this flesh wherewith we are cloathed there do escape us but too many let us combat our own weaknesses and have recourse unto the grace of GOD who pardoning us what is past will fortifie us for the future But the Apostle after having enjoyned us in general that our life be worthy of the LORD toucheth next the principal duties whereof we must acquit us to live in this sort and addeth first that we do please Him entirely that is that in all things we seek to please the LORD endeavouring nothing but what may be acceptable to Him that this be the aim of our life Whence appears that the first point of a life celestial and truly worthy of the LORD is to take His will for our supream rule by it squaring all our thoughts words and actions For this is that the Apostle signifieth when He saith we must entirely please Him that is in all things in all the parts of life both in what respects the sentiments of our hearts and in what concerns the words of our mouths or our other external actions This is as the soul of the service of God You serve a man or your selves and not the LORD when it is to content your selves or some other that you act The best action and in its self most holy loseth its worth and value when the design of pleasing GOD is wanting in it Let us then banish from our life first all those things which GOD hath not instituted For how fair an appearance soever they have we cannot assure our selves that they please the LORD if He hath not ordained them Let us not suffer our selves to be beguiled by the paint and false lustre of humane devotion Since the question is of pleasing GOD we must give our selves to the study and practice of that which Himself hath expresly commanded us in His word As to this I am most certain it 's a thing acceptable to Him But for that which superstition or the pretended wisdom of men hath invented I cannot be assured whether it please the LORD or no. Then next in the very performance of the things He hath commanded us let us have regard still to please Him Offer we not our Sacrifices but to His Deity alone If our actions be also acceptable to men in good time be it It is gain we may take with contentment But how ever they take it have we still for our end to please the LORD Provided that our oblations are grateful to Him let the world judge of them as it will We have that we sought and it sufficeth us to have contented the eyes of our Master Let us renounce our own wills and regard His only wishing daily that it might be done of us and all other Creatures as the LORD JESUS hath commanded us The Apostle adds in the second place the productions of Christian life Frustifying saith he in every good work This necessarily follows from the affection he but now recommended to us For if we study to please the LORD entirely since it is only good works that can be acceptable to Him it is evident we shall give our selves to them continually But the Apostle useth in it a remarkable term saying to signifie this production that we fructifie in every good work The Scripture often compareth the faithful to Trees because they are planted by the hand of GOD sprung from His celestial and incorruptible seed that is His word and you know how the Prophet in the first Psalm represents us a good man and one fearing GOD under the image of a Tree planted by a stream of living water yielding its fruit in its season and crowned with a green and grateful feuillage which never fadeth And elsewhere he compares him to a flourishing and fruitful Palm-tree Psa 92.13 14 15. Joh. 15. Rom. 11 in the Courts of the LORD JESUS CHRIST saith in St. John That He is the Vine and we are the Branches and St. Paul compares the Israel of GOD that is the whole Society of His children to a true Olive whereinto each of them is grafted to partake of its sap and fatness Sutably to these Allegories it 's with much grace and reason that the Apostle makes use of the word fructifie to signifie the production of our good works That immortal juice which hath been shed into us from on high by the Word and Spirit obligeth us to this secondity it not having been communicated to us but to produce in us the fruits of righteousness and holiness It 's this the LORD expects from His mystical Vineyard demanding of it this just recompence of the care He takes to husband it And as we love trees which do not unprofitably take up our ground but besides leaves and blossoms bear us a quantity of fruits so is it with the heavenly Vineyard-keeper He seeks for fruit on His mystical trees He condemneth to the fire the fig-tree that bears none He loveth and purgeth that which beareth any Good works are the fruits He requireth of us yea every sort of good works Fructifying saith the Apostle in every good work Nature giveth not to any of the Trees 〈◊〉 it produceth the faculty of bringing forth more than one kind of fruits only because the seed of which they grow is earthly and material But grace which generateth the LORD's mystical plants of a seed spiritual and divine makes them capable of bearing infinite fruits of every sort This the Apostle calls good works commanded of GOD in His word useful to the advancement of His glory and the edification of our Neighbour Let no one flatter himself as if the vain greenness of leaves the outward profession of Christianity would suffice Him to be numbred among the plants of the LORD He acknowledgeth for His the trees only that bear fruit There is more yet It 's not enough to bear one certain kind of fruits there must be fructifying in every good work Your alms will serve you for nothing if they be not accompanied with the fruits of honesty and sanctification In vain shall you have been adorned with meekness and gentleness if you have not also chastity and beneficence In fine the Apostle willeth in the third and last place that we increase in the knowledge of the LORD See faithful Brethren how this Holy man every where joyneth together knowledge and action faith and charity He begs of GOD that the Colossians might be compleated in wisdom and spiritual understanding to the end saith he that they may walk in a fashion worthy of the LORD and fructifie in every good work But for fear they should imagine they had no more need to study after knowledge He comes to it yet again and addeth increasing in the knowledge of God For as our sanctification is never perfect here below so there wanteth alwayes something in our knowledge There must be endeavour equally after the one and the other And as the light of knowledge carrieth and fitteth us to the practice of
passeth unto exhortation conjuring these faithful people to live well and holy forming their deportment to a Piety Honesty and Vertue worthy their vocation He endeth with some particular affairs whereof he speaketh to them and with the recommendations he presents them both on his own part and on the part of some other faithful persons that were with Him But you will better understand the whole by the exposition of each of the parts of the Epistle if the LORD grant us to compleat the same For the present we propose to our selves to consider only the five Verses we have read the two first of which contain the Inscription of the Epistle and the other three the joy and the thanksgivings of Paul unto GOD for the faith and charity of these Colossians These shall be GOD willing the two Points that we will treat on in this action The Inscription of the Epistle is couched in these words Paul an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the Will of GOD and the Brother Timothy to the Saints and faithful brethren in CHRIST JESVS that are at Colosse Grace be unto you and peace from GOD our Father and from the LORD JESVS CHRIST Whereas at this day the custom is to put upon Letters the name of those to whom they are written and within after the body of the Letter the Name and Sign of those that write them heretofore the use was otherwise for he that wrote did set both the one and the other Name within at the head of the Letter with a brief salutation in these words Such a one unto such a one health as we learn by a multitude of Greek and Latin Epistles which are left us in the ancient Books of the most renowned Personages of those two Nations The Apostle that lived in those Ages useth the same manner in all his Letters as you know saving that instead of wishing health and prosperity to those to whom he writes He ordinarily wisheth them Peace and the Grace of GOD and of his Son JESVS CHRIST According to this form the inscription of this Epistle containeth First The Names and Qualities both of them that write it and those they write it to and Secondly The good and happy wish wherewith they salute them The Names of those that write it are Paul and Timothy sufficiently known to all that are ever so little versed in the reading of the New Testament They are here described each by certain qualities attributed to them To Paul that of an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the will of GOD. To Timothy that of Brother simply The word Apostle signifies in the Language of the Greeks one deputed a person sent by some one But in the Scripture of the New Covenant it is taken particularly for those first and highest Ministers of the LORD JESUS whom He sent with a Soveraign and Independent Authority to Preach the Gospel and establish His Church in the world The highest and noblest charge GOD ever gave to men And to exercise it it was necessary First To have seen JESUS CHRIST alive after His Death that a good and lawful Testimony might be given of His Resurrection They must Secondly Have received their commission from the LORD himself immediately and in the Third place Have the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary measure with the gift of Tongues and Miracles Whence appears how ill founded they are that attribute the glory of an Apostleship to the Bishop of Rome to whom none of those three conditions do agree It is also clear that this dignity is extraordinary and was not instituted but for the first establishments of the Church the government whereof after its plantation the Apostles put in the hands of another kind of in feriour Ministers which are indifferently called in Scripture either Bishops that is Overseers and Superintendents or Presbyters that is Elders The History of the Acts informeth us that to the twelve Apostles afore ordained our LORD added besides afterward St. Paul having miraculously appeared to Him and sent Him with the same power the rest had to convert the Gentiles He assumeth therefore here this glorious Title at the entrance of this Letter and saith moreover that He is an Apostle by the will of GOD signifying that it was the express Order and Mandate of the LORD which honoured him with this Ministry and not the suffrage and authority of men differencing Himself by this means from those false Teachers and Troublers that had not been sent but by the will of flesh and blood The declaration of this His quality was here necessary for Him First To maintain His honour against the calumnies of Seducers who did disparage and black Him as much as they could under pretence that He had not lived as the other Apostles in the company of JESUS CHRIST during the dayes of His flesh and Secondly To ground the liberty He took of writing to the Colossians and of remonstrating to them their duty as well in faith as manners it being evident that the Apostles had right to use this authority over all and every of the Christian Churches To His own Name he addeth that of Timothy whom he calleth Brother as having one and the same faith and labouring about one and the same work whether it were to authorize His Doctrine the more by the consent of this holy man every word being more firm in the mouth of two or three Witnesses than in that of one alone Or to recommend Him to these believers that if he wrote to them or ever came to visit them they might receive Him as a person worthy of the fellowship of the Apostles and whose Name deserved to accompany that of Paul As for those to whom He directeth this Epistle He describes them next in these words To the Saints and faithful Brethren in CHRIST that are at Colosse I pass by as childish and impertinent the opinion of those whom it listed to say that it is the Isle and City of Rhodes He meaneth and that He calleth it Colosse because of that great and prodigious Statue of the Sun which the Rhodians had erected at the mouth of their Haven and which the Greeks ordinarily called the Colossus What need is there of these frigid and ridiculous subtilities since the Ancients shew that there was yerst in Phrygia a Province of Asia the less a City called Colosse not far from two others to wit Laodicea and Hierapolis whom the Apostle also mentions in this Epistle and recommends expresly to the Colossians the communicating this Letter to the Laodiceans when themselves should have read it Afterward this City of Colosse changed its Name and was called Cone and to it one of the famousest Writers of the latter times of Greece who is called Nicetas Choniates owed his birth taking His Surname from the place where he was born In Th saur l. 4. ch 22. and himself boasteth in one of His Works that it had been to the inhabitants of the City of Cone whence he was
the heart to offend still a LORD so charitable so admirable How is it that His so divine beneficence doth not transport our spirits doth not win to His service all the thoughts and affections and motions that we have Christians all the acknowledgement He demands of you for so much good done you is but that you live holy Refuse Him not so just and so reasonable a due He hath made you to partake of the inheritance of Saints Be not ye so ingrateful as to mix with the profane Be ye separate from them and have no communion with the impurity and ordure of their vices Despise not as Esau the title you have to so precious an inheritance Let it be dearer to you than all the perishing provisions and delights of the earth none of which is better than that pittiful pottage of Lentils for which the profane man did truck away His birth-right This inheritance is in light Live then as children of light Let your conversation be all radiant with those divine and heavenly vertues which the Gospel of your Saviour recommendeth unto you The darkness is now passed The Sun of righteousness is at his full height Let that infamous power of darkness under which you sometime groaned have no more authority over you Open all your understanding that you may perceive the glory of the LORD and suffer no more abuse by the illusions of errour Labour to encrease your light being still at the Scriptures of GOD the living spring of all spiritual illumination the inexhaustible treasure of saving knowledge But let this light shine also in your manners For it 's to no purpose to renounce the darkness of superstition if you remain in that of vice 1 Joh. 2.11 He that hateth his Brother saith St. John is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth for darkness hath blinded his eyes Remember you are no longer in the School of Satan the Prince of darkness You are in the Kingdom of the Son of GOD. Have thoughts and do actions worthy of so glorious a condition Let it purifie your life of all stench and sordidness Let it elevate your hearts above mortal things and set them in Heaven the residence of this Divine royalty But Dear Brethren as this Text doth oblige us to a singular studious pursuit of Sanctification so openeth it to us a living source of consolation and joy For if we knew our blessings and that wonderful grace which the Father hath shewed us what were there more happy than we We have part in the heritage of Saints The kingdom of the beloved Son of GOD hath been given us O great and magnificent portion Let the world boast of and adore its gold its honours and its delights as much as it listeth we have that better part which alone is sufficient to make us eternally happy though we should be deprived of all the rest Christian if the world bereave you of what you have in its fee and jurisdiction consider it cannot take from you the inheritance of Saints If it deny you its Leeks and Onions and Flesh-pots it shall not be able to debarr you from that divine light which shineth on you and which in spight of all its attempts shall conduct you to your bliss-ful Canaan If it take from you its honours if it drive you even out of its earth it shall not be able to wrest the Kingdom of the Son of GOD from you nor sequester that dignity and glory which you possess in it This is not a corruptible Kingdom it 's not like those of the earth that are subject to a thousand and a thousand disgraces miseries and mutations It 's an immortal Kingdom firmer than the Heavens so abundant in glory and in goodness that it changeth all those who have part in it into Kings and Priests Faithful Brethren content we our selves with so advantageous a portion Let us enjoy it for the present by a lively and an establisht hope sweetly bearing the incommodities of this small journey we take to get to it and patiently expect that blessed day on which our Heavenly Father having finished the work of His grace will raise us all up into His glory and put on our heads the crownes of life and immortality which he hath promised us in the eternal Communion of His well-beloved Son To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be all honour and praise to Ages of Ages Amen THE VI. SERMON COL I. Ver. XIV Vers XIV In whom we have redemption by His blood to wit the remission of sins DEar Brethren As the true and thorough knowledge of that great Redeemer whose remembrance we are at this day to celebrate is the only foundation of the piety and salvation of men in like manner on the contrary ignorance of His person of His offices and of His benefits is the source of those errors and abuses which have corrupted religion and consequently of that unhappiness into which the unbelieving the profane the superstitious and the heretical do fall We may say to all these people Joh. 4.10 as our LORD sometime did to the woman of Samaria If you knew who He is that speaks to you in our Gospel you would ask of Him the refreshment and consolation of your souls and He would give you living water 1 Cor. 2.8 springing up to everlasting life And as St. Paul said of the ancient Jews that if they had known the wisdom of GOD they would never have crucified the LORD of glory So may we say to all the enemies of Godliness in general that if they knew JESUS the Wisdom and Word of the Father they would not wrong either His truth or those that make profession of it JESUS rightly and throughly known believed and apprehended is enough to expell errour doubt superstition vice and death from our hearts and to establish truth peace joy holiness and salvation in them Accordingly you see that Paul the master of the whole world the Minister of truth the teacher of life and happiness for the executing of this high commission and opening the eyes of His gentiles and bringing them from the power of Satan unto GOD protesteth he determined to know nothing among them but JESUS CHRIST Crucified He findeth in this rich and inexhaustible subject all that was necessary for him to convert Infidels to confirm believers to comfort the afflicted to reduce the strayed and recover such as had erred He finds in it wherewith to confute the Philosophy of the Pagans wherewith to abase the presumption of the Jews wherewith to instruct the ignorant and to convince the intelligent It 's with the sole science of this JESUS that He plucketh men off from idolatry and sets them free from the slavery of vice It 's with the same again that he reformeth the abuses and cureth the wounds which errour hath caused in the Church It is his weapon against enemies without
couragiously where He calleth you Love men as He lov'd them cheerfully employing all that you are or can do for their edification communicating your goods to the poor your light to the ignorant your assistance to the oppressed Let not their badness withhold you from being good If they offend you pardon them and pray for them and conceive as the LORD said that they know not what they do neither their injuries nor their soothings of you turning you ever from piety Fear not the hatred nor the force of the world Remember that as this JESUS whom you serve is the image of GOD so He is likewise the first-born of every creature He hath them all in His hand He commandeth the Heavens and the Elements He governeth men and beasts All the parts of nature owe Him and render Him a prompt obedience and will they nill they do nothing against His orders Having the Master of all things for Head and Saviour how is it you are not ashamed of your timidity The wind maketh us to shake as the leaves of the wood The least sound affrighteth us and instead of glorifying the LORD here in His palace in peace and joy while His voice maketh the world tremble we tremble while the world is in repose Is it this that we promised JESUS CHRIST Is this to bear His Cross with patience and resist for His salte even unto blood Is this that lively and unmoveable faith whereof we make profession which should carry us through waters and through flames without appalling If the Providence of the LORD were unknown to us our weakness would be less inexcusable but now that we have lived for so long a time by continual meer miracles of His goodness why doubt we so easily of a carefulness and fidelity we have so many a time experimented and had proof of You see on the present occasion what thoughts for us He hath inspired into the sacred powers that govern us and even the supream among them what order they have taken for our safety and what care they declare themselves resolved to take of it for the future receiving us under the protection of their edicts Dear Brethren it is an admirable effect of the love which the LORD beareth us Let us enjoy it with perfect thankfulness both towards Him and towards His Ministers the Princes of whom He is the first-born in a particular manner Let us not disturb the work of His grace by our fears and diffidences but assured of His infinite goodness and power let us rely upon the truth of His promises and rest upon His favourable Providence quietly and comfortably finishing this short journey which we have begun waiting till this holy and merciful LORD after having conducted and comforted us in this desert do raise us up on high to the mountain of His holiness where far from evils and from dangers and from fears we shall glorifie Him eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever Amen THE VIII SERMON COL I. Ver. XVI XVII Vers XVI For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by Him and for Him XVII And He is before all things and by Him all things subsist AMong all the reasons for which we have a right to the things that we possess there is none more just or more natural than that which ariseth from the production of them it being evident that what issueth from us should depend upon us and that it is just every one should dispose of what he hath made Thus you see that among all the Nations of the earth children do belong to the Parents who begat them and works either of the mind or body are theirs that formed them and set them forth This right is the first and the most ancient foundation of all the possessions and dominions of mankind the power which men have to give to sell or exchange things proceeding from hence that either themselves or those of whom they received them did give or preserve that being which they have For if you go back to the first sources of humane laws and institutions you will find that men assumed not Dominion or possession save of the persons whom they had either naturally begotten or saved in war by preserving and giving the life they might have taken from them and of things which they had either made and composed as buildings or at least improved and cultivated as the grounds they cleansed and tilled It 's from thence that were formed by little and little those good and just establishments of Families of Cities and of States and of Laws necessary for their government which have maintained mankind to this present time You see likewise that GOD our Soveraign Lord to justifie both the right He hath to dispose of us as seemeth Him good and the obligation we have to serve Him ordinarily urgeth this reason that He hath created us It is He that hath made us saith his Prophet and not we our selves Psal 100.3 We are His people and the flock of His pasture It 's by the same consideration that He silenceth the refractory and prophane who have the insolence to blame His disposals Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it Rom. 9.20 21. why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power to make divers vessels of the same mass It 's further by the same reason My Brethren the Apostle proveth in this place that JESUS CHRIST the Son of GOD is the Lord of all things Having said afore that He is the first-born that is the Master of every creature he now alledgeth us the proof of it taken from his being the Creatour of all things For by Him saith he all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalites or Powers All things were Created by Him and for Him And He is before all things and by Him all things subsist This reason is clear and invincible For if man who giveth to the things He maketh only the form of their being working in all his operations upon borrowed matter do yet acquire thereby a right of dominion over them as we said even now so that He may dispose of them as He will How much more justly is the Son of GOD the Master and Lord of all the Creatures since He created them that is gave them the whole being which they have not the form only but the matter also whereof they consist having brought them out of nothing having entirely made and formed them by the sole might of His power without any subject for His displaying it upon existent when He first created them And this proof clearly inferreth that which we laid down in the precedent action to wit that when the Apostle there calleth JESUS CHRIST the
countrymen and also by the Gentiles He was beaten imprisoned scourged stoned He was in shipwracks on the Sea in dangers and deaths upon the Land He was brought to be at the mercy of robbers in desarts beset round in cities both with weapons of enemies and the ambushments of false friends He was reduced to nakedness to cold to hunger and thirst It 's this hard and terrible chain of labours and sufferings which he meaneth here when he saith Whereunto I also labour combating But Oh the deep humility of this holy Soul he immediately gives the glory of these merveilous exploits to the sole vertue and assistance of the LORD JESUS I labour and combat saith he according to His efficacy which worketh powerfully in me He exerciseth the like modesty elsewhere when having said that he had laboured abundantly more than they all he presently takes up himself and adds yet not I but the grace of GOD which is with me It is the invincible force of this grace of the LORD JESUS which he calleth here his efficacy and he saith it worketh powerfully in him or with power to signifie the admirable effects which it produced in him first in that it raised up in Him the light of knowledge the love of holiness charity towards the LORD's flock such prudence and wisdom as were necessary for the instruction and government of souls Secondly in that it endued him with a more than humane courage with an immoveable constancy and firmness both that he might not sink under the burden of such great and continual labour and that he might patiently and cheerfully bear the persecutions and tentations which were still let loose upon him the LORD making things tend to His glory and the advancement of his work which seemed so contrary thereto as He promised him elsewhere that His power should be made perfect in his infirmity Thirdly in accompanying the Apostles preaching with diverse miracles which ravished men and authorised his words Rom. 15.18 19 as he expresly testifies in another place I will not dare to speak of any of those things which CHRIST hath not wrought by me saith he to make the Gentiles obedient by word and work through mighty signs and wonders Lastly this Divine vertue of our Saviour did also magnificently appear in the success he gave to Pauls labour opening the hearts of those that heard him and causing his voice to enter into them notwithstanding all the impediments of nature with such a miraculous blessing that he made his Gospel to abound from Jerusalem and round about even to Illyricum subduing nations and converting them gloriously to the service of His Master It 's this that he represents here to the Colossians in these words even that he laboureth and combateth according to the efficacy of CHRIST which worketh powerfully in him And it excellently conduceth to his design which is to shew the truth of the Gospel he preached which shined forth clearly in those many miracles they being as seals by which the LORD confirmed it I confess now that this great example doth particularly reflect on such as GOD hath called to the sacred Ministry of His house and it sheweth them on one hand how painful their office is that it is a work as the Apostle faith otherwhere a work I say rather than a dignity 1 Tim. 3.1 2 Tim. 4.5 a labour and not a recreation For the discharging of it worthily they must toil and strive watch in all things endure afflictions and do the work of Evangelists And it teacheth them on the other hand that they must not recoil for those great difficulties but trust in the grace of CHRIST and expect from the sole efficaciousness of His assistance that light that strength that patience and constancy which is requisite for the finishing of so laborious a course since it is He alone who rendreth us meet for these things strengthning us in weakness comforting us in trouble encouraging us in difficulties susteining us under assaults and so conducting us that though we be nothing of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 yet in Him we can do all things who maketh us able to be Ministers of the new Testament But though S. Pauls example do particularly respect Pastors yet it appertaineth also to all true Christians in general since there is no one of them but is also in some sort the LORD's servant hath of Him the managing of some of His Talents and is called to labour and combat Let us consider then all of us in common and joyntly make our improvement both of the preaching and of the labouring of this great Apostle He still at this day declares to us the same CHRIST whom he preached heretofore to all the nations of the world Though the Organs that sound it to you be incomparably weaker than his were yet it is his word that you hear the same word and the same CHRIST that yer-while converted the universe The same Paul whose voyce had then so much efficacy speaks yet to you daily He addresseth to you the same doctrine He sets before you the same wisdom He admonisheth and teacheth every man among you Do not abuse so great a blessing do not frustrate the labour of this holy man of it's true and just effect The end of His preaching is that you all may be perfect This is the mark to which he calls you all in common Say not to me that he speaks but to some only I admonish saith he and teach every man that I may render every man perfect in JESVS CHRIST Object not the employments which you have in the world nor the cares to which your family and your affairs do bind you up If they be incompatible with that perfection which the Apostle requires of you you must renounce them It 's an extreme folly to excuse ones self from being happy This ought to be the first and last of our cares and if we cannot attain it but by quitting of honours by losing of riches by retrenching our delights yea as the LORD saith by plucking out our own eyes and cutting off of our feet and our hands it is better to forego all this than keep it to be cast at our departure hence into the torment of eternal fire But these are vain and meer frivolous pretences to palliate our slackness If we have truly received JESUS CHRIST into our hearts neither a wife nor children nor a family nor an estate nor the honest and lawfull employments of the world will hinder you from being perfect The fear of GOD honest deportment plain-dealing and justice charity and beneficence and in a word the fanctity wherein our perfection consisteth is not incompatible with any of these things For I beseech you is it your business or your calling which obligeth you to offend GOD and injure men to pollute your body with the filth of infamous pleasures to defraud or to rob your neighbour to drown your whole life in luxury in debauches and in
Burial is nothing else but a consequent of death It 's the sad and dismal state to which it reduceth men ever since they became guilty that is to say it makes up a part of the punishment of sin As indeed it 's a hideous thing and full of horror to see so noble and excellent a Creature in whom the Image of GOD did shine forth and who had been formed for immortal glory to be brought down to the grave under the power of Worms and putrefaction JESUS CHRIST therefore having undergone this ignominious Infirmity for us and for our Salvation that he might leave none of our penalties unsatisfied for it 's evident that when he was buried we were buried in him and with him since it was properly for us that he did descend into the Sepulcher He bore us upon the Cross He bore us in the grave We all were in him forasmuch as he in all this work acted but for us We did and suffered these things since we are the cause that he did and suffered them We were buried in him forasmuch as His being buried hath discharged this part of our punishment and so changed the nature of our graves that instead of being prisons and places of execution they are now so many beds and dormitories wherein our bodies do repose until the resurrection Thus his burial hath freed ours from the curse which is naturally upon it and this benefit makes up a part of that justification which he hath merited for us it comprehending an exemption from all the penalties that are due to our sins But it is not in this sense that the Apostle saith we have been buried with JESUS CHRIST For he speaks here of the first part of our sanctification which is nothing else but the mortifying of the body of sin or old man in us and its burial that is the bringing it to nought It 's therefore properly in this respect S. Paul says that we have been buried with JESUS CHRIST even in as much as by the virtue of his death and burial our old man hath been destroy'd and suffer'd a death and burial semblable and analogical to JESUS CHRIST's For as his flesh after it was depriv'd of life was laid in a grave in like manner the old man of true believers having been stain is interred and brought to nought And as the LORD JESUS left in the Sepulcher his Funeral linnen clothes together with all the infirmity and mortality he had and came forth vested with a nature and a life fully refined from all that weakness of the first Adam which appeared in him during the days of his flesh even so the faithful do put off for ever that body of sin wherewith their first Parent had enwrapped them and leave it in their mystical Sepulcher to be resum'd no more but that they may henceforth lead a life free and exempt from all its filthiness and turpitude Lastly As the burial of our Saviour was properly but a progression and continuation of his death so likewise that of our old man is but a prosecuting of his destruction 't is the estate this puts him in and under it he abides for ever without rising any more S. Paul does else where clearly shew us that it is thus we must understand his words as when he saith in the sixth to the Romans that we are buried with CHRIST by baptism into his death Rom. 6.4 5. that as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should likewise walk in newness of life and immediately after he saith that we have been made one self-same plant with him by the conformity of his death and resurrection To which must be also added that it is in him and with him we have been buried in this sort for that in his death and burial the principles and causes of ours were contained His death hath destroyed our old man and his burial hath interred him it being evident that if our LORD had not suffered both the one and the other for our salvation sin would still live and reign in us For it is the love of GOD and his peace and the hope of glory the true effect of our Saviour's death and burial that gives the deaths-wound to our old man and that doth abolish and bury his whole life See then how we are buried with him not that to speak properly our bodies do really enter into the grave in Joseph of Arimathea's garden where his abode three days away with so childish a conceit but for that the virtue of his death and holy Sepulcher doth derive into us an image and a copy of his burial destroying and burying our old man by his efficacy and bringing on him a mystical death and burial conform to his own real and mystical one This now which the Apostle addeth that we are also risen again together with him must also be understood after the same manner As our death and burial with him is mystical and spiritual so is likewise our resurrection these words signifying no other thing but that he by the virtue of his resurrection doth work and produce one in us which hath resemblance and analogy with his own And this resurrection of the faithful in consequence and by the efficacy of JESUS CHRIST's is their being renewed unto an holy spiritual and Evangelical life For even as the LORD having put off on the Cross and left in the grave that earthy infirm and natural life which he had led here below during the days of his flesh did put on a new one that was glorious spiritual and immortal rising from the grave a man heavenly and living to eternity by the sole strength of a quickning spirit so likewise all his true members having quitted their old man as destroyed and abolished by the virtue of his death do put on the new which is formed in righteousness and holiness and instead of that vile and wretched life which they led aforetime in the turpitude and fifth of sin they take up another wholly new one which is quickned by the Spirit from on high upheld by his power and shineth all over with the glorious lights of his sanctity charity and purity But besides this conform â—y between the new nature which we receive in JESUS CHRIST and that same which he put on at his coming forth of the grave we are said to rise again with him because it is the virtue of his resurrection that produceth all this change in us His resurrection is the cause of ours without it we should lye dead still and in bondage to sin This will appear if you afford ever so little attention to consider it For that which formeth the new man in us and gives us the courage to renounce the world that we may live pure and holy is as every one knows the perswasion of the love of GOD and of the remission of our sins and the hope of blissful and glorious immortality Now it is the
of Christians and the corruption of their manners Therefore the Apostle St. Paul having refuted in the precedent Chapter as you have heard the pretended services and mortifications of the false Teachers of his time that the faithful to whom he writes might utterly be disgusted at and turned away from the same does now lay before them the just offices and legitimate exercises of Christian piety the body of holiness instead of shadows the solid doctrine of the LORD JESUS instead of the vain and childish lessons of superstition the true mortifying of the flesh instead of the seducers unprofitable macerations and an abstinence from sin and the lusts thereof instead of abstinence from certain meats in fine Heaven instead of the earth As a prudent gardiner who after he hath pluck'd up the bad or unprofitable herbs of his garden and well cleans'd the ground casts in good seeds that are worthy to take up the earth and capable of yielding fruits useful for the food of men Withal the Apostle by this means prevents an objection that superstition usually makes For being not able to maintain its petty services as holy and necessary in themselves it hath been wont to alledge that whatever they be otherwaies it is yet better for Christians to employ themselves in them than to abide idle The Apostle takes from it this vain colour shewing the faithful that they have another task which is much more worthy and much more noble to wit the study and practise of true sanctity so that superstition is guilty not only of a superfluous diligence but of a pernicious temerity in diverting Christians from their legitimate and necessary work by those voluntary exercises wherewith it pretends to charge them Let us then Dearly beloved Brethren keep off from the vain institutions of superstition whether ancient or modern and keep to the discipline of St. Paul Let us meditate let us study and practise what he enjoyneth us and assure our selves that in following and observing his rule exactly we shall have neither time nor will nor need to busie our selves after the rules of men He employes all the remainder of this Epistle in these Divine documents and in the beginning of this Chapter after he hath raised our hearts to Heaven he represents unto us the general duties of sanctification that are necessary for all Christians thence passing unto particulars he instructeth married persons children fathers servants and masters in what they owe to one another as you shall hear if GOD please in the sequel of these actions For the present to explain the exhortation which he hath plac'd at the head of this excellent tract and the words whereof we have read to you we will consider by the grace and assistance of the Holy Ghost first the precept it containeth that we do seek the things which are above and then in the second place the two reasons upon which he foundeth it one taken from our being risen again with CHRIST and the other from J. CHRIST His sitting on high at the right-hand of GOD and we shall observe upon each particular as briefly as we may the instructions and lessons they afford us either for our edification and consolation in general or particularly for our preparation to that holy and mystical repast unto which the LORD JESUS invites us against the next LORD'S Day The ancient Greeks e're-while ascribed to that Philosopher of theirs whom they most esteemed the glory of having brought down wisdom from Heaven to the earth because he was the first that fixed the minds of his Scholars on the considering of their own nature and what we owe either to our selves or to other men whereas the Sages that liv'd before him busied themselves in nothing but the contemplating of Heaven and its motions and the natural things that depend upon the same But the LORD JESUS the true Prince of Wisdom and Verity instructs us quite otherwise than that man did who verily was but a blind leader of the blind For all the Philosophy of JESUS CHRIST is to loosen us from the earth and lift us up to Heaven and so fix our minds and affections there as we may dwell even for the present and converse and have our souls incessantly there how far distant so-ever our bodies be from that happy habitation It is very true as that poor Pagan judged that the contemplating of the Sun and the Planets and the other Stars and the searching out of their motions and the admiring of their beauty their light their greatness and other qualities which was all the employment of the Heathens first Philosophy doth not much conduce to the perfection of our manners and the felicity of our lives But neither is it upon that that JESUS CHRIST doth fix us He hath discovered to us other things on high within that nobler part of the World which are infinitely more excellent and more necessary and such as if that Pagan had seen them he would have made no difficulty to confess that true wisdom consisteth not in staying ones self here below on the earth but in ascending up to Heaven for the viewing the loving and admiring of them continually For first He hath revealed to us there an holy and a glorious City seated above nature and all its elements a City not mutable and subject to perish as inferiour things but founded permanent and eternal the sanctuary of life and immortality which GOD hath builded and in which He hath displayed all the wonders of His power and wisdom the dwelling place which He hath prepared for such among men as embracing His promises by Faith shall live here below in His fear and obey His commandments and where He hath aleady gathered in and consecrated in His rest the spirits of such of the faithful as He hath fetch'd out of the present World CHRIST hath made us see that it is there those blessed ones do dwell with the armies of holy Angels and that it 's thither He went Himself when He had finished the work of our redemption upon earth It 's in this mystical Paradise that the true Tree of Life doth grow It 's there that the rivers of pleasure do run There shineth the true Sun that never sets There are kept those divine flowers that can neither be fouled nor fade with which the piety and patience of Saints shall be one day crowned It 's there that GOD manifesteth himself to His servants and shews them the mervails of His countenance unveiled and feeds them and fills them with joy and transforms them by this vision into so many living images of His eternal and blessed nature It 's there is true glory and true pleasure an honour a felicity and a magnificence the idea whereof never entred either into our senses or into the very thoughts of our heart in comparison whereof all the pomp of the Earth and the glory of this Heaven in which we see the Sun and the Stars go their rounds is but a shadow
it Such as are not vertuous but after this manner are not so indeed They are subtil and dextrous but not good men And though the external lustre of these goodly works they do be apt to deceive men yet it will not be able to satisfie their own conscience if they have any and much less to content the eyes of GOD who judgeth of things by their in-side and their verity not by their apparence For that any act of beneficence of clemency of meeknesse and humanity may be holy and acceptable unto GOD 't is requisite it should proceed from a sincere love towards our neighbours If it come from any other principle it is of no value in reality how plausible and pompous soever it be in shew It 's a false and spurious production a fruit sair without but worm-eaten and corrupt within Beside that the thing speaks of its self St. Paul proclaims it in the thirteenth Chapter of the first to the Corinthians If I distribute all my goods saith he to feed the poor and have not charity it profits me nothing Therefore Brethren the same Apostle having here afore charged us to bear with one another to pardon one another and to perform all other acts of kindness mercy meeknesse and patience doth now add very pertinently for the purging of our hearts and works from all the venome of hypocrisie that together with these vertues which he hath exhorted us unto we have above all charity as that which is the soul of every true vertue and without which the fairest and most esteemed actions are but as an ancient Doctor said well glittering sins And beside all this saith the Apostle put on charity which is the bond of perfection And let the peace of GOD hold the chief place in your hearts unto which ye are called in one body and be ye thankful You plainly see that he recommends unto us three Christian vertues Charity the Peace of GOD and Thankfulness Now as for the last of these he only names it without saying ought else of it whereas in referrence to the other two he briefly sets before us some considerations that may oblige us to take up the studious pursuance of them For he saith of charity that it is the bond of Perfection and of the Peace of GOD that we are thereunto called in one body In compliance then with the order of our Text we will treat of three heads in this action if GOD please first of Charity secondly of the Peace of GOD and then for a conclusion in some brief touches of gratitude or thankfulness about which the Apostle speaks but a word and no more There is no person in the Church but knows that Charity is that pure and sincere and vertuous love which each of us doth owe to other men our neighbours upon the account of that communion of nature we have with them as also principally because of the image of GOD after which they all are created according to the expresse command that He hath given us to love them as our selves I grant it hath divers degrees and doth embrace men with some inequality these more strictly and those less according to the differences of their merit and worth as also of the union we have with them either in nature or in the state or in grace Nevertheless it extends its self unto all and doth not account any one a stranger but obligeth and serveth them freely as far as its ability permits and when occasion is offered For our LORD and Saviour teacheth us in the parable of that poor man whom the Samaritan assisted Luke 12.36 finding him in that pitiful estate the theeves had left him on the way from Jericho to Jerusalem that every man that needeth our help is our neighbour So that GOD and right reason obliging us to love whom ever that is our neighbour it 's out of all doubt that there is no man but we ought to love But as Charity hath a much greater extent than the friendship of the world so is its flame much more pure and holy For to say true men of the world love none but themselves it being evident that if they affect any it is not so much to do them good as to draw profit or pleasure from them But Charity doth sincerely affect its neighbour desiring to him and procuring him that good which is necessary to make him happy And the difference of these two affections comes from their causes For Charity issueth from the love of GOD whereas worldly friendship proceeds from that vicious and inordinate love which every one beareth to himself so as Charity loving our neighbour for GOD's sake seeks nothing but GOD's glory and the welfare of the person it loveth whereas a man of the world not loving but for his own sake does accordingly seek nothing but his own interests And though this doth plainly appear in the whole conduct of the one and the other of these loves yet it may be particularly observed in this one event namely that that affliction and misery which extinguisheth worldly amity doth make the affections of charity to flame more than ever an evident sign that the one is neither bred nor fed but by the fruit it gathers from the thing it loves whereas the other on the contrary being kindled by that ray of the Divine image which it sees ingraven on the nature of its neighbour is kept alwaies in and the more it sees him need its compassions and good offices the more it increaseth and redoubleth its endeavours It 's this holy and Christian Charity which the Apostle would have us put on And besides all this saith he put on Charity These words as they lye in the original may be taken two manner of waies both of them apt and good and such as have their authors Some interpret them and above or over all these things Others a little otherwise and for all these things Both the one and the others do accord that all those things which the Apostle intends are the same he had spoken of immediately before to wit those bowels of mercy that kindness that humility meekness and patience which in the precedent verses he commands us to put on Now then after the sense of the former of those interpreters he means that to this rich garment we should add charity putting it uppermost as a precious and an useful robe to cover and keep all the rest Not that we must put on charity last in regard of time after all those other vertues for on the contrary it ought to be first formed in us as the parent of whom the most part of the rest are to be brought forth But the Apostle makes use of this comparison upon the account of other resemblances that these things have with one another and the authors of this exposition do note three of that kind One that as the robe we put over our clothes is greater and larger than our other clothing so
sixth To these properly doth the name of Odes or Songs belong It 's with these sacred layes of which the word of CHRIST affordeth us both the matter and the form that the Apostle would have us solace our selves St. James gives us order for it Jam. 5 13. Is any among you merry saith he and in repose of spirit let him sing Psalms The Apostle calleth all these sonnets spiritual both because of their author who is the holy Spirit and also for their matter which concerneth only divine and heavenly things the glory of GOD and our salvation not the vanities and passions and follies of men as carnal Poems do He adds with grace signifying by that expression the sweet and saving effect of these spiritual songs which do profit and refresh both together He would have us in the third place to sing from the heart that is not barely with the mouth as hypocrites but with the attention and affection of the heart In conclusion he intends that we sing unto the LORD that is unto the praise and glory of CHRIST who is ordinarily signified by that term the LORD when it is couched single as here it is This is the rule he gives us for this holy and spiritual melody a rule which Rome hath as little spared as the other which we have seen him prescribe about our being studious of the word of GOD in general For first She hath banished from the Church the faithful peoples singing and that so far as those that be of her communion do down-right declare that to sing the Psalms of David as we do is an huge scandalizing of Christians Strange Christianity which is scandalized at a singing that the Apostle commands a singing that celebrateth the glory of GOD a singing of what was endited by His Spirit composed by His Prophets and tendeth not but to the edification and consolation of faithful souls Certainly beside the authority of the Book of GOD it appeareth also by the writings of men that heretofore in the ancient Church the Christian people bore a part in the singing of Psalms and did it both in publick and in private Again for what our adversaries make their Clergie sing of what conscience can they say that they sing it with the heart since they that hear it and the greater part of them that sing it understand it not all their Anthems being in Latin a tongue long since dead and unknown to the people Consider too whether the pomp and the niceness and the curiosity of their singing and such a many of instruments as they mingle with it and all the other artifices of their musick be not more proper for the pleasing of the ear than the edifying of the spirit But dear Brethren let us lay â—side the defaults of others and mind our selves First bless we our good GOD for that He hath set up the word of His CHRIST again among us in its light and in its genuine use and acknowledging this grace of His from the bottom of our hearts improve His favour Let this word be the only governess of our hearts and lives Hear we its voice in publick consult it in private Let us have these divine Books in which the Holy Spirit hath consign'd its instructions Read them without scruple and without fear of finding ought that 's dangerous or venomous in them They are the Paradise of JESUS CHRIST in which the tree of life grows and whence flow the streams of sanctity of joy and of immortality but a Paradise where the old Serpent never entred where his breath and poison are unknown Fathers and Mothers instruct your children in this wholsome study Young ones addict your selves to it betimes Fill your memories out of this treasury of wisdom Men and women old and young rich and poor learned and unlearned receive ye all this Divine guest whom the Apostle hath now lodg'd at your house Let it dwell there as he hath ordered richly and abundantly in all wisdome If you receive and treat it with the respect it merits it will cure your souls of all their maladies it will inform your understandings of all heavenly truth and purge them of all the errors of earth and superstition It will fill your hearts with love to GOD and charity towards your neighbour and by the efficacy of its truth extinguish all those petty passions that tye you to the World It will comfort you in your troubles it will fortifie you in your weaknesses it will sustain you in your combats it will arm you against all sorts of enemies and guide you in all your waies It will sweeten your adversities and govern your prosperity and to comprise all in few words it will conduct you to the haven of eternal salvation notwithstanding all the storms of this wretched life Employ likewise this word of the LORD to those uses which the Apostle recommends unto you even to those mutual teachings and admonishings which you owe one another giving and receiving them as there is occasion with a sincere and truly Christian charity In fine possess the liberty he gives you of singing from the heart with grace unto the LORD Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs This sole Book of Psalms if ye learn it aright is able to make you for ever happy Oh GOD what a source of blessing and joy do they deprive themselves of who reject it or neglect it It 's a publick magazine of heavenly wisdom in which every one may find what is meet for him the ignorant whereby to be instructed the knowing whereon to be exercised the afflicted wherewith to comfort and the contented to recreate himself There are repentant tears for the guilty and songs of thanksgiving for the faithful preservatives against vice attractives and excitements to piety and lessons for all kind of Vertues And the wonder is that these so high so useful and so necessary things are all presented us there in the delicious sonnets of a graceful and a pleasing poetry as in so many vases of pearl and diamonds and emeralds to induce us to receive them the more easily Oh sage invention of our Great Master wherein we have together pleasure and profit refreshing and instruction of soul at once singing and learning what 's most necessary for us May Himself please to bless this Divine artifice by which He invites and allures us to Himself and so touch our hearts by the efficacy of His Spirit that as He draws us to Him with these holy cords of His sweetness and love we also on our side may freely and chearfully run after Him to the end that having faithfully followed Him in this World He may in the next lodge us with Himself in the Sanctuary of His Glory where bearing our part with the Angels we shall bless and glorifie Him eternally Amen THE FORTY SECOND SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER XVII Verse XVII And whatsoever ye do whether in word or in work do it all in the name of
have you observ'd examples of them What would S. Paul say if he were in the world to see his discipline so strangely forgotten among men that make profession to hold him for one of their principal Apostles He recommendeth to us not one of these names to which you oblige your selves He speaks of none but that of the LORD JESUS it 's in that name alone he commands us to do all we do whether in word or work because indeed Acts 4.12 there is none other under heaven given unto men whâ—â—eby we must be sav'd as said S. Peter the same Peter whom you pretend to be the head and the foundation of your Popes S. Paul sure gave and conserved this glory to his LORD's name alone with so much zeal and jealousie that understanding how some in the Church of Corinth joyned in some sort the names of servants of His with it calling themselves 1 Cor. 1.12 some of Paul others of Apollos others of Cephas and others of CHRIST as you see among our adversaries at this day some call themselves of Augustine others of Francis and others of JESVS this Holy man cryes out upon it as a Sacriledge and an utter overthrowing of Religion Is CHRIST divided saith he was Paul crucified for you Ibid ver 13. or were you baptized in the name of Paul Prescribing by these words or rather by this flash of lightning that the faithful ought not either call or distinguish themselves or glory or speak or do whatever in Religion in any other name than that of this holy and merciful LORD who was crucified for them and in whose name alone they were baptiz'd Yea he thanketh GOD that he had administred baptism but to few of them lest any once should thence taken occasion to believe or say that he had baptiz'd in his own name Then a little after resuming the discourse so much took he the thing to heart 1 Cor. 3 4 5 9. Are you not carnal saith he to these people while one of you says I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos Who then is Paul and who is Apolloâ— but Ministers by whom you believed even as the LORD gave to every man Ye are GOD's Husbandry Ye are GOD's building Is not this a telling us plainly that we ought neither bear the name of any other than of GOD nor act in matters of piety in any name but that of JESUS CHRIST In which likewise he here commandeth us to do and say all that we shall act in word or work But having considered what the Apostle affords us here against error for the instruction of our faith let us now observe what he teacheth us for the correction of our manners which is his principal intention He teacheth us My Brethren that if we will be truly faithful persons and Christians as we make profession to be we must have JESUS CHRIST continually before our eyes must examine address and sute our actions our speeches and purposes unto the name of CHRIST take it for the North-star in our course and in one word for the rule of our whole life That we never do any thing little or great otherwise than in His name That His name be the only motive inducing us to speak and act and the only mark at which our words and actions tend Think now first how great our confusion ought to be The Apostle willeth that whatever we do in word or work we do it all in the name of the LORD JESVS and the most of us quite contrary do almost nothing in His Name Heaven and earth are witnesses that the name of JESUS hath no part in our works or words They are all consecrated to His enemies they are inspired by their spirit and aim at nothing but their interests Tell me ye covetous is it in the name of JESUS CHRIST that ye toil night and day to heap up dung Is it He that taught you those black arts and inhumane dexterities to spoil the Orphan and the Widow for the enriching of your selves Have you had the confidence to call upon the name of JESUS that He might teach you and guide your hands to work deceit and bless your violences Is it to advance His glory and give His name a good odour that you make your selves famous among the Vassals of Mammon not disdaining any part of his drudgery how distastful soever to GOD and man And you that are ambitious can you indeed perswade your selves that those vanities that take you up are so important unto JESUS CHRIST Or that it is in His Name you lose your time about them You also whom the flesh and its pleasures do drown in their ordures in conscience is it in the name of JESUS CHRIST you are employed Is it for His glory or according to His will I say as much of the revengeful and the drunken and of all those that serve any one of the other vices which JESUS CHRIST hath expresly condemned and forbidden No one of all these do's act in His name Dear Brethren let us renounce these things if we will be Christians Let us never make any enterprize never set upon any action but first consider whether it may be done in the name of the LORD JESUS that is whether it be such as we may with a good conscience implore His help to finish it and judge either proper to advance His glory and conform or at least not contrary to His will and interests Hereby we are obliged to banish out of our lives first all vitious actions of which none can be done in the name of JESUS CHRIST since they are all displeasing to Him And they that in designs of such nature have the impudence to ask assistance of Him as some there be whom superstition hath inspir'd this sottish conceit into that they may do evil for a good end these I say offend JESUS CHRIST excessively rendring Him guilty of their crimes as much as in them is and inviting Him to take part in their vices But this rule of the Apostle doth not only oblige us to eschew evil and abstain from sin It requireth also that what good we do be done for CHRIST's sake and in His name that in our alms and in our devotions and in all the acts of our piety and charity we seek nothing but His glory the fulfilling of His will and the advancement of His Kingdom and not the praise of men or the interest of our own affairs It 's a taking of His name in vain to do otherwise It 's a prophaning the actions of vertue by employing them in the service of flesh and blood them which of their own nature and by GOD's intention are not to be done but for His glory and for His Son's name sake In fine this maxim of the Apostle's embracing generally all the things a Christian doth both in word and work 't is evident that it ought to regulate those also which are in their own nature indifferent
he never setting about them but when he may do them in the name of CHRIST For though the nature of them be indifferent the usage of them is not so but must be governed by the good and the evil that may thence redound either to or against the glory of GOD and the edification of men as the Apostle sayes elsewhere All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient All things are lawful for me but all things edifie not Whence you see 1 Cor. â—0 2â— how vain the pretext of those is who excuse the excess of their habits of their tables and of their houses by the liberty which they pretend the LORD hath left them to clothe and feed and lodge themselves as they think good alledging that He hath not forbidden them Velvet or Silks or Gold or Silver or precious Stones or Tapistry or any sort of Furniture nor excluded from their Tables any kind of Meats or Services they being taken with thanksgiving I grant the use of these things to speak in general is free they all being created of GOD for man Yet this hinders not but each of you ought to observe certain rules about them and this one in particular namely that ye consider whether the thing be such as ye may do it in the name of JESUS CHRIST whether the money you waste in it might not be better employed in the service of His poor or of His Sanctuary whether your making men believe that you are vain glorious or intemperate or voluptuous by clothing or lodging or treating your selves more richly and more magnificently than beseems your condition whether this opinion I say which you give your Neighbours of you does not scandalize them and be not prejudicial unto the name and interests of our Saviour Hence again appears how inexcusable they are that marry with persons of a contrary Religion I confess that Marriage is honourable and that it is not prohibited to any But this action as well as all a Christians others must be done in the name of the LORD JESVS 1 Cor. 7.9 and so much the rather for that it is more important and continues as long as our lives Wherefore the Apostle doth expresly modifie the liberty he gives the believing widow by this exception She is at liberty saith he to marry again only so as it be in the LORD Now judge if it be a marrying in the LORD when you make alliance with a person allienate from your communion who will be a snare to pervert you from it will pluck the name of CHRIST out of your house and consecrate your blood to error and be so far from helping you in the exercises of your piety that the person will disturb them In fine this saying of the Apostle's shews us also what we are to think of Dances and Balls and such other vain pomps of the world If you can truly say that it is in the name of CHRIST you Masque and Dance I will accord that you fail not of your duty in it But if it be clear and manifestly known as it is that the LORD JESUS hath no part in these follies that in them His name is blasphem'd rather than glorified that His Spirit breaths not in them but indeed the Spirit of Satan and the world that scandal is given in them but no edification received confess it a thing contrary to your duty Add not impudence to guilt acknowledge if you be a Christian that it 's a violation of the Apostle's order to participate in such things which neither are nor can be done in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST I advertise you particularly of it because we are entring on the season in which the world is won't to give it self the greatest licence for such debauches Dear Brethren let not it's ill examples seduce you Let not the custome of the age nor the pleasing of men induce you to forget the respect you owe to the Apostles voice and the Churches consolation Seek your joys in the service of your LORD and Saviour and in the meditation and expressing of His life and having always before your eyes the love He beareth you the death He suffered for you and the Heaven to which He calleth you love Him with all your heart and whatever you do whether in word or work do it all in the name of this sweet and merciful Saviour rendring thanks by Him to our GOD and Father unto His glory and the edification of your Neighbours and your own Salvation Amen THE FORTY THIRD SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER XVIII XIX Verse XVIII VVives be subject unto your own Husbands as is meet in the LORD XIX Husbands love your VVives and be not bitter against them DEAR Brethren As man is subject to a twofold consideration first in regard of his nature simply as he is a reasonable creature secondly in reference to his condition or the rank he holds in humane society that is as either a Master or a Servant a Magistrate or a Subject or the like so he is obliged according to these two different respects to two divers sorts of duties those of the first sort are general and common universally to all men the others of the second do relate but to some certain order of persons only I place in the first rank piety towards GOD honesty temperance justice and charity and such other vertues for which neither sex nor age nor condition doth dispense with any because every man whatever he is otherwayes being a reasonable creature is bound upon that account to practice all those vertues as a perfection and ornament meet for such a nature I reckon among the duties of the second sort the service that bondmen owe their masters the obedience of children to their fathers the dependance of wives in relation to their husbands and the like which pertain as you see only to persons in such conditions and not to all men generally This difference hath produc'd in the Schools of Heathen Sages the distinguishing of active Philosophy into divers parts the first whereof which they call Moral Philosophy or the Ethiques do's explain that first sort of common and general duties the others do treat of the second to wit the Economicks which regulate and form the several different conditions that constitute a family namely husband and wife parents and children master and servants and the Politicks whose task is to expound the devoirs of all the divers orders that compose an Estate as the Prince and the Subject the Magistrate and the Citizen men of the long Robe and of the Sword and the like The Apostles of our LORD in those writings which they have left us where they have unfolded to us the Divine Philosophy of their Master have also followed the same order though their difference otherwayes be very great For they set before us in like manner some general duties which oblige all Christians of what quality soever and in whatever