the whole extent it hath for our edification and consolation without insisting precisely upon that particular use for which it was first written to the Colossians and that nothing in it may escape us we will examine if GOD permit the two heads which are proposed in it distinctly one after another The first is The estate we were in before the vocation of GOD in his Son Ye were dâ—ad saith the Apostle in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh The second is The grace that GOD hath shewed us in JESUS CHRIST He hath quickned you saith he together with Him having freely forgiven you all your offences Here is in sum the map of our whole Redemption The first part represents unto us our misery by Nature And the second our happiness under Grace That is the archrevement of the first and of the second Adam the death into which the one had sunk us and the life unto which the other hath raised us There 's none so ignorant but knows what life and death are As life is the sweetest and dearest of all our good things so death is the greatest and the last of all our evils Accordingly you see now prudent-Nature hath given Animals such an Instinct as to use all the strength and skill they have to preserve themselves alive and prevent their dying Other evils take from us each of them but some part of our comforts Death bereaves us of them all Bondage deprives us of Liberty Banishment of our Countrey Sickness afflicts our Bodies Shame or Infamy our Souls Pain troubleth our Senses Poverty incommodateth our life But there is no calamity so great as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good or at least of our selves Death extinguishing our life and by this means sapping and overthrowing the very foundation of our enjoyments doth at the same time despoil us of all other good things altogether Wherefore the holy Apostle and the other sacred Writers that they might represent the hideousness and misery of the condition of men that are without the grace of GOD do not call it simply a Bondage a Banishment a Sickness a Disgrace a Blindness a Poverty a Calamity a Nakedness They term it a Death to signifie that it is the utmost of all the evils that can betide our nature that it is a privation not of some good things only but generally of all so as nothing remains either in the spirit or in the senses or in the body of these miserable creatures that deserves to be called good It 's the term Isaiah makes use of to express the estate of people while they had no part in the Covenant of GOD Light hath shined saith he upon them that dwell in the region of the shadow of death Isa 9.1 And the LORD JESUS puts us all in the same condition before he hath called us Joh. 5.25 The hour cometh saith he and already is that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of GOD and they that hear it shall live And without doubt it is to these kind of dead that he willed one of his Disciples to leave the care of burying their dead Matt. 8.22 1 Tim. 5.6 And you know what the Apostle says of that Widow who passeth her time in the pleasures of sin That she is dead while she liveth And our Saviour tells that person who led a wicked life under a false reputation of piety Rev. 3. â— Thou hast a name to live but art dead S. Paul following the stile of the Holy Ghost doth call them dead who abiding in the ignorance that is natural to all men do neither know GOD nor his will Ye were dead saith he to the Ephesians Eph. 2.1 â— speaking of the time they spent in the darkness of Paganism ye were dead in trespasses and sins And a little after putting himself in the same number though he was otherwise a Jew When we saith he were dead in our trespasses GOD quickned us together with CHRIST which are precisely the same terms that he here applies to the Colossians whose original condition was in effect the same with that of the Ephesians they being both the one and the other of them by birth Pagans I well know that the men of the world and generally they that have no part in the grace of GOD do live and are sensible and go to and fro they do desire and fear and hope and exercise in sum all the actions in which life is ordinarily made to consist Yea I confess that to measure things by appearances and the outside only there are none that seem to live but they filling the world with the noise of their actions and motions while the faithful for the most part groan in some corner or pass their days obscurely in the silence of retirement without appearing or making themselves seen so as it may be said of them in this respect as the Apostle somewhere doth in another 1 Cor. 1.28 that GOD hath chosen things that are not to bring to nought things that are the flesh no more accounting the faithful to be any thing than if they neither lived nor existed at all and considering none but men of the world when things that live and indeed are do come to be reckon'd up But S. Paul himself clearly shews us that he speaks not here of the privation of this kind of life in as much as he saith not simply that we were dead but that we were dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of our flesh We must know therefore that there are two kinds of life the one carnal and natural which consists in the exercise of natural actions and faculties such as are common to us partly with sensitive creatures as drinking eating sleeping and the like partly with evil spirits as sinning offending GOD and our Neighbour The other sort of life is spiritual and divine having for its principle the Image of GOD and his Grace and for its actions the exercising of piety towards GOD and charity towards our neighbour Such a life as Adam's would have been if he had persever'd in the innocence wherein he was created and such as is the life of the holy Angels now in Heaven To these two kinds of life do answer two kinds of death the one natural which is the separation of the soul from the body and an abolition of the actions and motions and sensations which the union of these two parts of our beeing doth produce in us The other spiritual which is nothing else but a privation of the Image of GOD and of those good and holy faculties and habitudes and actions wherewith it is accompanied It 's this second kind of death the Apostle intends here when he saith that we were dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of our flesh For the Holy Ghost the true Judg and Estimator of things doth count all those for dead which have not the life of GOD how full of
death he there suffered was the true and only cause of his triumphs 'T was the Tree of this Cross that bore the Palms and Laurels he hath been crowned with 'T is there that all the causes and originals of all his glory are found It is this Cross that opened his Sepulcher and brought him out from thence and raised him up in Immortality 'T is it also that a little after opened Heaven to him and seated him on the right hand of the Most High 'T is it that loosed the tongues of his Apostles and changed the world in a short time that defeated Paganism that is the greatest part of Satan's Empire that threw down Idols and drew all people to the service of that Divine crucified Person whom it bore It is the same likewise that will pluck us one day out of the hands of death and lift us up into the Sanctuary of Eternity Lastly 'T is it hath founded that glorious Throne whereon JESUS shall sit and both the one and the other his Subjects and his Enemies see him truly triumphing the one with eternal joy the other with a confusion that shall never end Since the Cross of our LORD and Saviour is the cause of so many triumphs who sees not that it is not only with truth but also a great deal of elegance that the Apostle here saith he triumphed on it over his Enemies Let us Dear Brethren adore the mystery of it and look upon it notwithstanding the sad appearances of its infirmity as the only cause of the glory of our Head and of the liberty of his people If the Jew do stumble at and the Greek deride it 't is an effect of their ignorance and infidelity For our part who know its virtue let us say with the Apostle GOD forbid that we should glory save in the Cross of our LORD JESVS CHRIST Gal. 6.14 It hath taken us out of the mortal bonds of the Devils and put us into the liberty of the sons of GOD. It hath spoiled our old Tyrants and broken their Iron yoke and overthrown those infernal principalities and powers Let us not fear them After the blow they have received from the Cross of CHRIST they are but back-broken Serpents that do but hiss and crawl along the dust I grant they yet stir and wind about us and do not cease to threaten us But they can no longer hurt us if we keep fast to the Cross of our Saviour by which the world is crucified unto us and we unto the world They are our Enemies they are no more our Masters We are to wrestle with them we are under their yoke no longer And if GOD do sometimes permit them to strike us in our goods or in our bodies and what we have on earth yet he preserveth our persons and doth not suffer them to take from us any thing that his Son hath purchased in Heaven for us And he so governeth these Combats that they ever turn unto our glory and their confusion as that of Job's yer while did GOD permits them to attaque us that we may overcome them or to say better that the Cross of JESUS may stand up once more victorious in each of us and bruise Satan under our feet Rom. 16.26 as it hath already bruised him under his Let us with good courage follow the victory of our Head and stoutly march on in his steps Let us pursue the vanquished Enemy and not quit him till we in this holy warr do bear away the Laurel and the honour of a Triumph Take heed he rally not his dissipated Forces and do us some affront For henceforth there is nothing but our wretchlesness that can give him the advantage Our Victory is as sure as may be if we have so much courage as not to destroy our selves For what can he do to us if we watch if we pray if we keep upon our guard and under the Ensign of the Cross of our LORD Will he accuse us GOD doth justifie us and his Son doth defend and intercede for us Will he batter us with the curse of the Law The Cross of CHRIST hath annulled that Will he stir up against us the hate and persecutions of the world In these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us and that can so turn and change them in favour of us as they shall all work together for our good Will he take hold of us on the other side by the baits of sin and pleasures and benefits of the present world Our Saviour's Cross hath extinguish'd and mortified the desire of them in our hearts shewing us that all this beauteous figure of the World is but a vanity that passeth away and endeth in eternal misery Will he menace us with death He may but the Cross of JESUS hath disarmed it of all its stings and so altered its whole nature that whereas it was of it self the wages of sin and an effect of our Judge's wrath and the beginning of Hell it is now a token to us of the grace of GOD the end of our Combats and the entry of our Paradice Let us therefore my beloved Brethren live in repose and take fruition with humble thankfulness of the good things which the LORD JESUS hath obtained for us by the merit of his Cross serving and religiously adoring him consecrating all our life to his glory as he gave his for our salvation and assuring our selves amid all the storms of this generation that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be ever able to separate us from the love of GOD which he hath shewed us in JESVS CHRIST our LORD So be it The Twenty-seventh SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XVI XVII Ver. xvi Let no man condemn you in meat or in drink or in the distinction of a festival day or of a new moon or of sabbaths Ver. xvij Which things are shadows of those that were to come but the body of them is in CHRIST DEar Brethren Our LORD JESUS CHRIST doth excellently shew us the difference of that Evangelical service which he hath instituted in his Church from the Legal service which had place in Israel under the Old Testament when speaking of it to the Samaritan he saith Woman John 4.21 23 believe me the hour cometh that neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father But the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth Under the Law the service of GOD was affixed to certain places as the Temple at Jerusalem and the Land of Canaan to certain times as Sabbaths New Moons and those great Feasts of the Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles to certain corporeal things as Beasts and other Kinds which were offered upon a material Altar with divers ceremonies and to certain sorts of Meat it being not permitted at that time to eat of any
to extinguish and abolish in all the members of His Son that first life which they inherited from old Adam Secondly because the execution of this decree of GOD is begun and advanced in them for the present The mortal blow thereof the flesh receives in this life from the hand of JESUS CHRIST and cannot possibly recover it again Then in the third place because this execution already begun in them will not be long a finishing natural death which considering the few daies we spend here below is not far from either of them devesting first their souls of all terrene and carnal reliques and then the resurrection being finally to refine their bodies also at the last day when earthly life shall be entirely and quite and clean dissolved and destroyed It 's for these three reasons that the Apostle saith here and else-where that the faithful are dead in regard of the life of sin and of the flesh not that they have not in them yet some remainders of them but for that this death is ordained by the decree of GOD and already begun in them and will soon be infallibly finished Even as we reckon among the dead a malefactor whom a supream Court and a sick person whom a prudent and able Physitian have condemn'd to dye neither do we stick to say that he is gone he is dead because his death is inevitable and all the life that remains for him is no longâ—r any thing So when a man hath been mortally wounded we immediately rank him with the dead because his vitals are struck and all the movings and perceivings he yet hath are but his last gaspings and the last combat his life makes before it doth end It 's in the same manner with true believers The flesh in them is wounded to death and if it does yet stir if it struggle if it give them any blow this at most is a small matter in comparison of that life it other-while exercised in them At that time it reigned in them Now if it do fight yet it rules no longer It finds a spirit in them which resists it which makes head against it and in this unto-it-fatal conflict it loseth by little and little all the blood and life it hath yet left it Wherefore the LORD JESUS whose death as we have said is both the cause and the pattern of ours did not dye in an instant but a lingring death having continued five or six hours in an agony before He gave up the ghost It is thus that the old man dyeth in the faithful He is already pierced with the nails of our Saviour and fastned to His cross and in a dying estate and without hope of recovery Nevertheless he strugleth still and will be a-while in this estate losing blood and strength and motion and life not all at once but by little and little This same is the condition of true believers Whence appears the pernicious error of those men who having the old man not bound not pierced not wounded to death in them but living and reigning at full liberty and with his whole vigour do yet imagine that they pertain to JESUS CHRIST and are of the number of His true members It 's a mortal mistake JESUS owneth none for His but such as are dead with Him whose flesh is either already laid down and destroyed in the grave as theirs who live in Heaven or at least nailed to His cross as theirs who yet combat on earth I confess the presumption of those who vaunt they sin no more and feel no longer in themselves any motion or contradiction of the flesh is extremely vain But your errour worldling is no whit less who having sin reigning and the flesh living in you do not forbear to perswade your self that you are a true Christian If the flesh doth still breath in a true Christian if it hath still some motion and some feeling in him yet it hath dominion in him no longer It lives in him no longer it languisheth in him and is so weak as it plainly appears to be at the pangs of death Put it into this estate if you will be truly Christian Fasten it to the cross of JESUS Pierce it through with His nails and with His thorns Make it drink of His vinegar Take from it its pleasures draw out its blood and strength Again since this is our condition since we by the beneficence of our Saviour are dead in such sort as we even now explained you clearly see Christian that what the Apostle concludes upon it doth evidently and necessarily follow from it to wit that we should not seek any more the things which are on earth For since we have in JESUS CHRIST put off that carnal and vitious life for the maintaining and welfare whereof earthly things are subordinate who is there but comprehends that it would be an insufferable extravagancy for us to amuse our selves still about them It would be an errour as ridiculous as if one went an hunting after game or a buying precious stones and stuffs for a person either already dead or at least in the agony of death Such a person hath no more need of those things they being good only to feed or fashion that liâ—e which he no longer hath It 's just so that you Christian do who labour so ardently in the seeking after and acquiring of riches honours and other goods of the present World All this is the equipage of a life that you no longer have The flesh for whose delight and adornment those goods do serve is dead or at least death-struck in you It is crucified with the LORD and a crucified one hath nothing to do with meat nor jewels nor other things of the earth Luke 12.20 Thou fool said our Saviour to the rich worldling in the Gospel-parable this very night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast laid up As if he had said that being once dead he could no more enjoy them Christian how is it you do not consider not only your dying e're long but that you are to say truth dead already that there is no carnal life for you any longer so as to conclude thereupon that you have therefore no need of all this earthly pelf which with such a deal of pain you scrape together I confess that while we are on earth we cannot altogether be without it But neither can you deny that for a living Christianly here we need but a little of it and for a little time because we have little left us of that life for which it is necessary Let us proportionably have little affection and adherence to it Let us use it but for necessity and not for delight Let us look upon the world with the eyes of pilgrims taking but so much of it as is requisite for our passing on Set we before us the example of the life of our LORD led on earth during the daies of His
notable is the elogium he gives it in saying Covetousness which is idolatry For this title surpriseth us every one well knowing that idolatry and covetousness are to speak properly two different sins the first directly respecting religion and the service of the Deity when men adore a thing which is not the true GOD and render it those religious honours which belong to none but GOD whereas covetousness is a moral sin that consists in an excessive and immoderate adhesion to the goods of this world makes men get them and possess them amiss and contrary to the laws of justice and reason These two things therefore being so different why saith St. Paul that covetousness is idolatry Dear Brethren I answer that he was in no wise ignorant of this nor did he intend in this place to confound these two sins which in divers other places he does most expresly discriminate and distinguish as particularly there where making a list of the principal sinners that shall not inherit the kingdom of GOD he sets down the idolater and the covetous severally and each of them in his rank But aiming here in passing to brand and blast this vice for the giving of us a just horror at it that we might not account it as the greater part of men do a light matter and a lowness and weakness of spirit rather than a crime he qualifies it with the elogium of idolatry improperly I grant and figuratively but very fitly for the discovering of its venoum to us And it is not here alone that he hath done it He brands this vice after the same manner again in the Epistle to the Ephesians where speaking of the covetous he adds the very same thing and says who is an idolater You know saith he that no fornicator nor unclean person nor covetous who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of CHRIST and of GOD. Now this proposition that covetousnesse is idolatry may be pertinently resolved two manner of waies First by taking it as signifying simply that it is an abominable thing For inasmuch as there was nothing in all the horrors of Paganism that was more severely prohibited of GOD nor more hated or abhorred among the Jews than idolatry thence it comes that they gave this name to every thing which they would detest and I perceive that even to this day this form of expression is common among them and when they would signifie that a thing is abominable they frequently say It 's an idol or it is idolatry so that we need not wonder if St. Paul who followeth all the idioms and terms of the Jews language hath said here in a like sense that covetousnesse is idolatry to signifie that it 's an horrible and detestable vice We meet with a like expression or rather indeed the same in Samuel when the Prophet to shew Saul how great the horror was of the fault he had committed in not executing punctually the thing GOD had commanded him tells him 1 Sam. 15.23 that to resist an order of the LORD's is a sin of divination that is of witchcraft or magick and not to acquiesce in what He hath commanded is a sin of idols or images that is idolatry There you see by the names of the most abominable sins witchcraft and idolatry he signifies the horridnesse of disobeying the voice of GOD altogether as the Apostle in our Text expresseth the horridnesse of avarice I add in the second place that though covetousnesse be not properly and formally Idolatry yet it hath so much resemblance with it that there is scarce any other sin to which this name doth better agree The idolater looks on his idols with profound veneration so doth the covetous on his goods and coin The one shuts up his idols so the other doth his The one serves an image and the other gold and silver and when the idol is of either of these two metals as they not seldome are they both serve the self-same thing with this difference only that the idolater serves it under one form and one way figured the covetous under another The one offers incense and sacrifices to his idol the other immolates his heart and affections to his Add hereto that the covetous bears more love to the objects of his passion and renders them more service than he doth to GOD He puts his hope in gold and saith to fine gold Thou art my considence And if you thoroughly examine his life you will find that he serves none but Mammon Mammon is then his GOD after the same manner as the Apostle saith else-where that the holly is the GOD of voluptuous men whence follows that it cannot be denied but that he also is an idolater In fine there are two things here to be yet heeded The first is that under the names of these five vices fornication uncleannesse inordinate appetite evil concupiscence and covetousnesse the Apostle signifies not meerly the acts of these sins which are also commonly called by the same names but properly and precisely the internal habits of them as seated in the soul For it 's they properly that are the members of the old man the acts are but his effects and operations His meaning therefore is that we cut them up to the very root that we not only abstain from those vile actions unto which they sway such as they possesse but that we mortifie and extinguish them themselves to the end that these accursed sources or evil being once dried up our life may remain 〈◊〉 and clean from all the ordures and filth of them The other thing is that we must not fancy the Apostle meant to make here an exact enumeration of all the vices of the old man He gives us but a small scantling of them intending we should likewise mortifie all the rest as gluttony drunkennesse and the like For it would be no benefit to us to have cut off one of his members if we let him live in respect of others His life is our death and while he conserves it whole in any of his parts we cannot be in safety Let us labour therefore to extinguish it all Eradicate all its lusts represse all its stirrings and smother all its sentiments Let us make a mortal and irreconcilable war upon this whole brood of monsters Spare we not any one of them Let us exterminate them all as an Anathema Treating them as the ancient Israelites sometime did the accursed nations of Canaan and as the Psalmist would have the little children of Babilon treated Psal 137.9 desiring they might be dash'd against the stones It 's in this case only that cruelty is laudable and that a man may lay aside pity without blame He that hath pity on the members of his old man is cruel to himself to spare them is to destroy ones self and to conserve them is to betray our own salvation This then My Brethren is the mortification which the Apostle requireth of us Neither he nor
is the only source thereof to render Him thanks for it This is the just and reasonable Tribute this liberal LORD demandeth of us for so many benefits as he communicateth daily to our Brethren and our selves If our lowness and poverty render us incapable of other acknowledgement let us at least faithfully acquit us of this so easie an one and so rightful and say with the Prophet Psalm 116.12 13. What shall I render to the LORD All his benefits are upon me I will take the cup of deliverances and call upon the Name of the Eternal One. Let us study with so much the more care to render this sacred due to the LORD by how much more black and detestable the ingratitude of men is in this behalf Far from blessing Him for the benefits he doth their neighbours they scarce give Him thanks for those they receive of Him themselves They impute them to their own industry or fortune and as saith the Prophet Sacrifice to their Drag for the good successes that betide them yea some so insensible there are as it is not godliness it self but they give the glory of it to their own will and the strength of their free determination But it is not enough to render thanks to GOD for our Brethren there must be also prayer for them For as it is He that gives them all the good things they possess So there is none but himself that can preserve or augment them to them and thus our thanksgivings should be ever followed or accompanied with Petitions as the Apostle sheweth in saying that be giveth thanks to GOD for the Colossians praying alwayes for them The Title He giveth to GOD calling Him the Father of our LORD JESVS CHRIST is not put here in vain but to distinguish and specifie the object of our prayers and thanksgivings The appellation of GOD under the Old Testament was The GOD of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob the Patriarchs with whom He contracted the Old Covenant and to whom He promised the New Now His Name is the Father of JESVS CHRIST by whom He hath abolished the Old Testament and accomplished the New Besides hereby St. Paul remindeth us of that we can never enough meditate that it is by the mean of this sweet and charitable Saviour GOD hath communicated Himself to us and if we have the honour to be His children 't is by JESUS CHRIST of whom He is properly the Father having not adopted Him as us but begotten Him from all eternity of His own substance by reason whereof that also which He assumed to Himself in the Womb of the Virgin hath the same glory according to what the Angel said The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee said he to the Holy Virgin and the Vertue of the Highest shall overshadow thee Luke 1 35. whence also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of GOD. But the Apostle addeth in his process what were those blessings of the Colossians for which himself and Timothy so assiduously rendred their thanks to GOD the Father of our Saviour Having heard speak of your faith in JESVS CHRIST saith he and of the charity you have towards all the Saints He had never been among them as He will say hereafter putting them after the opinion of most Interpreters Col. 2.1 in the number of those Who had not seen his presence in the flesh Therefore he saith it was by hearing that he understood of their faith and charity Here is faithful Sirs the true matter of our joyings and thanksgivings for our neighbours not that GOD hath given them vigour of health abundance of riches the favour of the great the glory of fame the knowledge of Sciences and such other worldly good things which to say the truth are but figures dreams and shadows that secure no person as we daily see either from diseases of the body or death or from trouble and disquiet of conscience or true misery But indeed for that Heaven hath revealed JESUS CHRIST to them and shed into their souls that holiness without which none shall see GOD. For these two Graces Faith and Charity comprize within their compass the whole Kingdom of GOD. Faith is the entrance thereof and charity the accomplishment The one cleareth our understandings the other sanctifieth our affections The one is the light of the soul the other is the heat thereof The one believeth and the other loveth The one beginneth and the other finisheth the happiness of our life Now Faith respects indeed generally the whole doctrine of GOD revealed in His Word believing it undoubtedly true but yet it fixeth particularly on the Promise He hath made us to give us Eternal Life in JESUS CHRIST His Son 'T is this properly that renders Faith saving and vivifying Without this it would not differ at all from the faith of Devils who believe there is a GOD and tremble at it But this love of GOD which it apprehendeth and embraceth giveth it salvation and enables it to produce in us all that 's necessary for getting in to the celestial Kingdom according to the assertions of JESUS CHRIST and His Apostles in divers places of the Scripture that whosoever believeth in the LORD is already passed from death to life That there is no condemnation for him and that being justified by faith we have peace with GOD. Hence St. Paul to describe here true faith addeth expresly these words Faith in JEVS CHRIST He sheweth us in like manner the object of Charity by saying The Charity you have towards all the Saints that is as we have intimated afore towards all Christians all the faithful I confess that Charity extendeth it self to all men generally there being none to whom we owe not love and on occasion the offices which a true and sincere affection is apt to produce since all men are the Works and Images of GOD since in Adam they all have one common nature with us and all are called to the participation of faith and of eternity in JESUS CHRIST by the Gospel which without distinction or exception inviteth all Nations and persons to repentance and grace But so it is notwithstanding that Charity embraceth not all men equally It hath divers degrees in it's affections and loveth it's neighbours more or less as it perceiveth more or less in them the marks of the hand of GOD and the tokens of His CHRIST and Spirit Seeing therefore they appear no where more clearly than in the Saints that is in true believers it is evident these make the first and principal part of the object of Charity Gal. 6.10 according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere Let us do good to all but principally to the houshold of faith Besides that Union we have with them a much more strict and intimate one than with any others their necessity also doth particularly oblige us thereto the hatred and persecution of the world putting them for the most part in such
Son is not Eternal and co-essential with the * As the whose Church believeâ— Fathers but created and made by the will and good pleasure of the Father For the Apostle doth not speak here of the original of the perfections that are found in CHRIST but of their being united and met together in one and the same subject I acknowledge it is by the good pleasure of the Father and by the order of His will that the Godhead of the Son dwelleth in the Mediator But it thence follows that this Godhead of His is an effect of the Fathers will It was before it filled the Mediator The same Father who by His will united it to our flesh for the making up together with that flesh the person of CHRIST had communicated it to His Son from all Eternity by a natural act of His Eternal understanding that is to say by a Divine Generation Now it is not in vain that the Apostle here advanceth this assertion That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in HIS CHRIST But he doth it with design to * Or settle confirm our Consciences in the Religion of the LORD JESUS only For these Colossians as we shall see hereafter were tamper'd with by Seducers who mingled the Mosaical Ceremonies with the Gospel and the worshipping of Angels with the service of the LORD the Apostle therefore doth here timely fortifie these Believers against this error and that by two excellent Reasons the first taken from the dwelling of all fulness in JESVS CHRIST Poor men saith he what seek you for either in Moses or in Angels we have all in JESUS CHRIST There is no good no perfection nor excellency either in GOD or in the Creature but dwelleth in this Soveraign LORD Having Him we have no need at all to go unto others since in Him we find all The other Reason is taken from the Will of GOD the supreme rule of Religion the only thing that is sufficient to settle the agitation and natural distrust of our Consciences As for JESUS CHRIST saith he it was the good pleasure of GOD that in Him should all fulness dwell The Father hath set up Him to be the spring of our salvation But as for Moses and Angels we do not see that ever it was the will of the Father to give them such a dignity Dear Brethren now that our faith is fought against with the like errors let us arm it also with the same reasons If the Adversary send us to Angels and Saints let us answer him that the LORD JESUS sufficeth us that having Him we can want nothing since all fulness dwelleth in Him I will not enquire for the present what these Angels and Saints are whom you recommend to me whether they have indeed that merit and that righteousness and that authority which I need for the expiation of my sin and for opening the house of GOD to me How rich and how abounding soever you represent them to me I may let pass their store this CHRIST whom I embrace having all fulness dwelling in Him Let them be all that you please they will want however some part of that infinite plentifulness which overfloweth in our CHRIST And how zealous soever you be for their glory yet you durst not presume to say that all fulness dwelleth in them How great is your imprudence to go hither and thither a groping in pits and cisterns while you have near you such a living and inexhaustible fountain Grant that the worshipping of Saints is not criminal which yet it evidently is it is notwithstanding superfluous forasmuch as it hath nothing in it but we find the same better in the fulness of JESUS CHRIST But the other consideration which the Apostle sets before us here is of no less force That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in His CHRIST My Faith yea our Adversaries attends on the will of GOD. This will is its object and its rule I cannot rellish either Doctrine or Service that is not conform thereto Tell me how you know it is the good pleasure of GOD that this fulness of merit and power which you ascribe somtimes to Saints departed somtimes to your Pope and his Ministers doth indeed dwell in them As for the LORD JESUS whom I adore and in whom I seek all my bliss the Father hath proclaimed from Heaven That He is His welbeloved Son His Scriptures declare That He hath committed all judgment to Him and That all fulness dwelleth in Him But as for those others whom you have taken for objects of your Devotion and to whom you have recourse for your salvation you cannot shew me any thing semblable of them Certainly then it must be vouched that all your Devotion in this behalf is but a Will-worship founded only on your own passion and the fancy of your Leaders not upon the good pleasure of the Father It is strange fire that hath issued out of the earth and not been kindled from Heaven Such as cannot without crime either enter into or be used in the Sanctuary of GOD. But I return to the Apostle who having said That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in CHRIST doth add And by Him to reconcile all things in Himself both those that are in Heaven and those that are in the earth This is the great Master-piece of the good pleasure of GOD the end for which His will was that the fulness of all Divine and Humane perfections should be seated in CHRIST And this is that which the particle and used by the Apostle doth signifie It doth not meerly connect the two parts of his discourse but importeth moreover the consecution and the dependance of the latter on the former as if He had said It was the good pleasure of the Father that in JESUS CHRIST should all fulness dwell and so reconcile or to the end that He might reconcile all things by Him For all this fulness which the Father would that His CHRIST should have dwelling in Him was necessary for His effecting this Reconciliation There needed he should have the power and the holiness and the wisdom of the Divinity and together with it the humility and the obedience and the meritorious sufferings of the Humanity that he might finish this design He could not have been able to re-unite Heaven and Earth with less preparations Let us see then what this work is this Reconciling the Apostle speaks of of all things Terrestrial and Celestial in GOD by JESVS CHRIST It is clear by the Scriptures that JESUS CHEIST hath by His death reconciled men unto GOD so as He hath appeased His wrath and opened to us the Throne of His grace as the Apostle teacheth us in divers places and particularly in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 5.18 where he saith That we have been reconciled to GOD by the death of His Son and
the other Even such is the case of true Believers and such as are but temporary Persecution and offence do not make the difference which is seen between them when the former do retain the Gospel and the others quit it This event only sheweth that the one were GOD's wheat and the others but chaff according to what S. John saith of Apostates They went out from us because they were not of us 1 John 2.19 that it might be made manifest that all are not of us The same is to be further seen evidently in the Parable of the Sower where the LORD saith expresly Mat. 13.13 19 21. that he that persevereth had heard the word and understood it and receiv'd it in an honest and good heart Whereas He saith of them who do revolt that one heard but understood it not another had no root in himself An evident sign that their disposition was different at first before the perseverance of the one and the fall of the others Whence appears how impertinent the Argument is which our Adversaries draw from the Apostacy of the latter to prove that the faith of the former may fail and on the contrary For if the wind carry away the chaff it doth not therefore follow that it shall also bear away the corn and if the storm beat down an house that 's planted on two or three stakes it is not to be said it may do as much to an House that 's founded on a rock If the blade that shoots forth and grows up suddenly in the sand without any bottom happen to wither at the first extreme heat that smites it this implieth not that the like may betide the corn which is deeply rooted in a good and fertile soil The other point which we have to observe is the assurance of true faith excellently represented here by the Apostle in these words which are full of a singular Emphasis If you continue in the faith being founded and firm contrary to what is taught in the Church of Rome that faith is in a continual agitation so as a Believer can have no assurance that he is for present in the state of Grace and much less yet that he shall persevere in it for the future In Conscience can it be said of these people as the Apostle saith here of the LORD 's true Disciples that they are firm and founded How may it be seeing they incessantly float in doubt and uncertainty and are miserablely in suspence between the hope of heaven and the fear of bell I pass by that other error of theirs which is yet more contrary to the Apostle's Doctrine namely their maintaining that the choicest faith may fail If it be thus how can it be affirm'd that those that have it are founded and firm Let us then hold fast the truth that 's taught us here and in divers other places of Scripture to wit that true faith abideth always and being founded on the Merit and the Death and the Intercession of JESUS CHRIST doth never fail The wind makes but the chaff to fly away it prevails not upon good grain It overthrows only the trees that are feeble and ill grounded It leaveth in their place those that stand upon good and deep grown roots And as an Ancient sometime said Tertul. de Paersc We may not account them prudent or faithful whom Heresie hath been able to change None is a Christian but he that persevereth to the end But I return to the Apostle who for the fuller Explication of this firm and not to be shaken faith which he requireth in us for the obtaining of salvation addeth further And if ye be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Justly doth he joyn Hope unto Faith these two virtues being so straitly link'd together that they mutually succour each other and one cannot be had or lost without the other For first Hope is the suit of faith expecting with assurance the fruition of the the things that we believe so as when the perswasion that we have of them comes to totter it is not possible but the hope which was founded on it must come to ruine Again in the combats which we sustain for the faith hope is one of our principal supports while it is firm and vigorus in us it repelleth without difficulty all the strokes of the Enemy opposing to the fear of the evils wherewith he threatneth us and to desire of the good he promiseth us the incomparable excellency of the glory and felicity which we look for in the other world He that hopes for heaven cannot be tempted by the paintings and appearances of the earth For this cause the Apostle in another place compares hope to an Anchor which penetrating within the vail fastned and grounded in Heaven holdeth our vessel firm and steady amid the waves and agitations of this tempestuous Sea whereon we sail here below And it 's this in my opinion which the Apostle aims at here that the faithful might be established in the faith he willeth them to have still in their hearts the hope of heavenly bliss and never to suffer this Sacred and Divine Anchor to be taken from them They are in safety while it holds them fast But for the better expressing it he calleth it peculiarly The hope of the Gospel that is the hope which the Gospel hath wrought in us the expectation of those good things which it promiseth And so you see he referreth Hope to the Gospel as to its true and genuine object All the hopes that we conceive from other grounds are vain and failing There are none but those which embrace the promises of JESUS CHRIST that are firm and solid and such as never confound them that wait for them The Gospel promiseth us first the entire expiation of our sins and the peace of GOD in JESUS CHRIST His Son They therefore that seek this benefit in the Ceremonies and Shadows of the Law as the Galatians somtime did and the false Teachers who would have seduced the Colossians or that seek it in their own merits and the merits of Creatures they all I say and all that are like them let themselves be carried away from the hope of the Gospel Then again the Gospel promiseth us eternal life in the heavens by the grace of GOD in His Son Those therefore quit the hope thereof also who seek their felicity either in the earth or in heaven otherways than by the sole mercy of the LORD Whereby it doth appear how very pertinently S. Paul doth recommend this hope of the Gospel unto the Colossians For in the combat wherein they were engaged it was sufficient to preserve them from all the attempts of the Impostors What have I to do saith this Hope with the observation of your Disciplines or the quirks of your Philophy since I abundantly have in my Gospel all the good things which you vainly promise me But because it is ordinary with false Teachers to abuse the name
crave that you may be filled with the knowledg of the Will of CHRIST in all wisdom and spiritual understanding To Prayer he added Action couragiously attacquing Error on all occasions refuting Seducers and discovering the vanity of their Doctrine and the malignity of their design not only by word of mouth but also by writing as we see by those divine Epistles of his which remain with us and in which the evidences of his great earnestness against these false Apostles do appear here and there in many places And as he laid on stoutly upon enemies so did he smartly take up the faithful reproving them admonishing and encouraging them to necessary firmness and constancy He marched with so high a generosity that he spared not S. Peter himself who having slipt through weakness and complacency into actions which seem'd to favour error Paul boldly undertakes him and sheweth him his fault with much liberty as himself gives us an account elsewhere In short Gal. 2. he omitted none of the duties of a valiant and vigilant Captain either against the foe or towards his friends and fellow-soldiers as is easie to be seen by his writings Yet his combat stay'd not here He often came to blows cheerfully suffering for this cause all the persecutions which the rage of the Jews and the malice of Seducers did contrive and form against him And to say the truth the very chain he was loaden with and the prison he was in when he wrote this Epistle did make up a part of this Combat of his it being clear by the History of the Acts that nothing had more inflamed the hatred of the Jews against him who cast him into this affliction than the zeal he shewed every where against the corruptions of such people as would retain the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law and hence it is that he told the Colossians afore Col. 1.24 he suffered for them because in effect and at the bottom it was for maintaining their liberty and the liberty of other Gentiles converted to the Gospel and for the keeping of their faith pure from all corruptive leaven that he fell into this tedious sufferance Such was Paul's combat for these faithful people Dear Brethren admire the zeal and the charity of this sanctified soul He was in the Prisons of Nero he stood as we may say upon the Scaffold and had his head on the block being indicted for a criminal matter which concerned his life And even in this estate his heart is in pain for the Churches of Colosse and Laodicea and for those beside that had never beheld him Their danger troubled him more than his own Neither prison nor death was able to extinguish or diminish his affection or to make him lay aside the least of his cares Having so great a Combat against his own person upon his hands he leaves it and on so pressing an occasion travelleth and combateth for others Certainly there cannot any thing be imagin'd more elevated or more ardent than this love We may truly affirm of it what is said in the Song of Solomon His love is strong as death and his jealousie is hard as the grave it's burnings are burnings of fire and a flame of GOD Many waters could not quench it nor could flouds drown it But observe again the prudence and apt procedure of this holy man in that he representeth these things to these faithful people for so good an end For being to entertain them with important matters and to decry errors which seduction did paint over with the deceitful colours of Philosophy and Eloquence that he might dispose their hearts to give him due audience and gain his remonstrances a necessary credit and authority he sets before them at the entrance the cares he had for their Salvation the combats he sustained for them and all the effects of that sacred amity he had towards them As a Captain who to keep firm his Soldiers in their duty represents to them his watchings and his pains-taking and his cares for their preservation and in sum all the marks of his affection to them or rather as a tender mother who to withdraw her dear children from giving ear to debauches sheweth them her fears her sollicitudes and her alarms the yearning of her bowels and all that she doth or suffereth for them Such is the Apostles holy artifice in the present business and it is grounded upon a maxime we all know namely that we much more believe those that love us and are affectionate for our welfare than those to whom we are indifferent He declareth to them his pains that they may take in good part his remonstrances and discovereth to them his passion that they may receive his counsels His aim is not to draw glory from it or to enhanse his esteem among them such a childish vanity had no place in the soul of this great man but indeed to render his instructions the more effectual to the Colossians thereby And the Combats which he for the same end tells them of should serve in like manner for examples unto us Let Ministers of the Gospel learn by them what love they owe their flocks what cares and combats their Office obligeth them to Let nothing in the world be dearer or more precious to them than the Salvation of the Souls committed to their charge let them take part in their joys and in their griefs let them feelingly resent their wounds apprehend their dangers labour incessantly for their edification To it let them consecrate the thoughts of their mind and the words of their mouth and the work of their pen and the actions of their life yea their blood and life it self if there be need saying with clear conscience as the Apostle in another place doth 2 Cor. 12.15 As for me I will willingly spend and be spent for your souls and be glad to serve for an aspersion upon the sacrifice and service of your faith Let this care and these thoughts fill their hearts day and night let them make account that there is neither affair nor occasion nor peril that dispenseth with them for the same no not death it self in the very gates whereof they ought to mind still their flock and combat for them by their prayers and their devout wishes Such is the faithful the love and the care we owe you We confess that without such watching and striving for your Salvation we cannot avoid the censure and chastisements of the supream Pastor Judg if it be not reasonable that you have affection and respect for those whom the love of your Salvation engageth to so many cares and labours and if it be not just that you receive their instructions with reverence and hearken to the product of their studies with attention that you comply with the zeal they have for your edification and attribute much to their counsels and suffer their liberty and impute to their affection the sharpness of their remonstrances when grief and fear draw
is not yet enough for my consolation CHRIST I confess sufficiently assureth me of the pardon of my sins What assurance doth he give me against so many enemies the world the evil Angels flesh and blood in midst of whom my way doth lye But Christian doth not the same Cross which hath merited your pardon give you also clear and undoubted evidence of your safety during the whole course of your life For since you understand by it that GOD hath delivered up his only Son to death for you how can you fear that he will with-hold any of the cares of his Providence from you Yet this is not all CHRIST JESUS who sheweth us these excellent and sacred verities in his death as it were engraven in great Letters on his Cross holds up others before our eyes of no less importance in his Resurrection Believers neither the pardon of your sin nor the assistance of GOD during your life would be sufficient for you for as much as after all death will swallow you up as well as unbelievers See then further in your JESUS the truth that is necessary to compleat your consolation By committing his spirit at the point of death into the Father's hands he teacheth you that GOD will receive your soul when you depart out of the world And by rising again the third day after he assureth you that your bodies shall one day be rais'd out of the dust And ascending into Heaven he assureth you that you shall be transported thither both soul and body to live and reign there with him in eternal glory As for the way which you must take to arrive at this high happiness his whole life and his death have clearly mark'd it out to you and he still shews it you from that lofty Throne whereon he is set Tread in my steps saith he if you will be exalted to my glory Follow the example of my innocence and of my charity if you desire to have part in the Crown of my Kingdom I have born injuries with calmness and patience I have constantly obeyed my Father even unto my death on the Cross and you see the honour wherewith he hath crowned me Imitate my obedience and you shall receive my recompence This is the lesson which the LORD JESUS giveth us shewing us incomparably more clearly than either the frame or government of the World or the Mosaical dispensation ever did both the Justice of GOD that we may dread him and the Power and Wisdom of God that we may reverence him and his mercy that we may love and serve him with all the strength of our souls serve him I say not with the sacrifices of old Judaism nor with the feeble and childish devotions of Superstition but with a pure and holy heart with works worthy of him with an ardent zeal a sincere charity a constant integrity and honesty a profound patience and humility an immovable hope and confidence These are the Verities which do constitute true Wisdom all of them as you see high and sublime but in like degree useful and salutiferous Here is not question of the nature of Elements of Animals of Plants or of Meteors nor of the motions of the Sun or of the Moon or of the other Planets but of the Beeing and the Counsels and the Conduct of that Great and Most High God who made and formed all those things and in comparison of whom Heaven and Earth are but a Mite of dust Question is not of numbers and figures which can neither diminish your mseries nor make your souls happy but of your peace with GOD of your consolation in this life and of your glory and immortality in the next It 's this which JESUS CHRIST teacheth us that Divine crucified Person who dyed and rose again for us It s this he shews us represented in high and splendid colours through all the pieces of his Mystery However Nature and the Law might discover the brims and first lineaments of this Celestial Wisdom it 's he alone who hath exhibited to us the whole body and shewed us the entire frame and structure of it Conclude we then that it is verily in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hidden as the Apostle saith Embrace we this Conclusion with firm belief and upon it bless we GOD first for that he hath vouchsafed to give his CHRIST unto Mankind and particularly for that he hath communicated him unto us mercifully presenting him to us both in his Word and in his Sacraments Next pray him to open our eyes more and more that we may discern these rich and precious treasures of wisdom and knowledg which he hath hid in him Let not the vileness of his Cross nor the veil of his Infirmity nor the simplicity of his Gospel and these Sacraments wherein he is offer'd to us offend us This very thing if we consider it as we ought makes up one principal part of the wonder and that we may rightly know and value this treasure let us cleanse our minds from the clay and mire of the earth let us purifie our understandings and rid them of the sentiments and opinions of the world which being fastned to its own dung doth prize nothing but the luster of its false honours and the vanity of its perishing riches and the delight of its unseemly pleasures Let us once set free our souls from these fordid and servile passions and acknowledg as is clear and visible and justified by experience that it 's an extream error and folly to seek one's happiness in such wretched things Lift we up our eyes unto Wisdom and desire the possession and embrace the study of it It is the jewel and ornament of our nature its whole dignity stands in it Without it man is little or nothing different from beasts nay in some sort in worse case than they as sinking beneath himself and falling into utmost misery But give we good heed lest we take a shadow for substance and a phantasm for true wisdom Be not deceived This wisdom is only in CHRIST JESUS All that pretended wisdom which hath the acclamations and applauses of people whether in the Courts or in the Schools of the world is but masked folly a disguised extravagance and a painted error which passeth by the principal and necessary part and amuseth its self about that which is of no profit nor any way provides for its own welfare which is the true end of wisdom Seek it therefore in JESUS CHRIST alone It is in him that you shall find the true substance of it And as those that have any treasure are wont to visit it often and have their hearts always in the place where it is so think you night and day upon this Divine Saviour in whom are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Consider him pry into him and diligently sound him He is an Abyss of good things Have your hand ever there and draw thence by faith study and meditation all
all this fulness As little could any man be to seek who this JESUS was of whom the Apostle speaks All knew him at least confusedly and in gross and did conceive him a man born of Mary in Judea who having liv'd some years among the Jews had been at length crucified by the sentence of Pontius Pilate and who being risen from the grave to a new life had sent forth his Apostles to preach his Gospel and afterwards afcended up into Heaven And though all did not believe that he was risen again and glorisi'd yet all well knew that this was said of him so that both the one and the other hearing JESUS CHRIST named did presently conceive in their mind the Idea of this Person born and dying in Judea at such times and at such places with some retinue of Disciples during his life and after his death This then is the subject of which S. Paul speaks even JESUS CHRIST considered under this form of a man in which he manifested himself to the world and in which he was conceiv'd and figured in the minds of those that heard him named In this man whose appearance was like that of other men who was born and bred on earth sustained during his life with our common food subject to our infirmities who passed through the differences of our ages suffer'd our griefs felt our inconveniences and experimented the rigour of death yea the cruellest that was in this man I say whose body was nailed to a Cross and deprived of its soul and buried in a Sepulcher in this man under so mean and contemptible a form dwelleth faith the Apostle all the fulness of the Godhead It is ordinary in the Hebrew Language to signifie by the fulness of any thing that which the thing containeth as by the fulness of the earth Men and other living creatures Psal 24. which do fill it and by the fulness of the Sea the Isles which the Sea containeth After this manner of expression the qualities and perfections of any one nature may be call'd its fulness because they are the things that fill it and with them it is as it were furnished and adorned as the movables and ornaments of a room or an house are the fulness of it Therefore as if I should say that in Adam as he was at first created was found all the fulness of Manhood every one would easily perceive that my intention were to say the perfections of human nature the faculties and properties and beauties which it is full of and without which it cannot sustain the dignity of that name were all in Adam â—an immortal soul a vigorous understanding a free-will a body of excellent 〈◊〉 acute senses and in sum all the other faculties that have any place among the perfections of the nature of man So here when we hear the Apostle saying that the fulness of the Godhead is in JESUS CHRIST let us account that by this clause he meaneth those perfections and qualities which fill up the Divine nature in which this great and soveraign Beeing doth consist and which Theologues commonly call the Attributes of GOD. You know what the word Godhead doth signifie even the Nature and Essence of GOD. The fulness of the Godhead then is that rich and incomprehensible abundance of perfections whereof the supream and adorable Nature is full as His Life His Power His Wisdom his Justice His Goodness His Immensity His Eternity His Holiness and all the other Properties which it hath in an ineffable manner and which our understandings according to their mean capacity do conceive in it as the form of the Deity that is necessary for its having that Name a nature that wanteth it being incapable of being called GOD otherwise than falsly and improperly I grant some resemblances or rather some touches and lineaments of these Perfections of the Godhead do appear in the noblest of the Creatures as in the Angels for instance who are immortal and endowed with an admirable sanctity vertue and power But the fulness of them is not in any Creature at all neither can it be found that ever the Scripture spake in this manner of Angels and said that the fulness of the Godhead was in them Besides these blessed Spirits and other Creatures how excellent soever you can imagine them to be do participate of these divine perfections but in a very little measure Whereas the LORD JESUS hath them wholly And to make this evident to us the Apostle thought it not enough to say that the fulness of the Godhead is in Him but hath expresly declared that ALL this fulness dwelleth in Him that we might be assured there is not at all any Perfection or Excellency or Accomplishment in the Divine Nature but is found in Him Thus in these two or three words he hath comprised all that the Scripture teacheth us in divers places of the richness of the Perfections of our LORD and Saviour For instance it tells us That he is full of grace and truth that he is the Wisdom and the Power of the Father that he hath the words of life that he is the Way the Truth and the Life that in him are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledg that he hath that might and strength which sustaineth all things now and which created them at first that he is the Everlasting Father and hath immortality and incorruption hath an infinite understanding whereby he soundeth the reins and discerneth all the thoughts of the hearts of men that he hath a super-eminent Glory to which all Creatures ought to do homage yea the Angels themselves who indeed adore Him the Empire and dominion over all the world the right and authority to judg all men and a multitude of such things as these Verily S. Paul hath comprised it all in one word saying here that all the fulness of the Godhead is in JESUS CHRIST it being evident that if he wanted any of these Names Rights and Attributes He could not have all the fulness of the Godhead which is ascribed here unto Him But let us now see in what manner he possesseth these things the Apostle expresseth it very briefly saying that all this fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily First the term dwelleth is illustrious signifying that all this copious abundance of perfections doth not reside in JESUS CHRIST for some time only appearing a little while and then withdrawing again so making some transient stay in Him a few moments and no more but that it abideth in Him constantly and for ever for so the word dwell in Scripture-use doth import The Word and the glory of GOD appeared in Moses and the Prophets when being moved by the power of his Spirit they uttered and acted Divine things but it dwelt not in them It only rested on them some hours space for the LORD 's recommending those Servants of His and for the setling their authority by these marks of his Providence and of his communicating with
task of our whole life in especial manner at present now that the death of our LORD and Saviour and his resurrection and his holy Supper do call us to extraordinary efforts of piety and sanctity And if the labour be great the felicity and the glory that follows it is infinite Let us employ our selves in it well-beloved Brethren with ardency and generosity put off the body of all our sins that having truly crucified our old man with the LORD JESUS we may also rise again with Him to be enliven'd by his Celestial food and have part for ever after the short trials of this life in His blessed immortality Amen The Twenty-third SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XII XII Being buried with Him through baptism in which also you are raised again together through the faith of the efficacy of GOD who hath raised Him from the dead DEar Brethren It is very true that the solemnity of this great day which hath been consecrated by all Christians to the resurrection of the LORD JESUS and sanctifi'd by the Mysteries of his Table at which we have communicated doth require more than ordinary devotion and meditations of us Yet I have not needed to seek a subject for the present exercise any other where than in the series of the ordinary Texts which I do in this place expound to you the words I have read which immediately succeed those you heard last LORD's Day excellently suiting each of those duties to which this day is particularly dedicated For they treat of our LORD's resurrection and of the fruits that redound to us thereby as also of Baptism wherein they are communicated to us and which was wont for this reason to be solemnly administred heretofore in the ancient Church on the night before Easter and of that faith by which we become possess'd of this Divine Resurgent Lastly They speak of the interest we have in his burial that sequel of his precious death the blessed commemoration whereof we have celebrated this morning Subjects these which are as is plain to all eminently meet for the devotion of this day This then shall be by the will of GOD the matter of this action Faithful Souls afford it a vigorous and a deep attention elevating your thoughts to JESUS CHRIST the Prince of our salvation and Author of our immortality whiles we shall endeavour to represent to you what his Apostle here teacheth us about our communion in his burial and resurrection You may remember that to confound the impiety of certain Seducers who would oblige Christians to Mosaical Circumcision this holy man alledg'd in the precedent Text that we have in JESUS CHRIST that substance and truth whereof the Judaical Circumcision was but the shadow and model having in him put off the body of the sins of the flesh so as having receiv'd through the grace of JESUS this mystical and divine circumcision the other carnal and typical one is altogether useless to us and cannot be desired or practis'd by Christians without wronging their Saviour He still prosecutes that same intention and to shew how rich that sanctifying-grace is which we have in JESUS CHRIST he adds that besides our being circumcised by the virtue of his word and divested of the body of the sins of the flesh we have moreover been buried with him through Baptism and further that we are therein risen again with him through the faith of the efficiency of GOD who raised him from the dead For a right understanding of these words we are to consider First The communion we have both in the burial and resurrection of our LORD JESUS CHRIST And secondly The twofold means by which this communion is given us to wit Baptism and the Faith of the efficiency of GOD who hath raised our LORD from the dead The Apostle expresseth the first point in these words Being buried with him in which also you are risen again together As for our burial with the LORD you know that having suffer'd on the Cross that dolorous and accursed death which we had merited his sacred body loosned from that mournful tree and wrap'd up in a sheet was by Joseph of Arimathea laid in a new Sepulcher where it remained three days without motion without respiration and without life in this sad state the last of our infirmities until the beginning of the third day when he gloriously rose again The transcendent wisdom of the Father which ordered all the parts of this great work proceeded thus here very fitly to justifie the truth of his Son's death by his stay in the grave For if he had resum'd his life immediately after he laid it down and descended from the Cross alive again I confess such a Miracle might have astonish'd and transported the minds of the Spectators and demonstrated that this Divine crucified Person was more than man But on the other hand it would have rendred his death suspicious and without doubt made men imagine that it had been but a feigned and false appearance and no real separation of his soul from his body which opinion would evidently have shaken and overthrown our salvation it being entirely founded on the death of the LORD JESUS Whereas therefore it so highly concerns us to believe the same GOD hath in such sort assured and certifi'd the truth that we have not any shew of reason to call it in question For this cause it was his will that the LORD JESUS having commended his spirit into his hands should be laid in the Sepulcher and continue there three days there remaining after this no more cause to doubt but that he was truly dead since he was so long a time in the state of the dead Moreover our consolation required that he should enter into our Sepulchers to take away for us the horror of them and to assure us by His example that they have not force enough to detain our bodies for ever or to hinder them from rising one day again It 's for these reasons and other such that JESUS CHRIST would go down into this death's last entrenchment The Apostle saith then that true believers have been buried with him How so you will say seeing that they being living persons were never laid in the grave and surely not in our LORD's that was situate on Mount Calvary nigh to Jerusalem places very far distant from our abode Dear Brethren there is no man so gross but doth plainly see that these words are not to be taken according to the letter but figuratively and that they signifie not a natural but a mystical Sepulcher And in such a sense it may be said two manner of ways That we have been buried in CHRIST or with CHRIST First in regard of our justification that is the remission of our sins And secondly in regard of our sanctification and the mortifying of the old man For as concerning the first it is evident that JESUS CHRIST was not buried as neither was he crucified and put to death but for us only
resurrection of JESUS CHRIST that gives us all this assurance putting in our hand a firm proof of the satisfaction of Divine Justice from the deliverance of our Surety and of our immortality from his having taken possession of the same for himself and us so as our souls being certifi'd of the transcendent goodness of GOD and of their own happiness do ardently embrace his Discipline and the endeavouring of a new life Besides that faith which purifies our 〈◊〉 and by which as we shall hear anon we are risen again in JESUS CHRIST could not take place in us if he were not risen from the dead Rom. 1.4 1 Pet. 1.3 since it 's by that he was declar'd the Son of GOD with power according to the spirit of holiness Therefore S Peter saith it 's by the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST from the dead that GOD hath begotten us again unto a lively hope And S. Paul for this very reason 1 Cor. 15.17 protesteth that if CHRIST were not risen our faith would be vain and we should be still in our sins It must then be concluded that in rising again he raised up us also by the same means forasmuch as by rising he gave being and clearness to the principles and causes of our mystical resurrection Opening his own tomb he by that means opened ours He broke in pieces the doors and barâ—s of our Sepulchers by quitting his own and raising himself from the dust he drew us up out of the earth and brought us forth from the abode of death that glorious life also wherewith he then vested himself hath inspired into us all the spiritual life motions and sentiments that we have O holy and blessed Communion O divine and incorruptible fruits of the Sepulcher of JESUS CHRIST The death of the first man did kill us and the death of the second maketh us alive The one's Sepulcher is our prison the other our liberty In the former do appear horror and malediction the signs of our guilt and of the just wrath of GOD but from the latter peace and life do bud out glory and immortality shoot forth The grave of Adam did extinguish and shut up for ever in a state of exinanition all the beauty strength and life of our nature The Sepulcher of JESUS CHRIST hath destroyed nothing but our sin it hath shut up and kept in only our old man that is the loathsomness and misery of our lives and instead of this abominable body of sin and death whereof it hath divested us hath as it were teemed with and brought forth a celestial and immortal nature which it puts on us together with our Saviour And thus you see what are the fruits of our communion with JESUS CHRIST namely the destruction of our old man and the creation of the new signified by the Apostle in these words we are buried and risen again with him Let us now consider the two fold means here intimated by the Apostle by which GOD doth make us partakers of them The first is Baptism being buried saith he with CHRIST by baptism wherein also you are rais'd again together with him For so do I take these words rendring wherein not in whom and referring this term not to JESUS CHRIST but to Baptism as it it had been said In which Baptism you are also raised again together with the LORD this construction being more natural and more convenient than the other as they that understand the original Language wherein the Apostle wrose with easily perceive if they take the pâ—ns to consider this Text there though it the bottom it make no difference which of these two ways be taken the whole amounting to the same sense whether you say that we are risen again in Baptism or in JESUS CHRIST In truth all the means which GOD makes use of in Religion have no other tendency but to communicate JESUS CHRIST to us as dead buried and risen again for us to the destruction of our old man and the vivification of the new Nor do they ever fail to produce these two effects in any of those that receive them as they ought Therefore the holy Apostles frequently ascribe them to the word of the Gospel which is the first and principal means that GOD makes use of to save us Rom. 1.15 Heb. 4.12 by reason whereof it is called his power to salvation As for the destroying of the old man the Epistle to the Hebrews attributes to the Word the virtue that operateth and effecteth it in us saying that it is quick and powerful 2 Cor. 10.4 5 sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and S. Paul elsewhere calleth it a weapon mighty to the pulling down of strong holds to the overthrowing of imaginations and every heighth that exalteth it self against the knowledg of GOD and for the bringing of every thought into captivity to the obedience of CHRIST And as to the life of the new man 1 Pet. 1.23 25 you know S. Peter teacheth us that the Gospel which is preached us is the seed of this life telling us that it is thereby we are born again That holy Supper of which we have participated this morning hath also the same effects For since it communicateth to us the body of JESUS CHRIST dead and buried and risen again for us we need not doubt but iâ— gives us also the virtue which it hath and is insuparably adherent to it for the putting to death the old Adam and making the new to live in us by its be-dewing our Consciences with his blood and feeding our souls with his flesh But although these two effects be common to all the means which GOD hath instituted and 〈…〉 use of in Religion yet the Apostle speaks here but of Baptism 〈◊〉 Because 〈◊〉 the first seal we receive of our Saviour and the proper Sacrament of our regeâ—eration which containeth the initials and beginning of our spiritual 〈◊〉 in the House of God whence it comes that treating of the same subject elsewhere Rom. 6.3 4. he makes mention of Baptism in like manner Know you not saith he that we all who have been baptiz'd into JESVS CHRIST have been baptiz'd into his death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism Secoudly He so doth that he might with so much the more clearness confute the erroâ— he here combareth even by opposing to that circumcision which the seducers did press that Baptism which we have receiv'd in JESUS CHRIST whereby hath been fully communicated to us all that these people pretended to draw from the use of circumcision Their folly was therefore so much the more insupportable for that they would not only retain a shadow whereof JESUS CHRIST hath given us the true body but also withstood one of the old Sacraments of Moses its giving place to one of those which JESUS instituted If question be of the substance and very effect of
us powerfully forming our hearts and opening them by the might of his Spirit that they may receive his truth yea that he doth imprint and engrave it on them himself by a most efficacious action The term Energy for such is the Original and 't is that which we have render'd efficacy deserves great consideration properly signifying in the stile of the Book of GOD a powerful operation which surely accomplisheth its design and infallibly produceth its intention such as is the action by which GOD created the World an evident sign that the operation by which he produceth faith in us is so strong as that it bears down all contradiction so as none of those upon whom he vouchsafes to put it forth can resist it or hinder their understanding from believing The Apostle addeth that GOD hath raised JESUS CHRIST from the dead either to determine the object of our faith which is principally JESUS raised from the dead by the glory of the Father or which I think to be more pertinent to compare our mystical Resurrection with JESUS CHRIST's For seeing it is GOD who by his efficacious action giveth us that faith by which we rise again in CHRIST and seeing it is He again who hath raised our LORD from the dead it is evident that both the one and the other of these two works hath the self-same principle to wit the Almighty Power of GOD. Christians judg with what Power He worketh in his faithful ones since that he exerteth the same virtue to give them faith by which he raised his own Son from the dead as the Apostle informeth us yet more clearly in another place Eph. 1.10 20. where he prayeth that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he shewed in CHRIST when he raised him from the dead Neither let his saying that the Father raised him disquiet you as if this did cross the Scripture's asserting elsewhere that the LORD JESUS himself rais'd up the Temple of his Body when the Jews had overthrown it Joh. 2.19 It is true that he raised up himself but since his Power is the Power of the Father as being one only and the same GOD with him 't is evident it may be truly said that the Father raised him up the working of one of these two Persons being the working of the other as our Saviour declareth in S. John Joh. 5.19 that whatsoever the Father doth the Son doth in like manner also Whence it comes that the Scripture attributes the Creation of the world indifferently to the one and to the other Dear Brethren This is that which the holy Apostle the great Minister of GOD doth tell us in this Text. Oh how happy should we be if we had these Divine Instructions written in the bottom of our hearts and engraven in Capital Letters upon all the parts of our lives If our actions did justifie as our words profess That we are buried and risen again with JESUS CHRIST by Baptism and by the faith of the operation of GOD who raised him from the dead But alas it must be confessed to our shame there appears in the lives of most of us no print of the burial and least of all of the resurrection of JESUS The flesh lives and exerciseth as horrible tyranny in them as it doth in the lives of the men of the world It hath all its sentiments and all its motions at liberty The new man that breathes nothing but Heaven and loves nothing but Holiness hath no place in them it is so far from reigning there that it 's banish'd thence and acts no more than a dead body fast shut up in the grave Yet if nothing depended on the matter save our shame impudency would bear it out But the worst is our salvation and our eternal damnation doth depend upon it for JESUS CHRIST saves none but his Members such as are made conform to him and have been buried and raised again with him Awake we therefore from this mortal Lethargy which hath benummed our senses to this day Labour we day and night in prayer with sighs and tears and not cease until we feel the old man dye and the new live in our hearts As for the former both Nature and Experience do sufficiently shew us the extravagancy of its desires and the vanity of all its motions For I beseech you what profit does the flesh receivâ— from all the trouble that either its self takes or that it gives to others What benefit hath it from the turmoiling of its avarice or the burning of its ambition or the shamefulness of its pleasures or the sweetness of its revenges It torments its self it toils its self it embraceth wind and smoak and then perisheth oftentimes shortning its own duration by the violence of its agitations It hath but a little body which daily weakens to lodg and seâ—d and clothe for some years yet it travels and disquiets its self as much as if it had a million to maintain for the space of many ages Was there ever a greater folly Certainly should a man of composed mind behold our busie employments in the earth with the motives and designs of so many motions and troubles as we consume our selves in I make little question but he would take well-nigh all men for frantick or foolish and cry out not simply with the Wise man Vanity of vanities all is vanity but yet louder and in a tone more tragical O madness O phrensie All the World is but a company of sensâ—ess men But the seeing of the vanity of the flesh is not sufficient for the conceiving of a due horror at it Christian enter into the Sepulcher of your Saviour and you shall perceive there that besides vanity the life of the old man is all full of venom and wretchedness This sacred Body which you see lying in that Tomb in so pitiful an estate was pierced with nails potion'd with gall crowned with thorns cover'd with the reproach of men and the curse of GOD separated from its Soul and brought down to the dust to divert from you the punishments justly prepared for the disorders of your flesh Think what Hells it deserved since it was necessary that the LORD of Glory should suffer such strange usage to redeem it from them Having once discerned by such sensible evidences the vanity and malignity of the old man and the perdition into which he leads his Vassals how can you have the heart to let him live within you Beloved Brethren crucifie him and out him of the world He is unworthy to live Pierce him through with the thorns and nails of your JESUS Give him his gall to drink Put him to death with him and bury him in his Sepulcher to come forth no more Let his Avarice and Ambitions and all his Concupiscences remain eternally extinct in the dust of that salvifique grave that there appear no more
be put in prison of all the force it had to endamage him He effaceth it cancels it and makes it null He renders useless all the preparatives of Justice against his friend He puts the Adversary and all his Advocates to silence He stops the mouth of the Judg that was even open to decree against him He stays the Serjâ—ants and secures his liberty from their outrages This is just the thing our LORD and Saviour hath done for us But what say I he hath done thus for us He hath done for us infinitely more than all that this comes to Death and the Curse were due to us as the wages of our sins The sentence of it was written in â—he obligation of the Law which we our selves had signed and wherein we had submitted to this penalty The Judg was ready and Execution could not be avoided The LORD JESUS moved with compassion and sent by the goodness of the Father puts himself in our room as Surety and Mediator for us He pays what we did owe. He suffers on the Cross the punishment we deserv'd His Cross therefore hath struck out that redoubtable obligation which was against us He hath abolish'd and made it of no effect He hath broken all the forces it was going to raise against us He hath pacified our Judg coufounded our Accusers staid the Officers and Ministers of Justice and sav'd our persons from the fetters and torments which were prepared for us But hence again appears how vain the error of those is who pretend that GOD doth but half-pardon our sins that having remitted unto us the fault he doth exact of us part of the punishment and make us suffer it either in this life here or after death in a certain partition of Hell which they call Purgatory How could they more rudely clash with the Apostle's Doctrine He saith that GOD hath effaced cancelled and abolished the obligation which was against us These men affirm that he still makes us pay some part of our debt Sure then our obligation is not yet torn It 's a thing unheard-of in the course of Justice to bring an Action against that Debtor whose Obligation you have effaced If it be torn if it be made void and of no effect you have no longer any right to draw him before the Judg much less to get him condemned to pay If GOD who doth nothing but according to Justice should make us pay any part of the penalties of our sins which he hath forgiven us the Obligation by virtue whereof he condemneth us is still in its full force But the Apostle protesteth that it hath been effaced and remains blotted and nailed to the Cross of CHRIST for ever The Obligation which was against us imported all the punishments both temporal and eternal that we were obnoxious unto It is voided and nulled We therefore do no longer owe any of them Fear not Christian you have to do with a faithful Creditor Having remitted to you your debt yea cancell'd the evidence of it and torn the Obligation he hath no intent at all after all this to demand any part of it of you I confess that the payment JESUS CHRIST hath made is of no use to such as remain in unbelief and though he hath in point of right nulled the Obligation which was against us yet their ingratitude and infidelity is a cause that they have no benefit from this kindness of his Even as the unthankfulness and obdurateness of that servant of whom we are told in that Parable in the Gospel did deprive him of the favour his Master had shewed him in forgiving the ten Talents he owed For GOD hath affixed this reasonable condition to the Covenant of Grace which he hath made with Mankind that the payment of our Debts made by our Surety should not be allowed to any but those that believe so as they that obstinately abide in incredulity have no share in that impunity or in those other benefits which this great Mediator hath obtained for us But as to the man that believeth and by a true faith applieth applieth to himself the death and blood and merit of the LORD JESUS there is no more any condemnation for him Rom. 8.1 as the Apostle elsewhere saith nor by consequence any punishment the obligation by virtue whereof alone he could be condemned at the Tribunal of GOD having been effaced abolished and fastned to the Cross of his Saviour Thus you see Beloved Brethren what that grace of GOD is which the Apostle hath here made known and by what means we may get part in it Sinners you that groan under the heavy load of your crimes that feel your misery and perceive the cords of that damnation in which the Law doth entangle you come unto the Cross of CHRIST and you shall find rest to your souls Your consciences accuse you and compel you to subscribe your own condemnation acknowledging the justness thereof But how just soever it be the Cross of JESUS freeth you from it forasmuch as it hath fully fatish'd for you Beware of the error both of the ancient and the modern Pharisees who pretend ability to pay what they owe and even more than they owe and to justifie themselves by their works that is by the Law The Law is the instrument of our condemnation and the ministration of our death and a man that would be justified by the Law commits no less an extravagance than he that to prove he owes nothing should produce in Judgment the Bills and Bonds he hath given his Creditors Confess you your debts Divest your selves of all presuming upon your own righteousness Declare that of your selves you are bound over to eternal malediction that you have deserv'd it and do present your selves naked before GOD who justifies the ungodly He will clothe you with the righteousness of his Son And you Faithful Brethren who are already entred into this blessed Covenant Live ye in peace and quietly wait for the fruit of your faith according to the promises of GOD. Let not the thundrings and lightnings of the Law make you afraid Let not that death with which it so severely menaceth the sons of men terrifie you at all Let not World or Devils the Executioners of its Justice astonish you JESUS CHRIST hath brought to nought all their strength by effacing the obligation that was against us Satan thou cruel enemy of our repose object not to us our sins We confess they are greater and yet more grievous than thou canst express Lay not before us that clause of our old Covenant which puts all that have sinned under the curse We confess we have merited this curse But know Satan if we have deserv'd death JESUS CHRIST hath suffer'd it for us and if we have committed sins worthy of thine Hell the Blood of the Son of GOD hath blotted them out His Cross hath made void that old piece upon which thou makest such a clamour that rough obligation with which thou incessantly
absurd and ridiculous The spirits in prison 1 Pet. 3 20. of whom S. Peter speaks cannot upon any better ground be taken for the souls of the faithful detâ—ined in Limbus since those spirits were sometimes rebellious or disobedient in the time of Noah and perished in their sin which cannot be said of the Patriarchs and the Faithful In fine the Apostle's saying that the way into the holy places was not manifested while the first Tabernacle was standing signifies indeed that the High-Priest of the Church our LORD JESUS CHRIST did not carry not introduce our nature into Heaven in soul and body nor discover and make manifest the way to our Mansion of Immortality until the veil of the first Tabernacle was rent which is very true But thence it follows not that the spirits of the faithful consecrated before our Saviour's coming did not feel the fruit of his death and much less that they were detain'd in Hell But besides that this Tradition hath no foundation in the Scripture it doth plainly cross the same For our LORD promised the good Thief Luke 23.43 that the very day he was crucified he should be with him in Paradice where yet according to our Adversaries supposition he should not have entred till the forty-third day after And the Parable of that bad rich man doth plainly shew us that at that time as the souls of impenitent sinners were cast into the torments of Hell-fire so the spirits of the faithful were carried up into the repose and felicity of Paradice For that bosome of Abraham wherein Lazarus rested Luke 16.22 25 26. was not a pit without water as the pretended Limbus is counted to have been but a place of refreshment and consolation not situate in the vicinity of Hell but severed from it by a great gulf set between them And in truth since the faithful did even then drink of the Mystical Rock as well as we were sprinkled with his blood did partake of his sufferings why would any one imagine that our Saviour's Sacrifice had less virtue to introduce them into Heaven after their death than it had to justifie and sanctifie and comfort them in the days of their life As they bore a part with us in the same faith and conflicts on the earth so had they share of our repose and joy in Heaven neither is there any reason for our being admitted if you will needs have them excluded Accordingly certain it is that those elder Christian Writers who did barr the souls of the faithful that deceased under the Old Testament out of Heaven did as well deny reception there to the souls of Christians not assenting that either the one or the other were admitted till after the resurrection so as our Adversaries rejecting as they have reason to do the one half of this error and confessing that Christian souls sufficiently purged are received into Heaven it is nothing but pure obstinacy in them to retain the other half thereof and pretend that the condition of the faithful departed under the Old Testament was otherwise than under the New Be it then concluded that all this pretended deliverance of souls brought out of Limbus is but the fiction of an human spirit not only beside but even against Scripture and Reason But I add in the second place that though it were as certain as it is dubious and as true as it is false yet it would not be possible to refer this passage of the Apostles unto it First The spirits of the faithful departed this life are not at all in the power of Satan but in the hands of GOD to whom they recommend them at their death so as though JESUS CHRIST had brought them out of Limbus yet it could not be said that he had therein spoiled the Devils since that to spoil them is to take from them what they were possess'd of and its clear that though the souls of the faithful had been in this imaginary Limbus yet they would have been there out of the Devil's possession Secondly The word here used which the French hath translated mener en montre that is lead about for a shew is always taken in an ill sense for a shameful and ignominious shew such as that of Malefactors is when they are led through the City and publickly executed that the sight of their shame and punishment may keep men in their duty Now if our LORD had delivered the souls of the faithful out of such a Limbus it could not be said that he had made a shew of them in this sense it being evident that in this case they would have accompanied his Triumph by way of honour and that it would not have been any ignominy but a glory for them to have followed his victorious Chariot Moreover the Apostle's words are so placed in the Original that the spoiling and making a shew of and triumphing over which he speaks of do necessarily respect the same persons that is those whom he spoiled are the same he made shew of and triumph'd over Now he spoiled not the spirits of the Fathers he on the contrary did enrich them sure then it is not them he made a shew of neither can the action which the verb importeth be referr'd to them without depraving the Apostle's whole Context This is all spoken of one and the same subject to wit those Powers and Principalities that is the Devils as we have demonstrated and as all do accord They are the Devils whom JESUS spoiled It is the same that he publickly made a shew of and it 's they again whom he triumphed over As for the Latin Interpreter his saying Zanchy the LORD triumphed of them in himself I acknowledg that divers Greek Copies do read the Text in that manner and some of our Writers have so expounded it conceiving that our Saviour upon his crucifixion did bring the Devils whom he had overcome out of their Hells and shew them to the Angels and the Spirits made perfect bound and chained up as a glorious token of the victory he had gotten over them and they add that this triumph did continue too until his ascension into Heaven But the Scripture telling us nothing of this matter I think it dangerous to affirm the same it being better and more safe to keep to that which GOD hath revealed in his word than to take liberty to follow our own imaginations how plausible soever they appear And the reason which seems to have moved those men to advance this conjecture is exceeding slender For they have been induc'd to do it only by conceiving it absurd to say that JESUS CHRIST triumphed over his Enemies on the Cross seeing that to speak properly he overcame them on the Cross but it seems he triumphed only at his resurrection and ascension But first though there were in this some inconvenience yet nothing would enforce us to assert what they propose It would be sufficient for the avoiding thereof to say that our Saviour
with so rich a portion not envy any of the creatures the perfections and happiness they have Our whole life would be a perpetual feastival whereon free from the travail and turmoil of worldlings contemplating in spirit the glory of the Palace of our LORD meditating His promises breathing after His benefits and enjoying them for the present by faith and Hope we should in repose wait for the blessed day of our glorious triumph But alas how far are we from such a felicity This wretched and perishing earth is the sole object of our minds Our souls are no less fastned to it than our bodies It swalloweth up all our thoughts it possesseth our affections it takes up our cares and our labours and hath the use of all our time We have no desires and love but for the false goods which it sheweth us nor fear and horrour but for the evils wherewith it threatneth us As for Heaven and the things it comprehendeth we are so far from seeking them that we not so much as think of them except it be dreamingly or in manner of a divertisement when we are told of them in this place looking on the stately representations which JESUS CHRIST hath drawn us of them as an empty picture fair indeed and pleasing but good for nought saving to feed our eyes with a short and bootless pleasure not attracting nor engaging our desires This is the cause why our whole life is miserable full of griefs and fears of weaknesses of regrets and infelicities The least strokes overturn us the least losses and slightest afflictions bear us down because not being fastned to Heaven the only firm and sure place of the World we fluctuate exposed to the mercy of all that comes against us And as children cannot be appeased when their puppets are taken from them because they have set all their affection on them so are we seized and do take on when we come to lose some of these toyes of the earth There is no way to comfort us because we have fastned our hearts to them And to say truth our condition is worse than other mens they at least are subject but to the evils that either the infirmity of nature or as they call it the inconstancy of fortune do bring with them whereas besides these the bad Christian who is not a Christian but in name is moreover exposed to the persecution of the World so as to say plainly there is nothing more foolish nor more wretched than he who hath part in the temporal sufferings and hardships of true beleevers and none at all in their consolation or blessedness inasmuch as his profession exposes Him to the hatred of the World and his vice excludes him from the Kingdom of GOD. Awake then ye that are worldly and come once out of so dangerous an errour Let not the trumpet of Heaven the voice of our great Apostle have founded now in your ears in vain Do not add this contempt to your other crimes He hath advertised you of your duty He hath declared the reasons that oblige you to it Take heed lest if you shut your ears against JESUS CHRIST who speaks by His mouth you perish in the end with this earth and the things you seek on it How do you not perceive that you shall never find there the happiness you seek Why hath not the experience of so many millions of persons who daily spend themselves in this vain labour taught you that the things of the earth are all of them but vanities and illusions transient figures which promise pleasure honour and contentment but afford none which do not cure the maladies of the body nor of the soul which infinitely toil out those that seek them and never fill the hearts of those that possess them multiplying their desires and their fears inflaming and envenoming their passions instead of extinguishing them which are subject to infinite mutations which men and elements may bereave you of every moment and which considering the short and uncertain duration of the life we lead here below you can enjoy but a very little time supposing that nothing does deprive you of them before death At that time Matt. 16.26 What will it profit a man to have gained the whole world and lose his own soul It is sure a blindness incredible to one that saw it not I do not say that a Christian who hath hopes of the world to come but that even any reasonable man should adhere with so ardent and obstinate a passion unto such wretched and fruitless things We perceive it and confess it and make the bravest discourses in the World upon it and after all that false lustre which we behold in these things hath such a faculty to bewitch our senses that not a person but lets himself be caught thereby But the worst is that besides errour and vanity there 's in it a tendency to eternal damnation For men may not slatter themselves None can serve two Masters nor look on Heaven and earth both together He that seeks the one must of necessity renounce the other it being no more possible to seek than it 's to find at once the things beneath and those which are above Faithful Brethren choose you and take the better part and leaving worldly men to labour in vain after the things of the earth and to seek in it what they shall never find turn you your hearts and eyes towards Heaven as the Apostle calleth you to do There Christian is the felicity you desire There dwelleth rest and joy and immortality and the perfection of both soul and body These are the only things that are truly worthy of your prayers and your pains Seek them and mind them night and day Give your selves no rest till you have found them and do feel the first-fruits and beginnings of them in your hearts Let these thoughts sweeten your sufferings and consolate your losses T is in vain that you threaten me ye people of the World You cannot deprive me of what I possess nor hinder me from finding what I seek since upon the things of Heaven you have no power Whatever you bereave me of the best part of my treasure and the only part that deserves that appellation will still remain entire to me Let the same thought arm us against all tentations Thou Tempter promisest me the things of the earth but I seek those of Heaven which thou canst not dispose of Though I should lose all I have here below even to this flesh its self yet shall I find it again with a thousand-fold increase in Heaven Let this thought again keep us continually busied in the good and worthy actions of piety charity and honesty Let our manners resemble those of the inhabitants of that divine City which wee seek Let the light of their knowledge the ardency of their love the purity of their affections shine forth now betimes in our lives 'T is that to which that new nature JESUS
any other of the Ministers of JESUS CHRIST doth any where injoyn us to wear hair-cloth or to disfigure our countenances with a multitude of fasts and watchings or to go barefoot or to put on a cowl or renounce the usage of any of the meats which GOD hath created for our service much less to cover our selves with dung and filth or to gore our selves all over with disciplines Isa 1.12 God will one day say to those that amuse themselves in such mortifications Who hath required this at your hands and why have ye suffered so much in vain Gal. 3.4 The only mortification he demands of us is that of the old man that we beat down our vices and not that we rend our bodies that we deface our passions and not our countenances that we renounce our lusts and not His gifts That we give the discipline to our manners and not our shoulders As for our selves My Brethren I acknowledge that we have renounced the mortification of the superstitious the misery is we do not practise that which is our Saviours though without it no man can have part in Him or His kingdom as the Apostle intimates plainly enough here where he doth not own any person for a member of CHRIST risen who is not dead and else-where he affirms in expresse terms that they that are CHRIST's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts We amuse not our selves in bodily exercise No but neither do we more heed that of the spirit We spare our hearts no less than our bodies and do not treat the vices of the one any whit more roughly than the skin of the other Men see sufficiently by the actions of our lives that the members of this old man whom the cross of CHRIST hath condemned unto death remaining very far from being dead are scarce wounded in us that they are not so much as scratch'd that they live in us in their full strength and vigour and no more feel our Saviour's nails and thorns than if He had not died or we not believed in Him at all Our adversaries are nor to seek how to charge it home upon us and it is the only one of their arguments that puts us to confusion We easily answer all their other reproaches There 's none but this wherein our consciences enforce us to separate the cause of JESUS CHRIST and of His Gospel from our own For if His truth were to be judged of by the quality of our deportments who could defend it seeing the horrible disorder that generally appeareth in our lives Let us consider only the two articles here touched by the Apostle unchastity and avarice In conscience is the one and the other of these two passions dead among us Have they not as great a vogue as among the men of the World Is the modesty of youth the honesty of marriage is chastity and temperance better practised here than other-where Doth the fordidnesse and eagernesse of avarice less appear Verily I am extremely asham'd to say it all is alike except that those without do confess and discipline themselves and macerate their flesh with some kind of fasts and say their chappelet whereby at least they shew some sense of their faultinesse though they apply ineffectual and ridiculous remedies of it Whereas we after committing the same faults and dabling in the same filth come to present our selves impudently here without fearing GOD or having shame of men And if the voice of the LORD that resoundeth in this place do draw some sigh from us at our going hence we return every one to our vices as pleasant and as obstinate as ever GOD is so good that He hath hitherto attended our repenting But let us beware lest our obduratenesse do change His patience into fury and constrain Him in the end to punish such a refractory contempt of His word and His favours and avenge the affront we do His Gospel by living so ill in so fair and so divine a light Let us all descend into our selves Let us examine our carriage and our consciences Let each one interrogate himself Come my soul after so many moneths and years that JESUS CHRIST hath so carefully instructed thee what pains hast thou taken to conform thy self to Him and to imprint the image of His death and of His life upon thy behaviour Hast thou nailed thine old man to His cross Hast thou mortified his members Hast thou deprived them of that wretched vigour which they display with so much efficacy in the children of disobedience Do they leave thee at rest Or when they begin to trouble thee hast thou the courage to resist them Doth not avarice stretch out thine hand upon the goods of others or doth it not with-hold the same from imparting of thine own unto the poor Hast thou not felt its vain sollicitudes and fruitless melancholies it's insatiable cupidity and unbridled eagerness and that impudence it hath to despise and violate honesty laws and decency for the satisfying its inordinate desires But if avarice hath not importun'd thee tell me my soul hath not the lust of the eyes and the vanity of the flesh at one time or other insnared thee Hath not this traiterous Dalila lulled thee asleep Hast thou guarded the glory of that Nazareat to which GOD hath consecrated thee from her ambushments Brethren let us thus catechize our souls daily and about our other duties as well as these Let us not pardon them any thing Judge we them righteously and with inexorable severity Chastise them for all their faults and bringing them down at the feet of GOD make them weep and grone in His presence Let us reproach them with their ingratitudes and set before their eyes the benefits of GOD and the offences with which they have recompensed Him Denounce we also His judgements on them and the horror of His dreadful vengeance and not give them over untill they have taken a full and firm resolution to return no more to their ingratitudes Above all Dear Brethren let us make them hate and detest those two pests which the Apostle hath to day so solemnly condemned to dye to wit luxury and covetousnesse Let us execute his just sentence upon these two passions and cause them to suffer that death which they so many waies deserve For as to the first it impudently profaneth a body which belongs to JESUS CHRIST was redeemed by His blood washed with His heavenly water fed with His flesh and consecrated by His spirit Rends it from the communion of that divine body of which it is become a member to change it into one of the members of Satan Bereaves it of its glory and despoils it of the greatest honour it had and drawing it out of Heaven whither GOD had called it drags it into Hell I know well that men of the world flatter themselves and extenuate this sin And I am not ignorant that there are people among our selves who suffer themselves to be
not to be doubted but that the precipitaâ—ed deaths and ruines of so many great ones whom the world hath seen and still doth see perish with astonishment are for the most part from the same source even the debauches they have been carried into The accidents of particular houses and persons infected with this leaprousie are less marked yet are they nevertheless very remarkable And he that shall look narrowly into them shall find in them admirable examples of the justice of GOD upon these kind of sins and this in special that He commonly takes away His covenant from houses where such disorders reign I might easily let you see like foot-steps of the wrath of GOD upon the covetous whose unrighteousnesse He often punisheth with loss of senses of health of honour and of that very wealth which they love much better than their bodies and their souls themselves not to speak of the infamy which GOD sometimes poureth out upon them and the horrible miseries into which He lets them fall in their persons and in their posterity But I must pass to the other part of this Text and speak a few words of it and conclude For the Apostle after this wrath of GOD which he hath represented as falling from Heaven upon the children of rebellion because of their pollutions and avarices reminds the Colossians that themselves had sometime been in the same condition in which saith he you also walked other-while when ye lived in these things To live in these sins is to have the principles of our life infected with the venome of them To walk in them is to produce the actions of them The one is the power and faculty of life the other is the exercise and function of it For the having in ones self the principles and faculties of life this the Apostle termeth living and by walking he understands a putting forth the actions of the same as appears plainly by his saying elsewhere If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit For a man that Gal. 5.25 for instance is asleep does nevertheless live and hath life though he performeth not the actions of it As therefore to live in the Spirit is no other thing but to have the faculties and powers of our nature renewed and as it were new-east and regenerated by the vertue of the Spirit of JESUS CHRIST so on the contrary to live in sin is in like manner to have our understanding and will and the other powers of our nature putrified and corrupted and as it were empoisoned with Adam's sin by the contagion of his flesh And again as those do walk in the Spirit who exercise piety and sanctity and do conduct all the actions and motions of their lives according to the will of the Spirit so they on the contrary walk in sin who follow and fulfill the lusts thereof and employ themselves in no other exercise but the serving it and doing those evil works which naturally flow from the habitudes of it But we have spoken largely heretofore if you remember of this first life of old Adam which the grace of the LORD JESUS hath destroyed and mortified in us We have only to observe in our way that since the exercise of man in his state of nature before grace is to walk in vices and in grossest pollutions it must be an huge error to imagine that he should be able in such a state to produce works either meritorious as some say or preparatory to grace as others do pretend All he doth for this time if you believe the Apostle in the case is not good but to prepare for Hell and merit the wrath of GOD and to have any other opinion of it will be a diminution of the greatnesse of the grace of GOD towards us Let us think then Beloved Brethren on that shameful and miserable estate in which we naturally were and should have continued for ever with the children of rebellion living and walking in sins the wages and fruit whereof could be no other than eternal death if the LORD through His abundant grace had not delivered us from such a condemnation And resenting as we ought the greatness of the benefit He hath conferr'd upon us let us incessantly bless His mercy and goodness Thanks be ever rendred unto thee O holy and merciful LORD for that we being servants of sin thou hast made us free by Thy Son and given us by thy Spirit Rom. 6.17 to obey that express form of doctrine which hath been delivered us by thy servants But as heretofore the vices in which we lived did continually produce all kind of pollutions and sins and henceforth since the cross and grace of our LORD hath dried up this source of impurity let there no more appear any track of them in our manners Let the holyness of that new man whose name and blood we boast of shine forth in all the actions of our lives Above all let us banish thence those two capital and accursed pests of luxury and avarices for which you have heard here before all the mouths of Heaven opened to fulminate against the rebellious that serve them the curses of this world and of that which is to come And if the ignorance of such as lived in error withheld not the wrath of GOD heretofore from coming on them for these two kinds of sins what must those expect now who commit the same crimes in the light of JESUS CHRIST Sure as much as the disobedience and the rebellion of the one is more grievous and more enormous than that of others so much more terrible will be the wrath that shall pour from Heaven upon them than all the judgements of GOD the world hath seen in time past Your ingratitude Christian who so ill brook your name and your disobedience surpasseth in horridnesse all the unbelief both of the first world and of ancient Israel they rejected but the preaching of Noah and the ministry of Mâ—ses whereas you outrage the Gospel of the Son of GOD and as much is in you is make Him a lyer Yet you know how they were punished you know the deluges which the fault of the one brought upon all the earth You know the abysse opened its mouth to swallow up the others alive Heaven and earth and the elements were armed against them If their punishment makes you tremble why do you imitate their faults yea why commit you such as are more hainous and blacker than theirs GOD is good and merciful I acknowledge but to sinners repenting To those that mock at His instruction and make a jest of His menaces He is severe and inexorable And if they amend not they shall know sooner or later to their cost that it 's a fearful thing to fall into His hands But the LORD JESUS whom we invocate please to give us better things so reforming this Church by the power of His Spirit and of His voice that henceforth these crying sins be no more seen
would have place in him but from the time he had put on the habit of Charity and could not hinder but that he might have transgressed divers waies before Since then the law justifyeth none but those that never violated it at any time what-ever it is manifest that though a Christian should never violate the law after he hath Charity yet could he not be justified by his works nor would he be exempted from needing the grace of GOD for the remission of the sins he committed before he had Charity But where grace is Rom. 11.6 there justification by works cannot have place according to St. Paul's saying in the Epistle to the Romans If it be by grace it is no more by works Otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be by works it is no more by grace Otherwise work is no more work But I add in the second place that what they do suppose to wit that he that hath Charity does perfectly fulfill the law and so as never to fail so much as in one point that this I say moreover is evidently false and contrary unto experience and unto Scripture Unto experience for who but daily sees and perceives how often how many waies those very men among the faithful do offend who have greatest degrees of Charity 1 Joh. 1. Unto Scripture for it plainly telleth us in divers places that if we say they are the words of an Apostle we have no sin we lye and the truth is not in us True it is that Charity doth not cause us to offend nay such offending is on the contrary a deviation and a departure from Charity However I affirm it is no impossibility but that a man that hath true Charity may sometime falter in it as you see it often comes to pass in all habits he that 's endowed with them doth some actions not very consonant unto them A good Archer for instance doth not alwaies hit the white and a good Advocate doth not alwaies plead exactly well It befalls the best Writers and the exquisitest Painters and the most accomplished Politicians to commit errors now and then in the matters of their profession And it was said long since of the excellentest and most admired piece of heathen Poetry that there are passages in it at which the author slept from whence others have deriv'd the priviledge that in a prolix work they may sometimes forget themselves The same event attends the habitudes of moral vertues for neither do these so absolutely fill up the souls of men but that actions contrary to them do sometimes escape those who have obtained them to an hiâ—â— degree as experience shews and Philosophers have expresly noted Therefore neither are faults incompatible with the habit of Charity as we possesse it here beneath Only it with-holdeth such as are truly endowed with it from committing them often and when they are overtaken it eftsoons toucheth them with regret at it and moves them to repent of what they have committed Since then that to be justified by works a man must present such one 's unto GOD as have no way any need of pardon it is still evident that Charity how accomplished soever we may have it here below yet is not capable of justisying us before GOD. If our adversaries will be obstinate and maintain that Charity is exempted from all sin I will grant it them of that Charity which reigneth on high in the Heavens being kindled Aug. Ep. 29. ad Hieron and kept up by the vision of the glorious face of GOD but I will say with St. Augustine that no man hath such a Charity upon earth ours here is but begun and impersectly formed Yet the Law requireth of us a Charity full and entire and perfect in every particular Surely then that which we for present have is not able to satisfie the Law nor by consequence justifie us But others conceive that by this perfection which Charity is the bond of the integrity and unity of the Church is to be understood for that the perfection of bodies doth properly consist in the collection and colligation of the parts whereof they are compos'd those that want any one of them being not in a condition to be called perfect These authors therefore make account that Charity is here stil'd the bond of perfection because 't is it that joyneth and bindeth all the faithful together by means of the mutual love they bear to one another For my part Dear Brethren I think we must joyn together these two expositions and reduce them to one for this end taking the Apostle's words the bond of perfection as simply importing that Charity is a perfect bond by an Hebraism very frequent through the whole Scripture as when 't is said a man of sin or a man of peace to signifie a sinful man Rom. â— 26 or one that 's peaceable or pacifick affections of infamy for infamous affections and so in a multitude of other places Here then in like manner the Apostle says a bond of perfection instead of a perfect bond an exquisite bond capable of binding up in perfection both all Christian Vertues in every faithful soul and all the faithful in the Church with one another For as concerning Vertues Charity binds them together both by that common principle whence it causeth them to spring to wit love of our neighbour and by that common end unto which it directeth them namely his benefit and edification It gathers up and puts all of them together in its bosome not leaving one out of its enclosure because they are all necessary for it mercy to comfort those whom it loves benignity to succour them humility to win them gentlenesse to please them patience to conserve them and in fine all the rest to acquit it self of those duties it would do them And as for the faithful who knows not that Charity is the perfect bond of their union The considerations of blood of state of interest and of pleasure do sometimes bind other men together but it is with a great deal of imperfection these unsure bonds being daily broken and so badly compacting the persons they inclose that they are soon separated and do sometimes even fall foul with and rend one another But Charity is in very deed a perfect bond that uniteth those whom it ties together so close and with such firmnesse as neither the accidents of fortâ—ne as they call them nor the mutations of the earth nor death it self which ruines all other unions and conjunctions in the World can loosen them or separate them from one another It was this sacred bond that heretofore made all the beleevers at Jerusalem to be of one heart and of one soul It 's a bond Acts 4.32 that all the force of men and elements can neither break nor untye a bond stronger than death and the grave as the mystical Spouse sings in that excellent Song It doth not only joyn the souls of the
LORD Let us also heedfully keep as committed to our trust that peace which JESUS CHRIST hath let us at His death and unto which He calleth us in one body by all His religious mysteries This saith the Apostle is the peace of GOD and he that keeps it may be sure to have GOD with him according to the promise which the same Apostle does else-where make us Live in peace saith he to us and the GOD of love and of peace shall be with you Object not those petty reasons which flesh and blood inspires Nothing must be heard against the Peace of GOD. The Apostle requires that it have the prime place in our hearts that it be the Governesse and Super-intendant of them Account then every thought that would disturb it as rebellious drive it out of your hearts and crush it as an infernal thought which cannot come but from the enemie since it is contrary to the peace of CHRIST Now here Dear Brethren I might make large complaints upon that rebelling whereof the most of us are guilty against this Peace of GOD which the Apostle sets up to rule in our hearts We have shaken off its yoke Flesh and blood and their interests have driven it out from among us It is so far from possessing the first place here that it hath scarce any at all and it seems that offended with our contempt it hath quitted the Church as well as the world and is altogether retired into Heaven For all among us is full of divisions and discord of suits of quarrels of little wars which we make upon one another with a scandalous eagernesse and obstinacy In the name of GOD let us recall Beloved Brethren into our communion this holy and blessed Peace of GOD unto which JESUS CHRIST and His Gospel with so much instance invite us and henceforth give it that place in our hearts which the Apostle assigneth it This is the best thanks we can render this great Saviour for the kindnesse He hath shewed us And if we deny Him that peace He demands of us for our Brethren I know not how we can ask of Him His for our selves or clear our selves of the fowlest ingratitude that ever was But I hope better things and do beseech the LORD that Himself would shed abroad His peace into our hearts and absolutely settle it in them that hereupon we may see all His blessings abound in the midst of us both those of the present life and those of the life to come Amen THE FORTY FIRST SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER XVI Verse XVI Let the VVord of CHRIST dwell in you richly in all VVisdom ye teaching and admonishing one another by Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs with grace singing from your hearts unto the LORD DEAR Brethren Experience sheweth us that most things are sustained by usage of the same means that gave them being Thus in nature we see that nothing doth more confirm nor better conserve the habits of Arts and Sciences than those very actions and exercises which sormed them and that nothing doth better maintain Estates than the same prudence and valour that raised them Also as frequenting the converse of vertuous persons doth commonly enkincle in our hearts a love of and an aim at probity So do's it advance our constant persevering in the same Semblably in Religion the Word of GOD which produceth faith and holiness in our Souls is the very thing that conserves and perpetuates it there This Word is the power of GOD both to form the piety of His Elect at first and to keep it in them for ever after it is formed It is both the Parent and the Nurse and Gardienne of the new man It administreth both the seed of our Regeneration and the milk of our spiritual nutrition 'T is it that gives us spiritual life 't is it that conserves the same 'T is upon it that both the beginnings and the progressions both the production and the perseverance thereof do depend Wherefore the Holy Apostle having afore exhorted the Colossians unto Christian Sanctification and pointed at the principal pieces of it as mercy benignity patience charity and peace now to abridge this discourse and comprise all in few words does recommend to them the Word of GOD as the only means not only to maintain and conserve but even to perfit and compleat all the parts of their piety as a living and a plentiful spring whence they might draw both those vertues which he had nominated and all others that were necessary for the persecting of their Christianity There is no need saith he I should take the pains to reckon up particularly to you all the graces that ought to beam forth in your actions nor recommend one by one each of those perfections which the name and profession of JESUS CHRIST obligeth you unto You have a good Master near you that will teach you them and excellently form them in you I mean The word of CHRIST which I count it sufficient for me to recommend to you Hear it and practice it and let it be familiar with you To direct you to it is to say all You will want nothing if you hear and study and believe its intimations with that heedfulness and respect you owe it Let it dwell richly in you in all wisdom c. This is the advice Beloved Brethren that the Apostle heretofore gave the Colossians Advice so much the more necessary for us now because beside the negligence and disgust of our nature there are people found in this unhappy age who decry the Word of GOD and do all they can to make Christians suspect it and to wrest out of their hands this precious treasure of faithful Souls An attempt unheard of in all the first ages of the Church and not to be believ'd did not our eyes and senses testifie of it Therefore if you have any zeal for your Masters Glory upon whose wisdom all the blame that is laid upon His word doth evidently reflect if you have any charity for the edification of your Neighbours in fine if you have any affection for your own Salvation Christians hear with attention the Apostle's instruction Take home to you and keep with you this Heavenly Word which he would lodge and have to dwell there Defend these Divine springs of life which all our Fathers drank of against the injuriousness of these new Doctors who would by all means stop and fill them up doing the House of JESUS CHRIST such wrong as the Philistines sometime did the Family of Isaac Gen. 26.15 whose Wells they clos'd up and fill'd with earth to render them useless as the Sacred Story telleth us Now to guide you in this Meditation I will if please GOD consider in order the two parts that offer themselves in the Apostles Text First that wherein he recommends unto us the studying of the Word of GOD in these terms Let the Word of CHRIST dwell in you richly in all Wisdom Secondly that
They forbid all Christians to read the Bible without the Bishops or the Inquisitors permission But they presently declare that no Bishop nor Inquisitor hath power to give any Thus there shall no person be permitted it Is not this an evident mocking of the world But these gallants do so hugely dread the Scripture that they had rather become guilty of thus shamefully and openly deluding Christendom than suffer any one to have or read so dangerous a Book They would rather salve their interest than their honour And in very deed such the practice is in Spain and Italy and in the Territories of the Inquisition where this permission to read the Bible is not given to any man whoever he be and where it 's held for a capital crime and a sure mark of Heresie to have in house but a volume of the Old or New Testament in the vulgar tongue So as it must of necessity be that those who do in these parts permit this reading unto some are either guilty of violating the general ordinances of that Church they profess themselves members of or have some particular and extraordinary power from the Pope to do as they do which yet doth not appear This crime would be less strange if it did clash only with this passage of the Apostle But it also overturneth divers other most expresse instructions Deut. 17.18 19. which occur in the holy Scriptures For GOD commands the King of Israel who was a Laick noâ— a Clerk to write a copy of His law and to have it by him Deut. 11.18 19. 6.7 8 9. and read it diligently and generally all His people to lay up all His words in their hearts and in their minds to bind them for signs upon their hands and for frontlets between their eyes that is to have them as familiar as their own hands and eyes to teach them their children and discourse of them at home and abroad lying down and rising up and write them on the posts of their houses and on their gates which is just the same thing St. Paul here calls in short an having the word of GOD to dwell in them In effect St. Luke praiseth the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8.28 17.11 for that he read the Scriptures and the men of Berea for that they consulted them daily to know if the things which Paul and Silas preached to them were so Yet we no where read Psal 1.2 that they had leave of any Papal Bishops or Inquisitors And David pronounceth that man blessed who meditateth day and night in the law of GOD. Again Joh. 20.31 the word of GOD being written that we might believe that JESVS is the CHRIST and that believing we might have life through His Name as saith St. John Rom. 15.4 and for our learning as saith St. Paul that we through patience and comfort might have hope It must of necessity be concluded that the forbidding of Christians to read the Scriptures evidently is either a frustrating the LORD of His intention or an accusing Him of having been unable to give us Scriptures proper for His aim and our aid I say as much and that more positively of the Apostolical Epistles which being directed to the faithful Clergie and Laity indifferently there is no reason to bar any of them from reading what the first Ministers of GOD wrote to them all In fine the fault of our adversaries is so much the more inexcusable for that the ancient Doctors of whom they make so great account Homil. 9. on Levitie are directly contrary to them in this particular As Origen for one who would have Christians not only hear the word of GOD in the Church but exercise themselves in reading it at home and in meditating on it night and day St. Hierom for another Hierom. Ep. 14. 30. August lib. de Catech. rud c. 6.8 Gregor in his Epistles lib. 4. Ep. 40. who would have women and maids themselves to learn the Scriptures by heart St. Augustine for a third who does most earnestly recommend the reading of the word of GOD to the very Catechumeni that is Christians of the lowest form such as had not yet received holy Baptism St. Gregory the Great that famous Bishop of Rome for a fourth who gravely reproves a Physician of the Court for that he took not the pains to read the words of our Redeemer every day For what is holy Scripture saith he but a letter from GOD to His creature If you were in a far Countrey and there received letters from the Emperor your Master you would not be at rest nor sleep at your case till you had read them and perceiv'd what your earthly Prince should have vouchsafed to write you The Monarch of Heaven the LORD of men and Angels hath sent and conveyed to your hands His letters about the concernments of your life And yet my Son you deign not to read them Apply to them I beseech you and meditate daily your Creator's sayings Thus Gregory more than a thousand years a-go Judge how far the language of later Popes is from his spirit and from his principles I pass by other Doctors of antiquity who are no less contrary to this modern abuse and will only mention further John of Antioch Bishop of Constantinople to whom the Church hath given the name of Chrysostome that is Golden mouth because of the richness and sweetnesse of his incomparable eloquence he alone would furnish a man with enough to make a small volume if any would put together all the passages of his works in which he exhorteth all the faithful and in special those of the people to an assiduous reading of the Holy Scripture and particularly in the Sermon he made upon this very Text of the Apostle which we are expounding Hear Chrysost Homil 9. in Ep. ad Coloss saith he you that live in the World and have wife and children hear how he orders you yea you principally to read the Scriptures not slightly and heedlesly but with great care and diligence He would have them heed no other master You have saith he to them the oracles of GOD and no one can teach you so well as these divine books And a little after Have saith he the books of the Bible the true medicines of the soul Get at least the New Testament the Acts of the Apostles the Gospels Let these be your perpetual Masters and Teachers If any affliction befall you loss of goods of children or of friends if death it self present its self unto you make search forthwith in this book as in the store-house of coelestial medicaments and fetch out of it the remedies that are necessary for the mitigating of your miseries Or rather that you may not be put to the trouble of such search lay them all up in your soul and have them ready upon all occasions Ignorance of the Scriptures is the cause of all our evils Thus far Chrysostome And truly as you
the LORD JESUS giving thanks by Him unto our GOD and Father DEAR Brethren The love that the LORD JESUS hath born us is so great and the benefits He hath conferr'd upon us are so various and so precious that we are evidently obliged to give our selves entirely to Him and we cannot substract from Him without ingratitude any part of what we are or have He hath laid down His life for us It is just therefore that we again do consecrate ours unto Him He hath redeemed us at the price of His blood and by this admirable ransom deliver'd from death and hell not only our Souls but also our Bodies and our whole Nature We are therefore wholly His and have no more any other Master but Him neither is there any justice in the world but will adjudge Him the propriety and possession of what costeth Him so dear But though of right we be his Vassals yet it hath pleas'd His love that we should belong to Him under another much more glorious title For He hath made us His brethren having obtained of His Father that He should adopt us for His children and accumulated this grace with all the highest favours that creatures can be exalted to I mean He hath made us partakers of His inheritance and communicated to us His Nature and His Spirit and crowned us with His immortality and with His glory Though he had not shed His Blood for us as He did who seeth not but that this His great and divine liberality should have purchas'd Him all the life and being and motion we can have and that to divert any part of it from His service would be a robbing of Him and a bereaving Him with abominable Sacriledge of a thing belonging to Him so legitimatly and for many so just and weighty reasons If we be not the most unjust and ingrateful persons in the world we ought all to have such sentiments and consequently look upon our nature and our life as things no longer ours but JESUS CHRIST's and dispose of them not after our own phansie and for our own interest but at His pleasure and for His glory And as you see that the servants of a Prince above all those whom he hath particularly obliged and favoured do set up his arms through all their houses and adorn their Halls and Chambers with his Picture and have his praises alwayes in their mouth and fill up their whole life with his name and glory so should we do to JESUS CHRIST and with so much the more zeal for that He is a LORD infinitely more rich more clement more liberal and more beneficent than any Monarch of the Earth Let our Souls and Bodies therefore bear His badges let His glory appear exalted in all our actions let the words of our mouths be dedicated to Him and our whole lives full of His Name breathing throughout nothing but His honour and service without ever swerving from His Will from His interests This Beloved Brethren is the Lesson which the Apostle S. Paul now gives us in the words that you have heard And whatever ye do saith he whether in word or work do it all in the name of the LORD JESVS giving thanks by Him unto our GOD and Father By these words he concludeth that excellent exhortation which he makes to all Christians in general of what sex or age or condition soever He began it at the first Verse of this Chapter and continues it on to our Text pointing out in it briefly but divinely as you have heard in the precedent exercises our principal duties on one hand the mortifying of the flesh with its lusts as fornication covetousness wrath and the like on the other hand the studying and exercising of all Christian vertues as humility kindness patience gentleness charity and peace To all these he addeth our knowing and continual meditating of the Word of GOD with Psalms and spiritual Hymns And here it was we made stay in our last action upon this Subject Now that he might not stand to treat severally of all a Christians other duties which would be prolix and even infinite and a Discourse of too great extent for an Epistle before he passeth to that particular exhortation which he addresseth in the following Verses to some certain ranks of believers as to Married persons to Fathers to Children to Servants and Masters he closeth up his first matter with the precept he here gives us A precept verily excellent and well worthy to Crown his exhortation since it comprehends in few words all the duties of a Christian both those which the Apostle hath expresly pointed at and those which his design of brevity caused him to pass over in silence without speaking of them by name To the end we may give you an exposition of it we will endeavour by the grace of our LORD to explain one after another the two parts that offer themselves in it First that whatever we do either in word or work we do it all in the name of the LORD JESVS Secondly that we give thanks by Him to our GOD and Father When the Apostle pronounceth that all we do in work or word be done in the name of the LORD JESVS he clearly gives Him our whole life For these two sorts of things which he subjecteth unto Him words and works do comprehend all the other parts of our life it being evident that nothing issues from us but what may be referred to the one or the other of these two kinds They are either words or works Words are the fruits of our mouths works are the effects or actions of our other parts and faculties I acknowledge that beside this our spirit also does act within us when it knows or considers things and desireth or rejecteth them But besides that these internal actions might be put into the rank of our works by extending the word a little beyond its ordinary signification as in effect some interpreters do give it such a meaning here beside this I say it is evident that most of the conceptions and affections and resolutions of the Soul do refer to words and external works as being the principles and motives of them For it is not possible that our words and works should be in the name of our LORD and Saviour except our understandings and wills do so address them and it 's properly this action of the Soul the Apostle signifies when he orders that we do in the name of CHRIST all we do The tongue indeed pronounceth the words and the hands and other parts of our bodies do execute those actions of ours which are called works But it 's the Spirit that moves them all and that directeth and guideth on their functions to that end or design it hath proposed to its self and draws them from such motives as it hath conceiv'd and form'd within its self And it is properly upon this that the difference of mens actions doth depend It 's this Character that gives them