miraculous School illuminated and consecrated by His Spirit Who could doubt but that it was from the mouth of this holy man that the Mysteries of GOD should be learned and that what was contrary to His Doctrine ought to be judged false and vain I confess his Mission was extraordinary and miraculous and is not to be made a precedent for others Yet notwithstanding what he here saith of it affordeth us two Instructions which reach all Pastors generally The first is that they should never intrude themselves into this Sacred Office if GOD call them not so as they may say with good conscience as Paul doth in this place that they have been made Ministers of the Gospel It is true JESUS CHRIST now speaketh not to men from heaven as He yerst did to S. Paul to call them unto His work But so much He doth that He maketh us perceive His will first by the moving of His Spirit within us which never faileth to incite us to His work when GOD calleth us thereto and secondly by the voyce and authority of His Church that is to say of His faithful people to the Body and Community of whom He hath given the power to apply the right of this Ministry to such as they discern meet for it as the examples of the primitive Church registred in the Book of the Acts and elswhere do shew us And as for Ordination as it is called which is done by the Imposition of the hands of other Ministers already established I confess it also ought to intervene for the compleating and crowning of the call accordingly you see it is seriously practised among us But I add that it is not yet so absolutely requisite but that in case of extreme and invincible necessity as in places and times when there are no true Ministers of JESUS CHRIST found to give it the call of the Church that is of a body of faithful people may suffice to a valid instituting of a Pastor the person supposed to have the ability and inclination requisite for such a charge The other particular that we have to learn here is That all Pastors of what rank soever they may be are Ministers and not Masters of the Gospel It 's the title which the Apostle here assumeth according to the Declaration he makes elswhere that he hath no dominion over the faith of believers 1 Cor. 1.24 but is an helper of their joy The duty of a Minister is to propose what hath been committed to Him what he hath received of the Master If he go beyond it and will have his own will and his private imaginations bear sway he is no longer a Minister he doth the act of a Master and consequently sets up a tyranny since the Church neither hath nor can have any lawful Master but JESUS CHRIST This dear Brethren is th◠which we had to deliver upon this Exhortation of the Aposile to the Colossians Make account that it is to you also he directs it Amid the scandals which Satan casteth in the way of your faith and the temptations he offereth to turn you out of it have still in your hearts and in your ears this Sacred voyce that says aloud from heaven to you Continue in the faith being founded and firm and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard and which hath been preached to every creature under heaven whereof I Paul have been made a Minister Oppose the authority of this Divine command to the Seducements and illusions of the world to the flatteries and babble of Sophisters to the suggestions and lusts of the flesh From what Coast soever counsels contrary to it do come whether from within or from without judge them impious and abominable And blessed be GOD who hitherto so settled you in the belief of His Word that neither the forcible attempts of open Enemies nor the fraud of false friends hath been able to remove you at all But dear Brethren it is not enough to have stood fast hitherto There must be preparing for more combats to come after those that are past For we have to do with Enemies with whom we must look for neither peace nor truce They will be still setting on work one Engine or other and if repulsed on one side will not fail to attaque us immediately on another Be we therefore in like manner still upon our guard Let us have no less zeal and constancy for our our preservation then they have rage and resoluteness for our ruine Fortifie we our faith daily Arm it with Armor of proof Found it on the Eternal Rock and so fasten it that nothing may be able to pluck it out of our hearts To this purpose let us continually read and meditate that heavenly Word whence we have drawn it Let us fill our souls with this Divine wisdom and render it familiar to us Let us instruct our youth in it Let us make it to abound on all hands among us Let it be the matter of our mutual entertainments and the most usual subject of our cogitations For as an ancient yer while said very prudently Chrys Hom. 〈◊〉 de Lazaro The reading of the holy Scriptures is an excellent and an assured Preservative to keep us from falling into sin and ignorance of the Scriptures is an huge Precipice a deep gulf of Perdition In the design of our perseverance let us particularly make use of the two means which S. Paul here furnisheth us withal The one that the Gospel which we have heard hath been preach'd in the whole world the other that it is the same which was committed to our Apostle It 's in the belief of this Gospel that he would have us abide firm It 's to this faith that he promiseth the peace of GOD His Favour and His Eternity GOD saith he hath reconciled you to Himself that He might present you holy without spot and unreproveable if indeed you continue firm in the faith and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel From whence it follows that if we have this Gospel among us we may certainly assure our selves that by retaining it we shall obtain the peace and the Salvation of GOD. The only question therefore is Whether the Doctrine which we have embraced be truly this Gospel or no If it be I have no further search to make I am content to have found what is sufficient for me that I may appear before my GOD without confusion and receive of Him life everlasting But that the Doctrine whereof we make profession is the same Gospel that Paul preached the same that he and the other Apostles sowed in the world and which the world overcome by the force of its truth did in the end receive and adore This I say is so clear that I do not think the Devil himself as hardned in impudence as he is can deny it For the GOD whom we serve and the CHRIST whom we adore and His Merit in
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
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
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
be restrained to this matter and we are precisely to understand that He is the beginning of this second work of GOD. JESUS CHRIST the eternal wisdom may say in respect of this second creation what it saith of the first that the Father possessed Him in the begining of His ways and that it is the same wisdom that projected prepared and executed all this great design of the renovation of the world First it is the Son of GOD who intervening at the beginning in the counsel of the Father took upon Him the expiating of Sin without which it was not possible to found this second Frame And though he actually did it not till the fulness of time yet His engaging His word for it being once accepted of the Father it had as much efficacy as if the thing it self had been then already executed and performed which makes the Apostle elsewhere say that JESVS CHRIST is the same both yesterday and to day and for ever He hath the same efficacy always as well before as after His manifestation Without this not a man could have been called into the state of Grace Therefore St. Paul saith in another place that GOD hath chosen us in JESUS CHRIST considering Him as the foundation of our election because out of Him there could not be salvation or happiness for any one of us He is therefore truly the beginning of this work since His merit is the foundation of the counsel GOD hath taken to make and form it as St. Peter also observes when speaking of the redemption wrought by the blood of the Lamb he saith expresly that He was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world But beside the merit of His Cross which was from all time present in the counsel of GOD He is further the beginning or the principle of the Church another way even by the operation and efficacy of His power having called unto GOD all the faithful that ever were It 's He that brought Abraham out of Chaldea It 's He that appeared to the Patriarchs and that led Israel in the desert and that inspired the Prophets Psal 110.1 Whence it comes that David calls Him his LORD He builded and kept up that whole ancient Church as well as the latter by the vertue of His word and Spirit But He is again the beginning of the Church in the quality of a pattern and an exemplary cause the faithful of all ages having all been as it were cast into His mould as the Apostle teacheth at the eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans saying that all those whom GOD hath fore-known He hath predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son And it 's to no purpose to object that this cannot be said of that time when He had not yet assumed that humane nature tempted on earth and crowned in Heaven unto which we are conformed For to this I answer first that though that nature were not really yet in being it is enough that its idea and image was in the mind of GOD for the assimilating and conforming His work thereto This sufficeth to shew that He is the beginning and principle of it But I adjoyn in the second place that this work the Church may be considered two wayes either in its beginnings while it is yet but forming or in its perfection as finished when it hath all the touches requisite to set it in the highest degree of excellency which it must abide in I confess the Church under the first consideration had its being before the Son of GOD was made man and raised up to Heaven But if you take it under the second it is evident that in this respect He is truly the beginning of this Divine work For no one was perfect before Him He is if I may so say the first piece fully ended that ever came out of the Fathers hand and His own No one of the rest is absolutely completed Their bodies are yet under the power of Death the last of our enemies CHRIST is the only one that hath altogether broken its bonds and raised up His body from the grave and clothed it with glorious immortality He is the first man of the new world that the universe ever saw and it 's in Him hath been shewed us the true form of that second nature which we hope for in the time to come but which none hath or shall have for the present save JESUS CHRIST alone It seems to be this properly that the Apostle here intendeth when he calleth Him the beginning or principle because he addeth the first-born from the dead which words as you see do evidently correspond with this sense St. John also giveth this quality to the LORD Rev. 1.5 Grace be unto you and peace saith he from JESVS CHRIST who is the faithful witness 1 Cor. 15.20 23. the first-born from the dead And St. Paul illustrates this expression elsewhere saying to the same purpose that JESVS CHRIST being raised from the dead was become the first-fruits of them that sleep And a little after In JESVS CHRIST saith he shall all be made alive But every man in his own order CHRIST the first-fruits afterwards they that are CHRIST's And otherwhere yet Act. 26.23 in the Acts he saith it was necessary that CHRIST should be the first that rose from the dead who might shew light to the people From all these places doth sufficiently appear what the Apostle signifieth when he saith that JESVS CHRIST is the beginning and the first-born from the dead to wit that He is the first of all mankind who was raised from the state of the dead and setled in glorious immortality that He is the first ear of this blessed harvest that was carryed up into the Sanctuary and offered in due season to the eternal Father untill the rest do become ripe This truth is throughly evident For of what other man but the Lord JESUS was it ever heard say that he arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven I know the Scripture telleth us of some dead that were raised before the resurrection of the LORD But this deprives Him not at all of the glory which the Apostle here giveth Him For that I may not alledge that those persons were raised from the grave not by their own force and vertue as JESUS CHRIST but by the touching or prayer of Eliah and Elishah and by GOD's command I say that the resurrection which St. Paul understandeth is the rising again unto glory and immortality It 's a being born again not to the former life which is terrene and fading but to the other which is celestial and incorruptible Who seeth not that in this sence there never was nor yet is any raised again except the LORD JESUS alone For the Son of the Shunamite Lazarus and the others of like quality at their coming forth of the grave did reassume that same natural and perishing life which they had laid down a life subject to
called him saith he had been made not the Master or the Prince or the Judge or the Monarch or the High-priest but the Minister of the Church Whereby you see on the one hand how very farr from the mind of this holy man the doctrine and practise of those is who qualifie themselves with those vain and haughty titles which are not heard of in the Scriptures among the names of the Apostles and Pastors there and who are not ashamed to say and to write openly that Bishops are Judges Masters and Princes of their flocks That he of Rome in particular is the Monarch of the Church its King and its Soveraign Lord on earth whose feet it ought to kiss the lowest homage a vassal can do to his Master that he hath power to impose laws on the Church which shall bind the Conscience so as it can have no faith or salvation out of his obedience that he hath though indirectly even power and dominion over the temporalities of the Church not so much as the Scepters and Crowns of the Soveraign powers of the earth excepted Judge by this if it be not a mocking of the world to strive that they may be taken for true heirs and successors of S. Paul and S. Peter S. Paul calleth himself a Minister of the Church These men say they are the Lords and Monarchs of it S. Paul protesteth that he hath no dominion over our faith These men pretend that they have an absolute empire 2 Cor. 124. such as every man is bound under pain of damnation to believe all that they command for this very reason because they command it S. 1 Pet. 5.1.2 3. Peter stiles himself a Presbyter that is an Elder with the Presbyters or Elders These men say they are their Soveraigns and Kings S. Peter ordereth the Pastors to feed the flock of CHRIST not as having Lordship over his heritages And these men attribute to themselves a direct and a supream dominion over them In sine JESUS CHRIST both Paul's and Peter's Master saith expresly to His Ministers Mat. 20.25 You know that the Princes of the Nations are Masters over them and exercise authority upon them but it shall not be so among you And these men exercise both upon people and Pastors in sum on the whole Church a mastership and a dominion much more absolute more rough and rigorous than ever did any Monarch upon his subjects and such as wanteth neither the pomp of dignity nor the splendor of riches nor arms nor guards nor any other of the ordinary and visible marks and badges of a worldly royalty But you have to observe here also on the other hand how false and unjust the derision is which our adversaries make of the name of Minister which Pastors among us do assume imputing in a manner their modesty to them as a crime and almost accusing them that they are not arrogant I know well that the word here rendred Minister is often used in the language of Scripture and the Church to signifie the ministry of those who have the care of the poor and of the stock of the Church and we have reteined it in this sense in our vulgar tongues in which they that are put into such charges are called in French Diacres in English Deacons as you know which is precisely the Greek word here used by the Apostle But however since S. Paul hath not stuck to use this name Col. 1.23 2 Cor. 3.6 6.4 for the expressing of his office calling himself here as you see a Minister of the Church and before a Minister of the Gospel and elsewhere yet a Minister of the new Testament and again in another place a Minister of GOD and Minister of CHRIST it seems to me that no one can blame us for having followed the example of his humility us who are so far beneath him and that the taxing of us for calling our Pastors Ministers is evidently a reviling this great Apostle who hath so often used this name in this sense yea even to signifie the highest dignities that be in the Church such as without contradiction his Apostleship was For it is evident that he meaneth this here when he saith he was made a Minister of the Church He adds in the second place According to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me Hereby he sheweth first that it was not man but GOD the supream Master and Lord of the whole universe who called and consecrated him to the Ministry of the Gospel You all know the history of it it being told us at length in the book of the Acts it is full of so many wonders that the vocation of this holy man ought to be counted very singular many circumstances meeting in it which do not occur in the call of any other Apostle JESUS CHRIST had called the rest during the dayes of His flesh He called S. Paul after His resurrection and His sitting at the right hand of the Father He conversed with the rest on earth To this person He spake from Heaven The others were invited by our Saviour and won by little and little Him He overcame and subdued at once by an extraordinary exercising of His Divine power seizing him sodainly by the miraculous force of His right hand If the rest before their call had no affection for the LORD at least they had no hatred nor aversion for Him Paul burned with a furious zeal against JESUS CHRIST and all His and made warr upon Him and had weapon in hand when he was plucked by coelestial power out of the bonds of iniquity and in a moment changed from a persecutor to a Minister of the Church But beside the Author of his call he further discovers to us here the nature of his Ministry by saying that this dispensation of GOD was given him I am not ignorant that the dispensation of GOD may be taken for the conduct and wise disposel of the Providence of GOD who governeth all things and particularly the things of the Church by His eternal counsel And if the Apostle had said simply that he had been made a Minister according to or by the dispensation of GOD it might have been so understood But he addeth expresly that this dispensation of GOD was given him and this necessarily obligeth us to understand it not of the LORD's conduct which was not given him but of the divine office of a steward in His Church to which S. Paul was called and which was commited to him For that the quality and condition of his Apostleship was such 1 Cor. 4.1 he teacheth us expresly elsewhere Let every one saith he account of us as Ministers of CHRIST and stewards of the mysteries of GOD. Whence it clearly follows since the Apostle was a steward or a dispenser that his Office was a stewardship or a dispensation as he calleth it here And from thence it appears again how false the opinion of those is who attribute a
float in your head to be pluckt away by an enemy on the first occasion It must be engraven on your heart with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond that is you should be so firmly perswaded of it as nothing may be able to efface it and enfeeble your belief of it I know well every one boasteth to be so But there is a great difference between words and things themselves Shew it me by your lives and I will credit it If you be fully perswaded of the truth of the Gospel How is it that you have not the charity which it so necessarily commandeth us How do you hate men whom it commandeth you to love and love the vices which it enjoyneth you to hate Let us lay by words and possess in deed that full certainty of understanding which the Apostle wisheth us This is the true way for us to abide all joyned together in charity to conflict with and overcome our enemies to edifie and preserve our friends to attract those that are without to retain those that are within to enjoy much consolation in all the trials of this world and to obtain in the end the Salvation and the glory of the other through the grace of our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD be all honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen The SEVENTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER III. Vers III. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledg IGnorance of the natures and qualities of the LORD JESUS is the source of all the errors and heresies which have exercis'd the Christian Church from its beginning down to this day 1 Cor. 2.9 And as S. Paul said of the rulers of the Jews that if they had known the true wisdom they would never have crucify'd the LORD of Glory So may we say of the authors of all the false and pernicious Doctrines which men have lusted to introduce into Religion that if they had duly known JESUS CHRIST they would not have ever troubled the Church I pass by the scourges of the first ages the impiety of the Arrians and the Dokites the extravagancy of the Nestorians and the Eutychians together with the numberless branches of the one and the others they all evidently sprung from ignorance of the true being of our LORD JESUS CHRIST and strike directly at Him ruining either His natures by attributing to Him the one a created and imperfect Divinity the others an imaginary and phantastique Humanity or His Person some of them dividing others confounding the natures which are united in it From the same original its clear have come those abuses and disorders which had the vogue in the following ages and which raising themselves by little and little from weak and obscure beginnings have at last got a superiority and suffocated the genuine simplicity and verity of the Gospel Hence proceeded that invocation of Saints which is at this day practised throughout all the Roman Communion Hence hath issued that second sacrifice which they call of the Altar and wherein the heart of Religion is made to consist If men had rightly known the excellency of our LORD's mediation and the effectual extent of His Cross they would never have address'd them to any other Intercessor never have had recourse to any other oblation From the said ignorance also as from a common spring of error have flowed in among people satisfactions and merits of condignity and congruity and indulgences and the rules and odly various Disciplines of Monks and in summ all Superstitions If people had well known what an one JESUS CHRIST is they would have been assuredly content with His Satisfaction and with his infinite merit and with that eternal indulgence which He hath purchas'd for all that believe and with the perfection of His Gospel Hence again hath come the setting up of another Head in the militant Church to be there as the Vicar and coadjutor of JESUS CHRIST If this JESUS whom the Father hath given over all things for an Head to the Church if the fulness of His power and of His wisdom and His infinite love had been well known never had this second Monarchy been erected in His Kingdom In fine we may say to these and to all others that err in Religion Joh. 4.10 as sometime our LORD Himself said to the Samaritan If you knew the gift of GOD and who this JESUS is that speaketh to you in His Scriptures you would seek all your Salvation in Him alone and demand of none besides Him any of the things that are necessary for the refreshment and consolation of your Souls Judg faithful Brethren how much it concerneth us to know Him well and to have Him still before our eyes Since this knowledg sufficeth to secure us from error Accordingly you see with what care the Apostle S. Paul represents Him to us and with what affection he lays out before us all the marvels of this great and divine Subject He described Him before to the Colâ—ssians in a sublime manner and to fasten their hearts to Him alone shewed them that in Him is found all fulness But he contents not himself with this He now informes them further in the Text which you have heard that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg In these few words there is a great deal of sense and truth Therefore we will employ this whole exercise in the explaining of them to you if GOD permit noting in order all that shall seem to us necessary both for the understanding of the Text and for the instruction and edification of your Souls I know well that the relative word whom is in the Original indifferently whom or which and may be referred either to JESUS CHRIST or to the Mystery of GOD whereof he spake just before if referred to the latter it is as if he had said that in this Mystery are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and I deny not but the words so construed do make a veritable sense it being certain that our LORD's Gospel here called His mystery is an inexhaustible treasury of all saving wisdom and knowledg But it is not needful to come to this and in my mind it s more pertinent and more fluent to refer this word to the Name of CHRIST which immediately preceded and to account the Apostle's meaning is that in JESUS CHRIST are hid these treasures which he doth intend Yet at the bottom as you shall see the sense is the same which way soever of the two you understand it And for a right conceiving of it we must first refute the exposition which some do give of this Text and then assert the true meaning There are some that take these words as if Paul would say that JESUS CHRIST knoweth all things and hath so rich and so abundant a knowledg that He is ignorant of nothing It 's a mistaking of the Apostle's
and Powers These are the Enemies whom the LORD JESUS hath overcome and utterly defeated on the Cross as himself reported the evening before his passion saying that the Prince of this world was then judged that is was about to be condemned And S. Paul elsewhere saith Heb. 2 1â— that JESVS hath by his death destroyed him that had the power of death to wit the Devil Let us now see how our Saviour hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers and publickly made a shew of them triumphing over them on the Cross First It is evident that all this language of the Apostle's is figurative and taken from what great Captains that had been victorious over their Enemies were heretofore wont to do For after they had spoiled them not only Arms Habits Jewels and Baggage but also of their Estates and all their Glory they led them away prisoners and made a shew of them to their Countrey-men on the day of their triumph This name the Romans gave to the pomps of that entry which their Captains and Generals of a Victorious Army made into their City For when any of them had won a Battel taken Towns conquer'd Countreys or done any great and notable exploit of warr one of the principal and most prized Honours that were decreed him for a reward of his valour was a Triumphâ— which was acted with incredible pomp and ceremony The Conqueror was mounted on a stately Chariot magnificently cloth'd and crowned His whole Army marched before and after him in Military order every Troop under its Ensigns and Colours The heads and principal of the Enemies followed his Chariot bound and in chains There was carried along all the Gold and Silver and other Treasures he had won from the Enemy The Towns he had taken the Rivers he had pass'd the Provinces he had subdued the Battels he had given were represented in Picture and exposed to the view of the people who with great festivity and rejoycing accompanied in throng or beheld him from the windows of their houses and filled the air with their acclamations and applauses He entred Rome in this â—quipage and passing through the fairest Streets of the City ascended the Capitol the chief of their Temples where he betook himself to offer sacrifice after he had thus displayed the fruits of his Victories before the eyes of all thâ— world and received all kind of benedictions and praises from his fellow Citizens This is properly that which was called a Triumph The Apostle therefore fetching his terms from this custom which was well known at that time and familiar to every one doth apply them to our LORD and Saviour because of that resemblance we find between the pomp of his mystical victory and this Triumph of Sâ—cular Rulers and Captains He tells us that he hath spoiled these hostile Principalities and Powers He saith that he hath publickly made a shew of them In fine he affirms that he hath triumphed on the Cross expressions all of them manifestly taken as you see from that glorious pomp of the Roman Triumphs which we have now described and which for substance do signifie no other thing but that JESUS dying on the Cross hath fully vanquish'd and defeated the Devil with all his power in the view of Heaven and Earth In prosecution hereof we are to refute the false expositions which some do give of this passage Themas Loranus Cajetan and after that render you an account of the true Some of the famousest Interpreters of the Church of Rome do understand it of the deliverance of the Fathers whom our Saviour as those men say took out of that Limbus in which their spirits were and led them to Heaven with them He spoiled principalities and powers that is the Devils from whom he took away what they kept in Hell forasmuch say they as he caused Adam Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob with the rest of the faithful who deceased under the Old Testament to come forth from their Limbus which is one of the partitions of the infernâ—l Region Then they say he led them carrying them up to Heaven and giving them entrance into Jerusalem on high whence they had been until then excluded And he made them triumph in himself for so the same Authors do read the Apostle's words that is He made them to participate of his triumph in that they had the honour to accompany and enter into Heaven with him But scarce can a thing be uttered more false more forced and more impertinent than this whole interpretation First That which it supposeth of the abode of the spirits of the old believers in a subterraneous and infernal Limbus is uncertain and fabulous being sounded only upon the tradition of men and not on any authority of the word of GOD. As for that which they commonly alledg to prove it namely Gen. 37.35 Jacob's saying that he would go down into Hell unto his Son Joseph they that are versed in Scripture do well know the word Inferi or Hell in that place in particular and almost every other where in the Book of GOD doth signifie the Grave Whence it comes that the same Patriarch saith elsewhere unto his sons that if any evil befel Benjamin they would make his white hairs descend with sorrow ad inferos to Hell as divers read it where it is clear that by the same word he means the Grave into which the dead go down with their hairs and not Limbus into which only souls descended who have no hair sure And as to what they produce of the pretended soul of Samuel call'd up from Hell by the Sorceress her charms where is the Christian that doth not burn to see such power granted the Ministers of Devils over the Spirits of Prophets God forbid we should credit so gross an absurdity That which the Enchantress saw came from Hell I confess but that which she saw was not in truth the soul of Samuel which was at rest with GOD in Ahraham's bosome It was nothing but a vain shadow and a phantasm of that Prophet called by his name because of its resembling him as the greatest part of the ancient Fathers did affirm and as some of the most famous Authors Leo Allatius in Euctath Antiâ—ch Psal 68.19 even of the Roman Communion do at this day hold They again do abuse what the Psalmist singeth of the Messiah Thou art gone up on high thou hast taken or led a multitude of captives as it s rendred These captives they will have to be the spirits of the Fathers But it is manifest to all that have the least knowledg in the holy Tongue that the phrase there used by the Prophet doth signifie to take or to make prisoners not to free them and to lead not into liberty but into captivity So as if this passage be meant of the Fathers we must say not that the LORD brought them out prison as is suppos'd but that he put them in a thing that would be infinitely
not to be doubted but that the precipitaâ—ed deaths and ruines of so many great ones whom the world hath seen and still doth see perish with astonishment are for the most part from the same source even the debauches they have been carried into The accidents of particular houses and persons infected with this leaprousie are less marked yet are they nevertheless very remarkable And he that shall look narrowly into them shall find in them admirable examples of the justice of GOD upon these kind of sins and this in special that He commonly takes away His covenant from houses where such disorders reign I might easily let you see like foot-steps of the wrath of GOD upon the covetous whose unrighteousnesse He often punisheth with loss of senses of health of honour and of that very wealth which they love much better than their bodies and their souls themselves not to speak of the infamy which GOD sometimes poureth out upon them and the horrible miseries into which He lets them fall in their persons and in their posterity But I must pass to the other part of this Text and speak a few words of it and conclude For the Apostle after this wrath of GOD which he hath represented as falling from Heaven upon the children of rebellion because of their pollutions and avarices reminds the Colossians that themselves had sometime been in the same condition in which saith he you also walked other-while when ye lived in these things To live in these sins is to have the principles of our life infected with the venome of them To walk in them is to produce the actions of them The one is the power and faculty of life the other is the exercise and function of it For the having in ones self the principles and faculties of life this the Apostle termeth living and by walking he understands a putting forth the actions of the same as appears plainly by his saying elsewhere If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit For a man that Gal. 5.25 for instance is asleep does nevertheless live and hath life though he performeth not the actions of it As therefore to live in the Spirit is no other thing but to have the faculties and powers of our nature renewed and as it were new-east and regenerated by the vertue of the Spirit of JESUS CHRIST so on the contrary to live in sin is in like manner to have our understanding and will and the other powers of our nature putrified and corrupted and as it were empoisoned with Adam's sin by the contagion of his flesh And again as those do walk in the Spirit who exercise piety and sanctity and do conduct all the actions and motions of their lives according to the will of the Spirit so they on the contrary walk in sin who follow and fulfill the lusts thereof and employ themselves in no other exercise but the serving it and doing those evil works which naturally flow from the habitudes of it But we have spoken largely heretofore if you remember of this first life of old Adam which the grace of the LORD JESUS hath destroyed and mortified in us We have only to observe in our way that since the exercise of man in his state of nature before grace is to walk in vices and in grossest pollutions it must be an huge error to imagine that he should be able in such a state to produce works either meritorious as some say or preparatory to grace as others do pretend All he doth for this time if you believe the Apostle in the case is not good but to prepare for Hell and merit the wrath of GOD and to have any other opinion of it will be a diminution of the greatnesse of the grace of GOD towards us Let us think then Beloved Brethren on that shameful and miserable estate in which we naturally were and should have continued for ever with the children of rebellion living and walking in sins the wages and fruit whereof could be no other than eternal death if the LORD through His abundant grace had not delivered us from such a condemnation And resenting as we ought the greatness of the benefit He hath conferr'd upon us let us incessantly bless His mercy and goodness Thanks be ever rendred unto thee O holy and merciful LORD for that we being servants of sin thou hast made us free by Thy Son and given us by thy Spirit Rom. 6.17 to obey that express form of doctrine which hath been delivered us by thy servants But as heretofore the vices in which we lived did continually produce all kind of pollutions and sins and henceforth since the cross and grace of our LORD hath dried up this source of impurity let there no more appear any track of them in our manners Let the holyness of that new man whose name and blood we boast of shine forth in all the actions of our lives Above all let us banish thence those two capital and accursed pests of luxury and avarices for which you have heard here before all the mouths of Heaven opened to fulminate against the rebellious that serve them the curses of this world and of that which is to come And if the ignorance of such as lived in error withheld not the wrath of GOD heretofore from coming on them for these two kinds of sins what must those expect now who commit the same crimes in the light of JESUS CHRIST Sure as much as the disobedience and the rebellion of the one is more grievous and more enormous than that of others so much more terrible will be the wrath that shall pour from Heaven upon them than all the judgements of GOD the world hath seen in time past Your ingratitude Christian who so ill brook your name and your disobedience surpasseth in horridnesse all the unbelief both of the first world and of ancient Israel they rejected but the preaching of Noah and the ministry of Mâ—ses whereas you outrage the Gospel of the Son of GOD and as much is in you is make Him a lyer Yet you know how they were punished you know the deluges which the fault of the one brought upon all the earth You know the abysse opened its mouth to swallow up the others alive Heaven and earth and the elements were armed against them If their punishment makes you tremble why do you imitate their faults yea why commit you such as are more hainous and blacker than theirs GOD is good and merciful I acknowledge but to sinners repenting To those that mock at His instruction and make a jest of His menaces He is severe and inexorable And if they amend not they shall know sooner or later to their cost that it 's a fearful thing to fall into His hands But the LORD JESUS whom we invocate please to give us better things so reforming this Church by the power of His Spirit and of His voice that henceforth these crying sins be no more seen
They forbid all Christians to read the Bible without the Bishops or the Inquisitors permission But they presently declare that no Bishop nor Inquisitor hath power to give any Thus there shall no person be permitted it Is not this an evident mocking of the world But these gallants do so hugely dread the Scripture that they had rather become guilty of thus shamefully and openly deluding Christendom than suffer any one to have or read so dangerous a Book They would rather salve their interest than their honour And in very deed such the practice is in Spain and Italy and in the Territories of the Inquisition where this permission to read the Bible is not given to any man whoever he be and where it 's held for a capital crime and a sure mark of Heresie to have in house but a volume of the Old or New Testament in the vulgar tongue So as it must of necessity be that those who do in these parts permit this reading unto some are either guilty of violating the general ordinances of that Church they profess themselves members of or have some particular and extraordinary power from the Pope to do as they do which yet doth not appear This crime would be less strange if it did clash only with this passage of the Apostle But it also overturneth divers other most expresse instructions Deut. 17.18 19. which occur in the holy Scriptures For GOD commands the King of Israel who was a Laick noâ— a Clerk to write a copy of His law and to have it by him Deut. 11.18 19. 6.7 8 9. and read it diligently and generally all His people to lay up all His words in their hearts and in their minds to bind them for signs upon their hands and for frontlets between their eyes that is to have them as familiar as their own hands and eyes to teach them their children and discourse of them at home and abroad lying down and rising up and write them on the posts of their houses and on their gates which is just the same thing St. Paul here calls in short an having the word of GOD to dwell in them In effect St. Luke praiseth the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8.28 17.11 for that he read the Scriptures and the men of Berea for that they consulted them daily to know if the things which Paul and Silas preached to them were so Yet we no where read Psal 1.2 that they had leave of any Papal Bishops or Inquisitors And David pronounceth that man blessed who meditateth day and night in the law of GOD. Again Joh. 20.31 the word of GOD being written that we might believe that JESVS is the CHRIST and that believing we might have life through His Name as saith St. John Rom. 15.4 and for our learning as saith St. Paul that we through patience and comfort might have hope It must of necessity be concluded that the forbidding of Christians to read the Scriptures evidently is either a frustrating the LORD of His intention or an accusing Him of having been unable to give us Scriptures proper for His aim and our aid I say as much and that more positively of the Apostolical Epistles which being directed to the faithful Clergie and Laity indifferently there is no reason to bar any of them from reading what the first Ministers of GOD wrote to them all In fine the fault of our adversaries is so much the more inexcusable for that the ancient Doctors of whom they make so great account Homil. 9. on Levitie are directly contrary to them in this particular As Origen for one who would have Christians not only hear the word of GOD in the Church but exercise themselves in reading it at home and in meditating on it night and day St. Hierom for another Hierom. Ep. 14. 30. August lib. de Catech. rud c. 6.8 Gregor in his Epistles lib. 4. Ep. 40. who would have women and maids themselves to learn the Scriptures by heart St. Augustine for a third who does most earnestly recommend the reading of the word of GOD to the very Catechumeni that is Christians of the lowest form such as had not yet received holy Baptism St. Gregory the Great that famous Bishop of Rome for a fourth who gravely reproves a Physician of the Court for that he took not the pains to read the words of our Redeemer every day For what is holy Scripture saith he but a letter from GOD to His creature If you were in a far Countrey and there received letters from the Emperor your Master you would not be at rest nor sleep at your case till you had read them and perceiv'd what your earthly Prince should have vouchsafed to write you The Monarch of Heaven the LORD of men and Angels hath sent and conveyed to your hands His letters about the concernments of your life And yet my Son you deign not to read them Apply to them I beseech you and meditate daily your Creator's sayings Thus Gregory more than a thousand years a-go Judge how far the language of later Popes is from his spirit and from his principles I pass by other Doctors of antiquity who are no less contrary to this modern abuse and will only mention further John of Antioch Bishop of Constantinople to whom the Church hath given the name of Chrysostome that is Golden mouth because of the richness and sweetnesse of his incomparable eloquence he alone would furnish a man with enough to make a small volume if any would put together all the passages of his works in which he exhorteth all the faithful and in special those of the people to an assiduous reading of the Holy Scripture and particularly in the Sermon he made upon this very Text of the Apostle which we are expounding Hear Chrysost Homil 9. in Ep. ad Coloss saith he you that live in the World and have wife and children hear how he orders you yea you principally to read the Scriptures not slightly and heedlesly but with great care and diligence He would have them heed no other master You have saith he to them the oracles of GOD and no one can teach you so well as these divine books And a little after Have saith he the books of the Bible the true medicines of the soul Get at least the New Testament the Acts of the Apostles the Gospels Let these be your perpetual Masters and Teachers If any affliction befall you loss of goods of children or of friends if death it self present its self unto you make search forthwith in this book as in the store-house of coelestial medicaments and fetch out of it the remedies that are necessary for the mitigating of your miseries Or rather that you may not be put to the trouble of such search lay them all up in your soul and have them ready upon all occasions Ignorance of the Scriptures is the cause of all our evils Thus far Chrysostome And truly as you
degree of society either civil or domestick or religious they be placed And though this part being once well comprehended hath in it a great and almost sufficient light to direct and govern all the rest yet they forbear not upon it to descend unto the particular duties of each of those estates and conditions which the faithful live in in humane society Thus the Apostle S. Paul hath done in this Epistle for after having formed us all in general unto piety and sanctity and charity which belong to all Christians equally as you have heard in the precedent exercises he now addresseth himself in particular to each of those three orders of which an houshold is composed the first whereof is the Husband and the Wife the second the Father and the Children the third Master and Servants giving each of them a good lesson for their conduct in the condition to which GOD hath called them Elsewhere he regulateth the duties of Subjects in reference to the civil Powers under which they live of the faithful in reference to their Pastors and reciprocally of Pastors in reference to their flocks not omitting Deacons the other part of Ecclesiastick Ministry and this not in one place alone but many In consideration hereof before we proceed any further permit me I beseech you to make here at the entrance one general reflection upon this the Holy Apostles way of treating thus Whence comes it that having been so careful to instruct and to direct in particular each of those different ranks of persons which then were and still are in the Church they never drop'd one word of the duties of three kinds of conditions in which now a dayes Rome makes the main and in a manner the all of the Christian Commonweal to consist I mean the Pope Sacrificers or Priests and Monks The Apostles do instruct the lowest Masters how they ought to treat their attendants and the simplest Presbyters or Bishops that is Pastors how they ought to feed their flocks They never tell the Pope in what manner he ought to deport himself in that great government of all Christendom which as is said hath been given him of GOD. The Apostles do advertise the most abject slaves of the servitude they owe their Masters and every flock of the diference and respect it owes its Pastors They never speak a word either to single believers or their guides of that infinite subjection which they are obliged to profess unto the Pope or of kiâ—â—ing his feet or of submitting the conscience or any other such like thing The Apostles do exactly inform Bishops or Pastors of the duties of their charge of preaching exhorting instructing of watching of correcting of censuring of excluding the scandalous from communion They never order any Sacrificers to offer a propitiatory hoast unto GOD for the sins of quick and dead nor tell them of the preparations ceremonies and observances necessary thereto nor of purifying by means of an auricular confession the consciences of such as are to participate of such a sacrifice nor of the precautions and subtilties that are necessary for the right administration of it In fine the Apostles verity vouchsafe to take the pains to enter into Families and there regulate the demeanour of Husbands and Wives of Virgins and Widows of Fathers and Children of Masters and Servants Why say they nothing unto Monks neither to the solitary as Hermits and Anachorets nor to those that live associated in separated dwellings Why do they not somewhere instruct the Guardians the Abbots the Superiours and Generals of these orders Why do they not exhort their inferiors to yield them a blind obedience Why say they nothing of their three vows and of the means of well observing them And why give they no instructions to Religious women who imitating the zeal of men shut themselves up in Convents But what say I that they no where regulate the carriage and particular duties of these three sorts of conditions More than so they make no mention of them at all neither expresly nor implicitly And if you read the Books of the New Testament you will find that there is no more speech in them of the Pope and the Sacrificers and the Monks of Rome than of the Bramines of India or the Bonzians of Japan or the Muphti of the Musulmen Whence comes so strange a silence so universal an obliviousness Is it that the thing was not worthy of the Apostles care and quill But how can that be imagin'd since if you believe those of Rome it 's upon these three orders that Christianity depends For as to the Pope he is the head of the Church and exerciseth so necessary an imperial power that out of his communion there is no salvation And as for Priests or Sacrificers it 's they alone that purifie the souls of men both by the absolution they give those whom they confess and by that Deity which they deliver unto such as they communicate Lastly as for Monks their order is the state of perfection They are the Angels of the earth the glory and the rampart of the Church the sole patterns of Evangelick piety and sanctity wherefore they call their fraternities Religions and disdaining their old name of Monks each sex of them stiles themselves Religious as if the piety of other Christians did not deserve to be called Religion in comparison of theirs Whence comes it then that the Apostles have so forgotten these three sorts of people which are as highly or more necessary in the Church than the four elements in the world Dear Brethren you plainly see the reason and if passion did not blind our adversaries they might see it too as well as we The Apostles have said nothing to these three sorts of people because there were none such among Christians in their time Had there been then a Pope and Sacrificers in the Church the Apostles without doubt would have told them their duty as well as Bishops and Elders that is Pastors And if there had been Monks and Religiouses they would undoubtedly have spoken unto them as well as unto men and women that live in wedlock Since they did it not be we certainly assured that neither of these three plants was sown or set by JESUS CHRIST or His Apostles but they have all sprung up since their dayes partly from the imprudence partly from the superstition and corruptness of men who also affording them cultivation have raised them by little and little to that prodigious greatness which now for divers ages they have had And this be spoken at the entrance upon occasion of the care the Apostles in general had to form and regulate the duties of the divers conditions of persons which are found in the Church As for S. Paul's particular in this place he speaks here first unto Husbands and Wives next unto Fathers and Children and last of all unto Masters and Servants following therein the natural order of the things themselves For if you consider the
That a Church which hath received any grace from GOD which tendeth to edification should not envy it to others but affectionately communicate unto them all that may serve for their instruction And this communion ought to have place particularly between neighbouring Churches as those of Coloss and of Laodicea were And it 's upon this example and upon the reason on which it depends that the uniting of the Churches of the same Provinces and resorts in the same Classes and Synods is founded a thing instituted and observed from the beginning of Christianity down to our days and still very profitably practised and kept up among us by the goodness of GOD. This mutual communication of neighbouring Churches appears yet further in that the Apostle orders the Colossians in the third place to read also the letter from Laodicea after their imparting to them his When this Epistle saith he hath been read among you cause that it be also read in the Church of the Laodiceans and read ye also that which came or was written from Laodicea It is demanded what this second Epistle whereof he speaks should be Many Theologues of the communion of Rome do answer that it was a letter which St. Paul wrote to the faithful of Laodicea at the same time he wrote this to the Colossians whence they conclude that this piece being lost as well as divers other writings of Prophets and Apostles it cannot be pretended that the Canon of holy Writ is perfect and doth contain all things necessary unto our salvation Others again from thence infer that it is the Church which gives the Scriptures the authority they have among Christians since of the Epistles of St. Paul it hath left this in particular out of the Canon of Divine Books and retained only those fourteen which are in our hands But there is nothing found nor solid in their arguing which concludes ill and presupposeth what is false For suppose the Apostle had written an Epistle to the Laodiceans and that it were lost as I would not avouch that St. Paul and his fellow-brethren the Apostles never wrote any thing to any particular person or to any Church but what is arrived down to us suppose it I say who told them that this loss makes the Canon of our Scriptures defective Who told them that there was in that letter some Article of Faith necessary unto our salvation which is not found in the other parts of the Bible we now have Again who taught them thence to conclude that it is the Church who authorizeth the Divine Books I grant she is the keeper and depositary of them as the Synagogue sometime was of the Books of the Old Testament according to the Apostle's saying that unto them were committed the Oracles of GOD and that it belongs to her charge to preserve them and read them and recommend them to every one But that it is the authority of her voice and testimony which gives them the price and value they have either in themselves or in reference to faithful souls this in my opinion cannot be said without outraging the Majesty of their Author by making the divinity of the instruments of His wisdom to depend upon the phantasie of men As the Romans heretofore submitted the worship and divinity of their Gods unto the Decrees of their Senate They were not Gods except it so pleased men If it were certain that the Apostle had written an Epistle to the Laodiceans and put it in the hands of the Church it should be concluded not that she hath the power to authorize what Divine Books she pleaseth but rather that she hath hugely failed of her duty in having so ill kept an heavenly jewel But the worst yet is that all they talk about this pretended Epistle of St. Paul to the Laodiceans is a vain conceit and hath no other foundation but their imagination I well know that in our Fathers days * Faber Stapulensis a Learned man did publish one under that name having found it in three or four Libraries But the piece is so gross and so ridiculous that it hath been rejected equally on all hands as the work of an impostour who abusing his leisure forged this trifle and shamelesly fathered it upon St. Paul Some of the Ancients do also make mention of a Script bearing the same name whether it were different from this or did resemble it But the Ancients that speak of it do all unanimously decry it as an Apocryphal Book and issued out of an heretical Shop and framed at pleasure after St. Paul's death Tertuld 5. c. 1â— contra Marcion And in truth one of the first Writers of the Latine Church do's declare that a famous Heresiarch named Marcion had changed the Title of the Epistle of St Paul to the Ephesians and instead of this name which it alwayes bore in the Church impudently called it the Epistle to the Laodiceans and read we do Heres 43. contiâ— Marcion in the Epistle to the Ephesians those words which Epiphanius reporteth to have been cited by Marcion out of the Epistle to the Laodiceans This hath given * Gretius a certain Writer occasion to fancy that St. Paul indeed sent and addressed the same Epistle to the Laodiceans which at the same time he wrote to the Ephesians these two Churches having had need of the same remedies and that its this Epistle the Apostle means in this place willing the Colossians to take a copy of it and read it in their Assembly All this would pass if it were at all grounded but it is too much considence or credulity to think to perswade it us upon the credit of Marcion the most impudent impostor that ever troubled the Church and one that in particular played with the Books of the New Testament contracting them maiming them and changing themat his pleasure with an infernal license Besides this supposition accordeth not with St. Paul's words For he doth not all say as these persons pretend that the Epistle in question was written to the Laodiceans True it is the Latine Interpreter hath rendred it the Epistle of the Laodiceans but this would signifie as every one seeth that the Laodiceans had wrote it and not that they had receiv'd it either from the Apostle or from any other Yet though the Latine would suffer this rude gloss it is clear the original cannot be made to bear it without undertaking as these new Doctours do truly with presumption enough to change the words of it which we find uniform in the Greek Copies and which the Ancients observed there above twelve hundred years ago For they clearly import as our Bibles have faithfully translated and represented that this Epistle had been written or sent from Laodicea so that we must necessarily ununderstand them with the ancient Greek Fathers of an Epistle written not to the Laodiceans but from their City Now the Apostle telling us no more of it either here or elsewhere we need not wonder that
such as have had the curiosity to enquire what this letter might be have faln upon different opinions as in a matter both obscure and besides of no great necessity Some of the Ancients say that it is the first Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy written from Laodicea as is expresly reported by an old tradition which is read still to this day at the end of that Epistle And the truth is it cannot be deny'd but this Epistle containeth divers instructions fit to edifie the Colossians about the business of those seducers whom St. Paul here opposeth they dogmatised a discrimination of dayes and meats and this is there expresly condemned And whereas it is alledged against these Authors that the Apostle had not been in the City of Laodicea by means whereof he could not have thence written any letters either to Timothy or any other they perhaps would answer with an Ancient Author Theodoret by name that the History of the Acts assuring us St. Paul had traversed Phrygia it is not very probable but that he pass'd through Laodicea the capital City of the Province And whereas he saith in the 2. chap. to the Colossians that he hath a great conflict for them and for those at Laodicea and for all such as had not seen his presence in the flesh this shews indeed that the Apostle had care even of those of the faithful whom he had not seen but not that they of Laidicea or of Coloss were of the number and that the sense of these words is he was in pain not only for them whom he had seen and known but even for the Christians he never saw Yet because this exposition may seem a little forced it is better and more easie to stick to the common opinion follow'd by the greater part of Expositors both Ancient and Modern even that the Epistle from Laedicea here mention'd by the Apostle was a letter written by the Church of Laodicea to St. Paul which letter he desireth the Colossians should read in their Assembly because it contained things which he judged helpful to their edification perhaps concerning the persons or the errours or the procedures of those very seducers whom he combateth in this Epistle This in my opinion is that which may be said in the matter with greatest probability There remaineth the third and last order he gives them say to Archippus Take heed to the Ministry thou hast received in the LORD that thou fulfill it We learn from the Epistle to Philemon that Archippus was a fellow-souldier of the Apostle's that is a Minister of the holy Gospel The meaning then is that the Church do advertise him on St. Paul's behalf to mind both the quality of that excellent Ministry and the Authority and Divinity of the LORD in whose name he had been called to it that he might acquit himself worthily in it and diligently fulfill all the functions of it leaving no part of them unperformed It is thought that some negligence or other defect of this Pastor might oblige the Apostle to cause this advise to be given him But for my part I would not without a more pressing reason suspect such a thing of a person whom the Apostle had so much honoured as to call him his fellow-souldier in the Epistle he wrote at the same time to Philemon and should rather beleeve that Archippus having been newly receiv'd into this sacred charge the Apostle would encourage him by this advertisement to a good discharge of his duty in it However it were you see he gives the body of the Church a power to address some remonstrances sometinâ—es to it 's own Pastors An evident sign that they are not the Masters and Lords of it as those of Rome pretend but Ministers and Officers only In fine he adds for a conclusion The salutation by the own hand of me Paul The rest of the Epistle had been dictated by the Apostle and written by another hand He writeth these and the following words himself with his own hand 1 Thes 3.17 and it was his ordinary use so to do as he declareth elsewhere 2 Thes 2.2 to assure his letters by this mark against the fraud of falsifiers who even then impudently dispersed forged letters under his name as himself in another place intimates unto us Yet before he shuts up he conjures them to remember his bonds as an excellent seal of the truth of his Gospel and an irrefragable testimony of the affection he bore to them and to the rest of the Gentiles for whose sake he suffered these things which consequently obliged them to love him and to pray the LORD ardently for him and above all to imitate his constancy and his patience on the like occasions if they should be called to them After this he gives them his blessing in these words Grace be with you Amen He means the Grace of GOD in JESUS CHRIST His Son our LORD and it was not possible to crown this divine Letter with a fairer and a fitter close Bless we GOD my Beloved Brethren who hath vouchsafed us the grace to read and to explain it throughout in these holy Assemblies and pray Him that he would please to continue the same liberty and tranquility still unto us causing His word to fructifie among us At present let us particularly meditate the remarkable Lessons which this conclusion doth contain to the end we may sedulously practise them each of us according to our Vocation Let Ministers mind the advertisement given to Archippus and imitate the example of Epaphras in loving cordially their flocks in striving for them both by prayer and by word and by deed fulfilling their Ministry and so demeaning themselves in it as may be worthy both of the excellency of the charge and of the respect and love they owe to the son of GOD who hath honoured them with it Let Flocks have reverence and amity for their Pastors and live an good intelligence with their neighbours as Coloss and Laâ—dicea mutually communicating all things that tend to their common edification Let the Epistles of St. Paul and the Books of his fellow-brethen the Prophets and Apostles of the LORD resound eternally in our Assemblies Let their Voice alone be there heard and their Doctrine alone receiv'd and every tradition not marked with their zeal be banish'd thence Let heads of Families imitate the zeal of Nymphas so conscionably forming their children and their people unto piety and so regularly establishing the exercises of it among them that it may be truly said of them they each have a Church in their house And all of us together of what order or condition soever let us study to be perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD and persevere unto the end in this holy profession remembring also the bonds of St. Paul and the sufferings of the faithful by which GOD hath confirmed the truth of His Gospel and so walk in the steps of these blessed ones enjoying the favours of