Him His Spirit and His peace and the assured hope of everlasting life That this dutifulness of children towards their Parents is well-pleasing unto Him beside that the Apostle whose authority is irrefragable does expresly assert it here the LORD Himself doth evidence divers waies First by His commandment engraven by His own hand at the head of the second table of the Law Honour thy Father and thy Mother Secondly by the promise He annexeth thereunto to prolong your daies upon the earth if ye be diligent to discharge this duty In the third place by the punishments He threatens unto children disobeying their Father and Mother ordaining in the political laws of Israel Deut 21.18 Exod. 21.17 Lev. 20.9 that they should be publickly stoned by all the people of the City where they dwelt and else-where that they should irremissibly put to death him who cursed his Father or his Mother In another place He pronounceth by the mouth of sage Solomon Prov. 20.20 30.17 that the lamp of such a man shall be put out into blackest darkness and that the ravens of the valley shall pluck out and the young eagles eat the eye of him that mocketh his Father and despiseth the instruction of his Mother In fine the LORD 's calling Himself our Father and honouring us with the name of His children that He might oblige us to serve Him doth sufficiently shew of what kind and how holy and inviolable that obedience is which we owe to parents Mal. 1.6 If I be a Father saith He where is my Honour Not so much as Pagans but have acknowledged that the performance of this duty is well-pleasing to the Deity witness some of their Poets confidently promising a long and happy life to such as shall honour their Fathers and their Mothers and pay those just diligences to their old age which are due unto it But it is time to come to the other head of the Text wherein the Apostle after his having reduced children to their duty turns him unto Fathers and adviseth them to use the power he hath given them moderately and in such manner as their conduct may not tend but to their childrens benefit and their own contentment Fathers saith he provoke not your children lest they be discouraged This provocation which he forbids is an ill effect which the abuse of paternal authority produceth in the hearts of children when fathers exceed in rigour and treat them too roughly which comes to pass a great many waies First when they deny them a just allowance and what is necessary to accommodate them according to their birth The Apostle hath judged this so enormous a sin 1 Tim. 5.8 that he sticks not to say that he that commits it hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel Secondly Fathers provoke their children when they give them unrighteous and inhumane commands 1 Sam. 20.30 as when Saul would needs oblige Jonathan his son to hate and persecute David a very virtuous and innocent person whereupon ensued that this generous son most unworthy of so bad a Father was vexed and inflamed with despight and anger If the daughter of Herodias had had any sparkle of this good nature she would have been in like manner offended at that cruel and barbarous command her mother made her Mat. 14.8 to ask of King Herod the head of John the Baptist in a Charger 'T is also the provoking of a child when he shall without any necessity be compelled unto sordid and servile actions and such as are beneath his birth In this rank too I put those who without cause do beat their childrens ears with contumelious words whether present passion does inspire them or an ill-favoured custome hath habituated their tongues to so venomous a stile For we see some that cannot speak unto their children nor reprove them nor so much as call them to 'em in any other dialect but discharge at every turn an hail-shower of maledictions and opprobrious terms upon them A kind of carriage as abject and odious as may be extremely unworthy of any honest and ingenious man especially of a Christian whose mouth ought to be a source of blessing and have nothing issue from it but what is grave and holy and proper to edifie But neither is there any person with whom a wise man should less deal in that manner than his child whom such indiscretion doth deject and infinitely dismay if he hath ever so little spirit and sensibility It was with this black and piquant salt that Saul did season the remonstrances he made to his Jonathan Thou son saith he to him of a perverse 1 Sam. 20.30 rebellious woman do I not know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion and to the confusion of thy Mothers nakedness Are these the words of a Father and not rather of an Enemy yea of a barbarous enemy that hath neither honour nor civility As indeed it was choler that spake and not reason And he suffered himself to be so transported by the fury of his passion that after such a tempest of rude words he failed not to throw his lightning casting a javelin at him as the Scripture relateth it to smite him And this is the height of those excesses which the Apostle intends here by that provoking which he forbids when fathers chastise their children either without cause or without measure and beyond what they deserve For if justice oblige us to keep our minds free and composed in punishing the greatest strangers and the heynousest malefactors that we may exactly proportion the penalty to their faults Den as the LORD expresly commanded the Judges of His people how much more should a Father whose name breaths nothing but benignity and sweetness observe the same moderation when his business is to chasten his child GOD gives us example of it in His treatment of His children chastising them in very deed but as Himself says with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men 2 Sam. 7 1â— that is moderately and with an humane rod a rod tempered with gentleness and benignity The Apostle to take off Fathers from this fault shews them the evil that comes of it Provoke not your children saith he lest they be discouraged For there is nothing that doth more deject the heart of a child especially if ingenious than this rigour and roughness of a Father First it saddens him when in the countenance and actions of that person to whom of all men in the world he should in reason be dearest he sees nothing but anger and aversion This grief doth often cast him into languishings and mortal maladies which make Fathers regret and execrate though vainly and too late their unhappy and imprudent severity Then again this kind of carriage intimidateth children and depriveth them of all courage for any good and honest undertaking and smothereth in them all the fire and vivacity they had
good works so the exercise of good works cleanseth the eyes of our understandings and encreaseth true wisdom on the contrary the neglect of sanctification diminisheth this divine clearness in us and bringeth back by little and little the darkness of ignorance upon us For as the LORD giveth new graces to him that faithfully manageth His first presents so takes He away His Talent from Him that abuseth it Those that cast away a good conscience make shipwrack also of Faith and they that withhold the truth in unrighteousness are given up to a mind disfurnished of all judgement and GOD sendeth the efficacy of errour to those that receive not his Holy doctrine with love On the contrary He revealeth His secret and augmenteth His light to them that seek His commandments and are bent to do His will Let us hold fast therefore these two precious gifts of the LORD knowledge and good works Faith and Charity and studiously apply us to encrease the one by the other meditating and learning the mysteries of GOD that we may obey His will and obey His will that we may confirm our selves more and more in the knowledge of His mysteries Dear Brethren That which the Apostle hath desired for His Colossians is very much an accomplished knowledge of the Divine will a life worthy of the LORD a spiritual secondity fructifying in every good work and a continual advancement in heavenly wisdom Yet this is not all For how great and excellent soever these things be they suffice not without perseverance to conduct us to salvation and it 's impossible to persevere in them without a supernatural strength and firmness Therefore St. Paul wisheth again in the last place for these faithful people that they may be strengthened in all might according to the power of His glory in all suffering and patience of mind with joy This succour is necessary for us as well because of our own infirmities as for the multitude violence and obstinacy of our enemies For as to our selves though that celestial spirit wherewith GOD baptizeth us at the beginning of our vocation doth invest us with a new vigour yet so it is that there remaineth much weakness in us while we live on earth our inward man being yet but in its infancy a weak age and which easily lets it self sink if it be not sustained And as for our enemies we have a vast multitude of them that watch night and day to destroy us and ranged in diverse bands under the ensignes of the Devil the world and the flesh the principal heads of this black Army conjured to our ruine cease not to trouble us leaving nor wile nor forcible attempt nor malice nor violence nor threatning nor promise un-employed against us If we have repulsed one of them 〈◊〉 return again upon us diverse others which essay us on all sides espy where 〈…〉 weak and oftentimes turn our own weapons against us If we have overthrown avarice voluptuousness sets its self on foot If we defeat it also ambition enters in its place Hatred unites with it Desire of revenge pusheth us on Wrath provoketh us Envy seizeth us Persecution troubleth us Prosperity pusseth us up the success of our own combats tickleth us Oftentimes that which helps us on one hand hurts us on another as in a complicated disease in which the remedies cross one another or that which is good for the liver is dangerous for the Stomach Who seeth not that to preserve our selves in such a mingled Combate and against so many charges so confused and so obstinate for they last as long as our lives we have need of an extraordinary might we who of our selves have so little that we are insufficient even for one good thought But GOD armeth us with the power of His Spirit as with an impenetrable buckler under which we stand in covert amid that thick hail of blows that falls continually about us It 's this Divine power the Apostle wisheth here to the Colossians when he prayeth that they might be strengthened in all might that their souls might be confirmed their hearts hardned as a Diamond to resist all assaults their courages vested with an heroick ardour and firmness which all the rages of Hell or earth may never be able to overcome He prayeth they may be strengthened in all might because as we have to do with divers enemies and are sick of divers infirmities we have need to receive not one or two kinds of strength only but many different ones For even as in nature you see the strength of bodies is different one resisting one thing and yielding to another one having the vertue to repulse the force of one element but not to gard it self from another So in a manner is it in the souls of men Such a man will bravely free himself from the tentation of one Vice that will not be able to defend himself from another Such a man shall resist the violences of the world as will yield to the charms of its caresses Since that to lose a Victory it is enough to be overcome though by but one of their enemies 't is with great reason that the Apostle for preserving to these Colossians the honour of their Crown and Triumph wisheth them all strength that is a perfect strength which may be of proof against all the strokes of the enemy which may boldly undertake good and holy actions how high and difficult soever they be which may valiantly combate vices resolutely despise earthly things vigorously repell tentations and generously suffer afflictions He sheweth us also by the way the source of this heavenly might when after having wished that the Colossians might be strengthned in all might he addeth according to the power of the glory of GOD that is according to His glorious power by a manner of speaking ordinary in the style of the Hebrews Whence is it that these faithful people do receive this admirable strength necessary for their salvation From the glorious power of the LORD saith the Apostle that is from that immense and efficacious puissance of GOD which nothing can resist The Holy Spirit is so named in St. Luke Lâ—k 24.49 where the LORD commandeth His Apostles to tarry at Jerusalem untill they be indued with power from on high that is the Spirit he had promised them And St. Paul elsewhere making for the Ephesians a petition altogether like this which he here presents to GOD for the Colossians clearly termeth that the Spirit of GOD Ephes 3.16 which in this passage he calleth the Vertue or Power of His glory GOD grant you saith he that you may be powerfully strengthned by His Spirit in the inner man He calleth this Vertue of the Spirit of God glorious to express its admirable and unsurmountable force which triumpheth magnificently over all that opposeth its action which with the weakest means accomplisheth the greatest things which changeth when it will Shepheards into Law-givers and Kings Cow-heards into Prophets and Persecutors
into Apostles which beats down the proudest fierceness and preserves invincible the most despicable weakness which hardneth the bodies of it's humble Warriours as Steel maintaineth them in the flames and confounds with their lowness the fury of Elements of Men and of Devils For this is that the Sacred Writers ordinarily call glory even an abundance of beauty of power and perfection so rich as it over-bears our senses and makes to bend under it all the vigour of our Spirits reducing them to admiration and astonishment And St. Paul somewhat frequently useth this word in this sense as when he saith that CHRIST was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father that is by His great and unspeakable power Whence it appeareth that the Vertue which converteth us to GOD and that which conserveth us in His grace is not a common and ordinary might but an invincible efficacy which nothing can resist Seek it not in your own nature Christian soul seek it in GOD and acknowledging your weakness ask of Him the remedy of it If it betide you to resist the enemy and to remain victorious in any combate render all the glory of it to this Soveraign LORD without attributing ought of it to your self But the Apostle sheweth us in what follows what is the use and effect of the succour which the glorious power of the LORD giveth us who strengthneth us unto all suffering saith he and patience of mind with joy These are the two productions of the Spirit of GOD in a faithful soul patience and long waiting in which principally our strength consisteth These are as the two hands of Heaven that sustain us in perils and keep us from sinking under the weight of those evils wherewith we often find our selves surcharged And though both the two are of a very like nature yet they have each of them something particular Sufferance beareth the evil without bending submitting to it at its inflicting humbly and standing firm under this rude load The Spirit patient or long-waiting for so the term used here in the Original doth properly signifie lends it the hand afterward and attendeth without murmuring for deliverance from the evil it suffers and for enjoyment of the good it hopeth Sufferance respecteth the very weight and heaviness of the affliction The long-waiting of the patient Spirit respects the duration of it These two vertues are absolutely necessary for a Christian For without them how should he support either the chastisements of GOD or the persecutions of the world How should he be firm in the exercise of other vertues to discharge the Offices of them against the impediments that thwart them every hour Tertull. de patient Patience saith an Ancient is the Superintendant of all the affairs of GOD and without it it is not possible to execute His commands or to wait for His promises 'T is it that defeateth all its enemies without toil It s repose is more efficacious than the motion and action of others 'T is it that makes healthful to us things of their own nature most pernicious It changeth for us poisons into remedies and defeats into victories It rejoyceth the Angels it confoundeth Devils it overcometh the world It mollifieth the hardest courages and converteth the most obstinate hearts It is the strength and the triumph of the Church according to the saying of the ancient Oracle By keeping you quiet and by rest you shall be delivered your strength shall be in silence and in hope But the Apostle to shew us what this patience is to which the Spirit of GOD formeth His children saith that it is with joy This is the true Character of Christian patience The Hypocrite suffers sometimes but it is murmuring And the Philosophers yere while made a great shew of their patience but it was only an effect either of their stiffness or of their stupidity which was no wayes accompanied with the joy which the Holy GHOST sheds into the souls of those that suffer for the name of GOD. Not that they are insensible or that they receive the evil on them without grief But if the evil they suffer do sad them this very thing rejoyceth them that by the grace of their LORD they have the strength and the courage to suffer it and do know that their suffering shall turn to their good and that from these thornes they shall one day reap the flowers and fruits of blessed immortality To which may be added the sweetness which is then shed into their heart by the vive and profound impression of that only Comforter who communicates himself to them on such occasions more freely than ever and can by the ineffable Vertue of His balm their most bitter wounds This is that Dear Brethren which we had to say to you on this Text of the holy Apostle Let us receive his doctrine with faith and religiously obey his voice He sheweth us what our task is here below Let us acquit our selves in it with care GOD of His Grace hath raised up among 〈◊〉 a great light of knowledge let us employ it to its true use and walk with it in such a sort as may be worthy of so holy and merciful a LORD whose name we bear Let this great Name awaken our sences and affections let it pluck them off from the Earth and elevate them to Heaven where He reigneth who hath given it to us Let this Name put into our hearts a secret shame to do or think ought that may be unworthy thereof Faithful Sirs remember you are Christians as oft as flesh or earth sollicits you to evil Put the world by 'T is not to please it that you have been regenerated by the Spirit from on high The World is so unjust so humorous and so changing that 't is impossible to content it See in what pain and torment they continually live that attempt it And though you should compass it the success would cost you dear By pleasing the world you would displease your own Conscience the contenting whereof is infinitely more important to you than any thing else But with GOD it is quite otherwise His will is constant and still the same without any variation or change Nothing is pleasing to Him but what is just and reasonable Your Conscience will find in it its entire satisfaction and never reproach you for having served so good a Master Not to alledge to you that the World after you shall have killed your self to serve it will pay you only with ingratitude and contempt as experience daily shews us whereas the LORD will magnificently reward the care you shall have taken to do His will comforting and blessing you in this world Crowning and glorifying you in the other If you demand what must be done to please Him the Apostle shews you in a word Fructifie saith he in every good work As often as the LORD shall cast His eyes on this Vineyard let Him see it still laden with good fruits Let Him never
and against the seditious within It 's with this Science he buildeth the House of GOD it is with the same also that he cleanseth and keepeth it pure Whatever the enemy be that appears he sets against him nothing at all but his Crucified JESUS For even as in nature no sooner doth the Sun appear in our horizon opening its beautiful and brightsome visage to the world but the shade and cloudiness that filled the air doth immediately vanish away so in the Church when the LORD JESUS ariseth in the hearts of men there shedding abroad the riches of His saving light and shewing His fairness to open view at the same instant errour and abuse do disappear being unable to sustain the force of this divine brightness and as the Psalmist sings on another occasion If He arise His enemies are dispersed and they that are against Him flee before Him He driveth them away as wind doth the smoke This then is the only assured means either to preserve or recover truth and the purity of heavenly doctrine even to propose JESUS CHRIST incessantly to the faithful and diligently shew them all His riches all His Vertue and His Grace This is the Apostle's method Thus he doth on all occasions still reducing his Schollars to JESUS CHRIST So you see in the Epistle to the Hebrews that he might put-by the shadows of the Jewish Law wherewith some of that Nation endeavoured to darken the Gospel he sheweth them at the beginning the majesty and divinity of the LORD JESUS setting Him up above men and Angels on the Throne of a super-eminent glory Thus he doth in this Epistle and indeed he combateth here a like errour For after he had saluted the Colossians and given them some tokens of the affection he bore them as you heard afore he now beginneth to speak to them of JESUS CHRIST discovering His Divine glory and the fulness of His goodness to them that being content with so rich a treasure they might not go beg either the succour of Moses or the assistance of Philosophy for the saving of their souls It is precisely at the Text we have read that he beginneth this excellent discourse For having before thanked GOD for the grace He had shewed the Colossians in translating them into the Kingdom of His well-beloved Son he takes occasion from thence to speak of Him adding In whom we have deliverance by His blood to wit the remission of sins This is the great benefit we have received from GOD by means of JESUS CHRIST Then he describeth in connexion herewith the excellency and divinity of His person Who is saith he the image of the invisible GOD the first-born of every creature But for this time we will content our selves with the first point the meditating whereof as you see My Brethren is very suitable to the action of the Holy Supper to which we are invited wherein the remission of sins which we have in JESUS CHRIST is sealed to us by His Sacrament wherein the blood by which He hath purchased it is represented and communicated to us wherein JESUS the Author of this benefit is pourtrayed before our eyes as broken and dead for us and as feeding us to everlasting life Lift we up then our hearts with religious attention that having rightly comprehended both the greatness of the grace of GOD and the excellency of His CHRIST we may present Him souls lively affected with sense of His goodness and may receive in consequence of it that joy and blessed life which He promiseth to all those that shall approach Him with such a disposition To aid you in so necessary a meditation I will examine if the LORD please what the Apostle teacheth us concerning the benefit which we receive of God in His Son saying that we have in Him deliverance by His blood to wit the remission of Sins In these words he briefly pointeth out who is the Author of deliverance even JESUS CHRIST what is the deliverance it self namely the remission of sins what the means is by which JESUS CHRIST hath obtained it for us even by His blood and lastly who they are that receive it from GOD namely we that is to say the Faithful He had said afore that GOD hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into His Kingdom Now he sheweth us by whom He effected that great work adding that we have deliverance in JESUS CHRIST He is the Author of our redemption our only deliverer the Prince of our salvation But whereas the Apostle saith that it is in Him we have deliverance this may be taken two wayes both of them good and commodious First as signifying that it is by Him we have been delivered For it is an Hebrew manner of speech frequent in Scripture to say in instead of by And after this sense the Apostle declareth how it is by JESUS CHRIST His Son that GOD hath accomplished the work of His good pleasure towards us having constituted Him the Mediator of mankind who according to the will of Him that sent him perfectly executed all those things that were necessary to put us in possession of salvation But this word in may also be taken in the sense it hath in our vulgar language as signifying our spiritual communion with the LORD by reason whereof we are said to be in Him and He in us 1 Jo. 2.2 For though He be the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world and the worth of His sacrifice so great as that it abundantly sufficeth to expiate all the crimes of the universe and although the salvation obtained by Him be offered in effect and by His will unto all men yet none actually enjoy it but those that enter into His communion by Faith and are in him by that means as that clause of His covenant expresly importeth Joh. 3.16 GOD hath so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life 1 Jo. 5.12 When it is that St. John protesteth aloud He that hath the Son hath life He that hath not the Son of GOD hath not life which is as much as if He had said He that is in JESUS CHRIST hath life and he that is not in Him hath not life according to what our LORD Himself said to His Apostles Joh. 15.3 Out of me ye can do nothing So you see this sence is good and clear and containeth an excellent doctrine That to enjoy salvation by JESUS CHRIST we must be in Him Nevertheless because the Apostle in this place designeth to shew us what the LORD hath done for our salvation rather than what He requireth of us for our participating thereof I would more readily take the words the first way in whom that is by whom we have deliverance And this indeed is the commonest exposition which the most and best Interpreters both ancient and modern do follow Let us next consider what the benefit of
GOD is which we have by JESUS CHRIST It is Deliverance saith the Apostle The word he useth in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particularly signifieth a deliverance effected by some ransom given for bringing the delivered out of the bast estate he was in and it is properly that which we call Redemption For a man may be delivered divers wayes either by being simply put out of the affliction he was in as when a master enfranchiseth his slave setting him at liberty of His good will or when a Creditor lets his Debtor out of prison forgiving him the debt or by exchange as when one prisoner of War goes for another or by forcible recovery as when Abraham delivered Lot by defeating his enemies and David his people that had been taken by the Amalekites The deliverance we have by JESUS CHRIST is not of this sort He hath procured it by the ransome He gave for us and it 's this that the word Redemption here used by the Apostle doth signifie But the same term informeth us also that the benefit which we have received of Him is not simply the gift of life It is a deliverance which brings us out of some misery GOD gave life and immortality to the Angels but He gave them no deliverance since they never were in sin or misery and before Adam's fall He promised Him life it 's true but not salvation and redemption because man was then in his integrity without sin and misery likewise The benefit we receive of Him by JESUS CHRIST is not simply life and immortality it is a deliverance a salvation a redemption that not only conferreth some good on us but taketh us out from sin and freeth us from misery The Apostle explains it us more particularly when he adds That this redemption which we have in JESVS CHRIST is the remission of sins True it is the word Redemption is general comprising under it deliverance from any evil whatsoever certain it is also that the number of our evils is great and that JESUS CHRIST hath delivered us not from one or two evils only but from all He hath delivered us from the ignorance into which we were naturally plunged He hath delivered us from the bondage of the Flesh the lusts whereof did exercise an horrible tyranny in our members He hath delivered us from that death which we were made subject unto and from the curse of the Eternal Father which we had deserved For which cause the Apostle elsewhere saith that JESUS CHRIST is made unto us not simply righteousness but also wisdom sanctification and redemption and in a multitude of places that He hath brought us out of darkness and delivered us from the tyrannous power of sin and death But though all this be very sure yet in this place he restraineth the Redemption we have in JESUS CHRIST to the remission of sins and that in my opinion for two reasons First because remission of sin is the first and the principal of His benefits the basis and foundation of all the rest which necessarily leads them on and without which it is not possible to reach any of them For sin as you know is expresly that which makes separation between GOD and us The cause why this most merciful and all-powerful Ruler of the world taketh from us the light of His knowledge and the communication of His goodness leaving us in the darkness of errour and in misery is neither hatred nor contempt nor disdain of His creatures It 's nothing but our Sin His justice and soveraign equity permitting Him not to crown with His blessings people that are criminal JESUS CHRIST therefore intervening and procuring for us the remission of our sins thereby bringeth us out of the ill case we were in and openeth the fountain of celestial good which was before shut up by Justice This obstacle being removed this sluice if I may so say opened Divine goodness recovering its natural course floweth forth upon us and poureth into us light peace holiness and life It is not then to exclude these other benefits of the Redemption which is by JESUS CHRIST that the Apostle defineth it hereby the remission of sins For it compriseth them all none having this remission but they have also upon it all the LORD 's other graces but to shew us the due order of all the parts of this deliverance of which remission of sin is the first and principal Secondly the Apostle doth this because the ransome which the word Redemption doth imply was not properly necessary save for obtaining the remission of sins Except for this there was no need that JESUS CHRIST should lay down His life for us For supposing that a pure and sinless creature should have lain in ignorance and misery and if you will even in death it self There would have been no necessity that the Son of God should have shed His blood or suffered death to bring it up thence It would have sufficed He had loved it His good will would have immediately moved His power to display it self in its behalf and fetch it out of its distress there being nothing to hinder this natural operation of His goodness and so the happiness of such a creature would have been simply a deliverance and not a redemption But forasmuch as we were sinners it was necessary for our recovery that JESUS CHRIST should make His soul an offering for sin and pay the ransome of our liberty Whence it follows that to speak properly and exactly there is nothing but the remission of sins that should be called redemption as the Apostle defineth it in this place the other deliverances which we obtain by our LORD being only fruits and consequents of the remission of sin This then is the grand atchievement of the Son of GOD the miracle of His goodness and love that He hath procured and obtained for us the remission of our sins This is our true redemption Without this redemption we should still be enemies of GOD. We should not have any part either in His grace or in His glory Be even what you can desire in other respects Have all the goods of the earth all perfections of body and mind Be Monark of the whole world Have if it were possible the lights of Angels and the riches of their knowledge If you have not the remission of your sins you are a bondman and a wretch a slave to Devils and vanity and death since true redemption is the remission of sins But as without it it is impossible to be otherwise than infinitly wretched so with it it is not possible to be otherwise than infinitely happy The repose of the conscience the illumination of the understanding the jewel of sanctification the Graces of the celestial spirit life and immortality do inseparably follow it Go in peace said the LORD JESUS to those whose sins He pardoned as if He had said thou hast nothing more to fear since thy sin is forgiven thee There is no
first-born of every creature He simply meaneth that He is the Master of them and not as the hereticks pretend that He is a Creature as they are and only created before them For the reason which St. Paul annexeth taken from His having created them concludeth rightly that He is Master of them but not that He was created Himself Otherwise it must by the same means be said that the Father who created all things was also created Himself a blasphemy which the most shameless hereticks would abhorr For if the Apostles discourse be good and pertinent as all Christians confess thus must His reasoning be Whoever hath created all things the same is the first-born of every creature But the LORD JESUS hath created all things He is therefore the first-born of every creature There you see clearly that this first proposition Whoever hath created all things is the first-born of every creature cannot be true save in this sense that He is the master of every creature but it is evidently false in the sense that the hereticks take the words first-born of every creature that is created before every other creature it being clear that the Father who created all things is eternal and sure was not created It must therefore of necessity be said that the Apostle by the first-born of every creature doth mean their LORD and Master Otherwise His discourse would not be pertinent But having sufficiently justified in our last action and cleared this conclusion of St. Pauls that the Son of GOD is the first-born of every creature let us consider now the reason of it he alledgeth drawn from hence viz. that He created all things and that they are all for Him and all subsist by Him that is to say He is the Author the End and the Conserver of them It is a truth of infinite importance in Christian Religion both of it self and for its own merit as also for the great contradictions it hath suffered at all times from the enemies of the Divinity of JESUS CHRIST both ancient and modern who have put to it all their force that they might either overthrow or at least shake it For this cause we are obliged to examine the present Text wherein it is so statelily founded with so much the more care and that we may omit nothing which is necessary for the clearing of it we will consider in the first place what the Apostle saith of the Son of GOD that All things were created by Him and for Him and that He is before all things and that they all subsist by Him Next we will view in the second place the division he maketh of all these things which the LORD created some they that are in Heaven others they that are in earth some visible others invisible as Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers These shall be if the LORD will the two parts and as it were the two Articles of this Action May it please GOD to guide us by His Spirit in so sublime a meditation and to enable us by His grace to refer it to His glory and to our own edification and consolation In the former of these two Articles the Apostle as you see saith first that All things were created by JESVS CHRIST secondly that they were all created for Him in the third place that He is before all things and lastly that they all subsist by Him For though these four points be near a kin and necessarily linked the one with the others yet they are distinct at the bottome and ought to come under consideration severally there being neither of them but doth contribute somthing particular to the glory of our great GOD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The first is plain that All things were created by JESVS CHRIST For where is the Christian who understands not this and knows not that to create doth signifie in the use of Scripture to make a thing either of nothing or of a matter which had no disposedness to the form that it receiveth And forasmuch as there is none but the Divine Power that is capable of such an action or operation thence it comes that this word is never attributed to any but GOD only There 's none but He that doth create things For this cause among the other Titles which are given him for marks of His glory He is stiled The Creator this Title appertaining unto Him alone When the Apostle then saith here and twice repeats it That all things were created by the Son he signifieth that it is of Him they received all the being they have that it is He who by this Noble and Divine manner of working which the Scripture calls Creation brought them from non-being to a being who by His infinite power produced the matter of which they consist prepar'd it and fitted it as it now is investing it with those forms and admirable qualities on which all the motions of their nature do depend that is to say in one word The LORD JESUS is the Creator of the Universe It was not possible to express this truth more clearly And thus it is that all Christians always understood this passage until those new Enemies of the Divinity of our LORD who blasphemously say that He hath no actual subsistence in the world but since His birth of the holy Virgin they not able to bear so respendent a light have endeavoured to obscure it by the fumes of their frivolous and false glosses They say therefore that the word Create signifieth in this place mearly to reform and re-establish things to put them in a better estate than they were in and not to bring them out of nothing and give them their whole being They will have it that the Apostle by saying All things were created by JESVS doth intend not the first Creation of the World when arising out of nothing it receiv'd its natural being and form from the Creator But the Renovation of the World wrought by the Preaching of the Gospel and by the word of the Apostles whom the LORD sent to reform the Nations and to put things in an incomparably better and more happy estate than they were in before Enslav'd they were to the Empire of Sin and Satan whereas by the Doctrine and Power of the LORD JESUS they have now been consecrated to God and sanctified to His glory Unto this I answer That it 's true the World was renewed by the Gospel inasmuch as this holy Doctrine did abolish both the Ceremonies of Moses's Discipline and the false Religions of the Heathen and formed in the whole earth a new people that serve God in Spirit and in Truth being created in righteousness and holiness I acknowledge also that this Renovation is the work of a Divine Power and could not have been effected by any Humane or Angelical strength by reason whereof it may and ought to be called a Creation it being evident that there was need of no less vertue to reform the World than to create it And finally I
be restrained to this matter and we are precisely to understand that He is the beginning of this second work of GOD. JESUS CHRIST the eternal wisdom may say in respect of this second creation what it saith of the first that the Father possessed Him in the begining of His ways and that it is the same wisdom that projected prepared and executed all this great design of the renovation of the world First it is the Son of GOD who intervening at the beginning in the counsel of the Father took upon Him the expiating of Sin without which it was not possible to found this second Frame And though he actually did it not till the fulness of time yet His engaging His word for it being once accepted of the Father it had as much efficacy as if the thing it self had been then already executed and performed which makes the Apostle elsewhere say that JESVS CHRIST is the same both yesterday and to day and for ever He hath the same efficacy always as well before as after His manifestation Without this not a man could have been called into the state of Grace Therefore St. Paul saith in another place that GOD hath chosen us in JESUS CHRIST considering Him as the foundation of our election because out of Him there could not be salvation or happiness for any one of us He is therefore truly the beginning of this work since His merit is the foundation of the counsel GOD hath taken to make and form it as St. Peter also observes when speaking of the redemption wrought by the blood of the Lamb he saith expresly that He was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world But beside the merit of His Cross which was from all time present in the counsel of GOD He is further the beginning or the principle of the Church another way even by the operation and efficacy of His power having called unto GOD all the faithful that ever were It 's He that brought Abraham out of Chaldea It 's He that appeared to the Patriarchs and that led Israel in the desert and that inspired the Prophets Psal 110.1 Whence it comes that David calls Him his LORD He builded and kept up that whole ancient Church as well as the latter by the vertue of His word and Spirit But He is again the beginning of the Church in the quality of a pattern and an exemplary cause the faithful of all ages having all been as it were cast into His mould as the Apostle teacheth at the eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans saying that all those whom GOD hath fore-known He hath predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son And it 's to no purpose to object that this cannot be said of that time when He had not yet assumed that humane nature tempted on earth and crowned in Heaven unto which we are conformed For to this I answer first that though that nature were not really yet in being it is enough that its idea and image was in the mind of GOD for the assimilating and conforming His work thereto This sufficeth to shew that He is the beginning and principle of it But I adjoyn in the second place that this work the Church may be considered two wayes either in its beginnings while it is yet but forming or in its perfection as finished when it hath all the touches requisite to set it in the highest degree of excellency which it must abide in I confess the Church under the first consideration had its being before the Son of GOD was made man and raised up to Heaven But if you take it under the second it is evident that in this respect He is truly the beginning of this Divine work For no one was perfect before Him He is if I may so say the first piece fully ended that ever came out of the Fathers hand and His own No one of the rest is absolutely completed Their bodies are yet under the power of Death the last of our enemies CHRIST is the only one that hath altogether broken its bonds and raised up His body from the grave and clothed it with glorious immortality He is the first man of the new world that the universe ever saw and it 's in Him hath been shewed us the true form of that second nature which we hope for in the time to come but which none hath or shall have for the present save JESUS CHRIST alone It seems to be this properly that the Apostle here intendeth when he calleth Him the beginning or principle because he addeth the first-born from the dead which words as you see do evidently correspond with this sense St. John also giveth this quality to the LORD Rev. 1.5 Grace be unto you and peace saith he from JESVS CHRIST who is the faithful witness 1 Cor. 15.20 23. the first-born from the dead And St. Paul illustrates this expression elsewhere saying to the same purpose that JESVS CHRIST being raised from the dead was become the first-fruits of them that sleep And a little after In JESVS CHRIST saith he shall all be made alive But every man in his own order CHRIST the first-fruits afterwards they that are CHRIST's And otherwhere yet Act. 26.23 in the Acts he saith it was necessary that CHRIST should be the first that rose from the dead who might shew light to the people From all these places doth sufficiently appear what the Apostle signifieth when he saith that JESVS CHRIST is the beginning and the first-born from the dead to wit that He is the first of all mankind who was raised from the state of the dead and setled in glorious immortality that He is the first ear of this blessed harvest that was carryed up into the Sanctuary and offered in due season to the eternal Father untill the rest do become ripe This truth is throughly evident For of what other man but the Lord JESUS was it ever heard say that he arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven I know the Scripture telleth us of some dead that were raised before the resurrection of the LORD But this deprives Him not at all of the glory which the Apostle here giveth Him For that I may not alledge that those persons were raised from the grave not by their own force and vertue as JESUS CHRIST but by the touching or prayer of Eliah and Elishah and by GOD's command I say that the resurrection which St. Paul understandeth is the rising again unto glory and immortality It 's a being born again not to the former life which is terrene and fading but to the other which is celestial and incorruptible Who seeth not that in this sence there never was nor yet is any raised again except the LORD JESUS alone For the Son of the Shunamite Lazarus and the others of like quality at their coming forth of the grave did reassume that same natural and perishing life which they had laid down a life subject to
Himself without witness and that He hath made manifest in His works what may be known of Him But all this light doth only shew us the greatness of their corruption For they with all the vivacity of their spirits made no proficiency in the School of Providence unto the fearing of GOD and serving Him but became vain in their reasonings and miserably abused the gifts of Heaven so as the whole success of this dispensation was nought else on their part but that they were thereby rendred inexcusable Conclude we then that all men generally not one excepted are of their own nature such as the Apostle here describes the Colossians strangers and enemies to GOD in their understanding in wicked works There is nothing but the word of the LORD alone which is able to bring them out of this estate by the saving grace of His Spirit wherewith GOD accompanies it And this the Apostle representeth here to the Colossians in the second place For having minded them of their former condition he addeth Yet now hath GOD reconciled you by the body of His flesh that is the flesh of JESUS CHRIST by His death The condition they were in before was very miserable For what can be imagined more wretched than men far from and strangers to GOD in whose communion alone all their welfare consisteth men enemies to Him without whose love they can have no true good yet besides misery there was horrour also in their case Misery doth ordinarily stir up pity their 's was worthy of abhorring and hatred For what is there in the world that less deserves the compassion of GOD and men or is more worthy of the execration of Heaven and Earth than a Subject that withdraweth from His Soveraign that hates Him and Warrs against Him that insolently violates all His Laws and abandons himself to all the crimes He hath forbidden especially if the Soveraign be gracious and beneficent as the LORD is the only Author of all the being life and motion that we have Nevertheless Oh inestimable and incomprehensible goodness GOD for all this forbore not to have pity on the Colossians He sought to them when they were alienated from Him He offered them peace when they made War upon Him He took them for His friends and chose them for His Children when they shewed Him the greatest hatred and enmity Their wicked works deserved His curse and He bestowed on them His grace Their rebellion deserved His direful flashes and He sent them His comfortable light This opposition the Apostle indicateth here when he saith And yet you hath God reconciled A like opposition he expresseth elsewhere Rom. 5.8 in the same matter saying GOD altogether commendeth His love to us-ward in that while we were but sinners CHRIST dyed for us For the setting forth of this great grace of GOD towards these faithful people he saith that GOD hath reconciled them Having spoken of their estrangement and of their enmity with GOD He doth with good reason make use of the word Reconcile to signifie the setting of them again in His good liking and favour It happens somtimes in the misunderstandings of men that the averseness and hatred is but on one side one of the parties seeking the favour of the other Here as we have yerst intimated the aversion was mutual For we hated GOD and He because of our sins hated us It was necessary therefore for the restoring of us that both the one and the other of these two passions should be remedied that is that the wrath of GOD against us should be appeased and our hatred and enmity against Him extinguished The word Reconcile doth of its self comprehend both the one and the other But in the Apostle's writings it referreth principally to the first that is the mitigation and appeasing of the wrath of GOD. As indeed this is the principal point of our reconciliation For GOD being our soveraign LORD it would not benefit us at all to change our will towards Him if His did not operate otherwise towards us as the repentance and tears of a subject are vain if his Prince reject them and remain still angry with Him Furthermore the word Reconcile as also the most part of other words of like form and nature is taken two manner of ways For either it signifies simply the action that hath such vertue as is necessary to make reconciliation or it compriseth the effect of it also It 's in the first sense that the Apostle used it afore where he said that GOD hath reconciled all things celestial and terrestrial in Himself or for Himself having made peace by the blood of the cross of CHRIST For he meaneth simply that GOD hath taken away the causes of hatred and enmity and opened the way of reconciliation not that all things are already actually reconciled It 's thus again that we must take 2 Cor. 5.19 what he saith elsewhere that GOD was in CHRIST reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing unto them their trespasses But the Apostle takes the word Reconcile in the second sense when he saith that we have obtained reconciliation by CHRIST and when he beseecheth us to be reconciled to GOD it being evident that in these places he intendeth not the right and power only but the very effect and actual having of reconciliation It 's after this second way that we must take the word reconcile in the Text. For again this Reconciation may be considered two ways first in general as made by JESUS CHRIST on the Cross and secondly in particular as applyed to each of us by Faith In the first consideration it is presented to all men as sufficient for their salvation according to that doctrine of the Apostle Tit. 2.11 1 Joh. 2.2 that the Grace of GOD is saving to all men and that also of St. John that JESVS CHRIST is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world Under the second consideration it appertaineth only to the faithful according to that clause of the covenant which declareth That the only Son was given to the world that whosoever believeth in Him Joh. 3.16 should have eternal life It 's precisely in this sense the Apostle saith here that GOD had reconciled the Colossians he meaneth not simply that GOD had given them through the cross of His Son that they might be reconciled to Him by believing but also that He had effectively reconciled them to Himself and put them in real possession of the benefits that were purchased for us by the merit of CHRIST embracing them as His children pardoning them all their sins and obliviating all His wrath and the aversion their offences had given Him towards them But the Apostle mentions to them yet again here the means by which this reconciliation was effected as being a thing of infinite importance both to the glory of GOD and their edification He hath reconciled you saith he by the body of His
which he grounded this assurance â— Tim 4 7. saith particularly That he had kept the faith Whence appears that there are two sorts of persons which shall be excluded from the salvation of GOD purchased by the merit of JESUS CHRIST First all the rebellious and unbelieving that give no faith to the Promises and Declarations of the bounty of GOD as our Saviour said He that shall not believe shall be condemned Mark 16.16 John 3.36 He that disobeyeth the Son shall not see life but the wrath of GOD abideth on him Secondly they that believe but it is for a time only such as abide not in the faith but having receiv'd it at the beginning afterwards quit and reject it Whether it be that the scorching heat of persecution doth dry up and consume the tender bud or the overflowing irruption of pleasures or of worldly affairs doth carry it away Whether it be that the cares of covetousness or ambition do suffocate it or the deceitfulness of error and the hand of false Teachers do pluck it up out of their heart The Apostle therefore requires of the Colossians that to the end they might partake of the salvation of GOD they not only have faith but do persevere in it If indeed saith he you continue in the faith Yet this is not all he willeth moreover That they be founded and firm I grant it seldom happens that this vain and feeble faith which consists only in a naked profession and some slight movings of heart doth endure to the end in those that have it Scandal or tentation most commonly plucketh off their mask and openly carrieth them out of the fellowship of the Church Yet it seemeth not impossible but they may continue even to the last in this estate As a little chaff may abide in the floor if the wind blow not So there is some probability that these same persons in like manner may remain mingled with the truly faithful even until death if persecution or offence do not fasten on them But suppose that this do happen for all that they shall not be saved because the faith they have and in which they will have persisted is a nullity to which GOD hath promis'd nothing it s the shadow and the Idol not the substance and reality of faith Whence it follows that as chaff though it remain in the floor yet is not lock'd up in the Granary with the Wheat but left out or burned as an useless thing So likewise these people that have but this vain faith suppose they do abide in GOD's floor that is in the external Communion of the Church unto the end yet shall not for all this enter into His heavenly Garner that is His Kingdom but be excluded thence and rejected as having no lot or portion with true Believers They will think it fair to alledge that they have lived in the Church of CHRIST that they have perhaps even prophesied and cast out Devils and done wonderful works in His Name the LORD will openly tell them I never knew you Depart from me ye that make a trade of iniquity Mat. 7.22.23 The Apostle therefore to shew that he speaks of perseverance not in this vain shadow of faith but in true faith doth not simply say If ye continue in the faith but addeth being founded and firm If the Hypocrite or the Temporary do continue in the Profession or in the rudiments of Piety it is not because they are founded but because they are not tempted as a woman that remaineth chaste only for not having been sollicited to evil They ow their perseverance to the enemies favourableness and not to their own firmness This false constancy may deceive a man who seeth but the outside and the event of things But it cannot deceive GOD who knoweth the inside of it and who soundeth hearts and judgeth of things by what they are not by what they appear or by the events they have The Apostle therefore willeth that for partaking of His salvation we have true perseverance and do continue in the faith not simply and in any sort whatever but through being founded in it and firm GOD doth save such only It is but for them that He hath prepared His Kingdom The former of these two words here used by the Apostle is taken from buildings which being founded deep in the earth upon a rock are firm and solid and of proof against time and storms whereas buildings which have no foundation or but on sand are feeble and unable to resist the shock The LORD made use of this same comparison in the Parable we touched at the beginning and He reâ—â—â—ects on it too in that famous promise which He made S. Peter of building His Church in such manner on the stone that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The other word which the Apostle useth hath the same meaning and properly signifies in the Original a thing in such a settlement as 't is difficult to move and stagger it A thing that is fixedly seated and placed and neither branleth nor changeth This is the settlement of true Believers who shall have part in the salvation of GOD. Their faith founded on the Eternal Rock JESUS CHRIST their Lord seated and placed upon this immovable Basis abideth firm and not to be shaken The torrents and the winds do shock it in vain the tempests and the floods may beat upon it they cannot overthrow it Upon this Doctrine of the Apostle we shall raise two Observations The first is That the faith of those who persevere in the sense he intendeth doth differ from the faith of them who revolt not only in the event for that the one faileth and the other persisteth and abideth but also in the nature of the thing it self For the one are founded and firm and the others are not so Who sees not that there is a great difference between a house which is well founded and an house which is but built upon the sand JESUS CHRIST and His Apostle expresly declare that such as stand are founded and that such as fall are not Certainly then the faith of the former is quite different from the faith of the latter and this different success of the one and the others in that the one do fall and the others bear up doth indeed discover to us the difference which is between them but doth not make it It is the effect of it not the cause an argument of it not the original The same thing appears also from the comparing of the one elswhere to wheat and the others to chaff The wheat is not wheat because it abideth in the floor but clean contrary it abideth in the floor because it is wheat and in like manner the chaff becomes not chaff because it goeth out of the floor but on the contrary it goes out thence because it was chaff This diversity of events doth evidence the weightiness and firmness of the one and the levity of
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
float in your head to be pluckt away by an enemy on the first occasion It must be engraven on your heart with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond that is you should be so firmly perswaded of it as nothing may be able to efface it and enfeeble your belief of it I know well every one boasteth to be so But there is a great difference between words and things themselves Shew it me by your lives and I will credit it If you be fully perswaded of the truth of the Gospel How is it that you have not the charity which it so necessarily commandeth us How do you hate men whom it commandeth you to love and love the vices which it enjoyneth you to hate Let us lay by words and possess in deed that full certainty of understanding which the Apostle wisheth us This is the true way for us to abide all joyned together in charity to conflict with and overcome our enemies to edifie and preserve our friends to attract those that are without to retain those that are within to enjoy much consolation in all the trials of this world and to obtain in the end the Salvation and the glory of the other through the grace of our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD be all honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen The SEVENTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER III. Vers III. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledg IGnorance of the natures and qualities of the LORD JESUS is the source of all the errors and heresies which have exercis'd the Christian Church from its beginning down to this day 1 Cor. 2.9 And as S. Paul said of the rulers of the Jews that if they had known the true wisdom they would never have crucify'd the LORD of Glory So may we say of the authors of all the false and pernicious Doctrines which men have lusted to introduce into Religion that if they had duly known JESUS CHRIST they would not have ever troubled the Church I pass by the scourges of the first ages the impiety of the Arrians and the Dokites the extravagancy of the Nestorians and the Eutychians together with the numberless branches of the one and the others they all evidently sprung from ignorance of the true being of our LORD JESUS CHRIST and strike directly at Him ruining either His natures by attributing to Him the one a created and imperfect Divinity the others an imaginary and phantastique Humanity or His Person some of them dividing others confounding the natures which are united in it From the same original its clear have come those abuses and disorders which had the vogue in the following ages and which raising themselves by little and little from weak and obscure beginnings have at last got a superiority and suffocated the genuine simplicity and verity of the Gospel Hence proceeded that invocation of Saints which is at this day practised throughout all the Roman Communion Hence hath issued that second sacrifice which they call of the Altar and wherein the heart of Religion is made to consist If men had rightly known the excellency of our LORD's mediation and the effectual extent of His Cross they would never have address'd them to any other Intercessor never have had recourse to any other oblation From the said ignorance also as from a common spring of error have flowed in among people satisfactions and merits of condignity and congruity and indulgences and the rules and odly various Disciplines of Monks and in summ all Superstitions If people had well known what an one JESUS CHRIST is they would have been assuredly content with His Satisfaction and with his infinite merit and with that eternal indulgence which He hath purchas'd for all that believe and with the perfection of His Gospel Hence again hath come the setting up of another Head in the militant Church to be there as the Vicar and coadjutor of JESUS CHRIST If this JESUS whom the Father hath given over all things for an Head to the Church if the fulness of His power and of His wisdom and His infinite love had been well known never had this second Monarchy been erected in His Kingdom In fine we may say to these and to all others that err in Religion Joh. 4.10 as sometime our LORD Himself said to the Samaritan If you knew the gift of GOD and who this JESUS is that speaketh to you in His Scriptures you would seek all your Salvation in Him alone and demand of none besides Him any of the things that are necessary for the refreshment and consolation of your Souls Judg faithful Brethren how much it concerneth us to know Him well and to have Him still before our eyes Since this knowledg sufficeth to secure us from error Accordingly you see with what care the Apostle S. Paul represents Him to us and with what affection he lays out before us all the marvels of this great and divine Subject He described Him before to the Colâ—ssians in a sublime manner and to fasten their hearts to Him alone shewed them that in Him is found all fulness But he contents not himself with this He now informes them further in the Text which you have heard that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg In these few words there is a great deal of sense and truth Therefore we will employ this whole exercise in the explaining of them to you if GOD permit noting in order all that shall seem to us necessary both for the understanding of the Text and for the instruction and edification of your Souls I know well that the relative word whom is in the Original indifferently whom or which and may be referred either to JESUS CHRIST or to the Mystery of GOD whereof he spake just before if referred to the latter it is as if he had said that in this Mystery are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and I deny not but the words so construed do make a veritable sense it being certain that our LORD's Gospel here called His mystery is an inexhaustible treasury of all saving wisdom and knowledg But it is not needful to come to this and in my mind it s more pertinent and more fluent to refer this word to the Name of CHRIST which immediately preceded and to account the Apostle's meaning is that in JESUS CHRIST are hid these treasures which he doth intend Yet at the bottom as you shall see the sense is the same which way soever of the two you understand it And for a right conceiving of it we must first refute the exposition which some do give of this Text and then assert the true meaning There are some that take these words as if Paul would say that JESUS CHRIST knoweth all things and hath so rich and so abundant a knowledg that He is ignorant of nothing It 's a mistaking of the Apostle's
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
fetter'd fast for ever You shall see not Arrows broken and Cuirasses batter'd and Arms cut in pieces but Sin abolish'd and Death destroy'd You shall see the spoils not of an Army or a Countrey but of the Lords of the world and of the Governours of the darkness of this Age. Lastly You shall behold in it not the image of some petty Fortress taken by assault or composition or of some River forced or some Province subdued but Hell finally beaten Heaven gained and an Eternal World brought under the power of our victorious LORD Let us apply our selves to the fruition of this magnificent spectacle and afford it all the sense and attention that we have To this end consider we First What these Principalities and Powers are which JESUS CHRIST hath spoiled And then see in the second place how he made a shew of them and triumph'd over them on the Cross These are the two Heads we will treat upon if the LORD please in this action The Apostle ordinarily makes use of the words Principalities Powers Dominions Thrones Col. 1.16 Rom. 8.37 Eph. 1.21 and Virtues to signifie the Angels as for instance in the first Chapter of this Epistle in the eighth of the Epistle to the Romans and in the first of that he wrote to the Ephesians He gives those spiritual beeings these names both because of the strength and power they are endowed with which mightily surpasseth the virtue of material and elementary things and also by reason of the divers orders into which GOD hath distinguish'd them according to the difference of their ministrations placing some of the Angels as it were Chiefs in a superiority to others And though the sin of Devils hath corrupted the perfections of their nature yet it doth appear by divers places of Scripture that it hath not quite destroyed this Order among them Satan being set forth to us as the Head of this black band and as having other evil Angels under him so as they may in this respect be still reâ—med Principalities and Powers Nevertheless there is another reason which the Apostle had his eye principally upon in giving them these names as he himself intimateth in the sixth Chapter to the Ephesians We wrestle not saith he against flesh and blood Eph. 6.12 but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high-places Here you plainly see he calleth them Principalities and Powers by reason of that Imperiality they exercise in this world under its present state of subjection unto sin and vanity Not that such a superiority doth of right belong unto them for having rebelled against their Creator they have lost all true and lawful dignity But the sin of man having â—uslav'd him to those evil spirits hath withall made these elements subject to them whereof he was the true and natural Lord. And GOD hath permitted it so to be for the executing of his justice against sin For since that man shook off the yoke of GOD having wretchedly preferr'd the pernicious counsel of his Eneâ—y before the just commandment of his Master it is but reason he should be subject to him to whom he did betray his own liberty Such then is the order or rather the confusion of the world since the fall to wit that the Devil exerciseth an insupportable â—yranny in it governing it at his pleasure as if he were Lord of it For First He worketh upon all the ungodly with wonderful force swaying their souls unto brutal passions setting on fire their lusts and by that thick smoak which he raiseth from their hearts blinding their minds and depriving them of all the light that 's necessary for distinguishing of truth and falshood Eph 2.2 of good and evil as the Apostle doth elsewhere inform us saying that this unclean spirit doth work effectually in the children of disobedience and in another place 2 Tim. 2.26 he telleth us that he hath the wicked in his snares and makes them do his will Not that he compelleth them to evil by co-active force and how much soever they dislike it but their nature being corrupted as it is he never tempteth them without effect their souls voluntarily surrendring themselves to his pernicious perswasions Moreover he disposeth of material things turning and changing them at his pleasure raising tempests in the air seditions and warrs among men putting in commotion all that murtherous violence that makes havock of mankind and presiding over all the instruments of the creatures damage and death Heb. 2.14 By reason whereof the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews calleth Satan Him who hath the power of death And although he executeth none of his bad purposes without the permission of GOD as the Scripture clearly shews us in the History of Job where you see he toucheth neither the goods nor the children nor the person of that holy man until leave had of this Supream Majesty nevertheless because he worketh commonly in the world the greater part whereof is depraved and rebellious against GOD he seems Master of it and himself doth glory in it as when he said to our Saviour in temptation after he had shewed him all the Kingdoms of the Earth Luke 4.6 All the power and glory of these things will I give thee for to me it is delivered and I give it to whom I will And indeed for these reasons doth our Saviour stile the Devil John 12.31 and 14.30 2 Cor. 4.4 the Prince of this world as when he says Now the Prince of this world shall be cast out and so elsewhere and S. Paul calls him in the same sense the GOD of this world Represent unto your selves the world as it was under the darkness of its old Heathenism when GOD left all Nations to walk in their own ways In it the Devil absolutely domineered All those poor multitudes held he under his tyranny He had put out the eyes of their minds and in this blindness made them commit all kind of vileness and abominations He inspired into them hatred of the true GOD and of his Service and so effectually beguiled them by his fallacious illusions that he caused them to adore himself under the forms of divers Idols These same spirits are they that the Apostle intends here by those Principalities and Powers he speaks of For though the Scripture doth particularly mark out one of them whom it calleth Satan as the Head of this abominable Monarchy yet it rangeth under him a vast multitude of Spirits who all travelling upon the same design and setting on work in it all the might and industry they have do bear a part in his accursed Empire And there is great probability too that they are divided into certain bands each of which are drawn up under their particular Chiefs and do all of them depend upon Satan as their General For which reason it is that the Apostle calls them in the plural number Principalities
and Powers These are the Enemies whom the LORD JESUS hath overcome and utterly defeated on the Cross as himself reported the evening before his passion saying that the Prince of this world was then judged that is was about to be condemned And S. Paul elsewhere saith Heb. 2 1â— that JESVS hath by his death destroyed him that had the power of death to wit the Devil Let us now see how our Saviour hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers and publickly made a shew of them triumphing over them on the Cross First It is evident that all this language of the Apostle's is figurative and taken from what great Captains that had been victorious over their Enemies were heretofore wont to do For after they had spoiled them not only Arms Habits Jewels and Baggage but also of their Estates and all their Glory they led them away prisoners and made a shew of them to their Countrey-men on the day of their triumph This name the Romans gave to the pomps of that entry which their Captains and Generals of a Victorious Army made into their City For when any of them had won a Battel taken Towns conquer'd Countreys or done any great and notable exploit of warr one of the principal and most prized Honours that were decreed him for a reward of his valour was a Triumphâ— which was acted with incredible pomp and ceremony The Conqueror was mounted on a stately Chariot magnificently cloth'd and crowned His whole Army marched before and after him in Military order every Troop under its Ensigns and Colours The heads and principal of the Enemies followed his Chariot bound and in chains There was carried along all the Gold and Silver and other Treasures he had won from the Enemy The Towns he had taken the Rivers he had pass'd the Provinces he had subdued the Battels he had given were represented in Picture and exposed to the view of the people who with great festivity and rejoycing accompanied in throng or beheld him from the windows of their houses and filled the air with their acclamations and applauses He entred Rome in this â—quipage and passing through the fairest Streets of the City ascended the Capitol the chief of their Temples where he betook himself to offer sacrifice after he had thus displayed the fruits of his Victories before the eyes of all thâ— world and received all kind of benedictions and praises from his fellow Citizens This is properly that which was called a Triumph The Apostle therefore fetching his terms from this custom which was well known at that time and familiar to every one doth apply them to our LORD and Saviour because of that resemblance we find between the pomp of his mystical victory and this Triumph of Sâ—cular Rulers and Captains He tells us that he hath spoiled these hostile Principalities and Powers He saith that he hath publickly made a shew of them In fine he affirms that he hath triumphed on the Cross expressions all of them manifestly taken as you see from that glorious pomp of the Roman Triumphs which we have now described and which for substance do signifie no other thing but that JESUS dying on the Cross hath fully vanquish'd and defeated the Devil with all his power in the view of Heaven and Earth In prosecution hereof we are to refute the false expositions which some do give of this passage Themas Loranus Cajetan and after that render you an account of the true Some of the famousest Interpreters of the Church of Rome do understand it of the deliverance of the Fathers whom our Saviour as those men say took out of that Limbus in which their spirits were and led them to Heaven with them He spoiled principalities and powers that is the Devils from whom he took away what they kept in Hell forasmuch say they as he caused Adam Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob with the rest of the faithful who deceased under the Old Testament to come forth from their Limbus which is one of the partitions of the infernâ—l Region Then they say he led them carrying them up to Heaven and giving them entrance into Jerusalem on high whence they had been until then excluded And he made them triumph in himself for so the same Authors do read the Apostle's words that is He made them to participate of his triumph in that they had the honour to accompany and enter into Heaven with him But scarce can a thing be uttered more false more forced and more impertinent than this whole interpretation First That which it supposeth of the abode of the spirits of the old believers in a subterraneous and infernal Limbus is uncertain and fabulous being sounded only upon the tradition of men and not on any authority of the word of GOD. As for that which they commonly alledg to prove it namely Gen. 37.35 Jacob's saying that he would go down into Hell unto his Son Joseph they that are versed in Scripture do well know the word Inferi or Hell in that place in particular and almost every other where in the Book of GOD doth signifie the Grave Whence it comes that the same Patriarch saith elsewhere unto his sons that if any evil befel Benjamin they would make his white hairs descend with sorrow ad inferos to Hell as divers read it where it is clear that by the same word he means the Grave into which the dead go down with their hairs and not Limbus into which only souls descended who have no hair sure And as to what they produce of the pretended soul of Samuel call'd up from Hell by the Sorceress her charms where is the Christian that doth not burn to see such power granted the Ministers of Devils over the Spirits of Prophets God forbid we should credit so gross an absurdity That which the Enchantress saw came from Hell I confess but that which she saw was not in truth the soul of Samuel which was at rest with GOD in Ahraham's bosome It was nothing but a vain shadow and a phantasm of that Prophet called by his name because of its resembling him as the greatest part of the ancient Fathers did affirm and as some of the most famous Authors Leo Allatius in Euctath Antiâ—ch Psal 68.19 even of the Roman Communion do at this day hold They again do abuse what the Psalmist singeth of the Messiah Thou art gone up on high thou hast taken or led a multitude of captives as it s rendred These captives they will have to be the spirits of the Fathers But it is manifest to all that have the least knowledg in the holy Tongue that the phrase there used by the Prophet doth signifie to take or to make prisoners not to free them and to lead not into liberty but into captivity So as if this passage be meant of the Fathers we must say not that the LORD brought them out prison as is suppos'd but that he put them in a thing that would be infinitely