in the Doctrine of Rome which is but an heap of Traditions Errors and Superstitions partly copied out from Judaism and some from Paganism it self partly issuing from the private speculations of some particular persons In our Fathers days the Gospel having been brought out of the dark caverns of ignorance into the light of men it was receiv'd in like manner with ardor and admiration But that disgusting of the best and most wholesom things which is fatal to us overtook it quickly and did stir up as also it full doth divers spirits who for remedy do strive to sophisticate this pure Doctrine and dress up its simplicity with their own inventions to make it please the world To cure us of this fastidiousness the Apostle at this time addresseth to us the exhortation you have heard the same which he sometime made to the Colessians for the same end forbidding them novelties and strange doctrines and enjoining them to stand fast in JESUS CHRIST who had been preached to them without admitting or desiring any thing beyond His Gospel Therefore saith he as you have received the LORD JESVS CHRIST so walk in Him c. Upon these words for the giving you a full and entire exposition of them we have two things to consider First The Apostle's enjoining the Colossians to keep and fasten to the LORD JESUS this is the sense and intention of the first verse Secondly The manner how he would have them fasten to the LORD namely by the confirmation and abounding of their faith in his Gospel with thanksgiving These two particulars we purpose to treat of in this Exercise by the assistance of CHRIST for your edification and consolation And for the first You may remember that in the precedent Text the Apostle praised the faithful people of Coloss and rejoyced at the good order he saw in their Church and at the firmness of their faith in JESUS CHRIST But because it is not sufficient to begin well except we do continue in as much as salvation is promised only to those that shall persevere unto the end with good reason and very pertinently doth he now add to the praise he gave them an exhortation to continue and to abide firm in that good and happy state wherein they were and this so much the rather for that there were about them certain busie and unquiet spirits who with their inventions and subtilties endeavoured to vitiate the sincerity of their belief as you have already heard and shall again more particularly hear in the sequel of this Chapter Therefore saith he to them as you have received the LORD JESVS CHRIST so walk in Him JESUS CHRIST is the Subject in which he would have them to abide For He is the way the truth and the life neither is there salvation in any other But because these false Teachers for the better putting off their vain traditions were wont to colour them with our Saviour's Name knowing well that every faithful person would soon hiss at them if they spake openly of our quitting JESUS CHRIST or our distancing our selves from him The Apostle anticipates this danger and expresly shews the Colossians how he intends they should abide firm in JESUS CHRIST saying As you have received the LORD JESVS so walk in Him And to this also that which he adds in the following Verse hath relation As you you have been taught By this he clearly signifies that the doctrine which had been delivered them either by himself if it be true that he preached the Gospel to them and founded their Church as some think or by Epaphras as most are of opinion He signifies I say that this Doctrine which had been preached to them and believed by them was so holy and divine and sufficient to salvation that it was their duty constantly to adhere thereto and to admit nothing beyond what they had heard under any pretext whatsoever Here is the way Isa 30.21 walk in it whether ye turn to the right hand or to the left as Isaiah sometime said But by these words the Apostle not only marketh out to them and stateth that Doctrine which they ought to hold he obligeth them also thereto by their own interest For since they had receiv'd it they could not again part from it without condemning themselves either of imprudence or of levity For he that quits the Faith he once embraced doth thereby evidently shew either imprudence in having sometime taken a false or imperfect Doctrine for good or levity in quitting and altering now a Doctrine good sufficient when he received it If your belief be good why do you change it If it be otherwise why did you entertain it It follows of necessity either that there was error and precipitation in the one or that there is weakness and sickleness in the other So you see that the interest of their own reputation did oblige these Christians to that constancy which the Apostle enjoins them Besides though it be an hainous sin not to receive the LORD JESUS when He presents Himself to us by His Gospel yet it is much more enormous to cast Him out after reception given Him as it is by far a greater outrage to thrust forth a man from your House when you have admitted him than to have shut your doors against him at the first The one is a simple offence the other is an affront In like manner it is a much more injurious treatment to desert CHRIST JESUS after having follow'd him than never to have given ear to or follow'd him at all And observe here I pray the efficacy of sound doctrine it is such as that in receiving it we receive JESUS CHRIST himself For this Highest LORD comes in to all such as embrace his Gospel And we may apply to this purpose what he said to his Apostles on a like occasion Whoso receiveth them receiveth him whoso gives credit to their preaching shall have their Master to be with him
known of Him Rom. 1.19 20 and that His eternal Power and Godhead invisible in themselves are yet visibly seen by the creation of the world they being considered in His works But the misery is that the Philosophers being carried away with that vanity and curiosity which was natural to them broke those bounds and would needs define things which are beyond that compass and about which Reason in the state we now are sees not one jot And here it is they necessarily fell into error and extravagancies as persons born blind would do should they intrude to discourse to us of colours Such are the Fancies of Plato and his Scholars concerning the estate of the souls of men departed from their bodies concerning the purifications he devised to convey us near the Supream Good concerning the interposition of Daemons is he calleth them that is Angels as the Scripture terms them to present our supplications to GOD and concerning the service which he ordained to be done them in consequence of this good office and a thousand other such like things Such also was the mistake of Aristotle when not content to understand the present establishment of the World he would know what it was in the beginning wherein he had no light at all concluding because in the state things now are of nothing nothing is made that therefore it was never otherwise and thereupon affirming for a certainty that the World is eternal As if we must needs judg of the first beginning of a thing by those Laws under which it lives after its settlement and should limit the power of a free Agent to the measure of the effect wrought that is as if because GOD in this frame of the World doth make now nothing without Matter therefore it followed that absolutely he could make nothing another way which is as impertinent a reasoning as if you should inferr that because a Painter hath wrought his pieces with three or four colours only it were impossible for him to draw or represent any thing any otherways In this particular Philosophy hath offended by excess undertaking more than it could compass It often erreth likewise by defect when it rejects the revelation of GOD as resolved to admit nothing that is above its own sense and reason as if a man that had never seen any other than the shining of our Fires and our Candles should contest there was no other light in the world Pride hath made the greatest part of the old Philosophers to fall into this impiety It seemed to them an abasing of their glory to acknowledg there was another School more knowing than theirs and that it was an injury to tell them GOD had discovered secrets to others which he had hid from them It was this vanity that spurr'd them on so violently against the Gospel of our LORD and Saviour at the beginning If Philosophy do modestly keep its rank if it be content with its bounds and not thrust away nor injure divine Revelation if it acknowledg it as its Mistris and be subject to it as Agar yerwhile was to Sarah welcom be it it may be received and may abide with us But if it usurp if it will needs be Mistris and command in a Family where it hath only the quality of a Bond-woman let it depart and be treated according to Sarah her speech to Abraham Drive out the bond-woman and her son GOD hath vouchsafed to reveal unto us by his Prophets and in the last times by his own Son all the Articles of Religion Philosophy ought to adore them with us It hath nothing to enjoin us in the matter From the mouth of GOD not from the mouth of Philosophy do we receive Religion As often therefore as Teachers of Error shall use the authority or artifice of the Philosophers to render their inventions plausible or probable in our eyes let us boldly despise all their subtilty Let not the names of Aristotle and Plato make us afraid let not their petty subtilties dazzle our sight We may hear them when question is only of men and of nature When GOD and his service is concern'd we ought to give ear to none but GOD and the Son of his love about whom he hath proclaimed from Heaven to us This is my beloved Son hear him It 's this the Apostle doth intend when he saith here Let no man make a prey of you by Philosophy But provided the Doctrine of our Lord and Saviour do remain sound and entire without diminution without augmentation or mixture we are not prohibited the service of Philosophy but may employ its Physicks and its Ethicks to confirm and illustrate as far as they can the truths of the Gospel its Logick to defend them against the Sophisms and Sleights of gain-sayers and in sum to adorn and embellish them we may use ought of worth that Philosophy doth afford as the Israelites heretofore adorned the Sanctuary of GOD with the Gold and Silver and Jewels of Egypt Whence you may see how in the disputes of Religion which we have with those of Rome they for their part do evidently abuse Philosophy whereas we duly employ it they abuse it For not to say that they make Aristotle reign in their Divinity-School regarding his Edicts and cherishing much jealousie of his reputation as if he were a Pillar of Religion they found Articles of their Faith upon the authority of the Sages of the world as when they prove their Purgatory by the testimony of Plato and the veneration of Images by the custom of Nations and Free-will by Philosophy and divers other things of like nature which being not to be found in the Scriptures of GOD they go seek them in the Writings of men As for us it is evident we have no positive Article in our Faith but what is in the Gospel Only when our Adversaries urge their Transubstantiation upon us having shewed that GOD hath no where revealed it to us in his word but even clearly contradicted it we call in Philosophy its self to our succour to evidence the absurdity thereof We produce its testimony in a case which clearly is of its cognizance namely the nature of an human body the place it takes up the quantity to which it is extended the quality of substantial mutations of which kind they pretend this is Whether a body made and formed Sixteen hundred years ago may still be every day substantially produced But it is high time to come to the two other Sources of the deceits of false Teachers The second is the Tradition of men as the Apostle calls it Take heed saith he that none do make prey of you by Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men The Scripture commonly gives the name of Traditions to those instructions which we receive from some other And it frequently useth the word deliver whence in the Latin Tongue that of Tradition is derived for to instruct or teach I received of the LORD saith the Apostle that
The LORD is a true Divinity dwelling in a true Flesh and true Flesh dwelt in by a true Divinity There is a Divinity and an Humanity truly distinct the one of them from the other and each of them retaining its own beeing and proper qualifications but there is one only and the same Person who takes His Name sometimes from the one and sometimes from the other and sometimes jointly from them both For we call Him the Son of Mary and the Seed of David by reason of His Flesh The Everlasting GOD and the Word of the Father and the Lord of Glory by reason of His Divinity Immanuel that is to say GOD with us and GOD manifested in Flesh by reason of these two natures together I confess it is a mystery that surpasseth our comprehension and a wonder that hath no parallel But neither must we measure the verities of Religion by the Ell of our understandings especially when question is of GOD whose Nature Reason it self doth confess to be infinite and incomprehensible It sufficeth that the word of the LORD informeth us it is so And though our reason cannot discern the manner how yet it being once illuminated by Divine revelation it acknowledgeth a kind of necessity of it For presupposing what the Scripture doth discover and reason approve of the desert of sin and of the infinite punishment that is due to it as also of the inflexible constancy of Divine Justice which cannot let sin pass unpunished it evidently follows that man could not have been reconciled to GOD unless his Justice were satisfied nor his Justice have been satisfied without a Sacrifice of infinite worth and merit So as it being the office of CHRIST to reconcile men unto GOD it is clear that for the effecting of this great design he must offer to the Father a Sacrifice of infinite value and consequently be GOD since nothing can proceed from a finite subject but what is also finite and none is infinite but GOD alone It was necessary therefore that all the fulness of the Godhead should dwell bodily in our Mediator Not to speak of other emoluments which this admirable union of our Nature with the Divine in the Person of JESUS CHRIST doth afford us as the assurance it gives us of the infinite love of GOD and of our salvation the title it procureth us to the merits of our Saviour whom it hath made our Brother and consequently our selves capable of being his co-heirs the consolation it sheds into our hearts of his whom we serve having an infinite power and wisdom to defend us in our combats to strengthen us in our weaknesses to preserve us against all the assaults of Hell and the World and redeem us from death the last of our enemies it being evident that if we had but a meer man for a Saviour how holy and excellent soever he might be there would remain unto us still very great and just causes of diffidence and fear Therefore blessed for ever be the Father of our LORD blessed be his love and that great mercy which induced him to send us so excellent and admirable a Mediator as hath all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily Let us receive him with faith and adore him with devotion and serve him with zeal Neither let his flesh be an offence to us It is very flesh I grant but the flesh of an Eternal GOD who under this Pavilion of his visible abasement of himself which the world otherwhile so insolently despised hath lodged all the glory of Heaven and all the fulness of the Divinity Nor let his Majesty and this fulness of the Godhead which dwelleth in him affright us He 's a great God I confess but a GOD manifested in flesh dwelling in our nature descending and humbled even to our degree and partaking of our flesh and our blood that he might bring us to himself Let us embrace with reverence that most sacred Religion which he hath brought us from Heaven And indeed iâ— the World hath followed and held fast and still in divers places doth with so much earnestness follow and hold Religions invented and erected by vain men who were full of ignorance and error what respect do we not owe to this same one that hath been given us by the hand and mouth of a person in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead Moses was but GOD's Servant and you see what respect the ancient people bore him and with what severity all disobediences and rebellions against his Ordinances were punish'd and how that poor Nation doth still at this day in vain adore the Sepulcher and Reliques of the Law which dyed and was abrogated long ago What penalties then must we expect if we despise the Doctrine of the Son who is eternally blessed with the Father Heb. 2.3 This great salvation as the Apostle elsewhere calls it which began to be declared first by the LORD All other Disciplines are perished or will in time perish Even that of Moses's did wax old and in the end was abolished But the Institutions of CHRIST shall remain for ever all-holy and all-perfect immutable and unalterable nor do they need any reformation or addition or amplification After the LORD we do not at all look for any other new Teacher to come into the world Moses promis'd another Prophet after his death to the people of GOD. JESUS CHRIST the Prophet so promised may have no Successor He doth not promise us any but only threatens us with divers seducers that would usurp His Name and counterfeit his Voice and put on sheeps cloathing to debauch his Disciples Whereupon we ought to take all those for suspicious that pretend to add any thing whatever to his sacred doctrine Besides our LORD and Saviour's own quality doth oblige us to content our selves with him and give no ear to any other For in him saith the Apostle dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Seeing he hath fulness the man can want nothing that possesseth him according to what S. John saith He that hath the Son hath life that is eternal salvation which is all that we desire This short sentence of the Apostle's is enough to secure us against the artifices of all seducers if they set before us the delicacies and subtilities of Philosophy colouring their fond imaginations with a vain semblance of wisdom let us arm our selves with this consideration That we have in CHRIST JESUS all the true wisdom that is since in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead If any man offer us ancient traditions let us remember that the Authors of them were but men who how great and holy soever they may be are all liable to error whereas the Gospel which we do embrace is his doctrine in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily and by consequence pure and divine verity As for those Ancients and those Bishops and Pontiffs whose names and authority you our Adversaries do urge
task of our whole life in especial manner at present now that the death of our LORD and Saviour and his resurrection and his holy Supper do call us to extraordinary efforts of piety and sanctity And if the labour be great the felicity and the glory that follows it is infinite Let us employ our selves in it well-beloved Brethren with ardency and generosity put off the body of all our sins that having truly crucified our old man with the LORD JESUS we may also rise again with Him to be enliven'd by his Celestial food and have part for ever after the short trials of this life in His blessed immortality Amen The Twenty-third SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XII XII Being buried with Him through baptism in which also you are raised again together through the faith of the efficacy of GOD who hath raised Him from the dead DEar Brethren It is very true that the solemnity of this great day which hath been consecrated by all Christians to the resurrection of the LORD JESUS and sanctifi'd by the Mysteries of his Table at which we have communicated doth require more than ordinary devotion and meditations of us Yet I have not needed to seek a subject for the present exercise any other where than in the series of the ordinary Texts which I do in this place expound to you the words I have read which immediately succeed those you heard last LORD's Day excellently suiting each of those duties to which this day is particularly dedicated For they treat of our LORD's resurrection and of the fruits that redound to us thereby as also of Baptism wherein they are communicated to us and which was wont for this reason to be solemnly administred heretofore in the ancient Church on the night before Easter and of that faith by which we become possess'd of this Divine Resurgent Lastly They speak of the interest we have in his burial that sequel of his precious death the blessed commemoration whereof we have celebrated this morning Subjects these which are as is plain to all eminently meet for the devotion of this day This then shall be by the will of GOD the matter of this action Faithful Souls afford it a vigorous and a deep attention elevating your thoughts to JESUS CHRIST the Prince of our salvation and Author of our immortality whiles we shall endeavour to represent to you what his Apostle here teacheth us about our communion in his burial and resurrection You may remember that to confound the impiety of certain Seducers who would oblige Christians to Mosaical Circumcision this holy man alledg'd in the precedent Text that we have in JESUS CHRIST that substance and truth whereof the Judaical Circumcision was but the shadow and model having in him put off the body of the sins of the flesh so as having receiv'd through the grace of JESUS this mystical and divine circumcision the other carnal and typical one is altogether useless to us and cannot be desired or practis'd by Christians without wronging their Saviour He still prosecutes that same intention and to shew how rich that sanctifying-grace is which we have in JESUS CHRIST he adds that besides our being circumcised by the virtue of his word and divested of the body of the sins of the flesh we have moreover been buried with him through Baptism and further that we are therein risen again with him through the faith of the efficiency of GOD who raised him from the dead For a right understanding of these words we are to consider First The communion we have both in the burial and resurrection of our LORD JESUS CHRIST And secondly The twofold means by which this communion is given us to wit Baptism and the Faith of the efficiency of GOD who hath raised our LORD from the dead The Apostle expresseth the first point in these words Being buried with him in which also you are risen again together As for our burial with the LORD you know that having suffer'd on the Cross that dolorous and accursed death which we had merited his sacred body loosned from that mournful tree and wrap'd up in a sheet was by Joseph of Arimathea laid in a new Sepulcher where it remained three days without motion without respiration and without life in this sad state the last of our infirmities until the beginning of the third day when he gloriously rose again The transcendent wisdom of the Father which ordered all the parts of this great work proceeded thus here very fitly to justifie the truth of his Son's death by his stay in the grave For if he had resum'd his life immediately after he laid it down and descended from the Cross alive again I confess such a Miracle might have astonish'd and transported the minds of the Spectators and demonstrated that this Divine crucified Person was more than man But on the other hand it would have rendred his death suspicious and without doubt made men imagine that it had been but a feigned and false appearance and no real separation of his soul from his body which opinion would evidently have shaken and overthrown our salvation it being entirely founded on the death of the LORD JESUS Whereas therefore it so highly concerns us to believe the same GOD hath in such sort assured and certifi'd the truth that we have not any shew of reason to call it in question For this cause it was his will that the LORD JESUS having commended his spirit into his hands should be laid in the Sepulcher and continue there three days there remaining after this no more cause to doubt but that he was truly dead since he was so long a time in the state of the dead Moreover our consolation required that he should enter into our Sepulchers to take away for us the horror of them and to assure us by His example that they have not force enough to detain our bodies for ever or to hinder them from rising one day again It 's for these reasons and other such that JESUS CHRIST would go down into this death's last entrenchment The Apostle saith then that true believers have been buried with him How so you will say seeing that they being living persons were never laid in the grave and surely not in our LORD's that was situate on Mount Calvary nigh to Jerusalem places very far distant from our abode Dear Brethren there is no man so gross but doth plainly see that these words are not to be taken according to the letter but figuratively and that they signifie not a natural but a mystical Sepulcher And in such a sense it may be said two manner of ways That we have been buried in CHRIST or with CHRIST First in regard of our justification that is the remission of our sins And secondly in regard of our sanctification and the mortifying of the old man For as concerning the first it is evident that JESUS CHRIST was not buried as neither was he crucified and put to death but for us only
circumcision we have that truth and fulness in JESUS CHRIST whereof it had but some part shadow'd out by its figure If the matter be the Sacrament it self the LORD hath given us one highly excelling to wit Baptism So as which way soever it be taken there is no reason at all that any man should desire still to retain circumcision But to proceed it is not here only that the Apostle attributes so great an effect unto Baptism He speaks thus of it constantly as for example when he saith that CHRIST sanctifieth the Church Eph. 5.26 Gal. 3.7 cleansing it with the washing of water by the word and elsewhere that we all who were baptized have put on CHRIST and in another place again 1 Cor. 12.13 that we have all been baptized into one spirit to be one body For the Sacraments of CHRIST are not vain and hollow pictures wherein the benefits of his death and resurrection are nakedly pourtray'd as in a piece of Art that feeds us barely with an unprofitable view of what it represents They are effectual means which He accompanieth with his virtue and filleth with his grace effectively accomplishing those things in us by his heavenly power which are set before us in the Sacrament when we receive it as we ought He inwardly nourisheth by the virtue of his flesh and blood the soul of him that duly takes his Bread and his Cup. He washeth and regenerateth that man within who is rightly consecrated by Baptism And if the infirmity of age do hinder that the effect does not at the instant appear in Infants baptized yet his virtue doth not fail to accompany his institution and conserve its self in them and bring forth its fruits upon them in their season when their nature is capable of the operations of understanding and will Heretofore in the primitive Church this double effect of Baptism was more clearly represented in the external action of the Sacrament than it is at this day For the greater part of those that were baptized being persons of age who came over to Christianity from Judaism or Paganism they were uncloth'd and then plunged into the water whence they immediately came forth and so were baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost whereby they testifi'd that they did put off the body of sin the habit of the first Adam and buried it in the saving-waters of JESUS CHRIST as in its mystical grave and came forth thence risen up to a new life for a symbol whereof they took up a white habit and wore it an whole week Now though the water wherewith we baptize doth not carry so express a figure of this mystical Sepul cher and Resurrection as that of the Ancients did since this ceremony cannot be practis'd towards Infants without very great inconvenience and even danger of their lives in so tender an age and especially in such cold Countreys as ours nevertheless the virtue of holy Baptism is still the same that JESUS whom in it we did put on communicating to us by the virtue of his Spirit the mystical image of his Burial and Resurrection that is as we have shewed the annihilation of the old man and creation of the new If we meet with any baptized persons as there are but too many such in whom the old man is so far from being buried that he lives and reigns with absolute power and the new man hath neither life nor action at all it may not be imputed unto JESUS CHRIST who always accompanieth his Sacraments with his saving virtue but unto the persons own unbelief who doth wretchedly repell the operationof the grace of CHRIST and deprive it of all the effect which it would have assurâ—dly produced in them if their unworthiness had not frustrated its efficacy towards them For I acknowledg that neither Baptism nor the Word do work in any but such as receive them with faith And in this as in all other things the admirable wisdom of our LORD doth appear For the subject being Man a reasonable Creature he dealeth with him in a way proper and suitable to his nature The means he useth for his salvation do not operate in him as drugs and simples by a Physical action and such as takes its effect whatever otherwise be the mind of the man that takes them But the operation of the Word and Sacraments doth depend upon the preparation of their hearts to whom they are administred They work when they are receiv'd with faith they produce nothing when they are receiv'd with unbelief And thus it is meet that the understanding which is the Guide and Ruler of all our moral actions be first perswaded of the truth of GOD and then our wills and affections take impression and be changed by the efficacy of his power This very thing the Apostle here doth shew us with much clearness by adding besides Baptism that we are buried and raised again with CHRIST by faith an evident token that the Sacrament doth mortifie sin in us and raise us up unto sanctity according to the faith it meets with in us It left the heart of Simon Magus in the bonds of iniquity and in the gall of bitterness because it found in it no faith at all but a naughtiness hardned in unbelief and full of Hypocrisie But as for Lydia and all those that have a true faith it doth assuredly mortifie sin in them and makes the new man live in them unto righteousness and holiness For it is not possible but that the person who is firmly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel should renounce sin the venom and horror whereof this Divine Doctrine doth so clearly discover and on the contrary embrace that holiness whose beauty and blessedness it doth so magnificently set before us man naturally flying from what he believes mortal and pernicioâ—s to him and adâ—ering with like necessity to what he judgeth healthful and advantageous But the Apostle who does every where exalt the grace of GOD and cast down the 〈◊〉 of man lest any one should imagine that this â—â—â—th upon which 〈…〉 doth depend were a production of our own will doth by the way advertise us that it is a gift of our LORD's when he nameth it the faith of the efficacy or of the operation of GOD that is to say which the efficacy of his hand produceth in us Whereby their error is refuted who hold that GOD for the producing of faith in us doth meerly set before us either outwardly by his Word or inwardly by his Spirit the object of truth leaving it to the liberty of our will to believe it or reject it By this account faith should not be the faith of the efficacy of GOD since that according to this supposition he should exert none at all upon us But the Apostle stileth it the faith of the efficacy or operation of GOD. We must conclude therefore that for the giving of us faith he operateth in
threatnest us How hast thou the insolency to accuse those whom GOD justifies and to condemn those for whom the Son of GOD dyed and rose again 'T is thus Dear Brethren that we must repel the tentations of the enemy and maugre his assaults possess in peace the loving-kindness of GOD adoring his bounty and ardently employing our selves to his glory For this is the scope and the end of his grace He hath acquitted us of all our debts and made void the obligation which was upon them that we being ravish'd with a Goodness so divine might love him with all our strength and all our soul according to that veritable Maxime acknowledged by Simon in the Gospel He to whom much is forgiven Luk. 7.43 Luk. 1. 74 75 ougth to love much He hath delivered us by his Son out of the hand of our enemies that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life And indeed how can we have the heart either not to love at all or to love but coldly a GOD who is so good to us who seeing us overwhelm'd in debt hath freely forgiven us all hath made void the obligation and for the razing out and making void the same spent the blood of his only begotten Son and for the rending it in pieces suffered his Divine Body to be all rent with strokes After a goodness so ravishing must not that man be worse than a Devil who loves not this Father who hath given us his Son and this Son who hath by his death obtained our salvation Oh how much reason had the Apostle to count him execrable who loves not this great Saviour 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man saith he love not the LORD JESVS CHRIST let him be anathema maranatha GOD forbid there should be any so wretched and odious a person in the midst of us Yet if any be sure he believes not of our Saviour what he makes profession to believe For it is not possible to believe him without loving him Let us love him then and faithfully serve him setting his Name and Honour above all the Interests of the World and our Flesh Let us obey his holy Discipline and conform all that life unto his will which we hold not but by his grace Let us imitate that Divine Pattern he hath left us diligently walking in humility and patience and charity whereof he hath given us so great and so admirable examples Let us have compassions and tendernesses for our Brethren that may resemble those which he hath had for us He hath pardoned us all our sins and quitted to us all our debts He hath shed his blood to blot out the obligation that was against us He dyed on a Cross that he might thereunto nail up and for ever abolish all the instruments of our condemnation Having experienced so great a goodness towards our selves how can we dare to have so little towards others to be obdurate to them and implacable when they have offended us cruel and inexorable when they owe us any thing He hath forgiven us Talents and we exact of them even Farthings He hath pardoned us a thousand and a thousand crimes We retain against them the slightest offences What shall we answer when he one day shall say to us Behold I have forgiven thee all this great debt at thy request shouldst not thou also have had pity on thy fellow-servant as I had pity on thee Without doubt my Brethren we should It is a duty too just and too reasonable for us to fail in If yet our flesh oppose let us pray the LORD to subdue it to his will by the power of his Spirit granting us to do what he commands that after we have had part here below in his Grace and in his Sanctification we may one day participate on high of his Eternal Glory So be it The Twenty-sixth SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XV. Ver. xv Having spoiled principalities and powers which he publickly made a shew of triumphing over them on that Cross DEar Brethren The Cross of our LORD CHRIST which at the first preaching of the Gospel was a scandal to the Jews and the scorn of Gentiles is in truth the greatest mystery of the Wisdom of GOD and matter of highest admiration to Angels and men In it the Supream Majesty hath mixed together with incomprehensible art and reconcil'd most contrary and most incompatible things death and life ignominy and glory condemnation and absolution defeat and victory The Devil having put it in the heart of Judas to betray JESUS and push'd on the Princes of the Jews to take him and deliver him to Pilate who condemn'd him and caused him to dye a cruel death upon a Cross this mortal Enemy of our salvation seemed to have got the day inasmuch as by his artifices he had brought the Prince of Life to so shameful an execution But it succeeded quite otherwise The blow he gave our LORD struck himself and our Saviour by suffering of death overthrew for ever all the power of the Devil as Sampson the Heroe of Israel who when he dyed pulled down and involved in the same ruins some thousands of his enemies This Cross on which JESUS hung was to say truth the instrument of his glory rather than of his ignominy and the trophee of his victory rather than the gibbet of his execution He suffer'd death on it I grant but a death that lasted no longer than three days and got him immortality whereas he there defeated and ruin'd the Devil and all our Enemies without recovery It 's this the Apostle represents to us in the Text where in connexion with that he had said before namely that the LORD effaced the obligation which is contrary to us and abolish'd it and fastned it to the cross he now adds Having spoiled principalities and powers which he publickly made a shew of triumphing over them on the cross Good GOD what a change is this He tells us of the death of CHRIST the most painful the most shameful and most execrable punishment in the world as of a triumph and doth not stick to compare that fatal Tree whereon he suffer'd it to a triumphal Chariot He puts in chains those that put him to death and causeth them to go not for authors or spectators of his sufferings but for part of the pomp of his victory This is the sight my Brethren to which the Apostle inviteth us the triumph not of a Caesar or some other of the World 's great Captains but of the Son of GOD the Father of Eternity In it you shall see this King of Glory riding in a Chariot bath'd all over with his divine victorious blood Isa 63.1.3 and as the Prophet Isaiah yer-while represented him with Princes and people under foot and he marching over them with his garments died red In it you shall see not Soldiers and Commanders in chains but Daemons the Princes of this world bound and
triumphed of his enemies in himself or by himself that is according to the ordinary stile of Scripture by his own strength and virtue he being raised from the dead and gloriously lifted up to Heaven by the potency of his own arm But I say in the second place that there is no absurdity at all in attributing these things to the very death of our LORD understanding them as we ought spiritually and mystically And without doubt it is much more fluent and clear to refer the last words of this verse to the Cross of our Saviour of which the Apostle had spoken immediately before he fastned the obligation to the Cross having spoiled Principalities and Powers over whom he triumphed on it that is on the Cross than to take it of our LORD himself and say that he triumphed over his enemies in himself which is frigid and harsh and obscure Say we then with the greater part of the Modern and with the more knowing and illustrious of the ancient Expositors that it is on the Cross our Saviour spoiled Principalities and Powers and that it was there also he publickly made a shew of them and triumphed of them I confess if we look upon him as suffering on that execrable tree amid the scoffs and sarcasms of the Jews in the lowest degree of his exinanition Flesh will find in him nothing less than victories and triumphs But you know likewise that this mystery must not be judged of by the senses of the flesh 'T is faith alone that 's able to discover and contemplate the wonders that are in it Now if you open the eyes of Faith you will easily perceive that JESUS hath spoiled all hostile powers on the Cross and that it is with this weapon properly that he surmounted those strong and potent Tyrants and took from them all the instruments of their violence and made a prey of all their riches For to say true that harsh and cruel dominion which the Devil exerciseth in the world is not founded upon any thing but sin If this pest had not infected us all the forces of Hell though they were a thousand times greater than they are could not have hurted us It 's upon our sin that this fierce Tyrant hath built all his power and it 's upon our ruins that he hath raised his grandeur For first if we were not culpable by reason of the sins we have committed the Justice of GOD would never have suffer'd this Executioner of his Judgments to trouble and prosecute us as he hath done It would not permit him so much as to open his mouth against us to accuse us But sin having provoked the wrath of GOD and his Law prohibiting access unto his Throne and pronouncing a curse upon us it 's evident that the same delivered up our persons to the evil Angels and gave them power to execute its judgment on us Again beside these evils which are termed penal and which could not terminate at last but in an eternal death the Devil did annoy men in another kind even by pushing them on to vice by his temptations and making them commit a multitude of sins some by means of avarice and others by the furies of ambition casting some into the excesses of luxury others into the disorders of drunkenness and glutny But it is sin also that gives him this power upon men to wit that Concupiscence which reigneth in them and which the Scripture calls the old man because it is the inheritance and succession and image of the first Adam It 's by this as by an handle that the Devil seizeth on them and trains them into such sins as he pleaseth Were it not for this he would have no hold upon them and each of them if he were exempted from it might say as our LORD did The Prince of this world cometh but hath nothing in me Now JESUS CHRIST hath abolish'd by his Cross both the guilt and the vices of men the guilt in that he bore the punishment thereof and satisfi'd Divine Justice for them and extinguish'd all the flamings of the Law and opened the Throne of Grace to every impenitent sinner Their vices in that he crucifi'd and destroy'd our old man on the Cross and mortifi'd all its lusts and discover'd its impostures Sure then it s by his Cross that he divested the Devils of the dominion they exercised over mankind having sapped and demolish'd all the foundations thereof by his admirable sufferings As for that which the Apostle addeth in the second place viz. that he publickly made a shew of those hostile powers this doth excellently well agree with his Cross For this shew signifieth nothing else but an extream confusion and ignominy as we have already intimated and who is there but knows that the evil Angels never receiv'd a greater than that was wherewith the Cross of our LORD and Saviour did cover them They thought to have overcome him and found themselves overcome instead of ruining his Dominion as they imagined they saw their own utterly overthrown And this was publickly done in the view of Heaven and Earth our Saviour having been crucified in the greatest City of the Orient by broad day and at the solemnity of the most sacred Festival the Jews had The Angels look'd on it from on high and never beheld any thing with more attention and astonishment Jews and Gentiles were spectators of it and Nature it self however mute and insensible sufficiently shew'd that it took part in it shutting if we may so say its eye through the horror it had to see its Creator suffer But fear not poor Creatures The shame and confusion will wholly remain to our Enemies Our Sun will soon come out of this Eclipse and his suffering is the salvation not the ruin or damage of the Universe In fine the Apostle's further assertion in the last place that our LORD triumphed over these hostile powers on the Cross is easily verifi'd also For Origen as an Ancient said There were two crucified persons on that Cross the one JESUS CHRIST who was nailed to it visibly voluntarily and for a short time only the other the Devil invisibly fastned to the same Cross and to his great regret and for ever in as much as this Cross of our Saviour hath destroy'd his life and power having given him that deadly blow whereof he will never recover Faith seeth upon the Cross above the Son of GOD combating and conquering for us and it sees beneath all the bad Angels put in chains vanquished and in vain raging under his feet Yet do I ingenuously confess that to speak properly the resurrection and ascension of our LORD have more analogy with a triumph than his death which doth rather resemble a conflict But it 's a very common manner of speech to attribute the name of an effect to the cause which produced it It 's in my opinion principally in this sense that our Saviour triumphed of his enemies on the Cross because the
death he there suffered was the true and only cause of his triumphs 'T was the Tree of this Cross that bore the Palms and Laurels he hath been crowned with 'T is there that all the causes and originals of all his glory are found It is this Cross that opened his Sepulcher and brought him out from thence and raised him up in Immortality 'T is it also that a little after opened Heaven to him and seated him on the right hand of the Most High 'T is it that loosed the tongues of his Apostles and changed the world in a short time that defeated Paganism that is the greatest part of Satan's Empire that threw down Idols and drew all people to the service of that Divine crucified Person whom it bore It is the same likewise that will pluck us one day out of the hands of death and lift us up into the Sanctuary of Eternity Lastly 'T is it hath founded that glorious Throne whereon JESUS shall sit and both the one and the other his Subjects and his Enemies see him truly triumphing the one with eternal joy the other with a confusion that shall never end Since the Cross of our LORD and Saviour is the cause of so many triumphs who sees not that it is not only with truth but also a great deal of elegance that the Apostle here saith he triumphed on it over his Enemies Let us Dear Brethren adore the mystery of it and look upon it notwithstanding the sad appearances of its infirmity as the only cause of the glory of our Head and of the liberty of his people If the Jew do stumble at and the Greek deride it 't is an effect of their ignorance and infidelity For our part who know its virtue let us say with the Apostle GOD forbid that we should glory save in the Cross of our LORD JESVS CHRIST Gal. 6.14 It hath taken us out of the mortal bonds of the Devils and put us into the liberty of the sons of GOD. It hath spoiled our old Tyrants and broken their Iron yoke and overthrown those infernal principalities and powers Let us not fear them After the blow they have received from the Cross of CHRIST they are but back-broken Serpents that do but hiss and crawl along the dust I grant they yet stir and wind about us and do not cease to threaten us But they can no longer hurt us if we keep fast to the Cross of our Saviour by which the world is crucified unto us and we unto the world They are our Enemies they are no more our Masters We are to wrestle with them we are under their yoke no longer And if GOD do sometimes permit them to strike us in our goods or in our bodies and what we have on earth yet he preserveth our persons and doth not suffer them to take from us any thing that his Son hath purchased in Heaven for us And he so governeth these Combats that they ever turn unto our glory and their confusion as that of Job's yer while did GOD permits them to attaque us that we may overcome them or to say better that the Cross of JESUS may stand up once more victorious in each of us and bruise Satan under our feet Rom. 16.26 as it hath already bruised him under his Let us with good courage follow the victory of our Head and stoutly march on in his steps Let us pursue the vanquished Enemy and not quit him till we in this holy warr do bear away the Laurel and the honour of a Triumph Take heed he rally not his dissipated Forces and do us some affront For henceforth there is nothing but our wretchlesness that can give him the advantage Our Victory is as sure as may be if we have so much courage as not to destroy our selves For what can he do to us if we watch if we pray if we keep upon our guard and under the Ensign of the Cross of our LORD Will he accuse us GOD doth justifie us and his Son doth defend and intercede for us Will he batter us with the curse of the Law The Cross of CHRIST hath annulled that Will he stir up against us the hate and persecutions of the world In these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us and that can so turn and change them in favour of us as they shall all work together for our good Will he take hold of us on the other side by the baits of sin and pleasures and benefits of the present world Our Saviour's Cross hath extinguish'd and mortified the desire of them in our hearts shewing us that all this beauteous figure of the World is but a vanity that passeth away and endeth in eternal misery Will he menace us with death He may but the Cross of JESUS hath disarmed it of all its stings and so altered its whole nature that whereas it was of it self the wages of sin and an effect of our Judge's wrath and the beginning of Hell it is now a token to us of the grace of GOD the end of our Combats and the entry of our Paradice Let us therefore my beloved Brethren live in repose and take fruition with humble thankfulness of the good things which the LORD JESUS hath obtained for us by the merit of his Cross serving and religiously adoring him consecrating all our life to his glory as he gave his for our salvation and assuring our selves amid all the storms of this generation that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be ever able to separate us from the love of GOD which he hath shewed us in JESVS CHRIST our LORD So be it The Twenty-seventh SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XVI XVII Ver. xvi Let no man condemn you in meat or in drink or in the distinction of a festival day or of a new moon or of sabbaths Ver. xvij Which things are shadows of those that were to come but the body of them is in CHRIST DEar Brethren Our LORD JESUS CHRIST doth excellently shew us the difference of that Evangelical service which he hath instituted in his Church from the Legal service which had place in Israel under the Old Testament when speaking of it to the Samaritan he saith Woman John 4.21 23 believe me the hour cometh that neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father But the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth Under the Law the service of GOD was affixed to certain places as the Temple at Jerusalem and the Land of Canaan to certain times as Sabbaths New Moons and those great Feasts of the Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles to certain corporeal things as Beasts and other Kinds which were offered upon a material Altar with divers ceremonies and to certain sorts of Meat it being not permitted at that time to eat of any
to think and medirate on Him and to receive from His hand the Divine fire of His Spirit that we may speak of His wonderful works Our feast of Tabernacles is to live as strangers in the world without cleaving to it still aspiring unto Jerusalem which is above the Mother and the City of the faithful Our new Moons are the praise we continually sound forth unto GOD not with Silver-trumpets but with heart and understanding In fine Our Sabbath is to do not our own will but the will of GOD repressing and restraining the motions and sentiments of our nature that place may be left for CHRIST to work in us so as it may not be we that live but CHRIST who liveth in us This is Christians that true body which was represented heretofore by the Jewish shadows These are your festivals your solemnities and your devotions Keep them holy and celebrate them religiously It is the great Prince of your salvation who hath instituted and consecrated them He recommends them to you every where in His Gospel and hath indissolvably obliged you to them by that death of His the remembrance of which we are to celebrate next LORD's day If you acquit your selves worthily herein be assured that after such stay for a time as you make here below He will raise you up to Heaven there to celebrate with Him and His Angels that last mystical feast of the great day which rising at the point of our Resurrection shall not go down for ever but shine eternally and render us happy in the fruition of that life and immortal glory which was prepared for us before the foundation of the world So be it THE XXVIII SERMON COL II. Ver. XVIII Vers XVIII Let no man master it over you at his pleasure by an humility of spirit and the service of Angels intruding into things which he hath not seen being rashly puffed up with the sence of his flesh DEar Brethren It 's a thing infinitely strange and which shews the extream corruption of our nature more sensibly than any other that men should have so vehement and invincible a passion for the serving of creatures GOD the Soveraign LORD both of them and of the Universe did manifest Himself clearly to them causing the illustrious and glorious marks of His goodness and wisdom and infinite power to shine forth every where above and beneath upon them and about them yea bringing the same home even to their hearts and giving them a feeling of Him by the innumerable benefits which He poureth out continually upon all the parts of their lives In short He shewed Himself and drew near and presented Himself in so lively a manner to their understandings Senses and perceptions that they could not if I may presume to say it be ignorant of Him though they would Besides all this He vouchsafed to reveal Himself to them at the beginning in a particular way speaking familiarly to Adam and Noah and others of the primitive Patriarchs who were the sources of the first and second world Nevertheless you know that notwithstanding all these lights the rage of that passion men had for Idolatry was so violent that it made them forget all these holy and admirable discoveries of the Deity and induced them instead of their great and abundantly good and omnipotent Creator blessed for â—ver to serve the creature and their phrensie rose to such an height that besides the Luminaries of Heaven and the invisible Powers that do govern them as also besides Kings and Sages and persons whom worth or authority had raised above others they were not ashamed to adore yet other things of the lowest in nature as Beasts and Plants and Elements and to compleat their extravagancy they added to all the rest Images and Figures things absolute insensible and unprofitable Changing as the Apostles does reproach them the glory of the uncorruptible GOD Rom. 1.22 into the resemblance of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed Beasts and creeping things This Bruitish error having overwhelmed all mankind the LORD was so gracious that He drew Abraham out of it as a brand out of an universal Conflagration and afterwards manifesting Himself more clearly unto his posterity by the ministry of Moses and giving them His Law He raised up amid this people a publick testimony of His truth against the general misdemeanour of the world fulminating a thousand and a thousand maledictions against all such as served Creatures But the love of Idolatry was so strong as it broke this barr of Heaven and violated this Divine declaration which prov'd to be so far from reducing the Nations to their duty as it could not keep the very Israelites in theirs but they as we learn by their History often gave up themselves to the serving of Creatures At last after so many significations of His mind GOD sent His only begotten the Sun of Righteousness and truth into the world who opened to us the manner and the reasons and causes of the worshipping of GOD and did fully discover that which both the Gentiles were ignorant of by reason of their stupidity and the Jews did but imperfectly know in their minority Now who would think that so shameful and gross an errour as the serving of creatures is should have the shamelesness to shew its self in so noble and so glorious a light Yet you know this wretched passion found the means to content its self bringing in under divers vain but plausible pretences the worshipping of Angels and men by little and little among Christians But however it is not so strange a thing that a corruption should get such ground in the latter ages when it was favoured by an universal ignorance and by a decay of truth and by the depravedness of men such a thing doth frequently come to pass in their disciplines and constitutions commonly as they go on they grow worse That which surpasseth all admiration is that in the time and under the eyes of the holy Apostles of our LORD and Saviour there should be men found of so impudent a spirit as to promote so vile an errour in the profession of Christianity We should scarce be able to believe it if S. Paul did not give us that testimony of it which we even now read to you And GOD permitted it as well to exercise and prove the Church which then was as to confirm ours this occasion having here drawn from the Apostle's pen a clear and magnifick condemnation of this abuse He hath rejected already in the precedent context those observances which the false Teachers he opposeth had taken from the Mosaical Law now he refuâ—es those which they had borrowed from the Philosophers of the World For as we shall shew anon that serving of Angels which these men would have introduced among Christians was a fruit and an invention of Heathen Philosophy S. Paul strikes down this vain impiety in few words Let no man saith he master it ever you at his
cashier all the doctrines of Rome which we contest with her For if you examin their serving of Saints and Angels their Sacrifice of the Mass their Papal Monarchy and other like opinions you shall find that they have no foundation but their will and when they are pressed they go so far themselves and boldly assert that they are judges of all things judges of the faith of men and of the Scriptures of GOD and that a Declaration of their Popes ought to suffice for the reason of any thing into which also their whole religion and belief is finally resolved So as if ever there were a generation of whom it might be said that they mastered it over the faithful at their pleasure without doubt it is they who do call themselves their Judges their Lords and their Monarchs who make their will pass with them for the supream law of the Church who put off to them an end less multitude of traditions and services upon the sole credit of their good-pleasure and undertake to distribute to them the rewards of their piety after their death meerly according to their phantasy exalting some to be Saints others to be Beatisied ordaining for some the service of Hyperdulia for others of simâ—â—â— Dulia as they call it commissioning some to be over one Country or City or over one sort of Diseases or Affairs and others over another As Kings disâ—ibute according to their good pleasure the Honours Charges and Dignities of their State while they cannot produce for one particular of all this any command or foundation from the Word of GOD But come we to our Apostle who declareth in that which followeth what the Discipline was that these voluntary Masters of the Faithful did pretend to impose upon them Let no man saith he master it over you by an humility of spirit and the service of Angels In these words he shews us what it is to which they would oblige Christians namely the service of Angels and what the pretext was upon which they promoted this new service to wit an humility of Spirit As for the former of these the word used in the original doth signifie not in general all kind of service but particularly that of Religion whence it is that the Latin Interpreter doth render it the religion of Angels This religious service comprehendeth in it those pieces of worship and those ceremonies which are peformed to the Deity and the actions by which homage is done it in that quality as adoration invocation thanksgiving trust and such others These mens meaning therefore was that besides that supream service which Christians do render unto GOD the Father Son and Holy Spirit they should serve Angels also as their Mediators and Intercessors with GOD and that under this quality they should address prayers and thansgivings and other duties of religion to them This was their error The pretext they took up to authorize this service was an humility of spirit alledging that we are too poor a thing to present our selves directly unto GOD and address us by our selves to so sublime a Majesty as also that JESUS CHRIST being the Son of GOD and GOD with Him blessed for ever it would be presumption in us to pretend the presenting our selves immediately to Him whereupon they concluded that we must have recourse to Angels who are middle natures between GOD and us to the end that they receiving our prayers may present them to our common Soveraign and intervening with Him on our behalf obtain access for us to His otherwise inaccessible Throne Such was the false and fair-seeming discourse wherewith these people painted over their Tradition Whereupon you may observe first in general that the alledging of some specious and seeming reasons is not sufficient for the authorizing a worship or an observance in religion All that is proposed to us in this kind must be founded on the word of GOD who alone hath the wisdom and the authority that is necessary for the setting up of things religious For if we once licence the mind of man to rely upon its own imaginations there is no error nor extravagancy but it will put some colour upon Sure the discourse of these Seducers doth not want shew and men have found so much of that in it as both Heathens and the Hereticks which have troubled Christianity and in sine those of Rome have all of them made use of it to colour their Superstitions Yet you see the Apostle without sticking at all this vain lustre without vouchsafing so much as to examine it does reject and absolutely condemn that service for which it was taken up only because such service was not ordained of GOD but founded solely only on the will of men Let this example make us wise to abhor and refuse without delay whatsoever men would introduce into religion without the order and the word of GOD. Let us not stay at all upon those gaudy reasons wherewith they endeavour to paint over their inventions Let us not so much as hearken to them It is sufficient warrant for our rejecting of their services that they are not ordained in the word of GOD. From hence alone it follows that they assuredly are vain and unprofitable neither is there any pretext how specious soever it be that can or ought to authorise in religion a thing that GOD hath not appointed Again you see here in particular that that Humility of Spirit wherewith our adversaries do at this day colour over the services they perform to Angels and Saints is but an old paint which ancient hereticks did use to bad purposes and the Apostle long ago expresly rejects so as it is not only a vanity but a very impudence for them to serve themselves of a thing so decried Let them cease alledging unto us that we are too poor to present our selves directly unto GOD Let them forbear to lay before us the Courts of earthly Kings where men make use of the mediation of Officers before they speak to the Princes themselves to inferr thereupon that we must betake us to the the intercession of Saints and Angels in like manner that they may lead us unto GOD and present Him our persons and requests S. Paul hath blasted all this artifice and they should be ashamed to use a pretext which the first hereticks took up for the covering of their errors and this great Apostle hath manifestly taken from them In very deed all this pretended humility of spirit wherewith the one and the others mask themselves is but a cover of real presumption which disdaining to be subject to the commands of GOD would serve Him after its own fantasie and not as He hath appointed Isai 7.11 12. It 's the humility of Ahaz who haughtily refused the grace that the goodness of the LORD offered Him upon pretence that He would not tempt Him GOD in His great mercy giveth us His Son JESUS to be our Mediator He humbleth Himself and is made man that He might
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
and the same kind of terrene and material things and tend to one and the same end to wit the purifying and sanctifying of men and the rendring the Deity propitious and favourable to them by such exercises This whole sort of service is carnal tyed up to certain corporeal things and actions in which it consisteth as is meat and drink in watchings and cloathing in mens washing and discipling themselves going in procession or on pilgrimage repeating certain words and forms of prayer it also dependeth upon times having its years its months its days its festivals and its very hours all regulated This was the very form of the carnal or ceremonial service of the Jews which was directly opposite to that other kind of service that JESUS CHRIST gave us in His Gospel which without being bound up to these childish scruples of times of places and of things doth wholly consist in a pure and genuine worshiping of GOD in loving and fearing Him and tenderly affecting our neighbour in honesty and justice and in a true and lively sanctity Accordingly you know that whereas the former service is termed carnal the latter is stiled spiritual The one is a serving in shadow the other in truth the one in flesh the other in spirit 'T is then in my opinion all that first sort of carnal services from what Source soever they flow either the institution of Moses or the invention of any other man that the Apostle doth here call the rudiments of the world declaring that we have been freed from it by our LORD JESUS CHRIST remaining no longer subject to all this childish and infantile pedagogy nor bound up to houres or times or elements or other parts of the world but being raised above all these things so as we may make use of them with full liberty according to the interests of Piety and charity and not be any more imbondaged to them or depend upon them But because JESUS CHRIST hath procured us this great benefit by His death and does put us in possession of it by the communion we have with Him in respect thereof thence it comes that S. Paul sets forth this grace of His freeing us from subjection to the rudiments of the world in terms that referr thereto saying not singly that we are delivered from such kind of services by JESUS CHRIST but that we are dead with Him as to the rudiments of the world An expression exceeding graceful and elegant It signifies first that we are no longer subject to these rudiments of the world For the dead are out of all servitude The Laws demand nothing of them any more Neither their Lords nor their masters have any power to require ought of them any longer Death breaks all the bonds that tyed them to any subjection whatever The Apostle saith therefore we are dead to the rudiments of the world to signifie that we are freed from them that we are no more subject to them as he tells us elsewhere to the same sense that we are dead to the Law and again in another place Rom. 7. â— Gal. 2. â—9 Rom. 6. â— I am saith he dead to the Law that I might live to GOD. And thus too it is that we must take his affirming elsewhere that we are dead to sin that is to say delivered from its tyranny And because death puts an end to and abolisheth the power and authority of the master as well as the servitude and subjection of the vassal thence it comes S. Paul saith indifferently that sin and the commandment of the old Law are dead to us and that we are dead to them signifying by the one and the other that we are Subjects of theirs no more But S. Paul saying here that we are dead with CHRIST as to the rudiments of the world doth shew us in the second place both the cause of our liberty JESUS CHRIST and the means by which He acquired it for us to wit His death We are dead to all ceremonial services for that our LORD hath disolved and abolished them in dying for us For His death hath satisfied all the reasons upon which these rudiments of the world were for a time appointed It hath procured that righteousness which they represented and exhibited that salvation which they promised and brought in the substance whereof they were but shadows It hath opened the house of GOD unto the Gentiles whom they barred from it and put an end to the Old Testament to which they pertained and founded the new an eternal and immutable one which they prefigured Wherefore the Veil of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom at the time that JESUS suffered death for a token that the antient worship whereof this Veil was a symbole became thenceforth abrogated and annulled In fine these words of the Apostle do discover to us further an apt resemblance that is found to be between the LORD's death on the Cross and our freedom from the yoke of Ceremonies For as JESUS in dying did divest Himself of the former life He led here below during the days of His flesh in infirmity and in subjection to the elements of Moses to take up a new one by His resurrection which was to be free divine and coelestial so we conformly by vertue of the communion we have with Him and particularly in His death do lay down that former manner of life that consisteth in the childish exercises of some carnal abstinences and devotions to live henceforth in the liberty of children of GOD serving Him no more in shadow and in figure but in spirit and in truth with a conscience pure and an heart not bound up to the places things and times of the old world but continually elevated to that new incorruptible and eternal one above the heavens where JESUS CHRIST the author and prince of our religion and salvation is Such is this Evangelical verity here laid down by S. Paul at the beginning of the Text that we are dead with CHRIST as to the rudiments of the world Whereby to mention it by the way you may see how much out in their reckoning they are who place the perfection of the faithful in the practising of these carnal disciplines and devotions accounting those for perfect who do use them S. Paul on the contrary terms them here the rudiments of the world so as the subjecting of Christians to such disciplines is so farr from being a perfectâ—â—◠〈◊〉 completing them as these men pretend that it is clean contrary a putâ—ing them back to their ABC and a reducing them from the highest Classis of the School of GOD down to the lowest there to become children again and lead a childish life with the disciples of Moses in an apprentiship to his rudiments and under the Ferule of his pedagogie The Apostle from this principle thus asserted concludes against the false teachers that all their ordinances touching abstinence from certain meats were vain unjust and tyrannical If therefore
and a vapour Again as the creatures there possess true glory so do they exercise true sanctity All of it that 's seen here below is but a little sparkle of the perfection of those blessed inhabitants of that coelestial City The love they bear to their LORD is there perfect as well as the knowledge they have of Him Charity towards our neighbour concord union truth do there reign absolute Their souls have neither affections nor desires but which are conform unto the will of GOD. The light of his face governeth all their motions and shedding abroad its self continually upon them maintains them in an eternal holiness peace and blessedness The LORD JESUS hath discovered to us all these wonders above the Heavens having brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel But further He hath certified us to that these are things which concern us and pertain to us and opened by His cross and resurrection the way that will most assuredly bring us to them If we have the courage to follow Him of what condition or quality so-ever we may be He will congregate us to this holy company of His servants receiving our souls into His bosome upon their departure from this earth and raising up our poor bodies themselves one day revested with His immortality and His glory These be Dear Brethren the things which are above that the Apostle willeth we do seek in the same sense that our Saviour commands us in the Gospel Matth. 6.33 to seek the Kingdom of GOD and His righteousness signifying by that term First that we propose Heaven and Eternity to our selves for the utmost end of our whole life and place our supreme happiness in this rich possession that we make it our grand and only design And secondly that we employ in this noble persuit all the might we have seriously using all the means that the Word of GOD prescribeth us faith invocation piety sanctity and flee as a mortal pest every thing that keeps us off or turneth us aside from this mark For Prov. 21.25 as to the slothful who does nothing all day but desire and sets not his hand to the work he hath no part in those heavenly things His desire kills him saith the wise man as one that feeds on nothing but wind there must be knocking there must be seeking there must be working out our salvation with fear and trembling This treasure is not for cold and languid wills that evaporate altogether in vain wishings It shall be that man's prize who shall take it with an ardent and a generous courage and impulsed with a violent affection spare neither pain nor watching nor labour to obtain it That which the Apostle commandeth us in the following verse namely to mind the things which are above doth amount to well-neer the same sense For the word he useth comprehends the two actions of our souls towards objects we love the one a considering them and thinking on them the other a desiring and embracing them in our affections So you see he obligeth us first to list up our hearts to Heaven where the LORD JESUS is and to have that blessed Kingdom continually before our eyes which GOD hath there prepared for us together with all those great eternal good things wherein it consisteth He requireth that this thought do fill our souls day and night that it be the thought that hath superiority in them that governs all the motions of them the thought that regulateth our resolutions and decideth all our doubts That in all things which shall present themselves we ever reflect hereon to see how they refer unto it and whether they be compatible with it Such was the practise of the Father of the faithful He looked saith the Apostle for a City that hath foundation And Moses the grand legislator of the Jews He had regard saith the same Apostle unto the recompence that is as he explains himself in the Text They minded the things which are above And this thought as you see is also necessarily conjoynt with affection with an ardent desire of possessing such amiable and excellent things and with a stedfast hope of enjoying them at length This is then my Brethren the first of those two duties which the Apostle requireth of us to wit that we seek the things which are above Now unto it he annexeth a prohibition which follows necessarily from it namely that we seek not the things which are upon the earth Heaven and earth being so opposite as it is is not possible but they who seek the things of the one must renounce the things of the other The things of the earth are as you know the goods of the World riches gold silver honours pleasures and the like all that which earthly men the children of this generation do esteem and passionately love He does not mean we should have no care at all about the necessaries of the present life for the good things that refer thereto being gifts of GOD which we cannot be without one may both acquire and serve himself of them with thanksgiving yet not cleave unto them and use them yet not abuse them And the Apostle you know other-where commands us to have care of our families and to do every one his own business and to labour with our hands that we may carry our selves honestly towards them that are without and that we may have lack of nothing But he forbids us to seek the things of the earth in the same sense that he commanded us to seek those of Heaven that is to place our chief good in them and to desire them with choicest affection and prefer them before any other consideration It 's thus that those men sought the things of the earth Phil. 3.12 Luke 14. of whom the Apostle saith elsewhere that the belly was their God and they gloried in their shame and those in the Gospel-parable who preferred the care of their fields and of their oxen and the love of their wives before the call of Heaven Such a one in the Old Testament was that Esan who chose a little pottage of lentils rather than his primogeniture Such in the New were those sordid Gadarens who would have the Son of GOD be gone because He had made them lose their swine and those that love their fathers or mothers or brethren or other alliances or their worldly possessions more than the LORD JESUS or that prefer the praise of men before the praise of GOD. Such a one also was that besotted rich man who thought himself happy enough because he had goods laid up for many years and dreamt of nothing but enjoying them Now though the bare dignity of heavenly things and the meer meanness and unprofitableness of earthly things should be sufficient to recommend the former and to disgust us at the latter yet the Apostle for the swaying of us to duties so just as these sets before us two excellent reasons the first whereof is drawn from our
resurrection with our Saviour He had touched it already in the twelfth verse of the precedent Chapter and 't is from thence he resumes it and reminds us of it here saying If then ye be risen again with CHRIST that is to say since you are risen again with the LORD as I have said and shewed a-fore For the particle if is used here as often else-where by way of illation and concluding not in way of doubting and imports as much as if the Apostle had said since that or seeing that For the rest you plainly see that the Resurrection he speaks of is not that of our bodies which shall not be till the last day but another mystical and spiritual one already accomplished in us by the virtue of our LORD'S resurrection and the efficacy of His Spirit Eph. 2.5.6 He spake of it a-fore at the place we noted and in the Epistle to the Ephesians where he saith that GOD hath quickened us together with CHRIST and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Him He explains us the mysterie of it else-where in these words Rom. 6. We are saith he buried with Him by Baptisme into His death that as CHRIST is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we in like manner should walk in newness of life Every resurrection presupposeth a death preceding For to rise again is nothing else but for one to be restored to life who before was dead Now the estate that men are in under the dominion of sin the Scripture calleth Death because therein they have no sense nor motion in respect of piety and sanctity no more than the dead that rest in the grave have any for the actions of this life Eph. 2.1 Ye were dead in your sins and offences saith the Apostle to the Ephesians speaking of the time of their ignorance Whence is that which our Saviour saith in the Gospel Let the dead bury their dead and which St. Paul sayes 1 Tim. 5.6 the widow that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth When therefore by the efficacy of the vocation of the Spirit and Gospel of the LORD a man comes to pass out of this miserable condition into the estate of grace receiving the light of Faith into his understanding and Charity and Sanctification into his heart the Scripture to express this wonderful change saith that he is risen again This is precisely the resurrection that St. Paul intendeth in this place He saith that we are risen again with CHRIST First because this blessed change that 's brought to pass in us by His grace is like that change which betided Him when from the grave where He had lain for the space of three daies He was raised unto life by virtue from on high For as He then received the faculties of moving and sensation of which He was deprived in the Sepulchre so we in our regeneration do receive a spirit and a principle of life which we had not before Again as the LORD was restored unto life by the glory of the Father as the Apostle speaks that is by virtue of the exceeding great and glorious power of GOD in like manner are we renew'd and put into the state of grace by the efficacy of the might of GOD and not by the arm of man or the operation of flesh and blood In fine as the LORD upon His rising again did recover not simply that life which He laid down in His dying but another much more excellent and glorious a spiritual a coelestial and an immortal life in like manner we resume in our regeneration not the life of the first Adam before sin from which we were fallen and which how excellent so-ever was nevertheless animal and mortal that is capable of being lost as appeared by the issue but another much more exquisite and perfect a life eternal immutable and like that the blessed Angels live Thus you see the Resurrection of the LORD CHRIST is the idea and pattern of ours But I add in the second place that we are said to be risen again with CHRIST because it is in Him and from Him that we have this grace it being evident that Faith which is the first faculty of the new life doth ingraff and incorporate us into JESUS CHRIST and as the vine-branch doth not live but in its stock so man cannot live that divine life but in his Saviour In fine we are risen again with CHRIST because His resurrection is the cause of ours in such sort as if He had not risen from the dead we should have remained lying in the darkness of our spiritual death CHRIST coming forth out of His grave hath opened and enlightened ours and hath administred out of His own store all things necessary to deliver us out of the miserable estate wherein we were and to put us in possession of the life of Heaven His resurrection hath founded our Faith shewing us clearly that He is the Son of GOD and that His Gospel is true His resurrection hath assured our souls giving us full proof that His death did fully satisfie and content the judge of the World It hath strengthened our hopes making us to see by example of our Head that death the dreadfullest of our enemies cannot impede our happiness Hereupon it hath kindled love of GOD and desire of so great glory in our hearts and finally produced in them the principles the habitudes and dispositions of the new life which are necessary for our attaining unto blissful immortality Since therefore JESUS CHRIST in rising again did thereby raise up our life which had been ingulfed in hell and the curse and brought to light the causes of Faith Hope and Charity the principal faculties of that new life we now have it 's evident that we are risen again in Him and with Him From whence that which the Apostle infers upon it doth no less clearly follow to wit that we ought to mind henceforth the things which are on high and seek them with all our affection For the life unto which we are raised up with our LORD is heavenly and not earthly divine and not natural eternal and not corruptible Since therefore every creature employeth all the sense and affection it hath about things suitable to its life who sees not that the faithful are obliged by the honour they have to be risen again with the LORD neither to breath after nor embrace other things but those that are on high in which their new life doth properly consist And such is the example He hath given us For being risen he abode but a very little time here below only so long as the work of our salvation did require and forthwith ascended into Heaven to draw up our thoughts and affections thither untill our bodies also follow one day being raised up thither as His was unto highest glory And this is the second consideration that the Apostle here lays before us to perswade
us unto so just a duty Seek the things which are above where CHRIST saith he sitteth at the right hand of GOD. For it as our LORD sometime said where our treasure is there be our hearts also where should our souls be but in Heaven since it is in that blessed dwelling place that their treasure doth reside JESUS their good their life and their joy in whom is hidden all our felicity In time past under the Mosaical Law the faithful alwaies turned their eyes and thoughts towards the Temple at Jerusalem because it was the abiding place of the pledges of GOD's covenant with them and of the most precious symbols of His presence and glory Judge what our affection and earnestness should be for Heaven which containeth the true Ark of GOD where all the fulness of His Godhead dwelleth not in shadow and figure but really and bodily But there is more yet JESUS CHRIST is our Head and we His members How can we conserve this honour but in keeping close to Him and following Him faithfully without ever separating from Him or withdrawing from that Sanctuary where He dwelleth And indeed He expresly assures us in the Gospel that He willeth we should be where He is and that where the dead body is there also the Eagles gather together so as if we be truly of the number of His Eagles it is not possible but we should take our flight to Heaven since this divine body of our LORD and Saviour is there And hereby you see dear Brethren to note it by the way how distant the doctrine of St. Paul is from that of Rome For whereas the Apostle elevateth our hearts from earth to Heaven Rome brings them down as far as in her lyeth from Heaven to the earth fastning the hearts of her zealots on her material altars and ciboires which she pretends the LORD is enclosed in against the suffrage of the whole Church who hath ever constantly applied these words of the Apostle particularly to the Sacrament of the Eucharist exhorting the faithful when they celebrate it to have their hearts above Sure if JESUS CHRIST be here below as Rome would have it the Apostle does ill to command us to mind the things which are above and worse again in urging for a reason of it that it 's above that JESUS CHRIST resideth If for that the LORD is in Heaven we ought according to the Apostles instruction not to seek any thing on earth how much less I beseech you ought we to seek the LORD Himself there I do not advertise you that this is to be understood of the presence of the humane nature of JESUS CHRIST For you know that He is every where as to the essence and providence of His Divinity And as to the grace of His Spirit and the efficacy and virtue of His will and institutions we readily confess that the same is not confined to the Heavens and doth extend and shew its self wheresoever He pleaseth according to the promise He hath made us to be in the midst of us when we are assembled in His Name But the Apostle doth not barely say that JESUS is in Heaven He adds that He sitteth at the right hand of GOD. Divers Doctors have belaboured themselves much in the explicating of these words and at length there are some that have strangely disguised them as if they signified that our LORD 's humane nature had been invested with all the properties of the Divinity which would be no other thing but that it was transform'd into a Divine nature a conceit which all true Christians have horrour for confessing that the two natures do remain each of them in its integrity having been united in JESUS CHRIST but not blended together nor confused The Apostle if we please to hear him will tell us in two words what it is to sit at the right hand of GOD. For in the 15th Chapter of the first Epist to the Corinthians speaking of the estate to which JESUS CHRIST hath been exalted in the Heavens and in which he shall abide constantly unto the end instead of its being said by the Prophet from whom the expression was taken in Psal 110. that the LORD should fit at the right hand of the Father he saith simply that He shall reign till He hath put all His enemies under His feet an evident sign that this sitting at the right hand of the Father is nothing else but that supreme dominion which hath been given Him over all things and which He doth and shall exercise unto the end of all ages inasmuch as GOD hath made Him LORD Acts 2.36 and CHRIST as St. Peter speaks And this consideration doth again mightily strengthen the holy Apostle's exhortation For since Heaven is the throne on which the Prince of the Universe doth sit and from which He dispenseth and governeth all things at His will there is great reason we should turn our eyes thither-ward and have this Royal Court of our Soveraign in mind night and day to comfort our selves under the trouble that either the iniquity of men and devils or the intemperateness of other creatures does give us and to form our manners and all the parts of our life after the will and by the example of so great and so holy a Monarch Behold the Lesson Beloved Brethren which the Apostle gives us at this time that we seek not low but high things not those of the earth but the things of Heaven since we are risen up with JESVS CHRIST who is sat down on high in Heaven at the right hand of GOD. What would there be in all the World more happy than we if we took up a good and a firm resolution to obey Him and practise the thing He enjoyneth us These fears and these desires and so many other vain passions which trouble our whole life would have no more place in us We elevated far above that which men unprofitably covet or possess or apprehend should with Angels enjoy a Divine contentment From that glorious Heaven where we should be we should despise the vanities and variations of the earth and see its seasons pass on and its elements roul about and its idols perish and its pleasures fleet away without any perturbation being secure that none of its storms can ever reach that high and inaccessible region where our hearts and lives would be We should look upon death without terrour knowing that it could not take any of those things from us which we possess on high We should suffer all the accidents of this life without emotion because they can change no part of the things we have in Heaven The charms also and illusions of the World would touch us as little as its menaces and raging because the fruition of a greater good would render us insensible for lesser ones as the presence of the Sun puts out the shining of the stars Being content with Heaven and its eternity we should covet nothing more and satisfied
hath been wont to discharge his avenging strokes upon men Others understand it of the punishment He will inflict for them at the last day and indeed the Scripture doth frequently so speak of that great judgement and the things which shall be done in it saying that it cometh elegantly signifying by that word the certainty and infallible coming to pass of a thing which 't is true as yet is not but will not fail to be as if it were a person that travelled and were already on the way to go to the place where he would arrive But I conceive the Apostle doth enclose within this word the execution of both those kinds of judgments signifying by it those great and dreadful torments into which God will plunge the wicked on the day of His anger which will be the last effect of His wrath against fin and also all the chastenings wherewith He scourgeth them in this life which are as it were the first-fruits of His wrath and so many samples and fore-runners of His final vengeance St. Paul compriseth all this in his saying that the wrath of GOD cometh But this form of speech even that the wrath of GOD cometh upon men is graceful and eximious importing that the evils which arrive on earth do not happen at adventure nor spring out of the earth it self and their inferiour causes simply but do issue from another source to wit from Heaven which pours them down here below as a storm or deluge for the inevitable enveloping and overwhelming of those for whom they are appointed They set forth from Heaven they travel towards us and fall whom in the end upon the heads of evil-doers by the order of the most High who marks out the whole course they are to take and dispenseth them with the same judgment that He doth thunders and tempests and rains which come upon us from on high by the guidance of His providence And as you see it is for the most part in the works of nature that these meteors do not come on a sudden but after some signs that precede and presage their approach in like manner is it ordinarily with the judgments of GOD. The thunder of His wrath as well as that of nature doth roar before it falls GOD threatens the guilty before He strikes them down and well-nigh alwaies sendeth men some advertisements that are as the van-coureurs and harbingers of His wrath to prepare us that we may either divert it by preventing it through our repentance or take it to abide with us Matt. â—4 Thus you see in St. Matthew our LORD and Saviour predicteth that the last judgment should be preceded by many great and terrible signs for the daunting of the ferocity of sinners and the reducing them if it might be unto repentance and in the same place He describeth the prognosticks of that dreadful vengeance which GOD was soon after to pour forth upon Jerusalem and the whole nation of the Jews and which failed not to arrive in a little time punctually as He had fore-told He observes the same order still in His chastising of families and nations scarce ever involving them in any calamity but He signified to them the coming of it before He executeth it which may be noted among others in those horrible scourges which have made havock in Christendome for these eight and twenty or thirty years But the Apostle addeth who they are upon whom the wrath of GOD doth come upon the children saith he of rebellion It 's an Hebrew manner of speech familiar in the Scriptures of the one and the other Testament to call that man the child of a thing who is addicted to it and hath in him the impression and tincture of it as they call Antichrist the Son of perdition that is to say a lost man one devoted and abandoned to perdition who destroys himself in destroying others And the Grecians whose language is extremely polisht and perfectly well formed have not however disdained this form of expression saying often the children of the Grecians for to signifie Greeks themselves and the children of Physicians for Physicians In like manner here these children of rebellion of whom the Apostle speaks are the rebellious such as disobey the will of GOD and His advertisements fiercely despise His counsel such who as St. Peter saith do stumble at the word who whatever care GOD takes to declare His holy will unto them and to call them to repentance will not hearken but obstinately settle and harden themselves in their sins Whereby they render themselves guilty of two hainous faults unbelief and disobedience For they reject â—â—e testimony of GOD and hold it for a fable sometimes even openly mocking at it which is an horrible outrage against the truth of GOD. Then next they disobey His voice confirming themselves in doing what He forbids them and in neglecting what He doth command them Such were those profane ones before the Flood who stubbornly despising the preaching of Noah the herald of righteousness continued impudently in the track of their corrupt waies taking no heed to the advertisements of GOD and His servant And St. Peter by reason of this insolent contempt terms them unbelieving or disobedient They did eat saith our Saviour they drank they married and gave in marriage 1 Pet. 3.20 and perceived not the flood untill it came and bore them all away Afterward Gen. 19.14 the people of Sodom and Gomorra did as much who took the holy and humble remonstrance which GOD's servant Lot made them of thinking on themselves and the notice He gave them of the destruction of their Cities for a rallerie or a phrâ—nsie They remained obstinate in this profane security untill a deluge of fire and brimstone pouring in a moment out of Heaven upon them and upon their abominable Countrey forced those dreams of their incredulity out of their heads and taught them that there is nothing more true than the word of GOD nor more false than an imagination of the security of sinners In fine it is the crime of all those upon whom the wrath of GOD doth fall They are children of rebellion to whom may be applied though to some more to others less what a Prophet sometime said unto the Jews Zech. 7.11 They would not understand but have pulled away the shoulder and made their ears heavy that they might not hear and have hardned their hearts as an adamant that they might not hearken to the law and the words which the LORD of Hosts sent by His Spirit I acknowledge that this is properly the crime first of those who reject the Gospel of the Son of GOD the true word brought in by the Holy Spirit and secondly of them that living under the Mosaique covenant rebelled against the word of GOD preached to them by Moses and the Prophets But I affirm that even they are not exempt of it who have sinned or do sin in the darknesse of Paganism For though these
the duty which the Apostle requireth of us here As indeed we must acknowledge that through the weakness of our apprehensions and understanding and amid that infinity of false appearances which things or men continually present us with it would be very difficult not to say impossible to preserve our selves from all error and never be deceiv'd in common life The Apostle demands of us a very easie and just thing even that we never speak any thing but what we believe to be true and that in the commerce we have with men our language be sincere and faithful without fraud and without fallacy naturally representing without what we conceive within and that it never betide us to say one thing and think the contrary The Scripture teacheth us in a multitude of places that GOD hateth lying more than any other Vice Prov. 12.22 and the Wise man saith expresly That false lips are an abomination to him the Psalmist also among other marks he gives the Inhabitants of the Hill of GOD Psal 15.2 puts this for the very first That they walk uprightly and work righteousness and speak the truth as it is in their heart and elsewhere he speaketh peremptorily Psal 5.7 That GOD will destroy them that speak leasing In sum S. Rev. 21.8 John proclaimeth in his Revelation That the portion of all lyers shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Whence you see that question here is not of a matter of decency but of a necessary duty which we may not fail of without incurring perdition The justice of it is so evident that the Sages of the Pagans themselves have acknowledg'd it leaving us in their Books a thousand notable intimations of that roundness and simplicity and truth which a man of honour and probity should inviolably observe in his whole life For speech having been given us by nature or to say better by the God of nature to the end we might signifie and declare unto our neighbours what we have in our hearts it 's clear that an abusing it to signifie what we do not think is a violation of the Law and institution of Nature And all true and generous courages have this sentiment so imprinted on their souls that they cannot endure double persons whence it comes that the Prince of Heathen Poets makes his Heroe say He hates no less than the gates of Hell the man that says one thing and hides in his heart another Lying is a slavish Vice that proceeds either from baseness of spirit or from badness of conscience or from vanity Accordingly you see that it 's extreamly odious among all noble and civilized Nations and particularly in ours of the French where you know there is no outrage that 's accounted more grievous and more sensible than to charge a man with lying He that hath suffer'd it without justifying himself is held to be a man lost in honour not among Gentlemen only but even among people of meaner birth this generous and veritable sentiment having been left us from hand to hand by our Ancestors that lying is an infamous thing and the mark of a soul either wicked or witless and that he who is not asham'd of it will make conscience of nothing as on the contrary truth is the foundation of all vertue and honesty But the Scripture sheweth us in two clauses what we should think of it when on one hand it nameth the Devil the Father of lyes and on the other calls the LORD the GOD of truth and his eternal Son the truth it self A consideration that renders the temerity of those so much the more unsufferable who stiling themselves the companions of JESUS have not shamed to favour lying by that Doctrine of Equivocations and mental reservations as they call them Eph. 4.20 which they have published and practised in these last times But ye have not so learned CHRIST if so be ye have heard and been taught by him as the truth is in JESVS He hates all lying and obliquity in what manner soever they be disguised and would not have his truth dishonoured by begging from its enemies hand the help it needeth that is he would no ways have fraud and fallacy employ'd on his behalf his providence is potent enough to defend it without such infamous succour It 's a maxim of his Apostles that we must not do evil that good may come thereof Lying is an evil contrary to the Law of God and the Ordinances of nature There cannot therefore be any reason that gives us a dispensation to commit it Thus you see beloved Brethren that which we had to say unto you concerning these three Vices which the Apostle does here banish from the mouths of Christians Evil-speaking Impurity and Lying Let us obey his holy Doctrine and remembring that according to S. James He that offendeth not in word the same is a perfect man let us diligently purge ours from all these ordures and so govern our tongue that it may not speak but of wisdom nor pronounce but of judgment and that all our discourses may be full of goodness and of honesty and of truth so as our LORD and Saviour who is charity purity and soveraign truth may own us for his and after the combats and tryals of this life give us part one day in the peace and triumphs of the next receiving us into the society of those pure and holy Spirits who live on high in the Heavens with him to bless him for ever as unto him with the Father and the holy Spirit the only true GOD belongeth all honour and glory Amen THE THIRTY EIGHTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER IX X XI Verse IX Having put off the old man with his deeds X. And having put on the new man which is renew'd in knowledge after the image of Him who created him XI Where there is neither Greek nor Jew neither circumcision nor uncircumcision neither Barbarian nor Scythian nor bond nor free but CHRIST is all and in all DEAR Brethren I know and freely confess that being called this day through the goodness of GOD to celebrate the memory of the death and passion of our LORD JESUS CHRIST this sacred chair is obliged for the fitting you to so important an action to entertain you with things that relate to this great and divine mysterie But as I acknowledge that this is properly the service in which I should employ this hour so I conceive that these words of the Apostle S. Paul which you have heard and which occur in the chain of our ordinary Text are very sutable to that principal subject of our exhortation For this putting off of the old man and this putting on of the new of which they tell us are both the one and the other the true effect of this death of our LORD the remembrance whereof we solemnize If JESUS had not dyed we should never have put off the old man nor put on the new since that
the sole infelicity of their extraction The men of Rome are at this day no wiser as who do not define Christianity but by an adherence to the See of their City The Apostle here doth thunder-strike the vanity of the one and the others proclaiming that neither the Jew nor the Greek and by consequent not the Roman or Italian are of any consideration in godliness so as to confer upon us or deprive us of the new Man And S. John Baptist had aforehand advertis'd the Jews of it Mat. 3.9 Presume not so say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father And it 's this our Saviour meant when he told Nicodemus That to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.3 he must be born again signifying that all that dignity of this carnal birth which did so mightily puff up the hearts of the Pharisees and Jews was but a thing of nought and contributed not at all to the entring them in his Communion Joh. 8.39 And elsewhere the Jews crying out that Abraham was their Father he answers them That if they were the children of Abraham they would do his works an evident sign that the children of the Saints are they that do their works as said one of the Ancients * Hierome Act. 10 35. and not they that take up their place and that as S. Peter said Of whatsoever Nation you be you shall be accepted of GOD if you fear him and work righteousness That which the Apostle adds a little after of Barbarians and Scythians tendeth also to take away all difference of people in matter of godliness against the vanity of the Greeks who despised all other Nations and called them Barbarians making no account but of their own because of the great politeness of their language and the civility of their manners and the study of Philosophy and Eloquence which flourished among them S. Paul denounceth them that this vain excellency is of no value in Christianity and that the illiteratness and political defects of Barbarians do not alienate them from GOD provided that putting off the old Man they put on the New The Scythians are those whom we call Tartarians and he makes particular mention of them either because of the ferity and extream rudeness in as much as they were accounted the most gross and least polite of all Barbarians or because of their probity justice and moral innocency as some think After nations he speaks also of the difference of ceremonies and conditions To the former referrs his saying that in Christianity there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision comprising under this one species all other semblable observations of things external and not commanded of GOD in religion signifying that men are neither furthered towards the kingdom of Heaven by being circumcised nor set back by wanting of it and likewise that as he faith else-where if we eat we have not the more and if we eat not we have not the less Whence appears how ill founded the ridiculous opinion of those is who put an higher eâ—â—mate upon themselves by far than upon others in point of holiness by reason of thâ—se external and voluntary devotions as for instance because they were a cowl or a certain particular habit because they abstain from flesh either alwaies or so a certain daies and do other like things in which they are not ashamed even to place Christianity What the Apostle addeth in the last place concerning the bond and the free doth also comprehend nobility and peasantry riches and poverty dignity and inferiority and in fine all that diversity of conditions which divideth men in the present world Though these qualities put a difference between them on earth they put none between them in Heaven nor in the mystical body of our LORD and Saviour into which GOD receiveth us all indifferently if He see the new man in us and doth equally exclude those in whom He finds it not The pomp of riches and honours and the glory of great birth doth recommend no one unto Him loâ—â—ness of extraction or of condition and the misery of poverty doth not 〈◊〉 Him to reject any He strips all men of that habit that makes up no part of them and judgeth of them only by that form of the old or new man which they bear within them Now having excluded all these things from the true constitution of piety he informs us for a conclusion wherein its whole force and vertue doth consist In this renovation of man there is saith he neither Greek nor Jew neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision neither Borbarian nor Seythian nor bond nor free but CHRIST is all and in all That which the Jews promise themselves in vain from their birth and they that Judaize from their circumcision and the Greeks from their Philosophy and Great ones from their dignity JESUS CHRIST alone doth give abundantly to all that are in Him He is all to them For in Him the Gentile finds Judaism and the nobility of Israel all they that are of faith Gal. â— being children of Abraham In Him the uncircumcised have the true circumcision which is not made with hands Barbarians Divine Philosophy and the Bourgeship of Heaven bond-men freedom of spirit poor men the treasures of eternity abject persons the glory of GOD and the excellency of His Kingdom And as He hath in Him an abundance of all sacred and salutiferous things so hath He them for all shutting not up the bosome of His grace against any who ever he be and conferring on all those of His communion universally righteousness wisdom sanctification and redemption and in a word all graces requisite for conducting them unto and putting them in the eternal possession of supreme beatitude Dear Brethren It 's this same blessed LORD the fountain and the fulness of all good that GOD presenteth to you at this time in His word and in His Sacrament Come ye all to Him seeing He is so bountifully offered unto you Let no one imagine either that he may do well enough without Him or that He may not enjoy Him He is both necessary for the greatest and accessible unto the least The dignity of Masters the abundance of riches the extraction of the noble the observances of the devout and such other advantages will be of no use at all to save those that have them so that JESUS CHRIST is no less necessary for them than if they had them not The low estate of servants the distressedness of the poor and the like other disadvantages do hinder no one from approaching and receiving of Him And as the brazen Serpent which sometime figured him in the desert was communicated indifferently unto all great and small poor and rich noble and ignoble and equally cured all those that looked on it and again as there was no remedy to be had against the biting of the fiery Serpents but that alone neither riches nor nobility nor science nor any other quality could cure any
of them So is it with our LORD JESUS He is equally both necessary and approachable for all He offers Himself to the great He disdaineth not the least He gives Himself to the one and to the others and saves them all indifferently Come ye thâ—n all unto Him what-ever in other respects your condition or extraction be Lift up your eyes on Him and behold Him stretched out for you upon Moses's pole crucified for your sins and wounded for your iniquities His flesh pierced with nails His blood spilt on the ground presenting to you in this scandalous but salutiferous infirmity the treasure of life and happiness Bring unto Him souls full of faith respect and love and prepare for the receiving of Him not your bodily mouth or stomach places what-ever superstition say unworthy to lodge Him but your hearts your minds your understandings and affections that is the nobler part of your being There it is that He takes pleasure there it is that He would dwell Accordingly it's there that He should operate and display His vertue unto the extinguishing of the old man and the engraving of His own image As the body is not the object of this operation of His so neither is it the seat of His presence nor the throne of His Majesty But you plainly see My Brethren that this incomparable favour He placeth on you in being willing to come and dwell in your hearts doth oblige you to put off His enemie the old man and clear your selves of all His pollutions eradicate the habitudes of all his vices smother all his desires and cleanse your whole life from all his deeds This old man is the disgrace of your nature the poison of your soul the death of your life the cause of your unhappiness It 's he that destroyed you that banish'd you out of Paradise that bereav'd you of your true delights that made you subject unto vanity and the wrath of GOD and the hatred of His Angels and the tyrannie of Devils Devest your selves of this accursed and funestous habit Give your selves no rest till you be rid of it Tell me not that he holds too fast that you feel him sticking in your inward parts and in your marrow Where eternal salvation is concerned there 〈…〉 is to be taken If you cannot rid your selves of him other 〈…〉 better to pluck out your very bowels than spare them and pe 〈…〉 the truth is we slatter our selves and that to keep this pleasing enemie with us we makes our selves believe he is part of us as if we could not be mâ—n without fouling our selves in the dung of his vices Be not afraid of hurting oâ— outraging your selves by driving him from you It 's but the pâ—st and poison of your nature as we said afore Your life will be not as you imagine incommodated but discharged more free and more happy by it thâ—n it was Besides after the victory over him which CHRIST hath won upon the Cross it ill becomes us to complain of the strength of this enemie All his strength consisteth only in our cowardice in our feebleness and effeminacy JESUS CHRIST hath taken from him all the true strength he had He hath crucified him and overthrown all the foundations of his tyrannie and of his life discovering to us the horridness thereof and opening us the way to liberty and the gate of the house of GOD. Instead of this wretched and fordid and shameful form of life let us put on that new man who now presents and gives Himself unto us Let us have Him night and day before our eyes as the only exemplar of our true nature Let us copy Him all out and faithfully engrave upon our souls all the features of His Divine and glorious form Let the image of this new Adam shine forth in our whole life in our souls and in our carriages Dear Brethren it must be acknowledged that hitherto we have greatly failed in this duty For what is more unlike than we and this JESUS CHRIST to whose image we should be conformed He is humble and meek and pâ—tient as a lamb We are fierce and proud and cholerick as Lions He did good to His enemies and we hardly spare our friends He lov'd the greatest strangers and we hate our neerest neighbours He was most pure and holy and we are polluted with the ordures of intemperance He sought only His Father's glory and the salvation of men We muse upon nothing but earth and consider only our own interests With this dissimilitude or to say better contrariety how can we pretend to have put on the new man which is created after the image of JESUS CHRIST And how can it be thought but that we rather bear the image of His enemie Yet you are not ignorant what depends upon it and do well know that it is not possible to have part on high in the glory of the new man except we put him on here below In the name of GOD Beloved Brethren and as your own salvation is dear to you travel on this great and necessary design Repair the negligences of the time pass'd and discharging for the future with good fidelity what the Apostle's word and the Sacrament of this mystical table do equally require of you put off the old man who hath destroyed you Put on the new man who hath sav'd you renewing you in the knowledge and unto the likeness of this sweet and merciful LORD who died and is risen again for you that after you have born on earth the image of His holiness and charity you may bear it eternally in the Heavens together with that of His glory and immortality Amen THE THIRTY NINTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER XII XIII Verse XII Put on therefore as * Elected of Gods Saints c. chosen of GOD holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humility meekness patience XIII Bearing with one another and pardoning one another if one hath a quarrel against the other even as CHRIST pardoned you so also do ye DEAR Brethren That which the Sacrament of the LORD 's holy Supper requireth of us and which it effecteth and produceth in us when we duly receive it is the very thing which the Apostle commands us in this Text and unto which he formeth us by these words of his He willeth that we be merciful kind humble meek patient and facile to pardon one another And the end and effect of the Sacrament is to make us so For it communicateth the LORD JESUS CHRIST unto us not that the substance of his Body may enter into ours nor that his flesh may be touched by our mouths and stomacks a thing both prodigious and impossible and which is moreover unprofitable and superfluous but indeed to transforms us into his Image and render us like him that is humble meek patient kind and merciful as he is forming these divine vertues in us by the essicacy of his Death which is celebrated in this Mysterie Whereby you see a
the LORD JESUS giving thanks by Him unto our GOD and Father DEAR Brethren The love that the LORD JESUS hath born us is so great and the benefits He hath conferr'd upon us are so various and so precious that we are evidently obliged to give our selves entirely to Him and we cannot substract from Him without ingratitude any part of what we are or have He hath laid down His life for us It is just therefore that we again do consecrate ours unto Him He hath redeemed us at the price of His blood and by this admirable ransom deliver'd from death and hell not only our Souls but also our Bodies and our whole Nature We are therefore wholly His and have no more any other Master but Him neither is there any justice in the world but will adjudge Him the propriety and possession of what costeth Him so dear But though of right we be his Vassals yet it hath pleas'd His love that we should belong to Him under another much more glorious title For He hath made us His brethren having obtained of His Father that He should adopt us for His children and accumulated this grace with all the highest favours that creatures can be exalted to I mean He hath made us partakers of His inheritance and communicated to us His Nature and His Spirit and crowned us with His immortality and with His glory Though he had not shed His Blood for us as He did who seeth not but that this His great and divine liberality should have purchas'd Him all the life and being and motion we can have and that to divert any part of it from His service would be a robbing of Him and a bereaving Him with abominable Sacriledge of a thing belonging to Him so legitimatly and for many so just and weighty reasons If we be not the most unjust and ingrateful persons in the world we ought all to have such sentiments and consequently look upon our nature and our life as things no longer ours but JESUS CHRIST's and dispose of them not after our own phansie and for our own interest but at His pleasure and for His glory And as you see that the servants of a Prince above all those whom he hath particularly obliged and favoured do set up his arms through all their houses and adorn their Halls and Chambers with his Picture and have his praises alwayes in their mouth and fill up their whole life with his name and glory so should we do to JESUS CHRIST and with so much the more zeal for that He is a LORD infinitely more rich more clement more liberal and more beneficent than any Monarch of the Earth Let our Souls and Bodies therefore bear His badges let His glory appear exalted in all our actions let the words of our mouths be dedicated to Him and our whole lives full of His Name breathing throughout nothing but His honour and service without ever swerving from His Will from His interests This Beloved Brethren is the Lesson which the Apostle S. Paul now gives us in the words that you have heard And whatever ye do saith he whether in word or work do it all in the name of the LORD JESVS giving thanks by Him unto our GOD and Father By these words he concludeth that excellent exhortation which he makes to all Christians in general of what sex or age or condition soever He began it at the first Verse of this Chapter and continues it on to our Text pointing out in it briefly but divinely as you have heard in the precedent exercises our principal duties on one hand the mortifying of the flesh with its lusts as fornication covetousness wrath and the like on the other hand the studying and exercising of all Christian vertues as humility kindness patience gentleness charity and peace To all these he addeth our knowing and continual meditating of the Word of GOD with Psalms and spiritual Hymns And here it was we made stay in our last action upon this Subject Now that he might not stand to treat severally of all a Christians other duties which would be prolix and even infinite and a Discourse of too great extent for an Epistle before he passeth to that particular exhortation which he addresseth in the following Verses to some certain ranks of believers as to Married persons to Fathers to Children to Servants and Masters he closeth up his first matter with the precept he here gives us A precept verily excellent and well worthy to Crown his exhortation since it comprehends in few words all the duties of a Christian both those which the Apostle hath expresly pointed at and those which his design of brevity caused him to pass over in silence without speaking of them by name To the end we may give you an exposition of it we will endeavour by the grace of our LORD to explain one after another the two parts that offer themselves in it First that whatever we do either in word or work we do it all in the name of the LORD JESVS Secondly that we give thanks by Him to our GOD and Father When the Apostle pronounceth that all we do in work or word be done in the name of the LORD JESVS he clearly gives Him our whole life For these two sorts of things which he subjecteth unto Him words and works do comprehend all the other parts of our life it being evident that nothing issues from us but what may be referred to the one or the other of these two kinds They are either words or works Words are the fruits of our mouths works are the effects or actions of our other parts and faculties I acknowledge that beside this our spirit also does act within us when it knows or considers things and desireth or rejecteth them But besides that these internal actions might be put into the rank of our works by extending the word a little beyond its ordinary signification as in effect some interpreters do give it such a meaning here beside this I say it is evident that most of the conceptions and affections and resolutions of the Soul do refer to words and external works as being the principles and motives of them For it is not possible that our words and works should be in the name of our LORD and Saviour except our understandings and wills do so address them and it 's properly this action of the Soul the Apostle signifies when he orders that we do in the name of CHRIST all we do The tongue indeed pronounceth the words and the hands and other parts of our bodies do execute those actions of ours which are called works But it 's the Spirit that moves them all and that directeth and guideth on their functions to that end or design it hath proposed to its self and draws them from such motives as it hath conceiv'd and form'd within its self And it is properly upon this that the difference of mens actions doth depend It 's this Character that gives them
he never setting about them but when he may do them in the name of CHRIST For though the nature of them be indifferent the usage of them is not so but must be governed by the good and the evil that may thence redound either to or against the glory of GOD and the edification of men as the Apostle sayes elsewhere All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient All things are lawful for me but all things edifie not Whence you see 1 Cor. â—0 2â— how vain the pretext of those is who excuse the excess of their habits of their tables and of their houses by the liberty which they pretend the LORD hath left them to clothe and feed and lodge themselves as they think good alledging that He hath not forbidden them Velvet or Silks or Gold or Silver or precious Stones or Tapistry or any sort of Furniture nor excluded from their Tables any kind of Meats or Services they being taken with thanksgiving I grant the use of these things to speak in general is free they all being created of GOD for man Yet this hinders not but each of you ought to observe certain rules about them and this one in particular namely that ye consider whether the thing be such as ye may do it in the name of JESUS CHRIST whether the money you waste in it might not be better employed in the service of His poor or of His Sanctuary whether your making men believe that you are vain glorious or intemperate or voluptuous by clothing or lodging or treating your selves more richly and more magnificently than beseems your condition whether this opinion I say which you give your Neighbours of you does not scandalize them and be not prejudicial unto the name and interests of our Saviour Hence again appears how inexcusable they are that marry with persons of a contrary Religion I confess that Marriage is honourable and that it is not prohibited to any But this action as well as all a Christians others must be done in the name of the LORD JESVS 1 Cor. 7.9 and so much the rather for that it is more important and continues as long as our lives Wherefore the Apostle doth expresly modifie the liberty he gives the believing widow by this exception She is at liberty saith he to marry again only so as it be in the LORD Now judge if it be a marrying in the LORD when you make alliance with a person allienate from your communion who will be a snare to pervert you from it will pluck the name of CHRIST out of your house and consecrate your blood to error and be so far from helping you in the exercises of your piety that the person will disturb them In fine this saying of the Apostle's shews us also what we are to think of Dances and Balls and such other vain pomps of the world If you can truly say that it is in the name of CHRIST you Masque and Dance I will accord that you fail not of your duty in it But if it be clear and manifestly known as it is that the LORD JESUS hath no part in these follies that in them His name is blasphem'd rather than glorified that His Spirit breaths not in them but indeed the Spirit of Satan and the world that scandal is given in them but no edification received confess it a thing contrary to your duty Add not impudence to guilt acknowledge if you be a Christian that it 's a violation of the Apostle's order to participate in such things which neither are nor can be done in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST I advertise you particularly of it because we are entring on the season in which the world is won't to give it self the greatest licence for such debauches Dear Brethren let not it's ill examples seduce you Let not the custome of the age nor the pleasing of men induce you to forget the respect you owe to the Apostles voice and the Churches consolation Seek your joys in the service of your LORD and Saviour and in the meditation and expressing of His life and having always before your eyes the love He beareth you the death He suffered for you and the Heaven to which He calleth you love Him with all your heart and whatever you do whether in word or work do it all in the name of this sweet and merciful Saviour rendring thanks by Him to our GOD and Father unto His glory and the edification of your Neighbours and your own Salvation Amen THE FORTY THIRD SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER XVIII XIX Verse XVIII VVives be subject unto your own Husbands as is meet in the LORD XIX Husbands love your VVives and be not bitter against them DEAR Brethren As man is subject to a twofold consideration first in regard of his nature simply as he is a reasonable creature secondly in reference to his condition or the rank he holds in humane society that is as either a Master or a Servant a Magistrate or a Subject or the like so he is obliged according to these two different respects to two divers sorts of duties those of the first sort are general and common universally to all men the others of the second do relate but to some certain order of persons only I place in the first rank piety towards GOD honesty temperance justice and charity and such other vertues for which neither sex nor age nor condition doth dispense with any because every man whatever he is otherwayes being a reasonable creature is bound upon that account to practice all those vertues as a perfection and ornament meet for such a nature I reckon among the duties of the second sort the service that bondmen owe their masters the obedience of children to their fathers the dependance of wives in relation to their husbands and the like which pertain as you see only to persons in such conditions and not to all men generally This difference hath produc'd in the Schools of Heathen Sages the distinguishing of active Philosophy into divers parts the first whereof which they call Moral Philosophy or the Ethiques do's explain that first sort of common and general duties the others do treat of the second to wit the Economicks which regulate and form the several different conditions that constitute a family namely husband and wife parents and children master and servants and the Politicks whose task is to expound the devoirs of all the divers orders that compose an Estate as the Prince and the Subject the Magistrate and the Citizen men of the long Robe and of the Sword and the like The Apostles of our LORD in those writings which they have left us where they have unfolded to us the Divine Philosophy of their Master have also followed the same order though their difference otherwayes be very great For they set before us in like manner some general duties which oblige all Christians of what quality soever and in whatever
is not worthy of me he cannot be my Disciple Saving this just and reasonable exception children owe their fathers that obedience in all things which the Apostle here enjoyns them And first in those which are of themseves good and holy and conform to the Divine will beside that the Law of GOD obligeth us all to them the command of a Father doth moreover oblige anew his children and if they fail in it beside the crime they thereby commit against GOD they commit another against paternal authority which shall be charged on them and punished apart as a different sin and worthy of its particular penalty Secondly the child again owes obedience in medial and indifferent things that is things which are morally neither good nor evil the extent whereof is very great Though such things be free of their own nature yet they are so no more unto a child after the father's order His command draws them forth of that indifferency in which they lay and renders them necessary in reference to him And here must no self-flattery take place I wish and it is their duty as we shall hear anon that Fathers would command nothing but what is humane and equitable yet if they forget themselves and pass these bounds how harsh and troublesome soever their commands be obey'd they must be if they contain in them nothing impious or contrary to the Divine Law according to the express order that S. Peter giveth Servants to be subject to their Masters not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward The reason for children in reference to their fathers is the same in this behalf with that for servants in reference to their Masters You see then Beloved Brethren the just extent of all those things in which the Apostle would have children obey their Parents Whence appears how unrighteous and dangerous and contrary to the Word of GOD the Doctrine of those of Rome is who enfranchise all Christian children from this paternal authority and power daughters at twelve and sons at fourteen giving them liberty at these so green years of age to go from their parents house will they nill they and retire from under their obedience into the cloysters of their monasteries where they have erected an assured sanctuary and an inviolable safegard for the rebellion of children against their fathers and their mothers There under the umbrage of a false devotion they entertain children in idleness and foment their impiety tyrannically giving them a dispensation for that obedience and those just succours which by all the laws of GOD and men they owe to the sacred persons of those who gave them being in the world The father demands of 'em the assistances and consolations which he promised himself from them He sheweth them his gray hairs and his limbs trembling through age he conjures them by the life he gave them and by the cares he took to breed them up He summons them to render him the just rewards of his pains and not to despise the tears and treaties of a person to whom they are obliged for their life The mother all in mourning presents them the paps that nursed them and sets before their eyes the tenderness of her affection and all the tyes of nature And they both together adjourn them before GOD that they may see themselves condemned at His dreadful tribunal to pay the honour which they owe them What say our adversaries hereupon They say that children ought to look upon their fathers and their mothers without emotion That neither their words nor their weeping should make any impression upon them That if they cannot enter into the monastery otherwaies than treading their bodies under foot they ought to have no horrour at all at so unnatural an action That it is piety to be cruel and insensible on such an occasion They say the monastick vow hath broken all the bonds of filial subjection and that the child who hath made it does no longer owe any thing to father or mother that he is dead to them and they have no more power over him no more than if he were out of the world Oh unrighteous and cruel and unnatural doctrine How could these men more plainly contradict the holy Apostle The Apostle saith Children obey your parents in all things for this is pleasing to the LORD And these Masters say Children obey them not in all things if they forbid you to be Monks scorn their Order It they command you to abide with them be gone against their will For you would do a thing displeasing to the LORD if you did not disobey them Neither let them alledge us here that they are now grown up If they cease to be children by attaining unto twelve or fourteen years I will acknowledge that they are no longer subject to their parents But if they must confess that no age does devest them of this quality it must be acknowledged that neither does any give them a dispensation for obedience since the Apostle commands it to all such as are children They excuse themselves upon the account of devotion This would pass if the father called his child unto impiety or commanded him to deny JESUS CHRIST or to serve idols But this father and this mother who would keep their child at home are Christians as well as Monks are and their house makes a part of JESUS CHRIST's as well as the Cloyster where he is kept in The obedience they demand of him is a duty commanded by the Law of GOD and very far from being contrary thereto I urge not at present that the vows by which he is pretended to be bound are contrary to the word of GOD as particularly that of mendicancy are rash as that of never marrying are injurious to the LORD as that of the blind and absolute obedience which they promise to a mortal man Let them go for permitted Certainly at least are they not necessary and themselves as great admirers of them as they are do confess I take it that one may serve GOD and obtain His kingdom without the precinct of a monastery and that neither beggery nor single lite nor the frock are things absolutely necessary to salvation There is neither place where one may not serve JESUS CHRIST in spirit and in truth nor habit but is compatible with piety Now the child ought to obey his father in all that GOD hath not prohibited Since then He hath not prohibited the living abroad out of the houses and habit of Benedict of Francis of Loyola and such other institutors of monastick life every child is necessarily obliged not to enter into them when his father forbids it him But you will say what if he hath made a vow to enter If he hath he hath done ill against the dues of piety and charity and such vows if it be an error to make them it is blindness and obduration to keep them The first and most inviolable of our vows is that which binds
he expresly gives it us in charge For though the duty be not only very just but even most necessary yet we are of our selves so cold and sluggish and so indisposed to the performance of it that we all need the heavenly voice of this Minister of GOD to excite us unto it Presuming that we have the things we need in our own power or shall find them in the sufficiency of nature and not considering how they all depend upon the hands of GOD we remit the assiduous invocating of him and make not use of prayer but on extraordinary occasions when humane succour faileth us as the manner is in tragedies where the Deity is not brought in but at some difficulties which no created power or prudence is able to clear On the other hand we are so proudly delicate and tender that if we are not heard as soon as we have spoken we flye off and are ready to say as that King of Israel once did Why should I wait on the LORD any longer 2 Kings 6.33 For the curing our selves of so pernicious an humour and that we may persevere in prayer according to the Apostle's advice let us consider in the first place the continual need we have of GOD's assistance For since it is in Him that we have being life and motion since it is He who sendeth poverty and maketh rich who sets up and puts down who dispenceth health and sickness who bringeth to the grave and reduceth thence who governs the hearts of men and the elements of nature Since it is He again who beginneth who polisheth and perfecteth all the work of grace and crowneth it with glory who effectually produceth in us both the will and the deed of his good pleasure it is evident that without the help of His holy and most happy hand we can never come to possess any good either in our own persons or in our families either in the State or in the Church nor be preserved and secured or freed and saved from any evil of any kind whatever You cannot refuse belief of this great truth without imputing falshood at once to the Scriptures of GOD and the depositions of Nature both which do harmoniously report and averr it to us on all hands Yet if thou credit it why do you not consider what it necessarily inferrs namely that having continual need of GOD's assistance you are by your own interest obliged to implore it continually And that as you cannot pass a day without His favourable succour so neither should you spend a day without calling on His Name Look I beseech you upon poor beggars with what earnestness with what indefatigable perseverance they spend whole daies nay their whole life a petitioning of us It 's a sense of their necessity that gives them this constancy and inspires this courage into them Dear Brethren we have infinitely more need of the succours of GOD than these poor people have of ours Why are not we at least as earnest as constant and assiduous in beseeching Him as they are in asking alms of us As for them our flintiness is such that for the most part they reap little or no fruit of their perseverance in praying of us whereas the LORD according to the riches of His infinite goodness and power never sends away ashamed such as persevere in prayer to Him He hath so promised He doth daily so perform and the Church's experience in all ages assures us of the truth of the word He hath given us in that behalf I confess He doth not alwaies presently give us what we crave But if we be constant if undismayed at His first denials we press Him with a vigorous and an ardent faith there 's nothing but perseverance will draw it from His bounty Gen. 32.25 26. Hos 12.4 in the end It was thus that Jacob obtained the blessing he desired He wrestled stoutly with GOD all night and had power over Him he wept and begged favour and constantly holding fast his LORD I will not let thee go said he to Him untill thou bless me The Canaanitish woman in the Gospel took the same course and was heard in like manner She bore our Saviour's first put-offs without dismay and those hard words It is not good to cast the childrens bread to dogs Matt. 15.26 astonish'd her not She receiv'd this great blow without giving over and her holy importunity came off victorious having drawn from our LORD's mouth that sweet and desirable answer O woman great is thy faith Be it unto thee as thou wilt Imitate this violence It offends not GOD. It appeaseth Him The LORD Himself commands it us expresly and teacheth us that we ought to pray alwaies and not faint by the parable of that poor widow whose importunity overcame the obdurateness of the unjust Judge and drew that from him in the end which neither fear of GOD nor respect of men could sway him to This Judge was wicked and cruel yet the perseverance of a woman conquered him How much rather shall ours bear away what we desire of GOD who is goodness and clemency its self As for that Judge it was his nature and the disposition of his heart that rendred him cruel and inexorable But if the LORD grant not our first requests 't is not that He means indeed to be sparing of His benefits towards us To say true He is more willing to give them than we are to receive them This in total is but a mysterious act of His wisdome and by such delays He would exercise our faith enflame our desires and make tryal of our constancy He hides himself that we might seek Him He retires that we might press after Him and holds back His blessing that we might pluck it from Him His favours are no boons that should be faintly desired We do not know the value of them if we do not esteem them worthy to be asked with instancy The favours we sue for at the Courts and Palaces of men are verily but terrene things things of little value and of a short and uncertain duration Yet what do we not do to obtain them We besiege their gates in the morning early we abide there till late at night we suffer their put-offs and disdains and oftentimes even their reproaches and the outrages of their domesticks They drive us from them they call us troublesome people they accuse our hardiness of impudence or insolency We swallow all these affronts and after all forbear not to come on again inventing if it be possible some new submission to soften them so great and pressing is our desire of those things which we petition them for Christians do ye not blush at having more passion for things of the earth then for things of Heaven Are you not ashamed to sollicite the justice or the favour of men with more earnestness then the grace of GOD To have more patience and perseverance in seeking to win the heart of a worm of the
say all those that are principal and essential in religion about which they make no contest with us As for others which consist in a rejection of their errors and consequently cannot but be odious to them we must deliver our selves about them with much discretion meekly shewing them the reasons of our sentiments that they may see it is not out of wilfulnesse that we depart from their belief but by the constraint of necessary reason Let us forbear atrocious and opprobrious terms and keep a just medium between flattery and unworthy complacenciousness which covers in silence or disguiseth the malady on one hand and indiscreet and furious zeal which angers and invenomes it instead of healing it on the other Error is a sore that must be neither neglected nor roughly handled it must be touch'd but tenderly and in such a manner as if possible we do not in our medling with it put the Patient to pain See how St. Paul took such a case in hand He was at Athens a City full of so much impiety and idolatry as cut him to the heart And having discovered the offence he took at it when they had brought him forth and asked him what then his doctrine was he doth not tell them that they were idolatrous and impious and bruitish to worship wood and stone though all this was very true But the prudent Minister of GOD saw well that if he had proposed this truth so crudely to them he should have lost himself and not at all have edified them What does he then He gives them at first some praise acknowledging that they were extreme devoutly given Thereupon he tells them of that unknown GOD to whom they had consecrated an altar and thence dexterously takes occasion to preach the true GOD to them insinuating the truth so skilfully to them that to hear him speak one would think he had not brought it from abroad but found it there among them This truly was speech seasoned with the salt of grace Let us imitate I beseech you Brethren this rich example of prudence and modesty rather than the eruptions and indiscretions of zeal without knowledge which serve only to irritate those that are without and draw the bad effects of their aversion and hatred upon those that are within But let us have yet more care to order our waies than our words We cannot usher in our discourses with a better or more perswasive preface than a good and holy life if we walk wisely with them that are without as the Apostle gives us in charge if we eschew not only evil actions but those also that have the appearance of such and are reputed of men to be such if we shew them nothing but piety honesty humility charity meekness and sincerity if we affectionately seek and embrace occasions to oblige them and do them service if we patiently bear the offences they do us and revenge not our selves but by offices of beneficence This conduct if we follow it will mitigate some of them and entirely gain others It will invite the King our Soveraign Lord and His Ministers to continue and more and more confirm to us that sweet and precious liberty of conscience which having been given us in this great Estate by the clemency and wisdome of his Fathers hath been hitherto conserved to us by his Grace In fine this conduct will render our doctrine honourable in all things and make the Name of the LORD JESUS whom we serve to be glorified and being acceptable to Him will draw down His benediction upon us and after the first-fruits of His bounty which He will make us taste of in this life introduce us one day to the full and eternal possession of His immortal glory Amen THE FORTY EIGHTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. IV. VER VII VIII IX X XI Ver. VII Tychicus our beloved brother and a faithful Minister and fellow-servant in the LORD shall make known unto you all my state VIII Whom I have sent unto you expresly to the end he might know your estate and comfort your hearts IX With Onesimus our faithful and beloved brother who is of you They shall advertise you of all affairs here X. Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner saluteth you and Marcus sister's son to Barnabas touching whom you have receiv'd commandment If he come to you receive him XI And Jesus who is called Justus which are of the circumcision These alone are my fellow-labourers in the Kingdom of GOD who have been a comfort to me DEAR Brethren The infinite wisdom of GOD is very clearly manifested in His works not only by the admirable disposition of the parts whereof they are composed and the exquisite order in which He hath ranked them together but also in that there is not any thing about them without its utility View me the world this vast and first master-piece of His hand Consider me the Scripture His other work the second and more excellent discovery of His will and nature You shall not observe ought in either of them but is of use both for the compleating of the whole and for the benefit and edification and consolation of men I acknowledge that among the parts of these two composures of GOD there are some more useful and more necessary than others some in which His wisdom and goodness do shine bright and beam forth an abundant light others in which they are but dimly to be seen However there is not any though little and dusky in appearance but hath its usefulness It concerns us therefore not to despise one of them but heedfully remark whatever of worth the Creator hath put in them all that so we may both give Him the glory of it and by it benefit our selves I desire the truth is we should insist most upon those in which the wonders of this great Authors hand is most resplendent yet so as we neglect not the rest when by His providence we meet with them In conformity to this order having hitherto considered the divine instructions both concerning faith and manners which this Epistle of the Apostle to the Colossians do's contain we now present you the later part of it wherein this holy man recommendeth certain particular persons saluteth others both in his own name and in the name of some of his friends and collegues in the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST Disdain not Dear Brethren this conclusion of the Apostle's divine letter nor do ye imagine that it can yield you no profit because it is not so luminous and quitting the rich and weighty subjects we have entertained you with do's speak of particular persons only Though it had nothing at all in it but the names of some faithful men yet would it merit consideration For if we take pleasure in hearing and learning the names of the Captains the Officers and the Ministers of our ancient Kings and even of strange Princes who have been any thing great and illustrious in their times as an Alexander a Caesar or such others how
much more passion should we have for those that had their share in the fortune and atchievments of St. Paul and held some rank with him in the house and service of CHRIST our supream and eternal Monarch For I affirm and every reasonable person that shall seriously consider the thing will accord with me that the exploits of St. Paul and his associates under the Name and Ensign of JESUS CHRIST are much greater and more admirable than all the lofty deeds of the most renowned Conquerors So that if the grandeur of a matter do give us the curiosity to inform our selves of the names and qualities of those that intervened in it this alone ought to be no little satisfaction to us even that we find in this passage of St. Paul's Epistle the names of seven or eight of these the LORD 's generous warriers who coming out of divers quarters to rank themselves on each side of our great Apostle combated the enemy at Rome that is in his strongest Hold and there maugre all his fury planted the Empire and the Trophies of their Master But beside the just and lawful contentment that such a knowledge may give us this passage will also afford us divers other very useful instructions the Spirit that guided this sacred writer promoting not a word but is full of wisdom And this reverent opinion we ought to have of all things contained in the book of GOD. For as when in the shop of an intelligent and able Herbalift you see dry and wither'd simples that have neither smell nor tast nor colour you believe however that they have some secret vertue which lies hidden under that poor and unpromising appearance presuming that they would not else have been ever laid up in such a place So when in the holy Scriptures you meet with some passage or other that at first seems little worthy of consideration casting if I may so speak no smell shewing no colour to affect or excite our perceptive faculty make account that under this so unattractive an outside there is undoubtedly some spiritual utility contained for that JESUS the sovereign Physician of souls hath laid up nothing in this divine shop of his which is superfluous or without use You will by experience find it true if you take the pains to examine attentively and as our Saviour speaks to sound this text of the Apostles which containing only some recommendations and salutations which are little considerable in appearance will nevertheless afford you divers instructions very useful for the edification of your souls Now to ease you in this meditation we will employ the present hour by the will of GOD in discovering to you some of the remarkablest among them And that we may proceed in it with some order we wil handle the two parts of this text distinctly the one after the other In the first which comprehends the first three verses the Apostle recommends to the Colossians two considerable persons whom he sent unto them namely Tychicus and Onesimus In the second which extends through all the rest of the Text as far as the twelfth verse of the chapter he presents them the salutations of certain faithful servants of GOD that then sojourned at Rome were near him Upon the first of these two general heads there instantly offers its self to our observation the zeal and affection of this holy man for his Master's flock and withall his wisdom and spiritual prudence He was prisoner at Rome in the chains of Nero uncertain of the issue of his captivity persecuted by the Jews hated of the Heathen and for a surcharge of affliction turmoiled by the malevolence and cruel designs of some that called themselves Christians One would think that in so great and so confus'd and terrible a combate he should have minded himself only and that he were in an estate to receive the succours of other faithful men but not give them his Not a man of us but finding himself in a like danger would conceive himself dispens'd with for taking to heart the necessities of others and believe he had just cause to gather up and fix all his cares on his own need But this holy Minister of GOD to whom a most ardent charity did render the interests of his Master's sheep much more sensible than his own makes a quite different judgment in the case Neither his irons nor his prison neither the fury of the Jews nor the cruelty of the heathen nor the inhumanity of false brethren nor death nor the sword that hung continually over his head are able to put one moment out of his heart 2 Cor. 11.28 that care of the Churches which held him as he very truly saith elsewhere incessantly besieg'd from day to day knowing then the trouble the Colossians were in for him and the attempts that false teachers made upon their saith he contents not himself with writing this divine letter to them that is with sending them in this paper a living and abundant source of consolation and of succour against the horror of persecutions and the impostures of seducers he dispatcheth also two messengers unto them to inform them exactly of all the particularities of his imprisonment to tell them by word of mouth divers things which could not be written and to discourse upon and explain those which the brevity of a letter had not permitted him to enlarge For that such was the cause of his sending them himself doth expresly declare They shall advertise you saith he of all affairs here and speaking of Tychicus one of them He shall let you know saith he all mine estate For to this end have I expresly sent him unto you In the following words again he intimates another reason that he might know saith he your state True it is that there are some manuscript Greek copies that read a little otherwise namely that ye might know our state And verily it is thus the Apostle speaks of his sending the same Tychicus to the Ephesians I have sent him to you expresly saith he for this end that ye might know our state But it imports not much which of these two ways we read the Apostles words For there is fair probability that as the Colossians were in pain for him so he was likewise in pain for them both because of the persecutions which the faithful were then everywhere subject to and also for the trouble which he understood that Church received from some false teachers so that to satisfie this common and reciprocal desire which the Colossians and he had to receive certain and exact news of one another he sent Tychicus to them who might inform them of his and understand theirs to impart the same to him He adjoyneth the last and principal end in of sending Tychicus that saith he he might comfort your hearts For it was certainly the consolation of these faithful people that the Apostle sought But you will say what consolation could the report of St. Paul's affairs
subject and do entitle themselves Monarchs of not forbearing to put even greatest Princes and Emperors under the yoke of their domination and to exact of them as a mark of lowest servitude the kissing of their feet But this holy and admirable humility of the Apostle appears further still in his speaking as he does of Onesimus whom he sent with Tychicus unto the Colossians He is saith he our faithful Brother c. For who think you was this Onesimus to whom he does so much honour as to call him his faithful and beloved brother Dear Brethren it was a poor fugitive bond-servant that is a person of the meanest and most despicable condition of any at that time as St. Paul himself gives us to understand in the Epistle which he wrote in favour of this at-length-happy fugitive unto Philemon the Colossian his Master where he plainly intimates that this poor man stealing from his Master's house had fled into Italy and got to the City of Rome for safety But oh the admirable providence of GOD who knoweth how to carry on the salvation of His elect by waies that we cannot comprehend the Apostle hapning to be prisoner there and Onesimus led by his curiosity or some other such occasion having heard him was so affected at his preaching as that of a Pagan he became a Christian of a servant of Philemon a free-man of JESUS CHRIST and instead of that temporal impunity for the crime committed against his Master which he fought at Rome he there found the eternal remission of his sins and the salvation of his soul This is that which St. Paul elsewhere means when he saith that he begat him in his bonds Phil. 10. Now the Apostle having shewed him the fault he had committed in deserting his Master he resolves to return home to him and voluntarily render up himself unto his yoke again And that Philemon might pardon his offence he makes him the bearer of a letter which he writes him on this subject a letter so full of all the expressest testimonies of a tender and ardent affection which may be given as does sufficiently prove he did in truth account him as he here terms him his beloved Brother But some of the ancient Writers of the Church do further intimate that Onesimus profited so well in the knowledge of GOD and in piety as notwithstanding the meanness of his condition after the flesh he was advanced to the sacred ministery of the Gospel and executed it in the Church of Ephesus And truly the employment the Apostle gives him here in reference to this whole Church and the company of Tychicus whom he associates him with and the honourable title he gives him stiling him not only his beloved brother which every Christian is capable of but moreover faithful seems to shew that he had some office upon the account whereof for his conscionable acquitting himself in it this testimonial of faithfulness is given him And herein I conceive the Apostle doth also make a secret opposition between the good conscience with which he demeaned himself in this employment and the unfaithfulness he had afore-time shewed to his Master during the time of his ignorance if he hath been otherwhile unfaithful saith he he is now faithful after well-nigh the same manner as the Apostle elsewhere alluding to the word Onesimus which was his name and in Greek signifies profitable says of him to Philemon his Master He was in time past to thee unprofitable Philem. 11. but now profitable to thee and to me This is that Dear Brethren which the first part of the Text doth contain Come we now to the second In it the Apostle presents to the Colossians the salutations of three faithful persons all the three joyntly Ministers of the Gospel and by nation Jews who were then at Rome to serve and assist and refresh him in his imprisonment Aristarchus saith he saluteth you and so the rest in order Whence we may observe first in general what was the zeal and what the charity of those primitive Christians that the hatred and rage of the World was not able to keep them from rendring their devoirs and services to the Confessors and Martyrs of JESUS CHRIST even in Prisons nor from hastning to them out of places ever so far off to succour and comfort them it being evident that of the eight persons mentioned here and in the following Text some came from Greece others from Asia and some again from Syria and Palestine that is many hundred leagues to visit and serve St. Paul And by these Salutations which for their part they send the Colossians you see how these holy and charitable souls were affectionate to flocks as well as Pastors and those that were absent as well as them that were present In fine the Apostles vouchsafing to be as their Secretary on such an occasion shews us that he approves these offices of civility that is salutations of such as are present and by Letter of such as are absent In truth a Christian whose Charity and unfeigned cordial love of men is the principal vertue and as it were the soul and one of the prime principles of his life ought to acquit himself sedulously in all due offices of humanity and if there be in the deportments of other men any thing humane and praise-worthy he should practice it and sanctifie it to his LORDS use As for these three persons in particular the Apostle gives each of them his Elogium The first is Aristarchus a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia Act. 19.20 27.19 20 27. a person noted in the History of the Acts where you see him all along inseparably fastened to S. Paul a companion in his travels and in his tryals running the danger of his life with him in the sedition at Ephesus at his departure thence following him into Greece into Macedonia into Asia and Judea and at last embarking with him when he was carried Prisoner to Rome For this cause the holy Apostle in acknowledgment of so admirable a zeal makes him a sharer with him in his Crown terming him a Captive or Prisoner with him inasmuch as though those unjust Judges had not condemned him yet he took as great a part in the Captivity of St. Paul as if sentence had been given against his own person The second is Mark whom he signalizeth by the honour he had to be Barnabas his cousin german one of the most excellent Disciples of our LORD and that laboured in his work with greatest zeal and fervour as you see in the History of the Acts and some of the Ancients have even attributed to him the divine Epistle to the Hebrews The glory of this holy man being very great in all the Church of GOD the Apostle conceiv'd it a sufficient recommendation of Mark to say he was his Sisters Son He addeth only concerning whom you have received order I am much of their mind who understand these words of some letter that
Barnabas had wrote them in recommendation of him And thereunto the Apostle adjoyns his own counsel to them Acts 15.39 saying if he come unto you receive him Some conceive that he thus writes because of that ill understanding that sometime hapned between him and Barnabas on the occasion of Mark to shew now that there was no relique of it in his heart However that be 't is certain as we read in the Acts that Mark bewray'd a little weakness at the beginning Acts 13.13 quitting Paul and Barnabas in Pamphilia without any reason amid their conquests But afterward the Grace of GOD so mightily strengthened him and so eminently employed him in converting of Nations that beside the memory of it which remains in all the monuments of antiquity he hath also drawn from the pen of St. Paul two or three very honourable testimonies this here for one Phil. 24. and another like it in the Epistle to Philemon where he mentions him among his fellow-workers and the most advantageous of all in the second to Timothy 2 Tim. 4.11 Take Mark saith he and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the Ministry The third of those whom the Apostle mentions here is Jesus called Justus 'T is probable that his true name was Jesus and that Justus was but the name which the Latines and Greeks gave him calling him Justus instead of Jesus it being usual with them to alter foreign names in that manner when they pronounc'd them in their own dialects We have of this servant of GOD no other memorial at all For though some conceive that it 's the same Justus of whom speech is in the 18th Chap. of the Acts unto whose house St. Paul retir'd at Corinth when he saw the Jews resist his preaching yet this seems not possible because this man was by extraction a Gentile and uncircumcised though he had some knowledge and fear of GOD as appears by St. Luke's terming him a religious man or one that worshipped GOD a character he ordinarily gives to persons of this condition as to Cornelius the Centurion and divers others whereas that Justus who is in question here was indeed a Jew and circumcised as St. Paul sheweth adding immediately of him and the two other afore-named who are of the circumcision and he praiseth them all three in commune saying that they alone to wit of their Nation were his fellow-workers unto the kingdom of GOD and protesteth that they were a consolation to him A great and an illustrious testimonial given them that they laboured with him in preaching the Gospel for the advancement of the kingdom of GOD that is to say for the edifying of the Church which the Scripture ordinarily calls the kingdom of Heaven and in the same sense the kingdom of GOD. Now this is that that the Apostle says of these three servants of the LORD It remains for a conclusion that we intimate unto you briefly what edification you ought to draw from those particulars which we have noted in the Apostles present Text. And first by the pain the Colâ—ssians were in for St. Paul and by the care St. Paul takes for their consolation you may see the ardent and cordial affection which the flocks and Ministers of CHRIST should have for one another Make your profit of it ye the LORD's sheep and tenderly compassionate the labours and the sufferings of your Pastors Ye Pastors do likewise and prefer before all interests of your own the edification and consolation of those sheep whom the great Shepheard hath redeemed with his blood Then again the love which these five faithful men here mentioned did bear unto St. Paul they keeping ever neer him and cheerfully and constantly obeying his orders shews us with what fervour we should serve such as suffer for the Gospel and with what zeal we should inseparably adhere to the Apostles of JESUS CHRIST the Teachers and Founders of the Church For though their persons be no longer here below yet their doctrine is and will remain here to the end and in this respect they are still in their sacred writings sitting as it were on twelve thrones thence judging all the Israel of GOD. Moreover the Apostle's praising all the persons he here speaks of so liberally as he doth may inform us with what candor we should acknowledge the graces which GOD hath imparted to our brethren diffusing the sweet savour of their good name through the Church and honouring their zeal and their fidelity with our testimonials to their comfort and the edification of their neighbours Far from us be envy and malignity and pride passions of a base alloy and unworthy of a truly noble Christian disposition Let not the graces and dignity of Paul induce him to despise Onesimus I mean let not the advantages of such as are greatest cause them to disdain the least But consider we particularly the examples of each of those five faithful men and imitate them For it 's to this end that the holy Apostle hath proposed them and thought meet to consecrate the memory of them in his divine and immortal Epistles not that he might oblige us to dedicate festivals to them or render them religious worship or invocate them as our Mediators away with such a thought for all this appertaineth to GOD only The true honour we owe them is to serve GOD after their example and conform our lives to theirs and draw the pourtraict of their high and holy vertues on our dispositions and our actions Imitate we the fidelity of Tychicus the repentance and faith of Onesimus the courage and the patience of Aristarchus the laboriousness of Marcus and of Justus in the matters of the Kingdom of GOD. Let not meanness of birth or of condition let not the greatness of sins discourage any JESUS CHRIST rejecteth neither the poor nor the peccant that come to him with faith witness Onesimus who though a bondman and fugitive yet so effaced all this ignominy that he hath praise from the mouth of the Apostle and his name engraven here in the temple of GOD among the names of the most illustrious Servants of His. If you have followed the LORD constantly and evenly as Tychicus and Aristarchus did thank Him for the grace He hath shewed you and go on from good to better If it hath befaln you as it did Mark to slacken sometime in the work of your heavenly calling resume likewise as he did your former vigour and reduce your selves to that pass as it may be said of you that you are useful for the LORD's service In general Beloved Brethren let us all be as these holy and happy persons were fellow-workers with the great Apostle unto the Kingdom of GOD burning with him in an holy zeal to glorifie JESUS CHRIST living with him in all pureness and sanctity employing with him our tongues our hands and our pens for the converting of men and edifying of the Church and finally couragiously suffering with
him when the LORD calleth us thereto It 's this way Christians that we shall get to that heavenly Kingdom in which St. Paul is lodg'd after his combats and there receive with him from the merciful hand of our Father the glorious crown of immortality which He on His great day will give to us and to all those that shall have lov'd the appearing of His Son unto Whom with Him and the Holy Spirit the only true GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen THE FORTY NINTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. IV. VER XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII Verse XII Epaphras who is one of you a servant of CHRIST saluteth you striving alwaies for you in prayer that ye might abide perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. XIII For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and for them who are of Laodicea and for them of Hierapolis XIV Luke the beloved Physician saluteth you and Demas also XV. Salute the brethren who are at Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his house XVI And when this Epistle hath been read among you cause that it be also read in the Church of the Laodiceans and that you read also the Epistle from Laodicea XVII And say to Archippus take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the LORD that thou fulfill it XVIII The salutation by the own hand of me Paul Remember my bonds Grace be with you Amen DEAR Brethren The LORD JESUS being upon the point to quit the earth and making as it were a declaration of His last will chargeth His Disciples above all things to love one another with a sincere and ardent affection like that He bore us This mutual love He appoints to be the badge of our profession Joh. 13.35 By this saith he shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Accordingly you know that His Spirit failed not to imprint this Divine mark upon those first Christians whom He formed in the City of Jerusalem by the Apostles preaching Acts 4.32 animated with the vertue of His heavenly fire The whole multitude of them saith the holy story was of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common This union and admirable correspondence continued a long time among the faithful and was observed by the Pagans with wonder witness he who about two hundred years after the birth of our LORD reproacheth Christians that they know one another by certain secret signs and love almost before they are acquainted and all of them call one another indifferently brethren and sisters Now as error and passion do abuse the best things this poor ignorant takes their holy and divine concord for some execrable conspiracy and referrs the mysterie of their amity unto infamous commerces whereas all their union grew from Heaven and was founded upon piety and breathed nothing but honesty and sanctity nor did tend but to the glory of GOD and the supreme happiness of men Beside the Apostles writings which expos'd in publick view did plainly discover to the unpassionate how pure and honest and holy the laws of their charity were the manners and the lives and actions of those primitive Christians did also evidently justifie the same There are left us GOD be thanked divers excellent informations in the books of the first antiquity by which the marvels of the charity and mutual love of those holy men do plainly appear And not to speak of others you have fair and illustrious marks of it in this conclusion of St. Paul's Epistle unto the Colossians who sheweth us that his prison neither hindred divers faithful men from joyning themselves unto him in this affliction nor him nor them again from minding absent Christians and charitably embracing the Churches of Colosse and Laodicea and Hierapolis You here see the love of Pastors to their flocks the dear affection of flocks to their Pastors and the divine communication of Churches one with another Psal 133.1 If therefore it be a goood and pleasant thing as the Psalmist singeth to see brethren maintaining a due entercourse with each other grudge not this hour My Beloved which we yet oblige you to spend in the consideration of this Text having not been able to finish it entirely in our last action Let this admirable amity of the first Christians rejoyce you and give you an ardent desire to imitate it Have ye for one another sentiments and movings of heart like to theirs You have already heard how St. Paul having advertised the faithful at Colosse that he sent Tychicus and Onesimus unto them to inform them of his estate doth give them the recommendations of Aristarchus and Mark and Jesus He now addeth those of Epaphras and Luke and Demas and then his own to the Church of Laodicea and to a faithful man named Nymphas with an order to impart this his Epistle to them and to advertise Archippus of his duty Whereupon he endeth with his ordinary salutation conjuring them to remember his bonds and recommending them to the grace of GOD. For the deducing of these four points by the assistance of GOD in the same order as they are couched in the Text we must first consider who these three persons were whose salutations the Apostle presents to the Colossians The first of the three is Epaphras of whom he spake afore in very honourable terms at the beginning of this Epistle where he stileth him Colos 1.7 8. his dear fellow servant and a faithful Minister of CHRIST and gives him the glory of having instructed the Colossians in the knowledge of the Gospel and of having taken the care to let him know the charity they had for him Here he qualifies him in like manner a fervant of CHRIST that is a Minister of his and an Officer of His house in the work of the Gospel Moreover he informs us that this holy man was a Colossian that is was born in their City or at least made his ordinary abode there Epaphras saith he who is one of you a servant of CHRIST saluteth you Some learned men * Grotius Phil. 2.28 are of opinion that it 's this same Pastor whom the Apostle calls Epaphroditus and of whom he says so much good in the Epistle to the Philippians But I do not see that this conjecture is either founded or followed by any of the ancients I confess that the name Epaphras is a contraction of Epaphroditus and such a diminution is ordinary in the Greek and in the Latin tongue in the proper names of men But if it were one and the same person there is no reason why the Apostle should name him diversly in these two Epistles in the one contractedly and with diminution in the other the name at length and entire Considering withal that no part of what is
GOD with thankfulness and undergoing his chastisements and trials with patience that His grace may be with us for ever both in this world and in the world to come Amen FINIS Books to be Sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel A Commentary on the Hebrews By John Owen D. D. Folio An Exposition of Temptation on Mat. 4. verse 1. to the end of the Eleventh By Dr. Thomas Taylor fol. A Learned Commentary or Exposition on the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians By Richard Sibbs D. D. fol. A practical Exposition on the third Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly Man's Choice on Psal 4. vers 6 7 8. By Anthony Burgess fol. The dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners living in several Treatises The first on 2 Sam. 24.10 The second on Cant. 4.9 The third on John 1.50 The fourth on Isa 58.2 The fifth on Exod. 15.11 By Samuel Bolton D. D. fol. The view of the Holy Scriptures By Thomas Broughton fol. Christianographia or a Description of the Multitude and sundry sorts of Christians in the world not subject to the Pope By Eph. Pagit Fol. These Six Treatises next following are written by Mr. George Swinnock 1. The Christian Man's Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business in Religious Duties Natural Actions his Particular Vocation his Family Directions and his own Recreation to be read in Families for their Instruction and Edification The first Part. 2. Likewise a second Part wherein Christians are directed to perform their Duties as Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants in the conditions of Prosperity and Adversity The second Part. 3. The third and last part of the Christian Man's Calling wherein the Christian is directed how to make Religion his business in his dealings with all Men in the Choice of his Companions in his carriage in good Company in bad Company in solitariness or when he is alone on a week day from morning to night in visiting the sick on a Dying-bed as also the means how a Christian may do this and some motives to it 4. The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration 5. Heaven and Hell Epitomized And the true Christian Characteriz'd 6. The Fading of the Flesh and the flourishing of Faith Or One cast for Eternity with the only way to throw it well All these by George Swinnock M. A. Quarto's A Learned Commentary on the fourth Chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians to which is added First A Conference between Christ and Mary Second the Spiritual Man's Aim Third Emanuel or Miracle of Miracles By Richard Sibbs D. D. 4to An Exposition on the five first Chapters of Ezekiel with useful observations thereupon By Will. Greenhil 4to The Gospel-Covenant or the Covenant of Grace opened Preached in New-England By Peter Bulkley 4to Gods Holy Mind touching Matters Moral which himself uttered in ten words or ten Commandments Also an Exposition on the Lords Prayer By Edward Elton B. D. 4to Fiery Jesuite or an Historical Collection of the Rise Increase Doctrines and Deeds of the Jesuites Exposed to view for the sake of London 4to Horologiographia Optica Dialling Universal and Particular Speculative and Practical together with the Description of the Court of Arts by a new Method By Silvanus Morgan 4to Praxis Medicinae or the Physicians Practise wherein are contained all inward diseases from the head to the foot By Walter Bruel Regimen Sanitatis Salerni or the School of Salerns Regiment of Health containing Directions and Instructions for the guide and Government of Mans Life 4to Heart-Treasure Or a Treatise tending to fill and furnish the head and heart of every Christian with soul-inriching treasure of truths graces experiences and comforts to help him in Meditation Conference Religious Performances Spiritual Actions Enduring Afflictions and to fit him for all conditions that he may live holily dye happily and go to Heaven triumphantly By O. H. with an Epistle prefixed by John Chester Large Octavo Closet-prayer a Christians Duty The sure Mercies of David Both by the same Author The Conversion of a Sinner explained and applyed from Ezek. 33.11 The Day of Grace Discovered from Luke 19.41 42. Worthy walking pressed upon all those that have heard the Call of the Gospel All three by Nath. Vincent The Duty of Parents A Little Book for Little Children Method and Instruction for the Art of Divine Meditation All three by Thomas White The Childs delight together with an English Grammar By Tho. Lye The Life and Death of Dr. Sam. Winter The inseparable Union between Christ and a Beleever which death it self cannot sever or the Bond that can never be broken Opened in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Dorothy Freeborn By Tho. Peck An Antitode against Quakerisme By Stephen Scandret 4to A Glimpse of Eternity By A. Caley A practical Discourse of Prayer wherein is handled the Nature and Duty of Prayer By Tho. Cobbet Of Quenching the Spirit the evil of it in respect both of its causes and effects discovered By Theophilus Polwheile Wells of Salvation opened or Words whereby we may be saved With advise to young Men By Tho. Vincent The re-building of London encouraged and improved in several Meditations By Samuel Rolles The sure way to Salvation or a Treatise of the Saints Mystical Union with Christ wherein that great Mystery and Priviledge is opened in the nature properties and the necessities of it By R. Steedman M. A. The greatest Loss upon Matth. 16.26 By James Livesey Small Octavo Moses unvailed By William Guild The Protestants Triumph being an exact Answer to all the sophistical Arguments of Papists By Ch. Drelincourt A Defence against the fear of Death By Zach. Crofton Gods Soveraignty displayed By Will. Geering A sober Discourse concerning the interest of words in Prayer The Godly Mans Ark or City of Refuge in the day of his distress in five Sermons with Mrs. Moor's Evidences for Heaven By Edm. Calamy The Almost Christian discovered or the false Professor tryed and cast By Mr. Mead. Spiritual Wisdom improved against Temptation By Mr. Mead. 1. A Divine Cordial 2. The Doctrine of Repentance 3. Heaven taken by Storm 4. The Holy Eucharist or The Sacrament of the Lords Supper briefly opened 5. The mischief of Sin it brings a person Low All five by Tho. Watson The True bounds of Christian Freedom or a Discourse shewing the extents and restraints of Christian Liberty wherein the truth is settled many errours confuted out of John 8. verse 36. The Lords Day enlivened or a Treatise of the Sabbath By Philip Goodwin The sinfulness of Sin and the Fulness of Christ two Sermons By W. Bridge A serious Exhortation to a Holy Life By Tho. Wadsworth Comfortable Crumbs of Refreshment by Prayers Meditation Consolation and Ejaculations with a Confession of Faith and sum of the Bible Aurifodina Linguae Gallicae or the Golden Mine of the French Language opened By Edw. Costlin Gen. Four Centuries of Select Hymns collected out of Scripture By Will. Barton Sins Sinfulness By Ralph Venning Sober Singularity By R. Steedman The Parable of the great Supper By John Crump of Maidstone in Kent The Christians dayly Monitour By Joseph Church A Memento to young men and old By J. Maynard The History of Moderation or the Life Death Resurrection of Moderation None-such Wonder in Martha Taylors Life who hath been supported above a year without use of Meat or Drink FINIS
may effectually further our edification and consolation The benefit of our redemption being very great and most admirable in all respects as we even now intimated it 's with great reason that the Apostle beginneth his discourse of it by giving of thanks unto GOD. And in his Epistles ordinarily he scarce ever speaks of it but praising withall or admiring the goodness of the LORD He directeth his thanksgiving to the Father as the first and supream author of this excellent work Think not that he denieth the Son or the Spirit their part in it or that he would deprive them of the glory due to them for it For since these three persons are but one only and the same GOD it is evident that the works of the Deity appertain to them all three But as they subsist in a certain order the Father of Himself the Son of the Father who generated Him the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son of whom He proceedeth from all eternity so likewise do they act in the same disposition And forasmuch as the Father is the first in this order of their subsistence and operation thence it comes that He addresseth His benedictions particularly to Him as the prime and the soveraign source of the Deity from whence originally hath streamed down upon us all the good and grace that we have received in our redemption But let us see how the Apostle describeth this work of our salvation for which he gives the LORD thanks He hath made us capable saith he to partake of the inheritance of Saints in light After that Sin had made a separation between GOD and us it was naturally impossible for us to have part in any of His blessings The LORD therefore designing to save us took care first of all to remove this obstacle of our communication with Him This He did satisfying His justice by the expiation of sin through the death of His Son JESUS CHRIST and by that means the liberty of that commerce between His goodness and our poor nature which our sin had interrupted was opened again so as henceforth nothing hindreth save on mans own part but he may make his approaches to GOD and partake of his Grace through faith and repentance Yet this is not the thing which the Apostle intendeth in this place when he saith that the Father hath made us capable of having part in His inheritance For this grace by which He hath opened the Throne of His beneficence through the expiation of sin doth generally respect all men nor is there any but access thither is free for him if he present himself with faith and repentance whereas the Grace whereof the Apostle speaketh here is appropriate to him and the Colossians and such as resemble them that is in a word it 's peculiar to true believers and not common to all men It must be observed therefore in the second place that besides this first impediment which did shut up the gate of the House of GOD against us to wit the inexorable severity of His avenging Justice there is yet another no less difficult to be surmounted than the former though it be of another kind and a different nature It is the naughtiness the hardness and the blindness of our corrupt nature For as the justice of GOD would not permit that a creature foul with sin should approach Him except its sin were expiated so His wisdom could not suffer it should finger any of His divine favours except it repented of having offended Him and believed His promises But in the estate we lye in since our fall our soul is so depraved by sin that it is not capable of its self either to consider GOD or to put affiance in His goodness and so this great Miracle of the love of GOD towards us I mean the expiation of sin by the death of His Son would remain without any saving effect in respect of us if leaving us in the condition we were born He did but simply present the declarations of His grace in external means to us For this cause therefore this kind and compassionate LORD not content to have opened the gate of His bounty by the Cross of His CHRIST doth also fetch us up from the grave of our impiety and gives us the will and the strength to come to Himself It is properly this second benefit peculiar to those that believe which the Apostle meaneth here when he saith that GOD hath made us capable to partake of His inheritance The first gift of the Father did capacitate His hand to communicate His treasures to us and the second doth capacitate us to handle them Without the death of His dear Son He might not give us life and without Hâ—s effectual calling we could not receive it of Him Faithful Sirs mark well this lesson of the Apostle Who giveth thanks to GOD for that He hath made us capable of partaking of His inheritance He first brings down thereby the pride of those that give this glory to free will boasting that they have made themselves capable of salvation either by some kind of pre-dispositions which oblige GOD at least by the way of decency to give them His grace or by the due using and menaging of afflictions the pride I say of all those in general who pretend that it is in a mans own power to prepare himself for the heavenly inheritance No saith the Apostle This wholy appertaineth unto GOD. It is He that hath made us capable 2 Cor. 3.5 Of our selves we cannot so much as think a good thought so he affirms elsewhere I confess that this impotency of man is voluntary and consequently criminal it proceeds from the extream badness of his heart and from no defect of any of those things which are necessary from without for this effect For what else besides his own rebelliousness doth hinder him from believing in GOD and embracing with repentance the exhibitions of His grace which are presented to him either in the course of nature or in the Law or by the Gospel Yet so it is that how voluntary soever this His naughtiness be it is invincible and altogether refractory It is no longer a weakness It 's a formed impotency which nature is not able to correct And the Scripture speaks of it every where in this sense 1 Cor. 2.14 Rom. 8.5 The carnal man saith the Apostle cannot understand the things of the Spirit of GOD because they are spiritually discerned And elsewhere The affection of the flesh is enmity against GOD. For it rendreth not its self subject to the Law of GOD Joh. 12.39 Jer. 6.10 13.23 nor indeed can And St. John speaking of the Jews They cannot believe saith he And Jeremiah of their Ancestours Their ear saith he is uncircumcised and they cannot hear Will the Ethiopian change his skin and the Leopard his spots so can you do any good who have learned to do only evil such is the miserable state of all men
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
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