was in the name of us all and had in it a seed-like vertue to worke the resurrection of us all Hence it commeth that we no sooner come to be in Him but the power of His resurrection is felt of us making us rise to newnesse of life 2 Cor. 5.17 In Christ all things are new Whosoever have learned CHRIST as the truth is in Him have so learned Him as they are dead to sinne the life of the old man is killed and they are alive in the life of grace For looke as a member truly by inward ligaments knit with a living head hath life in it so wee when we come to bee in Christ raysed up and living to God in life glorious we cannot but live in Him Wherefore how woefull is the state of many that professe Christ yet live in ignorance Vse know not what a resurrection meaneth are dead while they live in all kinde of fin and wantonnesse these never were in Christ but like as glasse eyes are set in the body or wooden legges which being by outward meanes joyned to it doe not receive life and sense with other members Wee never knew communion with him who is the quickning spirit if we be dead in our sins 2 Observe What it is that maketh us rise to new life Doct. viz. faith on Christ We are sayd to live by faith because after some sort it is life but most properly it bringeth life into us He that believeth hath everlasting life fully in Christ his head inchoative or imperfectly in himselfe For as in bodily death the reuniting of the soule with it doth make it rise againe and become a living body so faith as a spirituall vinculum tying God who is the soule of our soules againe unto them they which before were dead are anew quickened Thus then as an instrumentall cause of our conjunction with God in Christ who is our life it may be sayd to quicken us or rayse us up though further faith it selfe may bee conceived as a part of this life For as the soule died in falling into ignorance of God estranged from the life of GOD through ignorance in them Ephes 4.18 so comming by faith to know God it beginneth to live Ioh. 17.3 hence to know God in Christ faith being an affianced knowledg is life everlasting This then is the first thing which God worketh in us as the beginning and instrumentall cause of our other following life even as in our waking from our naturall sleepe which is a shaddow of death first the eyes open and then our senses and motions doe come fully to us in their order So in awaking from this sleepe of sin first the eye of faith lookes up to GOD and that invisible world then our life returneth more fully the spirit of God from Christ working it in us Marke then hence Vse that all such beliefes as make not new creatures are not sound faith toward CHRIST the reason is playne a true faith bringeth Christ to live in us Now as a quickning soule cannot returne into the dead body of it but there will be new life So Christ that quickning spirit cannot returne to live in a dead soule but needs it must bee raysed up Wherefore if wee feele no life but that we brought from our mothers wombe let us cast downe our selves we have not yet truly believed and we see how our faith doth not shut out good life as the Papists slander us but bringeth it forth as an effect which cannot be severed Finally Vse hence men may assure themselves of the truth of their faith if they bee renewed in life The last thing here to be noted is Doctr. That the omnipotent action of God which raysed Christ from the dead is it that begetteth faith in us Eph. 1.19 It is called the exceeding greatnesse of His power toward us which believe according to the working of His mighty power Faith is the eye of the soule by which we looke upon CHRIST it is the hand by which we receive all good from Christ Now if a man be borne blind or borne without a hand an eye that seeth but these aspectable creatures and discerneth not distinctly but things at hand a hand that cannot reach an ell or two from us yet all the world cannot supply these nor no power but His onely that created the body how much lesse then shall any power bee able to give us that eye which looketh within the vayle that hand which claspeth Christ in heaven but only the Almighty power of God But what Object doth that power that raysed Christ rayse us up Yea that power though daily continued Answ as the Lord creating Adam and Eve with the law of propagating all the race of mankind did by that power which created and coupled them after a sort make all mankinde though the Father and Son and spirit doe still worke in continuing that first power put forth So here GOD raysing Christ up in whom we all were that he might be a roote and fountayne of supernaturall life to us all that power may be sayd fitly to rayse us all Wherefore let us learne to admire and give glory to GODS power which worketh our fayth Vse 1 if we saw a man raysed from the dead ô how would we speake of such a wonderous power but this is the same that raised Christ from the dead which raiseth us to believe If we creepe up from some deadly sicknesse we tell what a power of God it was to rayse us But when our soules creepe out of darknesse and death to believe on the living God it is as nothing with us This teacheth us whither we must fly for the strengthening and susteyning of our fayth even to this power Vse 2 the same power that made all things upholdeth all things He that knoweth how all the considence of his heart is set upon himselfe and the creature how his reason and senses and his own inclination which is not quieted but in outward meanes how Sathan and the course of this world resist us in believing he cannot but confesse it is the Lords power that first brought him to it and that must keepe his faith from fayling Lastly we see hence how wide they are Vse 3 who never felt any want of such a power who thinke of fayth as a thing they have alwayes had since they came to reason Yea Papists that if GOD offer hold it in the power of man to believe when God sheweth the promise and inlighteneth the mind VERSE 13. And yee which were dead in sinnes and in the uncircumcision of your flesh hath Hee quickened together with Him forgiving you all your trespasses NOw he commeth to repeate this benefit insisting more largely upon it and first he setteth downe the state of them before they were quickened Secondly the quickning of them Thirdly the manner of the action the order in which he quickened them which standeth in a threefold antecedent in nature before
are nothing but the stinch which commeth from the dead corps I meane the body of sin dwelling within us For as heavie savours come from a putrified body so doe these motions from a corrupt soule And as a childe if he doe swarve from morality and civill vertue following whores and abominable courses be a royoter a theefe when thou seest an absence of civill vertue thou sayest he is even a lost childe what then shall wee thinke of our selves being without all heavenly vertue of faith hope joy in the Spirit godlinesse temperance c. The use is Vse that we would consider of sinne and our estate through it that we who have not thought of it may yet set our hearts to the way of life that we may be thankfull who have escaped from it that we may take heed of it and labour to be healed more and more of it Should some learned Physitian tell you such or such a deadly thing were growing on your body how would you thank him and make use of it Oh it is well with thee if God make thee wise that thou hearest this day how thou art dead in spirit and for us we are glad when we escape some great bodily sicknesse and if there dwell reliques of sicke matter wee keepe rules desanitate tuenda how much more should we be wise for our soules 3 That he saith they were dead in trespasses Observe What is the life of a naturall man even a death in trespasse Doct. tota infidelium vita peccatum like tree like fruit now the very conscience of them is polluted Tit. 1.15 without faith it is impossible to GOD. True it is that outwardly they doe many things that are laudable but still they walke in the flesh the Divell hath conjured them so into that circle that they cannot stirre forth of it Looke as in the flesh of a beast there is some part of greatuse bought up at great price some that is cast to the pudding pits yet all is flesh so in the life of the naturall man some workes are of good use and in commendation with man some are abominabl but all are of the flesh As a livelesse image hath the resemblance of a man but is nothing lesse So the vertuous actions of naturall men have that appearance of good but want the soule and life of it in which it consisteth This is to be marked against the Papists Vse as it teacheth us not to rest in this that we are neither theefe nor whore for be our life never so civill it is death in sinne till grace quicken There is a double madnesse as Hippocrates observeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one very light and toying the other more sober and solemne in which men sit still musing deepely upon some fancies Such a difference we have in spirituall phrensies some are very sober over other some as we see the lives of some naturall men gravely ordered and morally in comparison of others but yet all is deluded phrensie before GOD. 2 Marke hence Doct. 2 That our course in actuall sinne doth sinke us deeper and deeper in death when you were dead in sinne intimating thus much that the custome of their trespasses did hold them under death Even as the more the body putrifies it goeth further into death So here the more the soule doth exercise it selfe in evill the deeper it sinketh into the death of it It is fitly likened to the stone of the sepulchre this custome of actuall sinning for it doth seale us up and keepe us downe more strongly under it Vpon this ground the Prophet asketh How shall the Leopard change his spots no more can those that are accustomed to evill learne to doe well Which must make us take heed how wee goe on in a sinfull course Vse for it maketh us rot in this spirituall death and maketh it more difficult for us to returne Many that procrastinate repentance they thinke not on this You hath He quickened with CHRIST that is both perfectly in CHRIST with whom your life is hid and initially in your selves being joyned with CHRIST Vos cum Christo convivificavit conjunctos Christo Observe hence Doct. How farre we are from being prepared to receive the grace shewed us by GOD when we are quickened to beleeve Even as well disposed as Lazarus was for his resurrection to this present life of whom it was said that he now stanke in the grave No there was as much disposition in that Tohu and Bohu that inanity and deformity which was before the world to the being yea the ordinate being of all the Creature as there is in our soules to the worke of grace We are as farre from this heavenly forme of supernaturall life as the deformed Chaos of the Creature was from this beautifull figure before the LORD did bring it forth There is nothing in Nature can so dispose a man to grace as that it should necessarily follow for onely the principal agent which bringeth in the forme it selfe is able to worke the immediate disposition upon which the forme ensueth As nothing but fire can bring combustible matter to be so sparke as that whereupon it presently burneth for such a disposition is the first point of bringing in he forme it selfe In this therefore many of the Papists are wide yea Vse erre from sound reason it selfe let us therefore by confessing our owne utter untowardnesse and repugnancie to GOD's worke glorifie His Name 2 That hee doth mention their estate before to illustrate GOD's mercy Observe Doctr. What is the way to bring men to thankfull acknowledgement of GOD's grace to teach them to see what they were when GOD shewed it Thus Moses thorow the Booke of Deuteronomie often calleth on them to think what they were in Aegypt yea from their comming forth of Aegypt to that day wherein he spake being now not many dayes from his death So Ezek. 16.30 Saint Paul every-where The Papists doe most wickedly derogate from GOD's glory Vse 1 while they teach something in us which is a partiall agent with God so good preparations and dispositions to this and that But Moses otherwise Not for the goodnesse of thy heart not that yee were more in number though He cast off others for their sinnes He tooke not thee for thy deservings We may hence strengthen our selves Vse 2 not to doubt in receiving God's particular promises though we finde our selves unworthy nothing so fitted as we should be Not unto us O Lord but unto thy Name c. For my Name-sake not for your sake O yee House of Israel As at the first so after GOD doth dispense His favours that we have still cause to confesse our unworthinesse to His Name to CHRIST our Mediatour to His Truth all is to be attributed and from them all is to be expected Hath He quickened together with Him Observe then That all believers have a new life in and through Christ Doct. To understand it wee must note that CHRIST in
A Commentarie VPON THE FIRST AND SECOND CHAPTERS OF SAINT PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS WHEREIN THE TEXT IS CLEERELY opened Observations thence perspicuously deducted Vses and Applications succinctly and briefely inferred sundry holy and spirituall Meditations out of his more ample Discourse extracted TOGETHER WITH DIVERS PLACES of Scripture briefely explained By Mr. PAUL BAYNE B. D. LONDON Printed by Richard Badger for NICHOLAS BOURNE and are to be sold at his Shop at the Royall Exchange 1634. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE RELIGIOVS AND VERTVOVS LADY THE LADY MARY Countesse Dowager of Westmorland HONOURED MADAM SAint PAUL'S glory and exceeding great cause of rejoycing was this that as a wise Master-builder hee had laid the foundation whereupon the whole building of Christianity is established Though not to lay the ground-work or Principles of Religion yet to be fellow-workers with GOD and His holy Apostles is now the glory and rejoycing of the Ministers of the Word in these latertimes Amongst the rest a sincere faithfull and judicious Divine in these Workes of his never yet before extant is presented to your Honours view and approbation His abilities were such as became a Successour of a worthy and religious Predecessour in his ministeriall function in the Vniversitie of Cambridge by him performed unto GOD's glory the good of others and his owne comfort The first he unfainedly desired and propounded as the utmost scope of all his endeavors that GOD might be glorified by him both in life and death the second as subordinate to the other hee procured not ayming at his owne advantage so much as their salvation that heard him not seeking theirs but them The last was an effect of the two first this must needs be a consequent where the others are precedent for GOD forgets not our labour of love to Himselfe or others Sensible experience hereof had this holy man who found much comfort by his Ministry in himselfe and by the fruits of it in others There be many that spend much time in studying are never weary in wel-doing are instant in season and out of season but with how small successe for it is in vaine to rise early and sit up late except GOD give a blessing Paul planteth and Apollos watereth but GOD giveth the encrease if GOD put not His hand to the worke there will be but a Babel of confusion He knew it very well who prayed continually for the divine assistance to make his ministeriall worke effectuall Hee prayed and his prayer was heard hee wrestled with GOD as Iacob did and overcame Him Hee fulfilled his desires and granted his requests and made him a spirituall Father of many children by him begotten unto GOD. Should I say more I will adde this only what in him was praise-worthy let it be applauded what was in him for Instruction and a godly life let us imitate Let us learne of a dead man to live Dead doe I call him Though the body die by reason of sinne yet the spirit liveth unto GOD through IESUS CHRIST our LORD Let us therefore learne of him to live spiritually that with him we may live eternally I have shewed in some sort what hee was and what it concerneth us to be And this the rather presuming of your Honours favourable acceptance not so much of him that Dedicates these following Expositions as of him by whose incitement hee was encouraged thereto his worthy friend Your Ladyships humble servant that for his sake and the Authors You would vouchsafe to cast over this Booke the wing of Your protection This is his desire who shall ever remaine Devoted to your Honour in all humilitie IUSTINIAN STUBBS TO THE READER THE Mother of Nazianzene as himselfe relates it was so beneficiall to the poor that a sea of wealth was not sufficient for her What was her industrious diligence in relieving of outward necessities was this religious Pastors in supplying the wants of such as are spiritually poore thinking no time to be well imployed which was not a testimoniall of his pious life in word in conversation 1 Tim. 4 13. in charitie in spirit in faith in purity or of his wholesome doctrine in reproving correcting 2 Tim. 3.16 instructing in righteousnesse Thus thundring in doctrine and lightening in conversation hee left no stone unmoved that might further the building of the new Ierusalem For living in these last dayes the very dregs of time when iniquitie aboundeth and GOD is provoked every day so that fin cannot be more sinful nor wickednesse more wicked by his * Praecep a ducunt exempla trahunt Sen. exemplary deportment he fastned the naile which was driven by judicious Instruction in Precept and Practise A MAN OF GOD a Beacon on an hill a burning and a shining Lampe His method and matter were plaine and perspicuous yet so as if occasion served hee had meate for strong men as well as milke for babes he became all unto all to gaine some Blessed Saint quae sparsa per omnes In te multa fluunt what couldst thou more have done than in leaving nothing undone to receive at thy Masters hands an Euge bone serve Well done good and faithfull servant His well-doing and well-being is an invitation unto us to doe and to be the like which whosoever desires let him seriously survey these ensuing Expositions of Scripture composed with Laconicall brevity yet including in them the immense treasures of divine Speculation I suppose there is none will maligne them that understand them If there be any others as it was once said unto Philip King of Macedon passing unjust sentence betweene sleeping and waking I appeale ô King from thy selfe to thy selfe So let them reade with judgement and deliberation and then whatsoever fault was imputed to the Author will become their owne In a word whosoever thou art that carpest at these following Treatises whatsoever in them thou deemest either frivolous or superfluous emendes illa vel ede tua I. S. THE DOCTRINES OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE OF Saint PAUL to the Colossians Verse 2. 1 EVery true member of the Church is a Saint 2 GOD gathereth and supporteth His people in all places 3 In distributing holy things wee must put a difference betwixt men betwixt sound and counterfeit 4 Christians are knit together by the straitest bond 5 Wee are to wish our selves and others favour from God and peace of Conscience as the chiefe blessings 6 The fountaine of all true Peace is the favour of God testified to us in Christ 7 All good things are to be sought from God the Father and the Sonne Verse 3. 1 DVtie bindeth us to pray for others and to give thankes for others as for our selves Verse 4. 1 SPirituall graces bestowed upon any must move us to thankfulnesse and to make request for them 2 Faith layeth hold onely upon Christ lesus for life everlasting 3 Our love must specially be shewed to the Saints Verse 5. 1 THe recompence which God hath in store for
eleventh and twelfth verses the other followeth For the former three things are to be marked for the opening of it 1 He setteth downe the benefit In whom ye have been circumcised with circumcision not made with hands 2 He setteth down in what this benefit did formally consist viz. In putting off the bodie of sinnes viz. the flesh the originall corruption dwelling in spirit and flesh through Christ's Circumcision 3 He noteth the maner or instrument by which Christ did further work and seale up in them this benefit mentioned being buried with Him in Baptisme The intent of it is to confirme the former truth That they were not to follow any thing which is not after Christ and standeth not with walking in Him thus You must not listen to any thing which draweth you from Him who hath taken from you the masse of your naturall corruption But it is Christ in whom your hearts have beene circumcised from selfe-love of this world and the things of it and all other evill inclinations Therefore you must not follow the deceitfull vanities which are not after Christ but seduce you from Him First then that the Apostle doth to this purpose bring in this benefit Doct. We see what is an excellent meane to hold us fast to Christ to remember what great evill of sinne He hath subdued for us and taken from us Truely when we fall from Christ either to seducing errours in judgement or errours in practice it commeth hence as Saint Peter intimateth We forget that we were washed from our sins in His bloud Did we confidently weigh what we have received from Him wee could not but cleave faster to Him If a man did heale us of some deadly leprosie could we forget duty to such an one while wee remembred this great good we had received from Him So here much more while Aegypt kept in minde what Ioseph had done for them they clave to him in those he left behinde him but when new came up who knew not or regarded not what good they had received they turned Turkes to him in his Seed whom they were to have honoured So here Wherefore Vse let us hence marke how wee may strengthen our selves in cleaving to Christ ponder upon the mercy He hath shewed thee in healing in some measure the corruptions of thy nature Say with thy selfe shall I start from Him who hath done such wonderfull things killed this life of my owne in sin which I have felt so strong and lively in me healed such a leprosie as is above all I can speake or thinke Doe it the rather for we are like those Israelites all their deliverance out of Aegypt was quickly forgotten and this made them upon all occasions start aside like a deceitfull bow Againe we are weake in judgement babes in understanding and know not the things bestowed on us Thirdly Satan is most malicious to keepe us at least from thankfull considering of GOD's blessings when he cannot hinder us from receiving them In whom yee are circumcised with circumcision not made with hands Doct. Observe hence What Christ hath done for us who are in Him Hee hath given us a spirituall Circumcision Here are two things to be opened 1 The Circumcision it selfe 2 The Author of it The first is specified by this distinctive propertie it was not made with hands that is such a Circumcision as was spiritually wrought in their spirit not in their flesh the old Testament distinguisheth it by calling it the Circumcision of the heart Deut. 30.6 Ier. 4 4. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart This is no small benefit it was a priviledge to have Circumcision in the flesh it was GOD's Cognisance as being the signe of a confederacie with GOD it was a seale confirming him that beleeved by it that God would take away his sin both by not imputing it and killing it Rom. 4.12 for so Saint Paul saith of Abraham's circumcision But yet many had this whose Circumcision was before GOD as nothing to them Wherefore if this were a priviledge what a gift is this to have the heart circumcised with the finger of God 2 Againe for the Authour of this benefit in the Law the Priest did circumcise the males brought the eight day and it was no small thing that God by His Minister should doe so to an infant but to have our High Priest in Heaven who is the great God handle our leprous hearts and by force of His Spirit take off the corruption which sticketh faster to our spirits than our skinne doth to our flesh what a prerogative is this this then must stirre us up to thankfulnesse It doth shew us whither we must have recourse when we feele the remainders of our corruption cleaving to us Vse as selfe confidence whorish love of the creature self-love we must come to Christ He is our Priest who onely can take away this impure fore-skin of our hearts that even as they brought their young ones in the Law to the Priest so must we bring our selves by a renued faith every day to our LORD IESUS and pray Him to goe through with this His Circumcision which Hee hath begunne in us 2 This is to be noted that he calleth it not made with hand Whence observe Doctr. That no outward action of the hand of man reacheth to the cleansing of the soule The hand of man putteth forth no efficiencie to that which is done in the heart as nothing that goeth into the body can defile it so nothing that is done to the body can sanctifie it This maketh Saint Paul say That he that planteth and he that watereth is nothing for a bodily action can worke nothing but a bodily effect Which is to be observed against the Papists Vse who will have the Priest's action lifted up by GOD to the taking away of the soules sin but then it could not truly be said that the removall of corruption from the spirit were not done with the hand of man as because God doth by meats maintaine our life He by His blessing giving that vertue to them it cannot be truly said that our life is sustained by meat and drinke Now to the second thing in the putting off Observe That sinne and grace are to the soule Doct. as apparell is to the body therefore he saith by putting off the body of sin that is the flesh the body this is a borrowed speech because that as mans body is a systeme or a frame not having one but many kindes of members So sin is such a frame of corruption as containeth in it many distinct kindes which are as members of this masse of corruption Coloss 3. â—â— Rom. 6. But it may seeme strange that he sorteth these metaphors of putting off a body when clothes not bodies are put off But you must know that the body is the soules rayment as it were and therefore the soule is most fitly said to put off a body the body of corruption the flesh this
see one that should sinke when any thing were laid on him we would say hee were but a weake man Which convinceth that valour falsely so called Vse many thinke that valour to challenge the field and cast their gauntlet of defiance downe upon any trifling provocation to sweare GOD out of heaven if any thing crosse them but blinde men discerne not of colours this is notable impatience and weaknesse As a man whom with halfe a finger we may throw downe to the ground is a weake body So thy soule which every thing moveth out of place is a very weake spirit Marke how Long-suffering is an argument of great spirituall strength Obs 2 This is a vertue which maketh us hold out in patience under the continuance of evill on us it maketh Patience have her perfect worke and be at length no lesse than in the beginning it is not counterfeit biting in of anger by two yeares together like as in Absolom but a continuance of true patient bearing our crosse to lift up a quarter of wheat or two were rare strength though one should stand under it but a while but to carry it foure or five miles were a token of ten-fold strength So to beare our burthens any time is a fruit of glorious strength but to carry them at length argueth treble vertue To convince the false estimation of men touching this matter To assure those that long have endured Vse 2 of GOD's strength dwelling in them Now as Paul desireth these three things for the Colossians so he teacheth us thus much Obs 3 That wee have need of these vertues we have need of Patience saith the Scripture Heb. 10.36 need indeed to beare our evils to forbeare and expect the receiving of our good things wee looke for a Porter whose calling is to beare had need of shoulders So we that are called to beare many afflictions had need of patience but wee have no lesse need of long-suffering for so deepe are our staines that they will not come out unlesse we be long dowsed in these waters of afflictions which maketh GOD many dayes continue our evils Now how shal we hold under long afflictions without long-sufferance yea we have need of the joy of the HOLY GHOST No life can last without delight and though to the being it be not so necessary yet it is altogether needfull for the well being of us that like Paul and Silas we sing not able to sleepe for joy To seeke these things Vse we have need of them and may have more it is not good to seeke them when we should use them begge them before Observe how hasty and impatient thou art short-spirited not able to beare any thing Pray the Lord to give thee wisdome patiently to endure his will he will give it and not upbraid thee think how though thou art patient now yet ever and anon it is ready to be crazed yea broken in thee pray for long-suffering treasure up joy against evill houres fire doth well against winter and while thou mayest take it deny thy foolish rejoycing exercise thy heart with godly sorrow Such as sow in teares Psal 126.5 shall reape in joy We live neither having exercise of these things nor feeling want of them nor seeking after them our hearts love to be in the house of vaine mirth woe will be to this security and this laughter shall end in mourning Woe to you that now laugh Luk. 6.25 yee shall weepe VERSE 12. Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light THus having laid downe his Prayer he commeth to mention expresly the matter of his thanksgiving which was first named in the third Verse In it two things are to be considered 1 The fact it selfe of giving thankes with the person to whom they are offered of which we have spoken something above Verse 3. 2 The arguments moving him or the things for which he is thankfull The first in those words Giving thankes to GOD the Father The matter is two-fold first a benefit a great good thing given them even an inheritance Part in an inheritance which is set downe with three circumstances 1 Their qualification which maketh them capable this goeth before 2 From the quality of their being fellow-heires with whom they were joyned the Saints 3 From the matter of this inheritance in light The second argument of his thankesgiving is a great evill from which they were delivered in setting downe which 1 Hee sheweth the point or passe from which GOD did deliver them From the power of darknesse 2 The state to which hee brought them and hath translated us into the kingdome of His deare Sonne Now to amplifie the greatnesse of this last benefit he describeth the Sonne first from the effect Verse 14. which is propounded in whom wee have redemption after expounded that is the remission of Sinnes Secondly he describeth the nature of His Person to the nineteenth Verse three wayes 1 As He was in reference to GOD Who is the Image of the invisible GOD. 2 As He was in relation to the creature in generall in those words The first begotten of every creature Verse 15. and sustainer of them Verse 16 17. 3 As He is in regard of His Church And Hee is the Head of the body the Church Then followeth the reason how came this man to be personally GOD the Creator of all things the Head of the Church It pleased the Father that in Him all fulnesse should dwell Vers 19. How come we to have redemption by Him It pleased the Father by Him to bring us to these benefits the benefit is repeated First in generall Verse 20. Secondly with application to the Colossians Verse 21 22 23. Where first he setteth downe what they had their state antecedent Secondly their state present where we have the worke of their reconciliation and the manner of working Verse 21 22. Thirdly to shake off security the condition of all is annexed Verse 23. Whence the Apostle taketh occasion to digresse in signifying his Apostolical affection to them to the eighth Verse of the second Chapter Giving thankes Observe first From his suffixing thanksgiving Obs That we must as well give thankes for the things given us as begge for that we want Many are suiters when any necessity presseth but few returne to give thankes we see it in the ten Lepers one onely returned to give thankes Eaten bread is soone forgotten that we have we take no further thought of but we must remember to couple these together For first in this is GOD's chiefe honour Reas 1 He that offereth praise honoureth me Psal 50. This is forcible to make us speed in that wee intreat Reas 2 a thankfull petitioner hath alwayes gracious hearing We have more cause when GOD hath given us faith c. to give thankes than to intreat Reas 3 for the things we have are more than those we desire the Apostle maketh
King so graced with mentall endowments a great Potentate and most Christian King if God had given us one though of obscure parentage it had beene a blessing but much obscured even by this circumstance So if that noble quality of the person ruling hath this force in earthly States what a thing is this that we have one annointed over us who is God over all Now as this increaseth our happinesse and is matter of thanksgiving So it must augment in us all reverence and dutie all holy confidence of obtaining good of getting aid and deliverance against and out of all evils We see the more excellent the gifts are as the strength wisdome of our King the more awfully they are respected the more obsequious we are to them the more confidently we promise our selves all things under their regiment Looke at Salomon one part of wisedome made feare fall on all Israel see their subjection though he taxed them heavily yet none durst quitch against him What shall we be to our God who in his abasement was greater than all Salomons This shall suffice to have observed out of the scope Now for the words themselves 1 For the opening of them 2 The deductions or use of them 1 He is said to be an Image but coessentiall with God the Father whose Image he is 2 He is that is Christ whole CHRIST God and man is said to be this Image of the invisible GOD and that not onely as invisible GOD with the Father but as man visible But this must bee warily understood not that CHRIST man hath qualities of other nature than wee have for more and lesse change not the kinde but because the man is taken into personall union with God the Son So that this man secundum Esse personale is God 3 It is to be marked of what he is the Image not of the personall difference in the Father but of the invisible God-head common to the Son with the Father as the childe is the image of his parent not in regard of the characteristicall property which his father and every one hath in singular to themselves but in respect of the same substance and nature derived by generation from the Father Look Heb. 1.3 Character Personae and that derived by generation from the Father We may learne to see the reason of that truth which our Saviour uttereth to Philip Vse 1 Philip Hee that seeth mee seeth the Father This teacheth us how wee must come into the knowledge of God invisible Vse 2 even by looking unto this visible Image of IESUS CHRIST our LORD Cast thy eyes to that nature of thine thou seest not onely where God is but that which personally is God if one had seene where the HOLY GHOST was and a figure with which Hee did extraordinarily and temporarily testifie His presence yet he should not have seene the HOLY GHOST because the Dove was not so taken in one Person with the HOLY GHOST but this humane nature is taken into fellowship of Person with GOD and so is become GOD. He that seeth this or that body hee seeth the man though he seeth not the spirituall nature in man because he seeth that visible nature which is a part and belongeth to the person of man So who so seeth this visible nature of God the Son may be said to see God though he see not the invisible Godhead because he seeth the nature which is joyned in unity of Person with God 2. By looking at the divine workes which this man wrought we come to conceive of the God-head in this Person as in His giving sight to the blinde raising the dead stilling the Sea I come to see that He is Almighty a quickening Spirit Setting before me that which He speaketh of Himselfe Vse 3 as in a glasse I see a reflected Image with the eye of my minde thus Moses by Faith saw the invisible God Considering such sentences who commeth downe from heaven but the Sonne of man which is in heaven Ioh. 3. I see an omnipotent nature I am the resurrection and the life When He knew their thoughts Lord thou knowest all things who can subdue all things to Himselfe In these and such like sentences let mee see the Image of an All-knowing Omnipotent Life-giving Nature Now thus seeing CHRIST in regard of both Natures I come to see the Father who hath the selfe-same Nature and the Spirit for in this Sonne is the Father and the Father in Him in the Sonne and Father is the Spirit and they in the Spirit This shewes us the grosse idolatry of the Papists Vse 2 who looke at Images of wood and stone at pictures of old men leaving this lively Coessentiall Image that is painted before us in the Gospell This is an introduction to us how wee may come to know the Father and Spirit get CHRIST Vse 3 know Him and thou knowest all The second Person onely is incarnate but the three Persons are all made manifest in that flesh with which the second Person is coupled For the selfe-same divine Nature of the second is the Nature of both the other also We say of a childe like his parent Doe you see this boy you see his father he resembles him up and downe But if thou seest this Sonne then thou feest the Father and Spirit for they are in Him as if wee could suppose three Persons all subsisting in one onely soule and body he that should see the one should see the other for the same soule and body which one hath the other two have also Now followeth his description in regard of that respect He hath to the Creature set downe in this Verse Hee is the first begotten of every creature Secondly Hee is proved both to be the Coessentiall Image of God and first begotten of the Creature by three arguments 1 His creating all Creatures 2 His antiquity and being before all Creatures 3 His susteining all Creatures But these words are doubtfull Two principall constructions are these the one that these words note Christs eternity begotten before all Creatures of the Father by eternall generation Secondly these words may signifie Him to be Heire of the Creatures the Lord of them by a metonymie of the subject for the adjunct the right of inheritance and dominion belonging by God's Law to the first begotten and this I take to be the true meaning for these reasons 1. CHRIST's eternall existence before all Creatures is laid downe in the next Verse save one in plaine words 2. The Holy Ghost construeth this being the first begotten as having this annexed the preeminence over other 3. Hebr. 1.2 Hee is said to be made heire of all things and this followeth For by Him all things were created as a reason both of His being the naturall Son of God with God and true Heire as here the same words are set downe to prove Him the Essentiall Image or naturall Sonne and the first begotten that He is Heire or Lord of all the
us It followeth that are in Heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible by heavens He meaneth not onely these aspectable ones which our eyes see but those supreame ones where God His Angels and the spirits of the just abide Obs 3 Observe hence How that God hath His places Ministers attending about Him unseene and unknowne too many such things hath He which the eye of man hath not seen nor have not fully entered into mans heart We that live farre remooved from that heavenly Court we can know but little and that by hearesay onely Take some hamlet of poore subjects that live North-ward remote from the Court what doe they know of Kings Mannor houses of His Court at White-Hall of the furniture of his roomes the state of his attendance and service the solemnities of his Triumphs the manner of his going to the Parliament House we that creepe here below live in a remote place occupied in meane affaires we cannot imagine the glorious Majestie of that high Court where our God our Mediator with the Angels and spirits of the just display their glory True it is we that are truely faithfull we are come a little neerer for we are got into the Suburbs of this City we are come nigher to God in comparison of the world nigher to our Mediator we converse in heaven we are adjoyned to the innumerable multitude of Angels and spirits of the just But yet we have but the report and so a sight by faith without evident view of these things These things must teach us first Vse not to be like such who will beleeve no more then they see and are halfe Sadduces for Spirits and Angells they thinke them fancies O foole doest thou see the wind an elementary thing yet too subtle for the eye to behold doest thou see thy owne soule and yet thou feelest it yea when thou sleepest ere-while it wakeneth and is in action but the spirits of these men are incarnate the things we see are nothing to the things that are not as yet seene Wherefore in the second place this must stirre up our desire further and further to peepe into these things within the vaile and long for the sight of these things that yet are folded By nature we have a desire of knowledg which maketh us long after newes where the court is c. If one should open a piece of some rare workmanship we could not be quiet till we got the rest unfolded yea this maketh some of better abilities which dwell in the utmost parts that once in their lives they will goe up to London to see the City Court King c. How should this provoke us and checke us as sluggards who care not to see further off these most glorious workes of nature and grace which our God hath begunne to unfold that long not to see the City of GOD and our Prince His deare Sonne and with Him to make our glorious aboade To thinke of these invisible things about us must affect us with a sense of our blindnesse our God is looking with a broad eye upon us good Angels armies of them about our bed bad Angels the starres not so thicke in the firmament over our heads as they are hovering to spy their advantage ô shall not we grieve that we cannot see them should thy Father and all thy brethren stand by wouldest thou not mourne to have so sicke a sight as could not discerne them and art thou contented with such weake eyes as cannot behold thy heavenly Father thy brethren and fellow servants would it not grieve thee to be as Sampson with the Philistines thy enemies about thee and eyes out wilt thou not grieve to have innumerable evill spirits about thee not being able to perceive them pray to God to open thy eyes looke into the nature of thy owne soule that will be a good introduction if thou canst find thy owne soule at the rebound of it abstract thy selfe from sensible objects ponder things intellectuall Further it is to be marked Obs 4 That our Lord CHRIST is the Creator of all the Angels all these excellent creatures were created as the matter of heaven and earth the soule of man they were not begotten of GOD The Divell would by those Primitive monsters have broached to the disgrace of the only begotten Sonne of God though the Scripture calleth us begotten of God Iam. 1.18 in regard of our regeneration yea they were created by CHRIST who is therefore called the Lord of hoasts If He had created the inferiour things only it had not beene such an argument of His power and equality with His Father But when the most divine creatures are the workes of His hands O how glorious is He This doth greatly tend to the Majesty of our King into whose government we are translated O we admire and our eyes dazle at the lustre and pompous magnificence of earthly Kings who at their Coronations make Knights create Earles Marquesses Dukes how glorious doe we count them who can give such degrees But what are these All of them flesh What are we to these Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers Angels Archangels which our King hath created It might be asked when He made these Quest The day cannot certainly be defined Answ onely these two things are certaine 1 That they were not created before that beginning wherein GOD gave being to the whole systeme of the creature for before it nothing was that is made 2 It is certaine they were created before the second day was expired 3 By analogie of mans creation so soone as his seat was perfected it is probable that proportionably when these blesied invisible mansions were finished even on the first day that then likewise the hoasts of Angels were created The use of this here so plainly set downe Vse 1 doth let us see even in this one point the great increase of light over that which Moses affordeth in all the story of the Creation they are not expressely named their weake sights not able to endure discourse of such brightnesse but our Apostle who had beene wrapt up into the third heaven doth specifie things which under the Testament lay vailed This doth let us see with how good reason our King in regard of His humane Nature is Lord even of all the Angels Vse 2 with how good reason they are bid to adore Him they accordingly did minister to Him at His birth in His temptations at His refurrection and ascension And what a spurre should this adde to us in our obedience unto Him Shall Angels and Archangels adore Him and shall not wee bee obsequious to Him Dare poore Commons deny homage to that King to whom they see great Princes in their places doe all obeysance This giveth us security that we shall have sent us the helpe of good Angels in our necessities Vse 3 why because our King is the Creator and Lord of them He hath the command of them at His pleasure We see if the
under the government of a flagitious servant such as the Papists grant Popes may be Let us therefore take heed that while we set up other heads then Christ over the Churches we doe not reject this glorious Head Iesus Christ from ruling over us as the Israelites when they refused that Aristocraticall governement in which God ruled and would have a King like other Nations the Lord chargeth them not only to have cast off Samuell but himselfe and what is more foolish then to thinke it needfull to have a visible universall high Priest on earth because CHRIST is in heaven invisible to us touching His corporall presence should the people of Israell have erected another High Priest to themselves when Aaron was at any time in the Holy of Holies where he was not visible to them so we stand here below in the entry our High Priest is but gone into the Holiest Sanctuary and we though His Divine nature be with us will set up another Sooner shall the heaven have two Suns then the Church two heads and though metaphorically one may be said to be the Head of a Church for the name of God Himselfe is thus Communicable yet in proper analogy none can be so termed For then the Church might be said His body properly which is such sacriledge as He I thinke in whose forehead blasphemy is written dare scarce commit A double head and a double husband become not the Church the latter is not for her honesty the former fitteth not to decency Thus much who is over us 2 Marke from this Observ that He is called the Head of His Church what neere compassionate and beneficiall superiority or authority that is which Christ hath over His Church He is the Lord of all Creatures yea the hellish fiend must bow the knee to Him But He is not an head to every creature if we take it in that proper analogicall accommodation which the Scripture looketh to in this terme The head hath the highest place and power in the body but yet it is so intimately conjoyned with every member so amiable and beneficiall a superiority that the like cannot in nature be shewen For first looke at the head it is by sinewes and other ligaments straitely conjoyned to every member so is Christ through the spirit of faith coupled with us Secondly from this union the head commeth to have a sense if any part be disturbed so hath Christ He knoweth how to compassionate our infirmities Saul Saul why persecutest thou Me Thirdly the head what ever it hath hath in a sort for the good of the body The perfect comlinesse of the head is the ornament of that body whereof it is the head the body being but a deformed trunke if the head be remooved Againe the sense and motion which are originally in the head as a fountaine they are derived from it to every member Fourthly The head giveth full direction to the other members So Christ is our glory He quickeneth us He giveth us direction both inward and outward We see then that His superiority He hath is most intimate fellow-feeling and commodious unto us Which first doth let us yet farther see what cause we have of thankesgiving who are come into His kingdom Vse 1 who is rather an head unto us then a King over us as the head is to the body To have a powerfull wise King is a great guift but to have one who is rather Pater then Rex Patriae is greater but to have one who should so affect his subjects as to condole with the poorest of them this were a miracle This must breed willing subjection to CHRIST our Lord Vse 2 looke at the members of the body doe they feele it a burthen to doe that which the head directeth to This must strengthen our affiance towards CHRIST Vse 3 that He will not faile to take notice of our griefes to succour and direct us That is a blockish head which can goe on in a Stoicall dedolency when the members are ill affected yea it must assure us that we shall have direction and protection from him Marke Obs 3 Who they are that have Christ so neere so beneficiall to them viz. the Church that is such only who are truely faithfull who shall one day be presented glorious in the heavens such as shall at length have salvation by Him There are in the visible Church many who are by outward profession members of Christ but if they have not learned Christ as the truth is in Christ they shall be found not to be of His body though they seeme so a while A glasse eye may be so set into the head that one would take it verily to be a naturall part of the head yet it hath but an externall insition which art affordeth and is nothing lesse then the naturall eye So many are externally by the Sacrament and externall profession tyed to Christ which are not native members and have no spirituall combination with Him Nay if like some temporisers thou dost get some quicknance of the spirit of Christ yet not such as purifieth the heart bringeth thee above all things to rejoyce in Christ Iesus thou art not of His body nor a true member having Him thy head but art like a wenne or warte mole or such like thing which hath a life in the body but is no member of it Wherefore as you would have any benefit by Christ Vse labour to come into this body not to be as wennes and wooden legges but to be living members such as have Christ living in you teaching you by His spirit to thinke speake and doe all things it is good being members of good Corporations which have good endowments priviledges and Charters but there is not a body like to this which hath all the unsearchable riches of IESUS CHRIST given it in which onely there is salvation That nothing is betwixt Christ and His body Obs 4 and that all the Church is his body and every one in the Church a member of the body not a substitute head unto it Where then shall we find the Pope let him take heed least while he strive to be a secondary head he doe not deprive himselfe of roome in the body out of which there is no salvation I know a Papist will say that the Pope as he is referred unto Christ is a member of the body but as he is referred to men subjected to him he is a head under Christ Answer that every one is a member we reade it and therefore beleeve that any one is a head to all but Christ we reade it not and therefore reject it Beside it is likely that betwixt Christ and the visible Church Saint Peter should have come in thus God is Christs head Christ of the Spirits with Him and Saint Peter and his successors the Churches head but this is no where found yea the contrary God over Christ Christ over the Church the Churches above Cephas Objection Emperours are
for the people yet not inferior to them Answer Emperors are so for the people that they are Lords over them and the people are for them even their Subjects and bodies politique but Saint Peter nor no Apostle are so for the Church that they are Lords of it and that the Church is their Church and body mysticall therefore they are so for the Churches that they are inferiors to them Object Was not Saint Peter and the rest immediate legates from Christ Object and had they not authority which all the Churches were to obey Answer They had yet their persons still under the Church and their worke of Ministery not to domineere over the Churches the reason is because it was the message and order of the Churches Husband which was of authority above her not their persons that did relate it If a man send one of his servants with a command to his Wife the servant when he hath got this errand is not a Lord over the Wife but a servant under her though his message from her Lord is such which she may not gainesay Fiftly Observe Obs the dignity of the faithfull and their neere conjunction with Christ they are the body of Christ not the naturall body united to the second person nor the Sacramentall body but a mysticall body such who by force of Christ His Spirit are knit to Him and receive all things from Him proportionably as the body naturall doth from the head Many other comparisons as of Vine and branches Man and Wife c. doe set it downe but none more lively then this which is the oftenest frequented To shew us the excellent condition to which we are brought Vse 1 to assure us of Christs love who ever hated His owne flesh He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of Mine eye This letteth us also see the fearefulnesse of abusing the godly that are truely faithfull Vse 2 they lift at mill-stones Lastly Obs seeing Christ is risen from the dead we must labour and strive thither also if a Captaine hath made a breach and entered the hold of the enemy will not the souldiers presse after and ambitiously affect who should get next him so we Christ hath led us the daunce and broke through the gates of death into the City of God we should affect to come after as Saint Paul did strive for conformity with Christ in this point both in the first and second Resurrection The third point is Observ That Christs Resurrection hath speciall priviledge above all others for all others before were not begotten from among the dead because they were raised up with mortality tending to death againe but our Saviour Christ in that He dyed He dyed at once not long to be held of it but in that He is risen He is raised to live for ever death shall no more have dominion over Him 2 All other rose as private and singular men not as publique persons in the name of other making hope to all the dead of their resurrection therefore they were not the first fruits duely gathered but like a singular eare of corne by occasion more timely gathered Now Christ is risen as He dyed not for Himselfe onely but for all us so Christ is risen in al our names so that as we all dyed in Him so we all are raised in Him as a Burgesse of a Parliament what he doth or speaketh it is in the name of the Corporation who doth it in him When God created Adam He made all mankinde in as much as He made him who was to be a Principle of naturall generation to all mankind conveying life and being to them in their order so when He raised Christ He raised us all in as much as He hath raised up a second Adam a Principle of spirituall regeneration even of the first and second resurrection to all Gods chosen in their order Hence it is that Paul saith Eph. 2.6 We are raised up in Christ and set in heavenly places in Him that Peter saith 1 Peâ— 1.3 God hath begotten us to that happy hope in the Resurrection of Iesus Christ Lastly He raised Himselfe as who was the Lord from heaven the quickening Spirit Destroy this body and in three dayes I will raise it up Great therefore every way is the prerogative of our Lord IESUS CHRIST even in regard of that Nature which was dead but now is alive He was slaine before the foundation of the world Hee is raised up as the hope and fore-runner of all our immortality Thou lookest at His death as thy death and against all guilt of sinne and terrour of conscience threatning the Curse doest say I have borne the Curse in my Lord Gal. 3.13 made a curse for me So against all terrours of bodily death hold this I am raised up in CHRIST for He is risen in all our names who beleeve on Him If wee beleeve that IESUS is dead and risen againe 1 Thess 4.14 so also God shall bring those who are slept in Iesus say to life eternall with Him VERSE 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulnesse dwell NOw he commeth to give a reason of the former opening the fountaine where the Man IESUS CHRIST found such grace as that in Him all of us should be redeemed that Hee should be God in Person over all creatures yea the Head of His Church filling all in all Now the Reason is here set downe to be the good pleasure of God the Father First that the fulnesse of the God-head for so it is best construed out of the second Chap. Vers 9. and not only that the fulnesse of created gifts should dwell personally in this humane Nature as a Temple 2. That this Person God-man should by the Sacrifice of Himselfe reconcile all unto God First then in generall we see Obs That whatsoever the manhood of CHRIST is lifted up unto it is the meere grace of God not the merit of the Creature What could this Man doe which could deserve this grace that it should be personally united with God and so lifted up to be incomparably above all the Angels in heaven And therefore Saint Augustine doth not doubt to make CHRIST the Sampler of GOD's free Predestination the free grace of God appearing in none so much as in Him which is the Head of all This CHRIST looketh to in His members Lord I thanke thee that thou hast beene pleased to reveile these things unto babes and sucklings and hast kept them from the wise and learned Even so O Father because it pleased thee Yea I doubt not but as God did predestinate him of grace to this honour of being God in fellowship of Person and of being the Prince of our salvation So God in the Covenant He did make with Him and the commandement He gave Him of laying downe His life did strike it and fulfill it of grace not requiring any thing Hee imposed on His Sonne more than duties of free
to Himselfe a peculiar people Zealous of good workes Rom. 8. It is God that Iustifieth Which doth first serve for confutation of the Papists Vse 1 who though they yeeld Christ God-man yet will have His sacrificing praying c. onely to come from His humane Nature whereas all the efficacy commeth hence that the divine Nature and the humane are conjoyned as the body to the soule the humane nature being but an instrument to the divine neither is it absurd that the same Person who as God is to be prayed unto should as God-man pray to Himselfe as God absolutely considered with the Father and spirit for Christ susteyneth a double person one as God absolutely considered with the Father and Spirit and offended by man as they another as God-man undertaking to reconcile man offending to the Father Himselfe and the Spirit offended This doth teach us what we must looke at in Christ Vse 2 if we will have our consciences comfortably setled in the perswasion of our reconcilement we must looke at Him as God who goeth betweene us and God this doth still the conscience and fill it with good hope When we have offended some great personages if some meane one should moove them in our behalfe it would not so stay us for we know they will often not heare them speake or have them in light regard if they doe give them the hearing but if we can procure such as are their peeres to deale effectually for us we doubt not but that things shall be well compounded what will they deny to such as shall be equall to themselves and most neerely acquainted with them so with us c. Now in the coherence it selfe these things being marked come wee to the action it selfe where are three things 1 The reconciler by Him 2 The thing to be reconciled 3 To whom these things were to be reconciled to Him which is to be supplied out of the ver before where either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indefinitely or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee understood out of the first and third circumstances wee gather these things joyntly By Him Obs Observe hence Who is the worker of our reconciliation with God even this deare Sonne the Father testifieth from heaven saying this is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased So Rom. 3.25 Him hath God set forth speaking of Christ as a reconciliation as a propitiatory sacrifice in which He would returne into favour with us God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himselfe The Father and the spirit reconcile us to themselves but by Christ Christ immediately by Himselfe doth procure us favour and this was it which all the attonements made by propitiatory sacrifices did presignify unto us even how this High Priest Iesus Christ should with the sacrifice of His bloud make God and us one againe in mutuall love as He and His Father are one Which doth let us see what we must looke to in all terrors of conscience caused by apprehension of God Vse 1 wrath even to Iesus Christ He hath with His bloud quenched this wild fire for Gods wrath is a consuming fire We with screenes doe keepe the fire from face and eys but they are wise which put between their soules and Gods wrath this screene of Christ His reconciliation least this fire burne to the pit of destruction This must make us cleave unto Christ even to let our tenderest bowels love Him that hath done this for us ô if one doe but take up some hurtfull jarre betwixt us and some other whose favour we have found very beneficiall whose displeasure we find very prejudiciall wee would be very thankefull to Him If one should mollifie the Kings displeasure and make Him favour us would we not with all love imbrace Him Christ hath healed worse things betwixt God and thee love Him with all thy soule If one should interpose his mediation to the King for some malefactor say a Theefe that hath greatly wronged some man in his estate the King will say out of justice thou must see the dammages done bee made whole and undertake that he shal leave that course of life els in justice and wisedome I cannot but refuse the suite even so if Christ had not giuen such satisfaction as was accepted and undertaken to kill the raigne of sinne and enmity against God for the time to come this blessed reconciliation could not have beene concluded The use of it is to stirre us up Vse 1 if we have care to have God reconciled to us to make sure that our sin is covered and that there be no enmity raging in our hearts against Him for hereafter As he said to Iehu peace Iehu he answer'd how can there be peace whiles Iezabels fornications are not revenged Say thou to God in thy enemylike courses not subject to his commandements art thou reconciled Lord He wil say how should I thou hast that uncovered in thee which maketh all the quarrell for I cannot see iniquity so as to like of it I am God that hate it This teacheth us what is the true way of reconciling to take away that which maketh the difference for else truce we may have which souldiers hostilelike affected have but true reconcilement will be far from us Marke Obs 2 in what all our peace is grounded the bloud-shed of Iesus Christ the phrase is to be noted by the bloud of the Crosse by Him the latter pointing at the excellency of of His person as the thing which made His bloud-shed so forceable 1 Ioh. 2.7 This purgeth all our sinnes saith Saint Iohn This doth worke a death of sinne our sinfull life being crucified in Him and through Him this maketh way for the Father of all mercies to exchange and that without wrong to His justice His just wrath with fatherly favour yea the conspiring Angels with the heyres of salvation and joy they have in them yea peace w th all the creatures yea inward and outward agreement of man with man must hence be derived for what breakes downe the partition wall what killeth sinne in vs but this alone ô pretious bloud that cryest not for revenge but speakest better things then the bloud of Abell But here three things are to be layd downe for the cleering of this point 1 The true order of our reconciliation 2 What is meant by the bloud of His Crosse 3 Why the Scripture doth attribute this every where to His bloud and externall sufferings 1 To the first we are reconciled in this order 1 All cause of inward and outward enmity is taken away the matter of enmity betwixt God and us being sinne betwixt man and man Iew and Gentile the ceremoniall law now Christ by His death did take both away 2 This done away God doth lay aside wrath and is quieted toward us God is said to smell a savour of rest in Christs death so that He saith wrath is not in Me. 3 He doth come to take us to grace
Whosoever and whatsoever teacheth Christ teacheth the mystery of the Gospell and whosoever teacheth not Christ teacheth not the Gospell Of Christ he saith that He is among us for so should the particle 〈◊〉 be here rendred as it is immediately before among the Gentiles For by the Gospell we have communion with God and with Christ His Sonne Observe hence Doct. That CHRIST dwelleth in His members in all true believers He lives in them He dyneth and suppeth and lodgeth with us we see and heare and feele we taste and eate Him How glorious then is the Gospell by which Iesus Christ is communicated with us and how glorious is the Church even the assembly of GODS people among whom CHRIST the Sonne of GOD dwelleth For better cleering of this point I will shew you what it is to have CHRIST dwelling in us viz. When He doth exist after another manner then He did before when there are other effects then there were before when He doth shew Himselfe kinde and favourable when He doth manifest His comfortable presence as he did in the Temple It is seene in foure particulars 1 When as He commeth into the heart to be there He is united unto it and made one with it 2 He continues in the heart where once he begins to dwell and that is the reason why we continue in the state of grace 3 He delighteth in us he delighteth to dwell in the place where He dwelleth For a man cannot properly be said to dwell in a place except he delight to dwell there A man may be in a prison all his life long yet cannot be said to dwell there because he hath no delight to be there he would not be there if he could choose 4 He is said to dwell in us because he is so operative there he worketh efficaciously in all the parts and faculties of the soule He dwells in the soule as fire in the iron He is in every part thereof If it be objected how can Christ so dwell in us Object seeing He is in heaven and we on earth He dwelleth in us as the Sunne in the house Answ by his influence of grace into our hearts so that though He be absent yet He dwells there By these effects Christ discovereth Himselfe to be in us But what doe the Saints get by His comming Quest Many speciall priviledges and benefits come thereby Answ as 1 Where CHRIST dwels He makes that person glorious He fills his heart with glory and this I take out of Psal 24.7 Be ye lift up ye everlasting deeres that the King of glory may come in Where CHRIST comes into the heart Hee comes as a King of glory Hee comes not as a man that is glorious who keepes his glory to himselfe but He communicates His glory to us And herein is the difference betwixt CHRIST and an earthly Prince When a Prince comes into a house the house is the same still he keepes his glory to himselfe But where Christ comes He changes the heart he alters the house He makes that glorious He beautifies and decks the soule with such excellencies as makes us seeme glorious to our selves and appeare so to others So Moses face did shine because God did communicate His glory to him now that outward glory was a type of this inward glory which Christ communicates to the soule of him in whom He dwells Where Christ comes in He ruleth and governeth the soule He guides the spirit where he dwells He keepes the heart in order He keepes the understanding will and affections in obedience and this I take also out of Psal 24. Be yee lift up yee everlasting doores speaking of the soule For Christ where He comes He comes like a King He ruleth as a King He brings His kingdome with Him As Sathan rules in the children of disobedience so CHRIST ruleth in the children of obedience He guides and orders the spirit the right way 3 Where Christ enters in and dwells He refresheth the heart He comforts the heart He brings a great deale of joy with Him So saith the Prophet Esay Chap. 57. Esay 57. â—â— Thus saith the High and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of contrite ones Here are two benefits layd downe To refresh To give life He doth refresh the spirit of the humble that is when the spirit is drooping and the heart is made sadde and dejected meditating upon nothing but feares and dangers then Christ comes into the heart and calmes all sets all at rest brings tranquillity and refresheth the soule even as a man that feareth death is refreshed when a pardon commeth He fills the heart with joy where He comes as the Sunne doth bring light where ere it is present and no more can a man have Christ in his heart without joy then he can have the Sunne without light For He brings matter of joy with Him He brings salvation with Him as when He came home to Zaccheus He said Luke 19. this day is salvation come to thy house and it Christ so say to any man He brings matter of great joy Again when he comes He brings the spirit of joy called the refore the joy of the Holy Ghost for where the Holy Ghost is He is full of joy Againe where He comes He brings His kingdome with Him and that conlists of joy Rom. 14.17 4 Where Christ dwells He gives life He makes them living men for He dwelleth in His Saints as the Vine in the 〈◊〉 and every man that is in Him is a branch in the Vine All the properties of life we have from Him our sense and motion is from Him in Him we live and moove and have our being from Him is our life derived He that hath the Son hath life 1 Ioh. 5 1â— For as the old Adam did communicate corruption to us to make us active in sinne So the second Adam doth communicate grace and life to all that are borne of Him and therefore is called the quickning spirit For as a man doth then live when his soule comes into his body So doth the soule then live when CHRIST comes into the soule and therefore He is sayd to be the Resurrection and the Life for where He is there is Life 5 The last benefit is Defence Hee defends those in whom He dwels He is a buckler to them He preserves them from all crosses at the least from the evill of them And herein is the difference betwixt CHRIST and other Inhabitants Other Inhabitants are defended by their houses but Hee the Inhabitant defends the house And good reason for though He dwell in our hearts yet Psal 90.1 He is our Habitation This is excellently expressed Esa 4.5 6. Vpon all the glory shall be defence that is upon all the people that are glorious
I will bee to them saith God a Covering and a shadow in the day from the heate and for a place of refuge and for a Covert from storm and raine That is You shall be as men within doores others shall be as men without doores And the Apostle sayth 1 Cor. 3.17 Him that destroyes the Temple him shall God destroy For it is His Temple and Christ will not suffer His house to bee pulled downe over His head for it is the place where Hee dwelleth He will protect and defend them If you would therfore have a greater measure of grace comforting and refreshing you Vse if you would be full of life and grace then fasten your eyes upon Christ the fountaine But it is your fault you desire grace remission of sinnes and the parts of Sanctification abstracted from Christ we goe to God and thinke not of Christ but get Christ into your hearts get Him knit to you and then you shall receive grace from Him Looke as it is with a Wife in marriage of her husband she must not thinke of the Titles wealth and honours that he brings separated from her husband if she doe it is an adulterous thought but she must first take her husband and then take those things that are derived from him So let us first get our selves united with Christ cleave to Him live to Him get our hearts moove to Him in holinesse and righteousnesse and then looke for remission of sinnes adoption and reconciliation and every particular grace from Him If a man will have the treasure he must first have the field he must not thinke to have the treasure abstracted from the field but first get the field and then digge for the treasure First get Christ in whom are hid all treasures and then receive them from Him Remember still that Christ must first dwell in your hearts for although the spirit doe immediately act all yet it is CHRIST Labour therefore to be knit to Christ more and more and as you are neerer in union with Him so He dwells more in your hearts As there are degrees of light from the Sunne as it is higher or lower So there are degrees of Christs Vnion and habitation and of all the effects of His cohabitation labour therefore to get Christ into your hearts more and more How shall we doe that 1 Labour for a contrite and humble spirit for there CHRIST dwels and delighteth in such a soule Esay 57.15 He hath but two places to dwell in the highest heavens and an humble heart 2 Againe the lesse you love your selves and the more you emptie your selves the more will Christ dwell in you the cleaner you keepe your hearts the more unspotted the more pleasure and delight will Hee take to dwell in you 3 The larger spirit any man hath the more rich in grace any man is the larger the house is the more Christ will delight to dwell there Which is Christ in you the hope of glory This Christ he describeth by His effect toward us calling Him the hope of glory that is He in whom and by whom wee hope and looke for glory Observe hence Doct. Christ is he in whom we hope for glory Hereupon He is called Our hope 1 Tim. 1.1 God that cannot lye hath promised to give us further assurance of of it He hath lift up Christ on high placed Him at His right hand farre above all Principalities and Powers and made Him partaker of His glory when He shal appeare then we shall appeare with Him in glory this wee wait and looke for this is our rest What then though shame and reproach befal us in this world Vse Let us beare it with patience and with joy look up to the glory prepared for us And what if armies of evils meet with us here below and troopes of miseries follow us at the heeles By the helpe of Christ wee shall overcome them all and be more than conquerours and in the end be crowned with a crowne of immortall glory There wanteth nothing but a little waiting Yet a little while and He that shall come will come and will not tarry Behold Hee commeth in the clouds and His reward is with Him In the meane time let us live as those that looke for His glory and not dishonour our selves with base actions of sinne who are appointed for such glory VERSE 28. Whom we preach admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Iesus HAving thus by occasion of speaking of his ministery Verse 25. expressed the subject of it namely the mysterie of the Gospell He returneth now to speake of his ministery againe and of his faithfulnesse and diligence in the execution of it First that which was common to him with Timothy and other Apostles Verse 28. Then that which was proper to himselfe Verse 29. His faithfulnesse and diligence appeares almost in every word of these two Verses Where first observe generally that these two things Doctr. Faithfulnesse and diligence are required of every Minister in his place and calling they are required of every man in his calling but of a Minister in a speciall and singular measure For whether wee looke to the Lord that hath put him in trust or to the things committed to his trust not crownes nor kingdomes but the soules of men who should be faithfull if not he who diligent if not he To whom or wherein will he be faithfull that is not faithfull to God and in these things to whom or wherein will he be diligent for conscience sake that is not diligent in serving the Lord in these things And if he be cursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently withholding his sword from bloud how much more is hee accursed that doth the worke of the Lord in saving mens soules negligently Which our SAVIOUR would have done with such expedition that He forbade His Disciples going about that businesse to salute any man by the way Particularly their faithfulnesse appeareth both in the subject matter and in the manner of preaching For the matter it must bee in generall with all the Word of God concealing nothing that is convenient Act. 20.20 I kept backe nothing that was profitable unto you c. I will give you Pastors after mine owne heart Ier. 3.15 and they shall feed you with wisdome and understanding But Principally they must instruct them in the doctrine of repentance and remission of sinnes in the Name of Christ Secondly in the doctrine of Faith in Christ for Hee is the Bread of life Repentance is but the sowre salled it is the Lambe that makes the feast 1 Cor. 2.3 I cared to know nothing amongst you but Christ crucified Thirdly with the doctrine of good works 1 Tim. 15. Let them that have beleeved have care to shew good workes teach these things they are good and profitable This is for the matter The faithfulnesse of a Minister is seene also in
is made a cuppe of fine wine to carry to the heart more effectually a cuppe of deadly poyson whereas the faithfull ones they commend good things in us that they may more equally in their just reproofes be heard of us As a Physitian guildeth a pill that it may be taken the better or to encourage them and excite them to thankefullnesse or some such purpose To teach us godly wisedome Vse and by learning the cunning of these men to bee fore-armed against the hurt of them If the tongue of Angells should withdraw us from CHRIST or any part of his truth the Lord give us power to accurse them and turne from them as most dangerous Syrens that thus goe about to bewitch us VERSE 5. For though I bee absent in the flesh yet am I with you in Spirit rejoycing and beholding your order and your stedfast faith in Christ NOw hee commeth to prevent an objection Why Saint Paul might they say you know not us how we are in beliefe it may be these Ceremony-masters told them he was one that thought least of them to which S. Paul answers though I have not beene with you in body yet you are in my heart I in my mind by relation of others know how it is with you I am in mind with you rejoycing and fixing mine eye on your order and the solidity of your faith towards Christ Marke hence first Doctr. There is a presence whereby Saints are one with another though never so farre disjoyned Saint Paul absent in body with the Colossians present in spirit We believe the communion of all Saints Now were there no way for them by which they might bee each with other how could they communicate together but as we say where the minde is there is the man Now the minde may be in heaven in the utmost corner of the earth wheresoever the thought and affection is hither we are transported in spirit thus Eliah saith to Iehu was not my spirit with thee because God by vision showed him what his servant did For looke as a man may be corporally present without his mind there so he may be in mind here or there where his body commeth not By the mind is to be understood the operation of the mind namely the thought and affections This therefore doth shew us an excellent priviledge of Gods people Vse 1 that after some sort as Christ is with us all to the end of the world so we are with him and one with another For His bodily presence is not with us but the presence of spirit and power never forsaketh us Yea this must teach us one to be in the thought of another Vse 2 not to suffer it to be out of sight and out of mind as we speake in the proverbe It is to be bewailed that our hearts are no more with the Churches everywhere then they are If wee could sit still in our Chayres and goe hither and thither bodily whither would we not goe Rejoycing and seeing That is in spirit discerning as an absent thing but by the image of it made present to the mind for this is the difference of the Greeke words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with joy seeing their order and faith Observe first Doct. The nature of love it rejoyceth as Saint Paul speaketh in the truth in the worke of grace where it is discerned Iohn 3.4 thus Saint Iohn what greater joy have I then that you walke in the truth How glad are loving Nurses and Parents of all comelinesse and lovely qualities in their Children Even so those who have Gods Nurceries and are Fathers in Him they joy in nothing more then in the externall and internall graces of his children On the contrary how was Saint Paul grieved when the Church of Corinth had such a blemish as that incestuous one uncast forth Alas we want spirituall love Vse let which end will goe forward keepe from being whore or theefe though there be no power of godlinesse no heavenly mindednesse no opennesse of heart love appearing we grieve not though the soules of men lye in a dead swoone for any vitall action of the life of God our spirits moove not if we perceive not forwardnesse of grace we like Iosephs brethren envy it rather then take comfort in it censure it as pride humor singularity nay Pulpits sometimes speake this english Your order Observe hence Doct. That all things in the Primitive Churches were most orderly constituted and carryed Looke at the government at the administrations at the conversations of Christians all you shall see were full of order First there was an order of government for where there is no government there is no order If all were one member there were no order in the body there were some governing some governed Governours such as laboured in word and Doctrine publiquely and ordinarily receiving calling thereto from Christ by his Church or else such as attended the inspection of manners not dealing ordinarily with the Word and Sacraments but as occasion required not by authority directly from Christ but as delegates from the Pastors There were Deacons ministring in carefull oversight of the poore Finally the assembly which was governed by their leaders For ministrations all were comely in their holy native simplicity which became all seemely circumstances of time and place observed in them As I have received of the Lord Iesus Christ so have I delivered unto you 1 Cor. 11.23 Let all be done decently For their conversation they went out and in about their own businesses keeping their owne rankes If one did walke inordinately but as an idle tattler he was noted and they severed from him 2 Thes 3.11 They did goe by rule as in an orderly march 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 6.16 they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 4.12 walke honestly towards them that are without Hence we may learne to mourne at the disorder every where Vse the pompous tyranny the idle toyish ceremonies and fopperies in the Worship of GOD by Popish masse-Priests the most wicked and yet uncensured conversations which may be seene amongst Christians Lastly Doct. marke hence What a joyfull sight it is to see soules cleave to Christ and hold by him A true hearted subject cannot but joy to see the subject cleave fast in all allegiance to his soveraigne Lord the King So it feedeth the hearts of the true servants of Christ to see others stand fast to Him If you stand fast wee are alive It is a pleasant sight to see a valiant man being assaulted on every side stand his ground and quit himselfe bravely But for a souldier of Christ by faith on Christ to subdue all hostility of Sathan and not give backe a foote is much more goodly and glorious to behold Thus Saint Paul now he saw the Divell brave them with tearmes of learning the depth of philosophicall speculation and offering to make them ashamed of the simplicity of
in them as if supernaturall divinity stood in neede of philosophy as the understanding doth of inferiour senses whereas it is nothing so for the supernaturall guifts of the spirit inlightning by the word of God that makes a divine not any humane literature and therefore we reade of few wise of the world converted when babes and the foolish ones in comparison were inlightned this way Besides the Apostles themselves were this way not trayned as Ambrose saith Credimus piscatoribus non dialecticis this is an extreame as well as the other Yea often the Lords children may too much stand upon it for our understandings being more naturall then spirituall are ready too too much to incline to that which is connaturall unto them I meane an object proportioned to their naturall forces Hence in the primitive Churches the Christians were too much dejected in the want of it and too little prized their owne knowledge for the simplicity which to carnall judgement seemeth to be in it Even as Christians in poore bodily rayments are not so much comforted in the clothing of their soules as dejected in the meane attyre of the outward man withall too much esteeming the pompous rich apparell in which others ruffle So in the mind for the soule is cladde with light of knowledge as the body with bodily rayment When it wanteth this secular glorious rayment of Philosophicall sciences it is more often cast downe then it should and too much esteemeth the presence of it in others Yea hence sometime they grew to bee weakened in faith when they could not answer those difficulties which the wisedome of the naturall man objecteth whereas they should have counted the voyce of Angells if opposite to the Gospell utterly accursed True it is that grace turneth this complementall knowledge to the further confirming of us but it is as true that the same spirit doth make the want of it an occasion also of greater affiance even as all earthly meanes of working this or that helpe a heart sanctified in beliefe so the absence of all meanes occasion faith to be more intensively set on God from whom commeth our helpe And vaine deceit Observe hence Doct. That Sathan by empty showes of religion standing in vaine rites doth prevayle against many For this vaine deceit is nothing but the empty and deceiveable practice of religion whereby he drew many from the simplicity of the Gospell How did he ensnare those primitive Churches but with obtruding upon them beggarly elementall services and bodily austerities which profited nothing And how hath he brought the Papists to this passe in which they are but by foysting in all kind of empty toyish rites that either Iudaisme or Paganisme could affoord and by magnifying such canonicall austerities to which their Monks and Anachorets were addicted There is nothing to be seene but such empty deceitfull toyes in all their service of GOD their masse their precessions Palme branches ashes sprinkled their whippings hayre clothes holy water censings pilgrimages adoration of reliques c. For look as children will be quickly woone with fine puppets and babies and joy in these things more then in substantiall matters So these who are without all heavenly wisedome or have but infantlike understanding such ware as this is very saleable in their eyes and doth easily ensnare them Wherefore let us Vse knowing our owne weakenesse and the Divells malicious subtlties knowing likewise the nets he layeth let us be wise and not bite at such vayne baytes as these are which he casteth in for us 2 Observe hence Doctr. All religious observances contrary to the word of GOD are but deceitfull vanity vaine deceite In vayne doe you worship Mat. 15.9 framing religion after the precepts of men saith Christ For first they have not any grace accompanying of them as enlightning the mind confirming the faith stirring up devotion for these things accompany outward services by force of Gods spirit working in them not of themselves now Gods spirit doth not worke in any other then the Lords Ordinances 2 They goe for religion but are not so indeed for true religion the soule of it is not simply to doe this act but to doe it with relation to GOD commanding now this cannot bee in things God requireth not 3 They misse the end which is pretended in them for they please not GOD wherefore as we say of wares deceitfull which looke well but want the substance such are al things intrinsecus defectuosae as they are called as for example counterfeit mony which hath the colour stampe and touch sometime yet is inwardly no such thing we may say such things are vayne deceite for they are but showes that mocke such as they are put upon So in this matter even as the Papists confesse it of their false reliques which are not such as they are affirmed So wee may truely say of all their religious practice in a manner The use is therefore to make us wary that we be not cheated and beguiled this way Vse We would be loath in any commodity or if we received mony to take a slippe amongst it but how wary should wee be not to bee beguiled in matters of so great consequence as these are According to the tradition of men Observe hence That the authority of man in matter of doctrine and religious observance is not to be respected against the Word of GOD. Doct. Men of estimation have alwayes beene of some regard so farre that their opinions have beene entertayned because they were theirs This made the Iewes so erroneous the authority of their great Rabbines and traditionary divinity was so imbraced by them as CHRIST sayth It was said of old but I say So likewise concerning matters of rites their washing hands with signification they call it a constitution of their fathers this was in the Primitive Church continued that many were so addicted to some men that they would receive the things fathered upon them though discrepant from the Evangelicall doctrine So that in Tertullians time many did defend that the Apostles did not write all truth for us to know but that there was a more perfect divinity which was traditionary Lib. 1. cap. 23 24. yea in Ireneus time before Tertullian For this is the property of Heretiques to calumniate the perfection of the Scripture neither doe they ever fly to it but onely to the barke of the outward syllables that they may so avoyd the substance and matter of it which is most manifest And so Arrius did fly from the wholesome phrases and manner of speaking in the fathers to the expresse syllables of Scripture in which he would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewed him quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the authority of antique tradition is so forcible that it beguiled some of the Fathers drawing them to use some ceremonies utterly ungrounded in the word as milke and honey in baptism giving the Eucharist to children not kneeling from Easter to Whitsunday But how
they should never meete till they yeelded a little Thus many now a dayes thinke it wisedome to retaine some things though altered common with the Papists that we might gaine them more commodiously But though there be place for some indulgence this way and therefore for a while tolleration and practice of some thing more indifferent yea and so far as edification and avoyding offence a law made for such things yet this must be in indifferent things onely and that for a time onely least they plead themselves as perpetuall by a kind of prescription which was the ground of the Nazarites heresie as S. Augustine thinketh Wherefore when we would heale men Vse let us not be ficke with them for this is folly But remember that safe maxime contraria contrarijs curantur Let us recover them with giving them an example of spirituall worship least admitting a little poyson we hurt our selves more then with all our good beside we can helpe them You that will walke in CHRIST be not deceived with things after this world Lastly marke by the opposition Doct. That what is meerely grounded on tradition and what is carnall and sensuall in Gods service is contrary to CHRIST In CHRIST all things are new the old carnall worship is changed into a spirituall according to that Iohn 4. and for all pure humane traditions in GODS matters they are accursed Gal. 1 9. Which is to be marked against the Papists Vse who reconcile humane traditions and make them according to Christ who will also have all their carnall rites agreeing with Christ. VERSE 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the godhead bodily NOw he setteth downe the reasons why these things not being after Christ must bee avoyded the first taken from the alsufficiency which he hath in himselfe the second from his alsufficiency to us You must not listen to others besides him who is not man onely but very GOD in one Person But such is CHRIST or in CHRIST dwelleth the fullnesse of the GOD head Corporally these are all one in sense To open the words before wee come to the Doctrine In Him That is in Christ-man or in that person whom we know to have had a body and soule like us is the same divine Nature which the Father and the Spirit have Or it may be constred thus in Christ that is the humane Nature of Christ dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head that is God the Son with His infinite deitie which commeth to no more then this God the Word was made flesh But the former is better because this phrase the fulnesse of the deitie doth note the divine Nature without any personall relation of it whereas the second sense doth necessarily take it to signifie the Person of God the Son with His Nature Secondly Christ man is fitly called God and therefore in Christ-man the God-head is sayd to dwell properly But CHRIST His humane Nature may not be sayd God and therefore the God-head is not so fitly sayd to dwell in the humane Nature as in the person denominated after it that is in Christ-man All the fulnesse That is the whole infinite indivisible Nature of GOD. bodily that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially or Personally the Greekes call body as we in our vulgar tongue here is no body that is no person so we say bodily perill for such danger as toucheth ones person The summe For in that man Christ Iesus the whole infinite Nature of God dwelleth not as in all believers who are His habitation nor as in His beloved Prophets in whom hee spake and gave His Oracles nor as in a materiall Temple which is different from the substance of him that inhabiteth but bodily that is so that this Divine Nature with the humane maketh one Person For the Doctrines 1 We see in generall What must make nerest in Christ onely as alsufficient even this that we know Him God blessed forever Shall not God allsufficient in Himselfe to Himselfe to all the creatures shall not He undertaking to be our King Priest and Prophet be allsufficient for it We fitly leave men seeking supply at God but to turne from God to men is to dig puddles and leave the spring of living waters Hence then first gather to thy selfe Vse how absurd those Papists are and how far from considring that which they know that Christ is God would they did they weigh this be so bold as to adde to His institutions to take away as in the Supper the Cuppe would they leave this Sunne of righteousnesse to follow the blind starre of their traditions let them say what they will they doe not truly consider this Let us likewise confirme our selves in our resting onely on Christ even from hence that He is God Vse 2 let us say with Saint Peter Whither shall wee goe thou hast the words of eternall life thou art the naturall Son of God thou art allsufficient In particular marke three branches of this Text 1 In whom this dwelling is sayd to be 2 What is sayd to dwell 3 In whom 1 Note That we must not looke at Christ as meere man Doct. but life up our mindes to that invisible nature which is in him Those that saw Him on earth whose eyes God opened not they saw nothing but man and therefore not knowing any thing else they crucified the Lord of glory And thus we al naturally are ready to know him after the fresh but when God giveth us that eagles eye of beliefe the evidence of things not seene then we see that God is with this man as being now substantially united to Him and made a part of His person This maketh Christ say when Saint Peter told Him Thou art the Sonne of God Flesh and blond hath not reveiled this to thee Peter And what doth make the Apostle often inculcate such descriptions but that we are slow of heart in considering this point For as many see a house or a tent that see not the inhabitant and as the body is hidde when the apparell is discerned So this humane nature unles we get the better eyes may be seene when the deity which dwelleth in it is not perceived 2 Marke Doct. That all the fulnesse of the God-head is communicated with Christ as man the whole entyre nature of God I understand by communicated as much as is united dwelleth bodily that is in unity of person w th Christ-man or in the same person with the humane nature For the divine Nature is a thing most simple not having bodily quantity one part out of another nor yet any composition in it Now that which is not compounded of parts cannot be divided If a man have house and land he may give to one Son one part to the Wife another but when the divine Nature is communicated it is all of it given or none at all Thy soule cannot bee divided one part from another thou canst not cut the light how
much lesse canst thou divide the Divine Nature And this is to be marked against the Lutherans Vse who imagine a communion of the Divine properties with the humane nature in part onely for they give it an omnipotency the omniscience of the God-head but not the eternity and simplicity whereas the Scripture knoweth no union nor communion of the Divine Nature with the humane which is not of all the fulnesse of the God-head No it is so absurd that sound reason cannot imagine it without making the essence of GOD such as may bee divided one part being where another is not 3 That he faith the fulnesse of the God-head is in Christ hence it is to be noted That not created guifts Doct. or miraculous effects of the Divine Nature are united with Christ man but the deity it selfe the fulnesse of it yea the whole fulnesse which is to bee noted against Arrius and all such spirits Againe this sheweth that the same singular Nature is in all the three Persons for he speaketh of the God-head in the singular number as being but one and as it is in the Father without controversie so it is wholly in the Son also as but one Sun in the firmament in which the whole kind of the creature subsisteth So there is but one Divine Nature neither indeede can be for the Divine Nature is most perfect infinite omnipotent the most absolute thing that can bee imagined Now were there many Gods having every one a distinct deity none of them were most perfect powerfull for every one had but his owne wanting that which is with others as no man hath all the perfections of mankind for he wanteth all that which is out of himselfe in others This is to bee marked for hence we come to know that there is but one God though three persons because the same fulnesse of the Divine Nature that is in the Father is in the Son and the same that is in the Father and the Son is in the spirit for He is called Iehova and it may as well bee all the fulnesse of it in the spirit with them both as in the Son with the Father as well be the essence of three as two Now hence it is manifest that these three persons are but one God for as Iohn Richard and Thomal if they all had but one body and one soule should all bee but one man So these all having but one God-head can bee but one God To be three Gods there must be not onely three Persons but three distinct Natures differing the one in number from the other for so many men as you have so many soules and bodies must be multiplied in which standeth the nature of man But how can three persons be one in nature I answer we are content to know it is so though how it is so we know not aspici Deus potest introspici non debet Though why not three persons in one nature as well as three Natures in one Person which is in Christ A bodily a spirituall created as His soule a spirituall increate And as the same light is originally from no other in the Sunne and secondarily by communication in the ray or beame of it So what hindereth c. Dwelleth bodily Obs The manner of GOD's dwelling in this man Doct. He doth dwell personally in Him that is so as that GOD the SONNE is thereby become personally man as he was from all eternity personally God with the Father and Spirit the God-head so dwelleth in this man that with the man-hood it maketh but one Person even as the soule and body in man make one man So this divine Nature and humane are now joyntly but one Person of CHRIST He which was a compleat Person from everlasting in fulnesse of time creating within His owne Person a singular body and soule such as we have sin excepted as a substantiall part of His Person not a part which made up the Person of God as before imperfect but a part because a new thing substantially that is personally assumed to that which before was perfect thus much this word Bodily or personally teacheth For it putteth a difference 1 betweene God dwelling in every thing as an efficient and preserver of them 2 betweene His dwelling in the Saints and Prophets by His assistance and workes of grace in them 3 Betweene His dwelling in the Saints in heaven God shall be all in all by His presence of glory and this dwelling in CHRIST which is by being united personally with this humane Nature As the Arrians abuse the similitude in the first Chapter when CHRIST is said to be the Image of His Father they gathered that therefore Hee had not the same substance with Him for we see a mans image or picture is not of the very same substance with the man whose picture it is not distinguishing betwixt naturall things properly so called and these artificiall ones which are but respectively and abusively so termed So here Nestorius Loe saith he GOD dwelleth in CHRIST man therefore he is not personally united with man For a man is no part of person with the house he dwelleth in not distinguishing betwixt common inhabitation and that which is personall But we see here the Text is plaine that He so dwelleth in this Nature that it is essentially or substantially united to Him as a part of His Person Againe He so dwelleth or doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Nature that He is made flesh the Word was made flesh which cannot be understood of a simple but bodily or personall inhabitation This therefore doth first serve to confute all erroneous opinions touching the union of Christ Vse 1 for first wee see all Arrius his opinions overturned who granted that there were most divine qualities in Christ and wonderfull effects wrought by God in the man Christ but would not yeeld Him true God Marke all the fulnesse of the Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divine Nature as Saint Peter speaketh dwelleth in Him All Eutiches his schollars Vse 2 who grant that God Himselfe was man but they say that this Vnion stood in that the divine Nature did swallow up the humane for they could not else see how they could make up one Person The Monothelites granted two Natures but one action For they could not see how divers actions would not conclude that there were many Persons But marke the divine Nature dwelleth in Christ Now the inhabiting and the inhabited are not confounded therefore both the Natures and their actions are distinct and if there were such a swallowing up of the humane Nature then flesh were made God not God flesh by force of the Vnion As for diversity of Persons it doth not follow upon the diversity of actions for there may be as well three actions in one Person as there are three Persons all having but one action If the multiplicity of action did come from the number of Persons then there
withdrawen from CHRIST So that as a Wife yeelding her love and conjugall benevolence to another cleaveth no longer to her husband is one flesh no more with him So a soule bestowing the religious adoration of it here or there doth joyne it selfe with the thing so worshipped and leaveth God This is to be marked against them that are reconcilers Vse 1 that thinke why may they not doe thus and thus and yet cleave to CHRIST well enough yea this doth detect the wicked judging of Papists that will perswade us that this leadeth us unto CHRIST to go to Saints and that honouring them in religious manner we honour Christ in them 2 We must keepe onely to God in Christ Thus much from this that these religiously worshipping Angells held not Christ For understanding the verse We must open some conclusions concerning the head and Naturall body 1 The head is the supreame part in a humane body from which commeth outward direction and inward influence of sense and motion into every member So Christ hath both the soveraignty of outward directing and by his powerfull influence he quickeneth and mooveth all that are his 2 No member hath any thing from the head which is not by joynts and sinewes coupled to the head and by the same bands and joynts furnished from the head So we have nothing from CHRIST till by faith and love we are knit with Him and His body and by the same 〈◊〉 furnished from Him with spirituall grace and heavenly nutriment 3 We must know that the soule from the head doth 〈◊〉 forth a nutritive faculty a vitall faculty which nourisheth and augmenteth every member as the nature of it requireth The first continueth as long as life augmentation till wee come to that perfection of growth which nature affordeth Being come to this augmentation ceaseth about thirty sixe yeares So the quickning spirit from Christ our head doth by all holy meanes nourish every believer and make him grow as his condition requireth and that till he come to be a perfect member of one perfect man in Iesus Christ 4 The last thing to be marked is that a Naturall body groweth up in every part proportionably the hand for a hand the legge with the growth of a legge the toe with the growth of a toe So here all the body thus coupled furnished and wrought upon with the quickning spirit groweth to that perfection in every member which Christ hath appointed The summe is They keepe not to Christ who is an all sufficient head by whose efficacy all that believe on Him being coupled to Him receive all grace needfull and take encrease growing up till they come to perfection with such a growth which God Himselfe causeth in them That wee have not many but one head Doct. not holding the head not Christ and Saint Peter the Scripture knoweth but one head neither was any of His Apostles a head of the Churches for all had alike and the chiefe authority Now if any were a head above others He must have the chiefe alone no other having it with Him thus the Pastor that succeeded Peter at Rome should have beene head over Saint Iohn the Evangelist who lived long after Peter But we neede no better argument then this in the Text. If CHRIST be one head and it is monstrous for a body to have two then the Church hath no other But CHRIST is the head and for one body to have two is monstrous therefore the Church hath no other then Christ The Papists say that a ministeriall and secondary head may be with a principall and it is not monstrous As there may bee a Viceroy under a King yea they say it maketh with the union of the Church to have a visible head and doth no more derogate from Christs glory in being our head then when men are called lights GODS Apostles foundations from Christ who is called the light GOD the foundation the Apostle of our profession For answer First this distinction of a secondary ministeriall head it is contradictory for it is such an essentiall property of a head to be principall and have rule that what is not thus is not a head 2 Who ever heard of any secondary head in a naturall body without deformity now it is a naturall body with which CHRIST doth compare Himselfe in this respect 3 That which is a ministeriall head must doe the worke of a head but that none can doe The worke is double internall or externall influence regiment or direction Of the first it is granted for the other of regiment the Scripture denyeth it to any but CHRIST the Prince of Pastors leaving to all other a power ministeriall onely to serve the Churches as superior unto them Againe the truth is no direction which is dependent is the direction of a head as the hand leading and drawing up the foote directeth it but is not a head to it because the direction of the hand commeth from the principality of the head reported unto it As for those instances First a Viceroy is in a body politique but CHRIST in calling Himselfe a head of his body doth draw the comparison from a body Naturall Againe the proportion is not kept for to have a Viceroy under a King in some Province is one thing but to have a head under a head is another For a head is to the body as a King to the kingdome Now to have another King in a kingdome under the Chiefe is a thing unheard of The union of the Church the Scripture teacheth to depend on CHRIST and His spirit not on a visible head Yea the Grecians continew to this day their rent from the Church and all for the pride of this head Men have many names properly attributed to them and these above repeated but improperly but the names of head and husband the Scripture and all sound antiquity appropriate unto Christ Kings may suffer men to be called Noble Wise Rich but to be called Kings within His Kingdome is not permitted for there is nothing more derogatory from the glory of his Crowne so here c. Let us then cleave to this head CHRIST IESUS Vse and renounce such most lewd usurpation as is detected in the Pope Woe to that body which hath a third thing thrust in betwixt the head and it so that they meete not to close each to the other So it is with the Papists for betwixt Christ and them the Pope hath thrust in so that their immediate conjunction with Christ is hindered and his beneficiall influence intercepted Oh how absurd is it that any but Christ should bee thought head of the Church It is as if the King should put his Queene under the power of a Subject or a mans wife should be made an underling to a servant which never was the Apostles themselves though in their message from Christ they might command the Church in His Name yet in regard of their persons they were under the Churches as a servant who
dead in Christ from these why as if yee lived in the world No they cannot live in that which their head is dead to How can we that are dead to sinne live yet therein and therefore he saith as if you lived in the world for hee knew it was impossible for true believers to live unto the fashions of the world either in regard of civill duties or religious ordinances the children of God being set into Christ have presently wrought in them a death of their sinfull and sensuall life It is mortally wounded at the first though it liveth in us long after yea though the Lords children doe not often perceave it for many a man goeth awhile with his death and yet discerneth not till sometime after that he is deepely wounded Even as we our selves feele nothing lesse when we come into the world then that we are dead in our Father Adam and yet with our nativity entereth mortality which never resteth till we are utterly extinct by death The use is to reproove us who live in sinne after the fashion of the world Vse we have forgotten to what we dyed in Christ As if yee lived in the world Observe hence Doct. That Gods children live out of the world while they are in it this maketh CHRIST say they are not of the world for though they are in it for place yet their affection and conversation is in heaven and hence it is Phil 3 2â— that the Church is called by the name of heaven in some propheticall Scriptures and this is here taught while he saith as if yee lived in the world insinuating that it could not be that they lived in the world for they are called out of the world to a heavenly hope and to bee of another body even of that Corporation whereof CHRIST is the head So that as a Townsman in the Vniversity if he be taken to be a Scholars servant though he live in the towne he is no longer of it as who is gone from them and belongeth to another body So it is here Wherefore Conforme not your selves to the fashions of the world you are pilgrims forreyners Vse sojourners at the most here is not the place of your aboad And how farre they are from knowing CHRIST and the power of His death whose life is altogether carnall whose conversation doth not so much as smell of Heaven may hence be convinced to them VERSE 21. Touch not taste not handle not Now he commeth to lay downe more distinctly these rites enjoyned them from Pharisaicall seducers and he doth unfold it by a mimeticall expressing the charge that these false teachers gave Touch not taste not handle not O take heed you know all the old people were tyed from the eating and touching of many things as upon the touch whereof they were uncleane God out of His most wise pleasure annexing a legall uncleannesse unto them as the touching of a dead body of a garment spotted with leprosie of one troubled with a bloudy issue c. Now the Divell that soweth tares did by some pharisaicall spirits which so received Christ that they would still hold the Law he did set on foot by these amongst the Gentiles that unlesse they kept the Law they could not be saved this occasioned the first Councell about some eighteene yeares after CHRIST'S death and within some yeares after this occasioned the Apostle to write that Epistle to the Galathians the same kinde of men began to vent the same wares amongst the Colossians and gave them these caveats Touch not taste not handle not 1 Observe from this practice of theirs Doct. How exact and precise men are in their outward observancies who know not the power of godlinesse It is the Property of all pharisaicall spirits that care not for the great things of the Law and the true spirituall obedience of it they will tithe mint and cummine precisely wash hands and cups their hearts being all foule and full of lusts For looke as idle bodies which will not follow due labour they will go with their tales as a Pedler with his packe from one to another yea their fingers shall goe and their feet shall speake they will occupie themselves busily in that which is superfluous So here when men will not exercise themselves in the power of godlinesse it is strange how they will abound in c. This may be seene in the Church of Rome who not knowing the powerfull ordinances of God have turned all into such dumbe shewes as are the Masse their Precessions c. as full of superfluous observations as emptie of substance To teach us how to know these spirits Vse 1 he that stands precisely on every little trifle is at least halfe a Pharisie Wee must take occasion by them to be precise in the least points of spirituall obedience and not to stand so nicely on externall rites and empty shadowes those that doe diligently looke to themselves this way have no leasure and lesse affection to follow such bawbles Even as a man seriously occupied hath no fancie to dally and sport as others will who have little to doe So here Who more in heavenly labour than Saint Paul Hee laboured through the grace of GOD in Him more abundantly than they all who more despised those kinde of Iewish legall rites who cryeth them downe as beggarly things which profit nothing 2 Marke in this their enforcing these things Doctr. What a hard thing it is to forgoe such old rites to which we are accustomed these had beene brought up in them and had seene no other and loe they will not part with them no not when GOD will have them cease and CHRIST nailes them to the crosse Nay they are more fond on them than before for such is the malice of our wils that when GOD will not then commonly we will like those Israelites when they should have gone up to bid battell to the Canaanites discouraged with the Spies they murmured and refused when GOD would have them go backe into the wildernesse and not goe on against them then they would have no nay to battell they would to die for it Besides as in other things man taketh on like a god so in affecting a kinde of immutability which maketh him hee will not be beaten off that whereunto he hath beene accustomed thus it is in opinion likewise that one is bred up in is often maintained too too stiffely the first things make the deepest impressions Let a false tale get the start and come the first to us truth spoken in the second place is lesse beleeved Wherefore let us take heed Vse and not thinke therefore things must stand because they have beene so since our knowledge and long before but let us see how all customes agree with GOD's Word and will and so accordingly be affected to them If this had beene a good reason These Mosaicall rites have ever beene observed since we can remember any thing yea by all our ancestours these
to franke up themselves with all delight Vse to satisfie their senses with all inordinate desire as if happinesse stood in fatting up the body It is folly to feed a horse that will when pricked with provender cast his master So here Againe this must teach us the rather to keepe our bodies in due subjection because it shall make us justly reputed wise foolish ones may esteeme one a squeamish companion a foole to let passe a present pleasure but wisdome shall be justified of her children and in whom this appeareth young or old they shall be commended for it as prudent Obs Againe Doctr. What often false teachers labour to make shew of viz. of mortification of the flesh We reade of Baals Priests how they did lance and cut themselves shewing great barbarousnesse towards their bodies So wee see amongst superstitious Anachorets this practice of using themselves most severely and secluding themselves from all bodily comforts yea from the society of men The like is now amongst the Papists there being at Antwerp such an one who is kept caged up such was that Alberick the Monke of whom we reade he would whippe himselfe till bloud followed are nothing but barley bread dranke water goe in haire-cloth bare-footed and there are some at this day who will not sticke to serve themselves in this kinde But there is a second branch of this inclemencie which standeth not in doing that which is injurious but in with-holding that which is convenient for the body and this is chiefly here noted when men by too much abstinence macerate themselves and while they spare the flesh of beasts devoure their owne flesh most inhumanely As the woman said to Baldwin sometime Archbishop of Canterbury with us for when it was reported that from what time he was made a Monke hee had never eaten flesh a woman asked him whether it was true to whom he affirmed it was so this woman replying that it was not so for he had eaten his owne flesh up there scarce being left the bones of him Rau. lib. 7. cap. 24. And many doe still place great religion in this letter counting it mortification and an excellent point of perfection the truth is the body must be used with mediocrity we must not wound it as it is a friend because we must not pamper it so as to make it an enemie Stulti dum vitant vitia in contraria currunt Let us not then be beguiled with such austerities Vse as if they were perfection whereas CHRIST Himselfe lived a sociable life Hee did eat and drinke that they said He was a bibber of wine He slept and tooke a pillow under His head yea He did eat not sitting on the ground but leaning on beds which were then in use for such purpose The Manichees would goe up to the top of high mountains and cast themselves down headlong and that they counted the mortification of the body The like mortification it is which substracteth things behovefull from the body or useth it barbarously Neither have they it in any estimation to satisfie the flesh Observe from this explication That seducing spirits will make shew of great abstinence will refraine meates and drinkes which others use gladly and nature after some sort craveth thus these did here they would not touch many things nor tast them which others much affected There have beene some Papists so abstinent that being Bishops it is reported of them Theod hist lib. 7. cap. 13. in vita Oâ—ho nis Bambergensis cap. 23. that they did never eaâ—e bread to satiety in all their time of being Bishops For this they count mortification wholly to refrayne this or that kind of meate But we must distinguish true mortification from selfe affected superstition True mortification is either active or passive Passive is the obedient receiving of such things from Gods hand which he layeth on us for the mortifying of us humble your selves under the mighty hand of God Active mortification is a spirituall endeavour of subduing the lusts dwelling in us that GOD may be glorified and wee more at liberty to serve Him If by the spirit ye mortifie the flesh you shall live Rom. 8.13 Now this endeavour hath belonging to it many exercises 1 Repentance a mournefull spirit under the remnants of sinne for while the heart truely grieveth sinne lyeth a bleeding therefore it is said the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit Psal 51. 2 In presenting our selves with the lawes of lust we feele dwelling in us to CHRIST our High Priest and praying Him to offer us a burnt offering to GOD His Father 3 In holding the perswasion of faith that Christ who is made of God our sanctifier will kill in us will dissolve this life of Sathan which is in us for Christ bruiseth his head that is killeth that old serpent when He killeth this life of sinne which entered through him and is after a sort the Divell living in men For as there is the life of God in the Saints So on the contrary there may be sayd the Divells life in the unregenerate these are principall meanes Now there are other assistant meanes as 1 Not to serve our lustings when they are inordinate thus David did in that water which hee had desired impotently thus Saint Paul did buffet and keep his appetite as a slave in subjection and at the command of his sanctified reason 2 Wee must sometime refraine lawfull things that we may not be under the power of them but have them under us All things are lawfull to me but I will not bee brought under the power of any thing and these exercises are through the whole life as occasion serveth and the conscience warneth us 3 Wee must bee diligent in some good calling for this is a great helpe of mortifying the flesh the Lord having layd them upon us for the humbling of us Let us then take heede of superstitious witcheries Vse which not knowing mortification turne all the practice of it into a Philosophicall austerity Hypocrites may abound in these outward pennances in which they place their mortification yea Philosophers Plato when he thirsted would draw water at a well and powre it downe before his owne eyes not tasting Socrates Pomponius and others though the truth is these non Curios simulant sed Bacchanalia vivunt they like the Manachees dissemble It is read of them they would drinke no wine but they doubted not to eate grapes Aug. lib. 2. de Manich aeorum moribus cap. 16. Contra Faustum cap. 31. their fasts are so pleasant now that they may say with the little boy Mother when shall we fast againe they absteyne from Egges and Cheese but eate dainty fruites and quaffe in wine liberally yet if they should truely doe their taske they goe no further then heathens may who never received the spirit of God and therefore never knew true mortification But how may wee discerne a difference betwixt heathens and Christians and Papists when the one
fasteth Quest and refrayneth some things and the other doe the same There is great difference in the antecedents Answ and manner of doing it and effect A Papist and naturall man conceiveth of lustings as rebelling to reason and hindering morall vertue and the free contemplation of mind not as sins but a thing indifferent capable of vertue or vice as obeyed or otherwise thus the Papists also after a manner But Gods children resist them as sinfull inclinations and whoorish lustings which hinder them in loving their God yea are enmity to him and fight against their soules They differ also in the ends which moove the one and the other to refraine Naturall men they doe it to vaunt themselves of more perfection then others have attayned to purchase themselves a naturall liberty of mind in such considerations as by Nature it reacheth Sometime for politique respects because hee is not counted fit for government who is subject to sensuall passion The Papist he doth it as a part of perfection as a thing in it selfe pleasing God as a point of merit with God But a good Christian hee doth refraine for the kingdome of heaven how not to deserve it by such course but that by this course done in faith he may subdue his lusts and kill them for it is their death not to be obeyed and that hee may have more freedome in Gods service For the manner of doing it the one doth it out of Nature sometime for as Christ saith of Eunuchs some are by nature so the same may be said of abstinence Some by Nature are averse from that liberty in dyet which others affect But all besides true Christians doe it out of their owne strength whereas a true believer he doth it by the spirit of GOD bewayling his weakenesse seeking to Christ for his strength to crucify these things to him and him to them 2 A Christian doth not absteyne for the thing simply prophaning that but from lust simply that he resisteth the thing so farre forth as his lust taketh occasion by that which is in it selfe good Now unbelievers looke not to inward lusts so much nor cry not downe them as they vilifie the things themselves desired Hence is a third difference the faithfull doe not make a set exercise upon stinted times onely to refraine or totally at once renounce the touching them but daily as they feele themselves tempted they resist eating with thankesgiving when they feele themselves not indangered by them Lastly they so refraine that they know their refraining it selfe doth not commend them to GOD for if not eating and drinking were in it selfe more holy than eating and drinking Iohn Baptist should have been more holy than CHRIST but as through the working of GOD's Spirit it is to them being weake a meane of their more firme cleaving to GOD. Now all other extoll the thing it selfe and rest in it as a matter of great perfection In the effect following they may be distinguished for the one have by their exercise greater confirmation of an externall morall habit the other true sanctification viz. death of sinne and life of grace promoted in them To teach us that we bee not beguiled Vse 1 nor yet have these externall exercises in admiration which such as know not the power of godlinesse abound in often yea we must be wise to distinguish things that differ for the Divell in his will play the Ape and imitate what GOD doth worke soundly in the hearts of His chosen This must provoke us to fight in right order against sensuall lusts Vse 2 Shall naturall men and others led in error be thus abstinent and in their fashion subdue their sensuall appetites and shall wee who have CHRIST with us our sanctifier lye downe as conquered of them Plato superstitious Popish wretches will condemne many Christians who feed their hearts in whatsoever they desire And so much for these words Now if you take the end of it sounding to the first sense Obs 1. That exercises much regarded with men Doct. are of no esteeme with GOD Circumcision nor uncircumcision are nothing much lesse meat eating or not eating commend not to GOD but a new creature many things great and glorious in the eyes of man are abominable before GOD which if the Papists considered they would not extol the rules of their Monkish orders the life of Anachorets nor yet cry downe with such base termes those that use their liberty in CHRIST as CHRIST and Abraham the Father of the faithfull have given them example 2 From the reason why they are in no price with GOD because they are occupied about the body the filling of it Doct. Observe therefore in generall that Bodily externall things are not of worth with GOD He is a Spirit worship in spirit and truth is His delight for a Synecdoche must here be marked one kinde put for the generall seeing there is the same disproportion in them to God the same in one that is in another even as in Nature like joyeth that which is like it So here GOD being a Spirit doth delight in that which is spirituall like Himselfe And as to a creature which liveth a pure sensible life reasonable delights are as nothing to it tell a horse a story never so pleasant it affects him not So to a pure spirituall nature sensible matters give no contentment In which the Papists had need to consider who follow GOD too too much with sensible things and thinke they take Him because they affect us FINIS LECTVRES PREACHED VPON THESE TEXTS OF SCRIPTVRE By Mr. PAUL BAYNE Esay Chap. 5. v. 12. Psal 50. v. 21 22 23. 1 Pet. Chap. 1. v. 17. Psal 119. v. 1. to v. 32. Luke Chap. 13. v. 24. 1 Pet. Chap. 4. v. 18. 2 Cor. Chap. 7. v. 1. Luke Chap. 2. v. 14. Philip. Chap. 2. v. 12 13. Hebr. Chap. 3. v. 13. 1 Tim. Chap. 2. v. 2. 2 Tim. Chap. 1. v. 9. 2 Tim. Chap. 1. v. 12 13 15 16.