henceforth any track of him in your whole course And instead of that infernal vigorousness wherewith he inspired heretofore and disturbed your whole life put on that new man whom JESUS hath on this day made to come forth out of his Sepulcher Drink in his Spirit fill your veins with his Blood and your arteries with his fire Receive his Sentiments and deck your selves with his Lights Lead henceforth a life worthy of his Resurrection and of his Baptism and of that immortal Food which you have taken at his Table Let your actions aim at nothing but Heaven 'T is there your Treasure is Christian what do you yet seek on Earth Your LORD is no longer here This day saw him come up thence to go fit down on high at the right hand of GOD and carry up your hearts with him giving them all his motions that where he is ye may be also And if his will do oblige you to tarry yet a while on earth spend the whole time in the same manner that he spent his forty days after his resurrection in a continual meditation of heavenly things in the company of Apostles in the entertainment of Saints in the exercise of an ardent charity in the preparatives of your ascension to his â—ingdom wholly managing this short space to his glory and to the instruction and edification of men This is that we owe dear Bretthren to the Burial and Resurrection of our LORD There is no need to run to Palestine nor to go up Mount Calvary for to enter into his Sâ—pulcher You are entred into it and buried with him if you by the faith of his Gospel do mortifie and destroy sin according to the intention of your Baptism Nor is it a whit more necessary for the having of part in his resurrection to go and kiss the last print of his seet upon Mount Olivet You are risen again with him if affected with the glory he brought out of his Tomb and perswaded of the truth of the discoveries he made of blessed immortality you live according to the form of his Gospel in purity and sanctification GOD who raiseth the dead by his glorious power please to reveal the same might upon our hearts and form so lively a faith in them as may be the true workmanship of his hand and the faith of his efficacy that we may thereby be buried and raised up with CHRIST and after these first-fruits of his holiness be one day transform'd into a perfect resemblance of his glory for the eternal possessing of that great and blessed Heavenly Kingdom with Him which he hath purchas'd for us by the merit of his death and ensured to us by the virtue of his resurrection So be it The Twenty-fourth SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XIII Ver. XIII And when ye were dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh He quickned you together with Him having freely forgiven you all your offences DEar Brethren The Philosophers do with good reason commonly say That contraries illustrate one another For nothing makes us better understand the excellence of liberty than consideration of the misâ—râ—es of bondage and nothing doth more discover the nature and advantages of Vertue than the deformity and wretchedness of its oppositâ— Vices The beauty and usefulness of light is perceiv'd by the hideousness of black obscurity and the sweetness of health by the incommodities of sickness For this cause the Ministers of God to teach us the true worth of his benefits do frequently represent to us the misery of that estate out of which he deliver'd us Thus you â—ee the Prophets of the Old Testament did continually put the Israelites in mind of their once sad and pitiful estate in Egypt under the tyranny of Pharaâ—h They would have them keep it in their eye that so they might duly relish the redâ—mption of GOD and the sweetness of that liberty he had given them Under the New Testament the Apostles are no less intentive to represent at every turn the extream hideousness of our original condition for to make us acknowledg so much the more the grace that GOD hath shew'd us in his Son by translating us out of the Kingdom of darkness into his marvellous light Thus S. Paul doth in the Text we have read wherein that the Colossians might be brought to a fuller comprehension of the inestimable excellency of the benefit they had receiv'd from GOD in JESUS CHRIST when they were raised again with him in Baptism by the faith of his efficacy as he expressed in the foregoing Verse He now lays before them the misery they were before engult'd in When ye were dead in offences saith he and in the uncircumcision of your flesh c. Now this discourse does also hit the mark he principally aim'd at in the whole dispute which is as you have often heard to refute the pernicious error of those who accounted the observing of circumcision and other Ceremonies of Moses necessary for Christians Sure all the profit they could pretend to by them was either the remission of our sins or the sanctification of our lives But the Apostle doth here shew us in few words that we have both the one and the other of these two graces in JESUS CHRIST The first Since GOD hath freely forgiven us all our offences in Him The second Since of being dead as we were in our selves He hath made us alive with him whereby it is evident that the Ceremonies of the Law are henceforth wholly useless to us There is no need of the knife of Moses any longer GOD by the sole Gospel of his CHRIST dying and risen again for us the true Sword of Heaven infinitely sharper than any of the Metals of Nature hath cut off all the corruption of our flesh He hath done much more yet By the alone vertue of the same CHRIST he hath rescued us from death and animated and made us alive And as for the sins whereof we were guilty he hath pardon'd us them all His pure grace in JESUS CHRIST hath effectually fulfill'd whatsoever Moses's Law did promise or figure You have had experience of it saith the Apostle to the faithful at Coloss you have seen and felt the efficacy of JESVS CHRIST in your selves Remember what you were when you believed on him and consider what you are since you passed through his hands Ye were dead and ye are alive ye were covered with crimes and are fully absolv'd of them Do not so assront your Deliverer as to think that having wrought so great Miracles by his own power alone he does need the Elements of the Law to finish his work in you and that he cannot compleat without Moses what he so magnificently began and advanced without him This my Brethren is the Apostle's express design in these words We who through the grace of GOD are not troubled with the error of these false Teachers which dyed and was buried long ago will consider this Text more generally and view
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
reason to take the pains himself to form our speech on such occasions namely when we are to entertain those without about our sentiments in matter of religion For certainly this is the tenderest part of all our converse with men and that which would be managed with greatest exactness It is a very slippery passage and the events frequently are of great importance and have long and considerable consequences for good and for evil according to mens different carriage in it And if there be any case in which the tongue hath any reason to vant of great matters Jam. 3.6 as St. James saith without doubt it is in this an answer here as it is qualified being capable of amending or empairing the condition of an whole Christian people a sage and moderate discourse having sometimes averted or stayd the persecution of the Church and appeased the rage of its enemies whereas on the other hand a speech though for substance true yet being indiscreet and ill-placed hath often inflamed the hatred of the mighty and troubled the Church's peace and caused a thousand disorders and devastations The Apostle then would have us on this occasion that is when we speak with those without more than on any other govern our lips with so much judgement that there may not a word break out but what is seasoned as it ought to be Let your speech saith he be alwaies with grace seasoned with salt He presupposeth in the first place and precedently to other things that it have its principal vertue to wit truth which is the soul of it according to that general rule he elsewhere gives us Eph. 4.25 to speak truth every one with our neighbour But in conjunction herewith his intention is that our speech have these two further qualities first that it be with grace and secondly that it be seasoned with salt The grace he requires in it is not that which is given to a discourse by the ornaments of Rhetorick which respecteth only the pleasing of the ear and consisteth in a choice of elegant words and in a sweet and grateful composition The grace a Christian ought to seek for and have in his speech is so to utter truth as it offend not the hearer that it express our minds without exulcerating his that it have neither gall nor venome nor virulency that it be simple humble and modest without reviling without scoffing and other such stings as may inflame those whom we speak to The other particular he addeth namely that it be well salted that is prepared and as it were seasoned with an exquisite prudence does referr to the same thing for substance For as salt doth desiccate meats and eat out the moisture and putrid humour of them leaving a sharpness in them pleasing to the taste so this Christian prudence which he would have all our speech imbued with works out of it all that it might have in it superfluous and noxious and tempers it in such sort that the sorce and vigour which it leaves it pleaseth the spirit and enters gratefully into it The masters of common Rhetorick would too that there be salt in their Scholars speeches But it is not that which must season a Christian's deliveries By this salt which they make such account of they mean certain pleasantnesses that border upon raillery and jesting Expressions that are quick but offend not and touch the Spirit but do not gall it We for our part do pass by this artifice and draw the salt wherewith our speeches are to be impregnated from a quite other vein even an holy Christian prudence which avoids all that may displease or scandalize our neighbour and chooseth what is proper to edifie him so seasoning discourse that nothing unsavoury or insignificant be uttered which might disgust him at our persons or our religion This salt cleanseth our talk first of all discourses that are either noxious and dangerous as those that lead to viciousness or vain and fruitless and secondly of all that may offend those we talk with and alienate them from our religion For this end that knowledge is necessary which the Apostle speaks of in the following clause that you may know saith he how ye ought to answer every one It 's clear that this grace of speech seasoned with salt doth not teach us how we ought to answer every one but on the contrary this science or knowledge when we have it seasoneth our speech with its necessary grace So that whereas the Apostle saith that ye may know it it must be understood of the event and success as if he had said let your speech be with grace and seasoned with salt so as it may appear you know how to answer every one Or the word know which he useth in the original must be taken for as knowing and as judging and discerning how we ought to answer every man First his calling our discourses an answering does intimate that we should not cast our selves upon such kind of conferences inconsiderately nor enter on them but with judgement and advisednesse being called to it either by some one's demand or by the voice of such a necessary occasion as obligeth us to speak Then again he shews us that we ought to diversifie our speech according to the difference of persons and in this it is that that discerning of persons which we touched at afore must do us service There are those to be met with whom it would be best not to speak to at all The dispositions of some may suffer a firm and free discourse The temper of others requireth a more soft and tender treatment As you see that meats for several bodies must be diversly prepared according to their different constitution so we should diversly season our speech according to the diversity of spirits Such Dear Brethren is the holy and wholsome lesson that the Apostle gives us in this place Practice we it diligently and regulate by it our speech and deportment in all the commerce we have with those without Hide we not our sentiments in religion from them but explain our selves to them in such a manner as may be proper both for their edification and our own satety First let us never speak of them but in season and when occasion offers its self for it do it with that gravity and decency that 's due unto so high and so important a subject Next let us take out of our speech all the stings that might incense those that hear us Let not it have in it any thing reproachful or offensive any thing that scenteth of hatred or contempt Let it be sweet and full of affection and respect Let it bear the image of a well-disposed and a truly charitable soul and breath nothing but the good and the edification of our neighbour And as for truths themselves let it discover and with full liberty expose such as are grateful to our adversaries as thanks be to GOD there are many in particular I make bold to