good thing so necessary for you If you have it not hitherto ask it of GOD incessantly with prayers and tears and quit Him not before you have obtained it If you have it thank Him for it more than for all the goods of the Universe and make account that in giving you charity He hath given you the Life the Kingdom and the Crown of Heaven Exercise this precious gift continually let there be none of your neighbours without feeling of it Do good to all Communicate what you have received the light of your knowledge to the ignorant the succour of your good offices to the afflicted the sweetness of your patience to enemies the consolation of your visits to the sick the assistance of your alms to the needy the example of your innocence to all with whom you converse But have a particular care of Saints the members of the LORD JESUS who serve Him here with you and how poor soever they be have yet been redeemed with His blood and predestinated to His glory as well as you Dear Brethren your labour shall not be in vain Your charity shall bring forth it's fruits in their season with a most abundant usury For terrene and perishing good things which you shall have sowed here below you shall one day reap on high those that are celestial and immortal for a little bread and a little money that you shall now give to JESUS CHRIST you shall receive from His liberal hand the delights of Paradice and the treasures of eternity This is the hope which is reserved for you in the Heavens It is not the word of weak and vain men that hath promised it to you You have heard by the Gospel the Word of Truth which cannot lye And as so magnificent an hope should enflame our Charity so should it comfort our patience and render it invincible under the Cross to which the Name of CHRIST doth subject us Consider a little what the men of the world do and suffer for uncertain hopes that whirl in the Air flote on the Sea and depend upon the Wind and Fortune to how many dangers they expose themselves to what travail and disquiet they condemn themselves Voluntarily passing nights and dayes in a most laborious servitude for an imaginary good that neither yet is nor perhaps shall ever be and which how happy soever the success of their designs may be they shall not enjoy at most but during some years only Christian shall it be said that you have less zeal for Heaven than these people have for Earth Their hope is doubtful Yours is assured Theirs dependeth on the will of men and the inconstancy of elements Yours is in Heaven Pursue then generously so high and glorious a design And since your hope is in Heaven have incessantly heart affection and thought there Regard no more either flesh or earth it is not here your bliss is JESUS CHRIST hath seated it on high at the right hand of the Father in the Palace of His holiness Let this excellent hope sweeten all the evil you suffer here below If you be not at ease here if you be despised if you have no part in the wealth or honours of the world think that in like manner neither is it here that JESUS CHRIST hath promised you the rewards of your piety That Heaven which you see so constant and immutable keeps them faithfully for you You shall there receive one day the honour the glory and the dignities you now breath after not to possess them during some miserable moneths as worldlings enjoy their pretended riches but eternally with a perfect and unspeakable contentment in the blessed communion of Saints of Angels and of JESUS CHRIST the Lord of the one and the others To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the only true GOD blessed for ever be honour and glory to ages of ages Amen THE II. SERMON COL I. Ver. VI VII VIII Vers VI. The Gospel which is come unto you as also it is into all the World and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard and knew the Grace of GOD in truth VII As also you have learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant who is a faithful Minister of CHRIST for you VIII Who also hath declared unto us your charity which you have in the Spirit DEar Brethren the Gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST is the most excellent and most admirable Doctrine that was ever published in the Universe It is the grand mysterie of GOD the wisdom of Angels and men the glory of Heaven and the happiness of the Earth It is the only seed of immortality the perfection of our nature the light of our understandings and the sanctity of our affections There is no Philosophy or other Discipline but this alone that is able to deliver us from the slavery of Devils and make us Children of the most High It is this solely that truly purifieth us from the filth of sin and clotheth us with a complete righteousnes that plucketh us out of the hands of death and hell and giveth us access to the Throne of GOD there to receive of His bounty life and supreme felicity All other religions invented and followed by flesh and blood are wayes of perdition disciplines of errour and vanity that present themselves to poor men in the thick darkness of their ignorance as those seducing fires that sometimes abuse Travellers during the obscurity of the Night leading them into the deeps of death and eternal malediction The Law it self though come from on high is nevertheless as much beneath the dignity of the Gospel as Sinai is beneath Heaven and Moses beneath JESUS CHRIST The Law affrighteth Consciences the Gospel assureth them The one slayeth the sinner the other raiseth Him up again The one maketh grace be desired the other makes it be enjoyed The one presented the shadows and figures of the truth the other giveth us the lively image and very body thereof Whence you may judge my Brethren how much it concerneth us to know so saving and Divine a Doctrine that we may embrace and obey it since the repose and happiness of our souls stand on it which we shall unprofitably seek any other where It is to enflame us with an ardent desire of this holy and blessed knowledge that the Apostle St. Paul proposeth to us so often in His Epistles the praises of the Gospel scarce ever naming it without adding presently something to its commendation as the custome is of those that love ardently never to speak of that they love without giving it some Elogy that testifies both its excellency and their passion Such is the manner of Our St. Paul towards the Gospel of his Master He hath his soul so full of the love and admiration of this Heavenly doctrine that He can neither pronounce nor write the name of it but He accompanies it with praises as the just and due marks of its dignity We have
doth whatsoever He will The Son hath all power in Heaven and in Earth and there is nothing but is facile to Him The Father is super-eminently good hating evil and loving rectitude and justice The Son is the Saint of Saints entirely separate from sinners goodness and justice it self The Father is merciful and inclined to pity The Son is the bottom of His compassions The Father maketh His Sun to shine on and His Rain to bedew even the men that blaspheme Him The Son dyed for His enemies and prayed for those that crucified Him In short the Father hath not any other essential quality but the Son hath it likewise and in the same measure with the Father I come to His Works Certainly the Son Himself informeth us how perfectly He represents the Father in this respect Joh. 5.19 saying in general that what thing soever the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise The Father created the Universe The Son founded the Earth Heb. 1.10 Joh. 1.3 and the Heavens are the work of His hands All things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made of all that was made The Father conserveth the world by His providence the Son sustaineth all things by His mighty word The Father hath set up the Princes and Magistrates who govern mankind Prov. 8.15 and there is no power but of Him It 's by the Son that Kings Reign and Princes decree justice The Father saved and redeemed the Church the Son is our righteousness our wisdom and our redemption The Father loved us and delivered up His Son to death for us the Son gave Himself a ransome for our sins If the Father raised up the Son the Son also raised again His own Temple when the fury of the Jews had beaten it down If the Father quicken the dead the Son quickneth them likewise and the last judgment the punishing of the wicked in Hell the glory of the Faithful in Heaven and all that refers to it is the work both of the one and the other The Father hath elected us so likewise hath the Son Joh. 13.18 I know saith He whom I have chosen It is the same in all the other actions and operations of the divine nature If you read the Scriptures exactly you shall not see any of them attributed to the Father but is likewise attributed to the Son And as for that right and soveraign authority which accreweth unto GOD over all things from these great and high qualities and operations this glory shineth in the person of the Son as it doth in the person of the Father If the Father be Judge of the earth King of ages and Monarch of the world the Son is in like manner the LORD of glory the head of the Armies of Heaven the Prince of men and Angels the Judge of all flesh If the Name of the Father be great and dreadful that of the Son is above every name which is named in this world or in the world to come If all creatures both superiour intermedial and inferiour do owe a soveraign homage to the Father and cast down themselves before Him adoring His Majesty with the profoundest respect they are capable of so it is clear that before JESUS every knee doth bow both of things in Heaven and things on earth and things under the Earth the Father Himself proclaiming when He bringeth Him into the world Let all the Angels of GOD worship Him So you see Dear Brethren that the LORD JESUS is truly the image of His Father since He hath and discovereth perfectly in Himself the Nature the Properties and the Works of the Father An admirable a singular and a truly Divine image which possesseth the whole form of its original without any variation and faithfully and naturally representeth all the features of it in their true and just greatness measure and nature I confess there are among men sons that resemble in some sort their Fathers but there are none in whom such resemblance is comparable with that of the Son of GOD to His Eternal Father If our Sons represent our nature and manners it is always with some difference which a piercing and a clear-sighted eye may easily observe and after all there are none that in their life do express the lives of their fathers totally entire with every one of their actions and operations Whereas the Son of GOD is a most complete image both of the nature and the life of His Father if we may speak in this manner of these mysteries all the works of the one whether small or great being also the works of the other This sacred Verity taught here by the Apostle overthroweth two heresies which though contrary and opposite to one another did sometime equally trouble the Church of GOD. I mean that of the Sabellians and that of the Arians The former confounded the Son with the Father the latter rent them on sunder Those took from the Son His person these His nature For the Sabellians did dogmatize that the Father and the Son were but one and the self-same person who according to the divers wayes and ends of his manifestations did assume sometimes the name of Father sometimes the name of Son So as in their account it is the Father who suffered on the Cross and it 's the Son who sent Him that suffered St. Paul breaketh their errour by saying that JESVS CHRIST is the image of the Father For no one is the image of himself and how great and exact soever the image's resemblance of its original be it 's of necessity that it be another subsistence than its original A child hath the same nature with the Father whose image it is said to be but nevertheless the person of the Father is one and that of the child another Since then the Apostle declareth here and elsewhere that JESVS CHRIST is the image of GOD that is to say of the Father we must either desert His doctrine or acknowledge that JESUS CHRIST is another person than the Father But if you distinguish their persons it doth not follow that you must divide their nature as did the Arians who made it their position that the nature of the Father is another than that of the Son the one increated and infinite the other created and finite These are two shelves which we must equally avoid steering our course straight in the midst shunning on one side the confusion of Sabellius and on the other the division of Arius JESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle is the image of GOD His Father He could not be the image of Him if He were one same person with Him He could not be His Perfect image if He had a nature differing from the nature of the Father How should He represent His eternity if He had been created in time How His immensity if He had a limited essence How His Majesty and glory if He were but a creature Let us then hold fast this truth full and entire
and Powers let us conclude that it must be taken as in other places where it is couched after the same manner simply and absolutely that is to say taken for the first and not the second Creation If there be liberty to do otherwise and to give it any where the sense we please without other reason then that of our own fond imagination who seeth not but that by such an overture there will be no longer any thing certain or assured left in Scripture For as these Hereticks by this cavilling gloss would deprive the LORD JESUS of the glory of the first Creation another might bereave the Father of it by the same means interpreting the passages of Scripture which affirm that GOD created the world not of its first Production by which it came out of nothing into being but mearly of a Reparation or a Renovation of the Universe and in consequence hereof pretend with some Philosophers that it was surely long before it was created but not in the condition and the form it afterward obtained But GOD forbid that Christians should ever suffer impiety to have such a licence over the Word of GOD. Let us keep religiously to the truths which the Scriptures teach us and receive their language with a candid and and sincere belief Let Heresie rise in commotion and be as unquiet as it will since the Apostle the mouth of Heaven and the trumpet of GOD proclaimeth That all things were created by the LORD JESVS receive we this sacred Verity believe it and confess it so much the rather for that it is not here alone but in divers other places beside that the Scripture teacheth it us For not to repeat here that which we touch'd afore out of the Epistle to the Ephesians where it is said That the Father created all things by JESVS CHRIST what can be said more expresly or directly then that we read in the beginning of S. John where this Divine Author speaking of the Word which was made flesh and whose glory himself and his Fellow-brethren saw and who was in the beginning with GOD saith aloud That all things were made by Him and without Him was not any thing made that was made and that the world was made by Him What can be uttered or conceived more clear than what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews where the Apostle not content to have said at the entrance That the Father made the Worlds by his Son doth say of the Son a little after what the Prophet singeth LORD thou hast founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of thine hands Hebr. 1.10 Certainly this proof is so firm that all the Devils of Hell shall never be able to pluck it from us And nothing can be imagined more bruitish than that evasion which despair hath here inspir'd the Hereticks withal Though say they the Apostle have alledged these words of the Psalm yet his intention was not to apply them to CHRIST but the following words only Thou remainest and art the same and thy years shall not fail For is not this a plain giving the Apostle the lye who directly affirmeth that it is to the Son the holy Spirit saith LORD in the beginning thou hast laid the foundations of the earth Besides if this alledging of the Psalm do infer nothing else but that the Son is permanent and shall not fail it will be impertinent and not at all suffice for the Apostle's design in this place For his aim is to exalt the Son above the Angels but if the passage he brings for this purpose do conclude only that the Son is immortal and immutable who sees not that by this reckoning he attributes nothing to Him but what agreeth to the Angels also whose nature is likewise incorruptible and immutable Since then the Scope of the Apostle is to shew that JESUS CHRIST hath qualities which appertain not to the Angels and since on the other side the passage he alledgeth doth represent nothing of that kind but the creating of the world it must of necessity be acknowledged that it is the holy Apostle's intention to apply to the LORD principally this first part of the place wherein is said That He hath founded the earth and that the heavens are the work of His hands And so you see that the Supreme Wisdom begotten of the Father before all Ages which neither is nor can be any other than the LORD JESUS doth protest in the Book of Proverbs that it was with GOD its Eternal Father Prov. 3. when He created the World to shew us that it was the Governess and Superintendant of that great work And Moses represents it to us in the beginning of Genesis as far as the nature of the time and of the Old Testament would suffer For he reporteth GOD not creating any thing but by his Word He sheweth Him speaking at every part of His Work GOD said Let there be light GOD said Let there be a Firmament GOD said Let the waters be divided and let the day land appear and so in all the rest Whence comes it that so sage a Writer makes this Supreme and unspeakable Nature speak thus for the creating of each of His Works Let the Jew toil himself to the utmost he will never be able to give us a good and pertinent reason of it John 1.1 such as may content our minds But S. John calling the Son of GOD the Word unvails this secret to us shewing us that it is by this His Word the Father did create the world And Moses to signifie it mystically and in such sort as became that time represents GOD not creating ought but by speaking Be it then concluded against the obstinate fury of Hereticks that the LORD JESUS is the Creator of all things And this is so clear that the most part of those very men that deny His Eternal Divinity have not refused to acknowledge it as they in particular who after the name of their old Leader are commonly called Arrians these avouching that it is by Him the Father created the Universe at the beginning yet forbear not to deny that He is Eternal GOD of the same Essence with the Father Wherein as I confess they shew more modesty than the rest not having the forehead to reject what the Scripture doth so clearly exhibite So I must needs say they discover less perceivance and acuteness admitting a truth incompatible with the error which they hold For if the LORD JESUS did create the world as they say in concurrence with the Scripture do confess it must of necessity be granted that He is very JEHOVAH whom in time past Israel did adore which notwithstanding is the thing that they oppose This consequence appears first from what we noted afore That the Scripture never ascribes the action of Creating to any but GOD only Secondly from that in Isaiah the title of Creator is given to the true GOD to distinguish Him from creatures
as being incommunicable to any other besides Him Isa 42.5 45.12 48.13 51.13 It is I saith He who have made the earth and who have stretched out the Heavens Finally the thing speaks of it self For the Power requisite for the creating the world that is to make it of nothing is so great and so infinite that the Philosophers with all the light of their Reason could not comprehend it but were so far from attributing it to any Creature that they deny'd it unto GOD Himself Whence it follows that if there be any part of Divine Glory proper and essential unto GOD it is this same without all doubt Seeing then it is found in the LORD JESUS we must necessarily confess that He is in truth the Great GOD most High Eternal and Blessed for ever above all things As for the distinction they advance to cover their error alledging that the Son was but the Instrument and Minister of the Father in the work of Creation not the first and principal cause it is vain and frivilous For this creative vertue being infinite it cannot be but in an Infinite subject and in a Soveraign and principal Agent It cannot be communicated to an Instrument seeing that every Instrument being finite is consequently uncapable of receiving and containing an Infinite vertue so as since it is in the person of the Son it unavoidably follows that He is not the instrumental as they say but the first and the principal cause in the work of Creation Rev. 1. And S. John clearly shews it in the Revelation where he saith That He is Alpha and Omega the first and the last a thing that cannot be said of an instrumental cause which hath necessarily above it another Agent of a diverse nature The Apostle also clearly refuteth this gloss when he appropiates that to JESUS CHRIST which the Prophet uttered evidently of the first the principal and supreme cause of the Creation LORD thou hast founded the earth at the beginning and the Heavens are the works of thy hands An Application which would be evidently false and impertinent if JESUS CHRIST were only the instrmental cause of the Creation The observation upon which they pretend to ground this distinction is no whit more solid to wit that the Scripture saith indeed the world was created by the Son but not that the Son did create the world For first S. Paul saith in express terms that the Son founded the earth and though he had not said it who sees not but that the one and the other do amount to the same thing and that His saving All things were created by the Son is all one as if he had said That the Son created all things But if this form of Speech would infer that the Son is not the first and principal Efficient of the Creation the same must be concluded also of the Father since S. Paul speaking of Him saith in like manner That All things are of Him and by Him and for Him But that which he saith here of JESUS CHRIST in the second place That all things were created for Him doth further demonstrate the same truth very clearly For these words do signifie that the Son is the last and supreme end of the Creation of things a matter which pertaineth only to the principal cause and not to the instrument it useth for the effecting of its work Sure it is clear that it 's the true GOD who is the ultimate end for which all things were created that the glory of His Divine Vertues might be manifested so as He might be known and served as He is worthy This falls not under contest Since therefore it is for the Son that all things were created it must be acknowledged that He is the true Eternal GOD it being not possible that a Creature should be the end for which all things were created From thence the Apostle concludes in the third place That JESVS CHRIST is before all things For since He created them all it must of necessity be that He should subsist before they were And he noteth it expresly that none might suspect Him of novelty as if he He had not been but since Moses under colour of His having not been manifested till the fulness of time John 8. He is not only before Moses and Abraham as Himself saith in S. John but before all things from the beginning before there was any thing created before the mountains were settled Prov. 8. and before the hills As saith Wisdom that is the Son himself in the Book of the Proverbs But the Apostle after having thus given to the LORD JESUS the glory of creating all things passeth on further and attributeth to Him the preservation of them All things saith he subsist by him It 's this which he expresseth otherwhere in other terms when he saith Hebr. 1.3 That he sustaineth all things by His powerful word that is to say He preserves them by His Providence as He created them by His vertue their being their life and their motion so depending on Him that when He hideth His face they are troubled and fail utterly and return unto their dust or their nothing as the Prophet singeth Whence yet again appears Psal 104.29 that He is the true GOD the Eternal one blessed for ever with the Father forasmuch as this preservation of the Universe is one of the highest and most incommunicable glories of the Deity Let us now consider what are those things whose Creation and Conservation the Apostle doth attribute to the Son of GOD All things saith he were created by Him those that are in heaven and those that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers He leaves not any Creature of higher or of middle or of lower rank without the reach of his assertion and for the enclosing of them all within it he makes use first of a division taken from their elements I mean the places where their natural abode is saying Things in heaven and things in earth The Scripture speaketh often of them in the same manner As when we are forbidden in the Decalogue to make Religious use of any Image or the likeness of any thing whatever Thou shalt not make thee saith the LORD any image of things that are in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth By Heaven he meaneth not only that vast Region where we see the Sun and the other Stars to be lifted up But also Paradise the Habitation of Angels and of the souls of Saints above and this void space where the Fowls do fly and where the Showers and the Thunders and the other Meteors are formed below By Earth he meaneth this whole Globe wherein we live with the waters that run in stream or do float here There being then no creature but is in one of these two places it is evident he doth comprize them all by saying
towards His Church For He enliveneth all the members of it from the greatest even to the least and gives them not the power and authority only as Princes give their subjects but the very strength and ability to act communicating to each of His faithful ones such a measure of His Spirit as is necessary for sensation and motion and all the other functions of heavenly life as St. Paul teacheth us in the Epistle to the Ephesians and more at large in the First to the Corinthians Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 12. Moreover the Head hath this advantage above the rest of the body that it is of a more exquisite constitution and temper than the other members according to the rule that nature prudently observes in general which is to frame those things best that are designed to the choiâ—est employments Kings and Captains do deserve also the name of Heads in this respect their dignity being very high-raised above their subjects But their advantage in this particular is nothing in comparison of that which JESUS CHRIST hath above His Church not only by His being incomparably more holy more wise and more powerful than any of all the faithful but especially in that He is GOD blessed for ever Finally as you see the Head is placed highest in the body of man this scituation being necessary for its commodious exercising the functions of its government a thing that Kings and Princes imitate dwelling ordinarily in Palaces and sitting on Thrones raised above the houses and seats of their subjects so JESUS CHRIST hath this advantage but in a far greater degree sitting on high in the Heavens upon the Throne of GOD above the whole Church both militant and triumphant And whereas He conversed sometime on earth that was only for a while and by dispensation for the good of His body which obliged Him to do it even as the head boweth down it self somtimes when the necessity of any of its members doth require it But the proper and natural place of JESUS CHRIST is that lofty Sanctuary of immortality where He now appears in highest glory from thence governing by His Spirit all the parts of this mystical body of the Church both those that are in Heaven and those that are yet on earth Thus My Brethren you see wherein this dignity of our LORD JESUS doth consist and with how much reason St. Paul expresseth it here and otherwhere by saying that He is the head of the Church Whence evidently follows what the Apostle also evidently says that the Church is the body of CHRIST For if JESUS CHRIST be call'd the Head thereof for having and exercising towards it all the functions and prerogatives of a natural Head towards its members it is clear that the Church must also be called His body since this whole Divine society depends on JESUS CHRIST and receives of Him all the light all the aptitude all the sense and motion that it hath Upon this doctrine of the Apostle we have divers things to consider before we pass any further First by fixing this position he timely fortifies the Colossians against that errour which we shall find Him expresly opposing hereafter the errour of those that would subject the faithful to Angels and to Moses introducing into the Church the worshipping of the one and the Pedagogy of the other For since the Son of GOD is the Head of this sacred society who seeth not that it ought to depend on Him alone that 't is to Him it oweth its obedience and service and of Him it ought to receive its discipline and guidance But it must also be observed that the Apostle giveth this title to JESUS CHRIST with a design to glorifie Him enroling it among the other praises of His Soveraign dignity Indeed since the Church is the most Divine society in the world since it is acompany of Kings of Priests and of Prophets the Assembly of the first-fruits and a new world much more excellent than the old a world immortal and incorruptible it is evident that to be the Head thereof is a quality more sublime then to have been the Creator and Prince of the Universe at first Whereby you see in the third place how unrighteous to say no more the rashness of those is who give this name to another beside JESUS CHRIST acknowledging a mortal man for the true Head of the universal Church Let them colour this usurpation how they will they shall not be able to justifie it This is evidently to despoil JESUS CHRIST of His royal robe and to take the Diadem from Him which none but He can bear They alledge that the Scripture verily communicates to others beside JESUS CHRIST the names of Pastor of Priest and of Teacher and of Light and such others It is true but it never gives that of Head of the Church to any but Him And the difference of these titles is evident the former signifying charges whereof the faithful do exercise some portion and some shadow whereas that of Head of the Church signifies the Supremacy which is incommunicable to any other but the Son of GOD. As you see that in a State the name of Prince and of Governour and Captain and others of like sort are not given to the King only they pertain to others also But no other may be called the Soveraign or the Head of the State besides Him without incurring the guilt of Sacriledge or Treason Yet they endeavour to excuse them and say they make the Pope but the ministerial and subordiate Head not an essential and soveraign one But this is nothing but words arising from their interest and not founded in the truth of things There is no Prince that would be satisfied with such language if any one of his subjects that had made himself the head and Monarch of His State should alledge for his excuse that he had no intention save to pass for a ministerial head In the nature of men whence this similitude is taken we see no bodies that have two heads of a different rank and if any such be found at any time they are accounted for monsters which cannot be said of the Church the most perfect master-piece of all the works of GOD. In a word it is not enough to say that the Pope is the ministerial head of the Church it must be proved We plainly read in Scripture that JESUS CHRIST is Head of the Church Let us believe it and adore Him under that quality But that there is another head in the Church be he visible or invisible be he ministerial or soveraign this we meet not with at all in the writings of the Apostles not to say that we meet with divers things in them wherewith such a doctrine is incompatible Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of GOD. Let it therefore be permitted us to suspend our believing this other pretended head of the Church since we have heard nothing of it in the word of GOD. But that which the
Son is not Eternal and co-essential with the * As the whose Church believeâ— Fathers but created and made by the will and good pleasure of the Father For the Apostle doth not speak here of the original of the perfections that are found in CHRIST but of their being united and met together in one and the same subject I acknowledge it is by the good pleasure of the Father and by the order of His will that the Godhead of the Son dwelleth in the Mediator But it thence follows that this Godhead of His is an effect of the Fathers will It was before it filled the Mediator The same Father who by His will united it to our flesh for the making up together with that flesh the person of CHRIST had communicated it to His Son from all Eternity by a natural act of His Eternal understanding that is to say by a Divine Generation Now it is not in vain that the Apostle here advanceth this assertion That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in HIS CHRIST But he doth it with design to * Or settle confirm our Consciences in the Religion of the LORD JESUS only For these Colossians as we shall see hereafter were tamper'd with by Seducers who mingled the Mosaical Ceremonies with the Gospel and the worshipping of Angels with the service of the LORD the Apostle therefore doth here timely fortifie these Believers against this error and that by two excellent Reasons the first taken from the dwelling of all fulness in JESVS CHRIST Poor men saith he what seek you for either in Moses or in Angels we have all in JESUS CHRIST There is no good no perfection nor excellency either in GOD or in the Creature but dwelleth in this Soveraign LORD Having Him we have no need at all to go unto others since in Him we find all The other Reason is taken from the Will of GOD the supreme rule of Religion the only thing that is sufficient to settle the agitation and natural distrust of our Consciences As for JESUS CHRIST saith he it was the good pleasure of GOD that in Him should all fulness dwell The Father hath set up Him to be the spring of our salvation But as for Moses and Angels we do not see that ever it was the will of the Father to give them such a dignity Dear Brethren now that our faith is fought against with the like errors let us arm it also with the same reasons If the Adversary send us to Angels and Saints let us answer him that the LORD JESUS sufficeth us that having Him we can want nothing since all fulness dwelleth in Him I will not enquire for the present what these Angels and Saints are whom you recommend to me whether they have indeed that merit and that righteousness and that authority which I need for the expiation of my sin and for opening the house of GOD to me How rich and how abounding soever you represent them to me I may let pass their store this CHRIST whom I embrace having all fulness dwelling in Him Let them be all that you please they will want however some part of that infinite plentifulness which overfloweth in our CHRIST And how zealous soever you be for their glory yet you durst not presume to say that all fulness dwelleth in them How great is your imprudence to go hither and thither a groping in pits and cisterns while you have near you such a living and inexhaustible fountain Grant that the worshipping of Saints is not criminal which yet it evidently is it is notwithstanding superfluous forasmuch as it hath nothing in it but we find the same better in the fulness of JESUS CHRIST But the other consideration which the Apostle sets before us here is of no less force That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in His CHRIST My Faith yea our Adversaries attends on the will of GOD. This will is its object and its rule I cannot rellish either Doctrine or Service that is not conform thereto Tell me how you know it is the good pleasure of GOD that this fulness of merit and power which you ascribe somtimes to Saints departed somtimes to your Pope and his Ministers doth indeed dwell in them As for the LORD JESUS whom I adore and in whom I seek all my bliss the Father hath proclaimed from Heaven That He is His welbeloved Son His Scriptures declare That He hath committed all judgment to Him and That all fulness dwelleth in Him But as for those others whom you have taken for objects of your Devotion and to whom you have recourse for your salvation you cannot shew me any thing semblable of them Certainly then it must be vouched that all your Devotion in this behalf is but a Will-worship founded only on your own passion and the fancy of your Leaders not upon the good pleasure of the Father It is strange fire that hath issued out of the earth and not been kindled from Heaven Such as cannot without crime either enter into or be used in the Sanctuary of GOD. But I return to the Apostle who having said That it was the good pleasure of the Father all fulness should dwell in CHRIST doth add And by Him to reconcile all things in Himself both those that are in Heaven and those that are in the earth This is the great Master-piece of the good pleasure of GOD the end for which His will was that the fulness of all Divine and Humane perfections should be seated in CHRIST And this is that which the particle and used by the Apostle doth signifie It doth not meerly connect the two parts of his discourse but importeth moreover the consecution and the dependance of the latter on the former as if He had said It was the good pleasure of the Father that in JESUS CHRIST should all fulness dwell and so reconcile or to the end that He might reconcile all things by Him For all this fulness which the Father would that His CHRIST should have dwelling in Him was necessary for His effecting this Reconciliation There needed he should have the power and the holiness and the wisdom of the Divinity and together with it the humility and the obedience and the meritorious sufferings of the Humanity that he might finish this design He could not have been able to re-unite Heaven and Earth with less preparations Let us see then what this work is this Reconciling the Apostle speaks of of all things Terrestrial and Celestial in GOD by JESVS CHRIST It is clear by the Scriptures that JESUS CHEIST hath by His death reconciled men unto GOD so as He hath appeased His wrath and opened to us the Throne of His grace as the Apostle teacheth us in divers places and particularly in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 5.18 where he saith That we have been reconciled to GOD by the death of His Son and
groaned repair this disorder Comfort her with your pious tears whom you have sadded by your vain pleasures Break with the world Have no more commerce but with the children of GOD. Remember you have the honour to be the body of JESUS CHRIST How is it that you have no horrour at defiling in the ordures of sin and vanity those members which are consecrated to the Son of GOD washed with His blood sanctified by His word and baptized with His Spirit The Church beside this purity of life which its edification requireth of you at all times doth particularly at the present demand of you the succour of your alms for the refreshment of its poor members Their number and their necessity encreaseth daily Let your charity be augmented after the same proportion Let it relieve the indigence of some let it allay the passions of others let it extinguish enmities and hatred among us all Let it seek not only to those whom you have wronged but even to them that have offended you without cause that henceforth you may truly be the body of the LORD His Church holy and unblamable having no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing patient and generous in affliction humble and modest in prosperity crowned with good works and the fruits of righteousness to the glory of our great Saviour the edification of men and your own salvation Amen THE XIV SERMON COL I. Vers XXV XXVI XXVII Vers XXV Of which Church I have been made a Minister according to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me towards you to fullfil the word of GOD. XXVI Even the secret which had been hid from all ages and generations but hath now been manifested to His Saints XXVII To whom GOD would give to know what are the riches of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles which is CHRIST in you the hope of glory THE Church of our LORD JESUS CHRIST is the fairest and most glorious State that ever existed in the world a State formed in the counsel of GOD before the creation of the heavens founded on the cross of His Son in the fulness of time governed by the Father of eternity enlivened by His Spirit the most prized of His Jewels the last end of His works and the only scope of all His marvels It 's a State not mortal and corruptible as those of the earth but firm and everlasting situate above the Sun and Moon and see all other things roul under its feet in continual change without being subject to their vanity It 's the only society against which neither the gates of hell nor the revolutions of time shall at all prevail It is the House of the living GOD the Temple of His holiness the Pillar of His truth the dwelling-place of His grace and glory Whence it comes that one of the Prophets long ago contemplating it in spirit cried out transported and in extasy Honourable are the things Psal 87.3 that are spoken of thee O City of GOD. But among its other glories this in my opinion is none of the least that GOD would employ the hands the sweat and the blood of His Apostles for the erecting of it It is for the Church that He made and formed these great men It 's for the same that He poured into their souls all the riches of Heaven And as they had received them for the Churches service so they laid them out faithfully and cheerfully in it yea to such a degree that they counted it a great honour to suffer on its occasion They blessed the reproaches that they received for edifying of it We lately heard S. Paul the most excellent of those divine men protesting that he rejoyced in his sufferings and afflictions for the Church and now in the Text we have read he goeth on and saith that he is the Minister of the Church What and how admirable must that happy Republique be whose Minister and servitor S. Paul was the greatest of men one of the master-pieces of Heaven and the wonder of the earth But beside his designing to justifie by these words the joy he had in suffering for the Church as Minister of it He would also found the liberty he took to make remonstrances to the Colossians and authorize his doctrine against the errors which Seducers were sowing among them For this cause he enlargeth on this matter and magnifieth his Ministry First he represents unto them the foundation of it namely the Call of GOD and the object of it that is those towards he ought to exercise it and the end of it in verse 25. in these words I have been made a Minister of the Church according to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me towards you to fullfil the word of GOD. After this in the following verse he extolleth the subject about which the labour of this ministry was to be to wit the word of GOD saying that it is the mystery which had been hid from all ages and generations but which hath now saith he been manifested to the Saints Lastly he addeth in the last verse the efficacy of this Divine secret towards the Gentiles and declareth in one wherein it consisteth namely in JESVS CHRIST our LORD He is the whole matter and substance of this great mystery GOD saith he would give the Saints to know what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is CHRIST in you the hope of Glory These are the three points which we purpose to handle in this action if the LORD permit the ministry of Paul the mystery of the Gospel and the riches of its glory towards the Gentiles The subject is great the time short and our abilities small May it please GOD to supply our defects by the abundance of His Spirit so powerfully strengthning and multiplying the words of our mouth in your hearts that notwithstanding their scantiness and poverty they may yet administer food for your souls even as sometime by the vertue of His blessing seven loaves and a few little fishes as you heard not long ago sufficed to satiate a great multitude As for the first of these three points the Apostle speaking of the Church doth say Of which I have been made a Minister according to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me towards you to fullfil the word of GOD. Upon which we have four things to consider First the quality of the Apostles office which he termeth the ministry of the Church Secondly the the title to this office founded on the dispensation GOD had given him Thirdly the object of the execution of this office which he expresseth by saying towards you that is towards you Gentiles as we shall shew anon and in the Fourth place the function and the proximate end of this office which he declareth to us in those words to fullfil the word of GOD. Observe then Brethren first of all how this holy Apostle to express the office to which GOD had
henceforth any track of him in your whole course And instead of that infernal vigorousness wherewith he inspired heretofore and disturbed your whole life put on that new man whom JESUS hath on this day made to come forth out of his Sepulcher Drink in his Spirit fill your veins with his Blood and your arteries with his fire Receive his Sentiments and deck your selves with his Lights Lead henceforth a life worthy of his Resurrection and of his Baptism and of that immortal Food which you have taken at his Table Let your actions aim at nothing but Heaven 'T is there your Treasure is Christian what do you yet seek on Earth Your LORD is no longer here This day saw him come up thence to go fit down on high at the right hand of GOD and carry up your hearts with him giving them all his motions that where he is ye may be also And if his will do oblige you to tarry yet a while on earth spend the whole time in the same manner that he spent his forty days after his resurrection in a continual meditation of heavenly things in the company of Apostles in the entertainment of Saints in the exercise of an ardent charity in the preparatives of your ascension to his â—ingdom wholly managing this short space to his glory and to the instruction and edification of men This is that we owe dear Bretthren to the Burial and Resurrection of our LORD There is no need to run to Palestine nor to go up Mount Calvary for to enter into his Sâ—pulcher You are entred into it and buried with him if you by the faith of his Gospel do mortifie and destroy sin according to the intention of your Baptism Nor is it a whit more necessary for the having of part in his resurrection to go and kiss the last print of his seet upon Mount Olivet You are risen again with him if affected with the glory he brought out of his Tomb and perswaded of the truth of the discoveries he made of blessed immortality you live according to the form of his Gospel in purity and sanctification GOD who raiseth the dead by his glorious power please to reveal the same might upon our hearts and form so lively a faith in them as may be the true workmanship of his hand and the faith of his efficacy that we may thereby be buried and raised up with CHRIST and after these first-fruits of his holiness be one day transform'd into a perfect resemblance of his glory for the eternal possessing of that great and blessed Heavenly Kingdom with Him which he hath purchas'd for us by the merit of his death and ensured to us by the virtue of his resurrection So be it The Twenty-fourth SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XIII Ver. XIII And when ye were dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh He quickned you together with Him having freely forgiven you all your offences DEar Brethren The Philosophers do with good reason commonly say That contraries illustrate one another For nothing makes us better understand the excellence of liberty than consideration of the misâ—râ—es of bondage and nothing doth more discover the nature and advantages of Vertue than the deformity and wretchedness of its oppositâ— Vices The beauty and usefulness of light is perceiv'd by the hideousness of black obscurity and the sweetness of health by the incommodities of sickness For this cause the Ministers of God to teach us the true worth of his benefits do frequently represent to us the misery of that estate out of which he deliver'd us Thus you â—ee the Prophets of the Old Testament did continually put the Israelites in mind of their once sad and pitiful estate in Egypt under the tyranny of Pharaâ—h They would have them keep it in their eye that so they might duly relish the redâ—mption of GOD and the sweetness of that liberty he had given them Under the New Testament the Apostles are no less intentive to represent at every turn the extream hideousness of our original condition for to make us acknowledg so much the more the grace that GOD hath shew'd us in his Son by translating us out of the Kingdom of darkness into his marvellous light Thus S. Paul doth in the Text we have read wherein that the Colossians might be brought to a fuller comprehension of the inestimable excellency of the benefit they had receiv'd from GOD in JESUS CHRIST when they were raised again with him in Baptism by the faith of his efficacy as he expressed in the foregoing Verse He now lays before them the misery they were before engult'd in When ye were dead in offences saith he and in the uncircumcision of your flesh c. Now this discourse does also hit the mark he principally aim'd at in the whole dispute which is as you have often heard to refute the pernicious error of those who accounted the observing of circumcision and other Ceremonies of Moses necessary for Christians Sure all the profit they could pretend to by them was either the remission of our sins or the sanctification of our lives But the Apostle doth here shew us in few words that we have both the one and the other of these two graces in JESUS CHRIST The first Since GOD hath freely forgiven us all our offences in Him The second Since of being dead as we were in our selves He hath made us alive with him whereby it is evident that the Ceremonies of the Law are henceforth wholly useless to us There is no need of the knife of Moses any longer GOD by the sole Gospel of his CHRIST dying and risen again for us the true Sword of Heaven infinitely sharper than any of the Metals of Nature hath cut off all the corruption of our flesh He hath done much more yet By the alone vertue of the same CHRIST he hath rescued us from death and animated and made us alive And as for the sins whereof we were guilty he hath pardon'd us them all His pure grace in JESUS CHRIST hath effectually fulfill'd whatsoever Moses's Law did promise or figure You have had experience of it saith the Apostle to the faithful at Coloss you have seen and felt the efficacy of JESVS CHRIST in your selves Remember what you were when you believed on him and consider what you are since you passed through his hands Ye were dead and ye are alive ye were covered with crimes and are fully absolv'd of them Do not so assront your Deliverer as to think that having wrought so great Miracles by his own power alone he does need the Elements of the Law to finish his work in you and that he cannot compleat without Moses what he so magnificently began and advanced without him This my Brethren is the Apostle's express design in these words We who through the grace of GOD are not troubled with the error of these false Teachers which dyed and was buried long ago will consider this Text more generally and view
of Christians and the corruption of their manners Therefore the Apostle St. Paul having refuted in the precedent Chapter as you have heard the pretended services and mortifications of the false Teachers of his time that the faithful to whom he writes might utterly be disgusted at and turned away from the same does now lay before them the just offices and legitimate exercises of Christian piety the body of holiness instead of shadows the solid doctrine of the LORD JESUS instead of the vain and childish lessons of superstition the true mortifying of the flesh instead of the seducers unprofitable macerations and an abstinence from sin and the lusts thereof instead of abstinence from certain meats in fine Heaven instead of the earth As a prudent gardiner who after he hath pluck'd up the bad or unprofitable herbs of his garden and well cleans'd the ground casts in good seeds that are worthy to take up the earth and capable of yielding fruits useful for the food of men Withal the Apostle by this means prevents an objection that superstition usually makes For being not able to maintain its petty services as holy and necessary in themselves it hath been wont to alledge that whatever they be otherwaies it is yet better for Christians to employ themselves in them than to abide idle The Apostle takes from it this vain colour shewing the faithful that they have another task which is much more worthy and much more noble to wit the study and practise of true sanctity so that superstition is guilty not only of a superfluous diligence but of a pernicious temerity in diverting Christians from their legitimate and necessary work by those voluntary exercises wherewith it pretends to charge them Let us then Dearly beloved Brethren keep off from the vain institutions of superstition whether ancient or modern and keep to the discipline of St. Paul Let us meditate let us study and practise what he enjoyneth us and assure our selves that in following and observing his rule exactly we shall have neither time nor will nor need to busie our selves after the rules of men He employes all the remainder of this Epistle in these Divine documents and in the beginning of this Chapter after he hath raised our hearts to Heaven he represents unto us the general duties of sanctification that are necessary for all Christians thence passing unto particulars he instructeth married persons children fathers servants and masters in what they owe to one another as you shall hear if GOD please in the sequel of these actions For the present to explain the exhortation which he hath plac'd at the head of this excellent tract and the words whereof we have read to you we will consider by the grace and assistance of the Holy Ghost first the precept it containeth that we do seek the things which are above and then in the second place the two reasons upon which he foundeth it one taken from our being risen again with CHRIST and the other from J. CHRIST His sitting on high at the right-hand of GOD and we shall observe upon each particular as briefly as we may the instructions and lessons they afford us either for our edification and consolation in general or particularly for our preparation to that holy and mystical repast unto which the LORD JESUS invites us against the next LORD'S Day The ancient Greeks e're-while ascribed to that Philosopher of theirs whom they most esteemed the glory of having brought down wisdom from Heaven to the earth because he was the first that fixed the minds of his Scholars on the considering of their own nature and what we owe either to our selves or to other men whereas the Sages that liv'd before him busied themselves in nothing but the contemplating of Heaven and its motions and the natural things that depend upon the same But the LORD JESUS the true Prince of Wisdom and Verity instructs us quite otherwise than that man did who verily was but a blind leader of the blind For all the Philosophy of JESUS CHRIST is to loosen us from the earth and lift us up to Heaven and so fix our minds and affections there as we may dwell even for the present and converse and have our souls incessantly there how far distant so-ever our bodies be from that happy habitation It is very true as that poor Pagan judged that the contemplating of the Sun and the Planets and the other Stars and the searching out of their motions and the admiring of their beauty their light their greatness and other qualities which was all the employment of the Heathens first Philosophy doth not much conduce to the perfection of our manners and the felicity of our lives But neither is it upon that that JESUS CHRIST doth fix us He hath discovered to us other things on high within that nobler part of the World which are infinitely more excellent and more necessary and such as if that Pagan had seen them he would have made no difficulty to confess that true wisdom consisteth not in staying ones self here below on the earth but in ascending up to Heaven for the viewing the loving and admiring of them continually For first He hath revealed to us there an holy and a glorious City seated above nature and all its elements a City not mutable and subject to perish as inferiour things but founded permanent and eternal the sanctuary of life and immortality which GOD hath builded and in which He hath displayed all the wonders of His power and wisdom the dwelling place which He hath prepared for such among men as embracing His promises by Faith shall live here below in His fear and obey His commandments and where He hath aleady gathered in and consecrated in His rest the spirits of such of the faithful as He hath fetch'd out of the present World CHRIST hath made us see that it is there those blessed ones do dwell with the armies of holy Angels and that it 's thither He went Himself when He had finished the work of our redemption upon earth It 's in this mystical Paradise that the true Tree of Life doth grow It 's there that the rivers of pleasure do run There shineth the true Sun that never sets There are kept those divine flowers that can neither be fouled nor fade with which the piety and patience of Saints shall be one day crowned It 's there that GOD manifesteth himself to His servants and shews them the mervails of His countenance unveiled and feeds them and fills them with joy and transforms them by this vision into so many living images of His eternal and blessed nature It 's there is true glory and true pleasure an honour a felicity and a magnificence the idea whereof never entred either into our senses or into the very thoughts of our heart in comparison whereof all the pomp of the Earth and the glory of this Heaven in which we see the Sun and the Stars go their rounds is but a shadow
us unto so just a duty Seek the things which are above where CHRIST saith he sitteth at the right hand of GOD. For it as our LORD sometime said where our treasure is there be our hearts also where should our souls be but in Heaven since it is in that blessed dwelling place that their treasure doth reside JESUS their good their life and their joy in whom is hidden all our felicity In time past under the Mosaical Law the faithful alwaies turned their eyes and thoughts towards the Temple at Jerusalem because it was the abiding place of the pledges of GOD's covenant with them and of the most precious symbols of His presence and glory Judge what our affection and earnestness should be for Heaven which containeth the true Ark of GOD where all the fulness of His Godhead dwelleth not in shadow and figure but really and bodily But there is more yet JESUS CHRIST is our Head and we His members How can we conserve this honour but in keeping close to Him and following Him faithfully without ever separating from Him or withdrawing from that Sanctuary where He dwelleth And indeed He expresly assures us in the Gospel that He willeth we should be where He is and that where the dead body is there also the Eagles gather together so as if we be truly of the number of His Eagles it is not possible but we should take our flight to Heaven since this divine body of our LORD and Saviour is there And hereby you see dear Brethren to note it by the way how distant the doctrine of St. Paul is from that of Rome For whereas the Apostle elevateth our hearts from earth to Heaven Rome brings them down as far as in her lyeth from Heaven to the earth fastning the hearts of her zealots on her material altars and ciboires which she pretends the LORD is enclosed in against the suffrage of the whole Church who hath ever constantly applied these words of the Apostle particularly to the Sacrament of the Eucharist exhorting the faithful when they celebrate it to have their hearts above Sure if JESUS CHRIST be here below as Rome would have it the Apostle does ill to command us to mind the things which are above and worse again in urging for a reason of it that it 's above that JESUS CHRIST resideth If for that the LORD is in Heaven we ought according to the Apostles instruction not to seek any thing on earth how much less I beseech you ought we to seek the LORD Himself there I do not advertise you that this is to be understood of the presence of the humane nature of JESUS CHRIST For you know that He is every where as to the essence and providence of His Divinity And as to the grace of His Spirit and the efficacy and virtue of His will and institutions we readily confess that the same is not confined to the Heavens and doth extend and shew its self wheresoever He pleaseth according to the promise He hath made us to be in the midst of us when we are assembled in His Name But the Apostle doth not barely say that JESUS is in Heaven He adds that He sitteth at the right hand of GOD. Divers Doctors have belaboured themselves much in the explicating of these words and at length there are some that have strangely disguised them as if they signified that our LORD 's humane nature had been invested with all the properties of the Divinity which would be no other thing but that it was transform'd into a Divine nature a conceit which all true Christians have horrour for confessing that the two natures do remain each of them in its integrity having been united in JESUS CHRIST but not blended together nor confused The Apostle if we please to hear him will tell us in two words what it is to sit at the right hand of GOD. For in the 15th Chapter of the first Epist to the Corinthians speaking of the estate to which JESUS CHRIST hath been exalted in the Heavens and in which he shall abide constantly unto the end instead of its being said by the Prophet from whom the expression was taken in Psal 110. that the LORD should fit at the right hand of the Father he saith simply that He shall reign till He hath put all His enemies under His feet an evident sign that this sitting at the right hand of the Father is nothing else but that supreme dominion which hath been given Him over all things and which He doth and shall exercise unto the end of all ages inasmuch as GOD hath made Him LORD Acts 2.36 and CHRIST as St. Peter speaks And this consideration doth again mightily strengthen the holy Apostle's exhortation For since Heaven is the throne on which the Prince of the Universe doth sit and from which He dispenseth and governeth all things at His will there is great reason we should turn our eyes thither-ward and have this Royal Court of our Soveraign in mind night and day to comfort our selves under the trouble that either the iniquity of men and devils or the intemperateness of other creatures does give us and to form our manners and all the parts of our life after the will and by the example of so great and so holy a Monarch Behold the Lesson Beloved Brethren which the Apostle gives us at this time that we seek not low but high things not those of the earth but the things of Heaven since we are risen up with JESVS CHRIST who is sat down on high in Heaven at the right hand of GOD. What would there be in all the World more happy than we if we took up a good and a firm resolution to obey Him and practise the thing He enjoyneth us These fears and these desires and so many other vain passions which trouble our whole life would have no more place in us We elevated far above that which men unprofitably covet or possess or apprehend should with Angels enjoy a Divine contentment From that glorious Heaven where we should be we should despise the vanities and variations of the earth and see its seasons pass on and its elements roul about and its idols perish and its pleasures fleet away without any perturbation being secure that none of its storms can ever reach that high and inaccessible region where our hearts and lives would be We should look upon death without terrour knowing that it could not take any of those things from us which we possess on high We should suffer all the accidents of this life without emotion because they can change no part of the things we have in Heaven The charms also and illusions of the World would touch us as little as its menaces and raging because the fruition of a greater good would render us insensible for lesser ones as the presence of the Sun puts out the shining of the stars Being content with Heaven and its eternity we should covet nothing more and satisfied
and Parrots are capable of prayer and of devotion if the uttering of a few words without understanding them be praying to GOD. In fine the Apostle would have us further add to prayer giving of thanks And truly with great reason For how can we ask of GOD new favours if we make not our acknowledgments to Him for those we have already received This duty is so rational that though no other consideration did call for it the thing it self would oblige us to perform it The having receiv'd a benefit is cause enough for rendring of thanks It 's an odious ingratitude to have and use the gifts of GOD without expressing to Him our resentments of them But besides ingratitude it 's impudence too to present our selves to GOD and ask new benefits of Him if we thank Him not for the old It 's herewith therefore that all our prayers should begin and there is no kind of Rhetorique so powerful to perswade His giving for the future as an acknowledgment of what is past He loves to sow His mercies upon such ground as receives them with gratitude He readily hears the vows and prayers of those who have a deep and respectful sense of the favours He hath done them Now tell me not that ye have not yet received any thing from His liberality There 's not a man how wretched and forlorn soever but this Divine Sun of grace and bounty hath visited and imparted some of his benefits unto How much more hath he done it towards you whom He hath honoured with his covenant and unto whom He offereth His Gospel and his CHRIST and in Him all the treasures of His grace and of His glory For I omit this body and this soul this breath and light and that multitude of other good things which he communicateth unto all men in the course of nature But how can you without being dead or at least utterly stupid have no resentment of the grace He hath shewed you in calling you to His communion and thereby to the hope of salvation and eternity Yet though he hath done you so many favours already He forbids you not to crave more of Him His goodness is an inexhaustible deep Beg and pray boldly All that he requireth of you is that ye do it with thanksgiving that ye tender Him your resentments for His first favours if ye would have Him grant the requests ye make Him for further graces This is it Dear Brethren which the Apostle enjoyns the Colossians concerning prayer in general even that they persevere in it and watch unto it with thanksgiving He next sollicits them in the second part of our Text to pray particularly for Him Pray ye saith he together also for us that GOD do open c. As to this I will not stay to chastise the silly subtility of the superstitious who do conclude from the Apostle's requiring the Colossians to pray for him that therefore we may also pray the spirits of the faithful departed which are in Heaven to do us the same office As rationally as if I should infer from St. Paul's writing this Epistle to the Colossians that therefore we have warrant to write letters to the dead These Colossians of whom St. Paul demands the assistance of their prayers were persons living here beneath on earth persons with whom he had mutual commerce in such offices of charity He wrote to them they answer'd him He knew his words would reach them and he look'd again for theirs whereas we have no such commerce with the deceased And as for the reply which is made that they do know our desires and hear our prayers it 's a phansie asserted without proof and without reason such as nothing but the passion of a bad cause hath inspired errour with and which we may not believe since the word of GOD which is the rule and measure of our faith says nothing of it However it be since GOD who everywhere commands us to pray doth no where order us to pray to men departed since the Apostle who presseth the Colossians and divers other believers that were alive to pray unto GOD for him doth no where sollicite them either by his order or by his example to do him the like office by addressing prayers to Saints deceas'd we cannot be faulty in keeping religiously as we do to the commands of GOD and the examples of St. Paul and the other Saints of the Old and New Testament who have indeed prayed unto GOD and verily required the aid of the prayers of living faithful people but never invocated or sollicited the dead to pray for them All that can be duly concluded from this example of the Apostle is that while we war here below under the ensigns of JESUS CHRIST the charity that uniteth us all into one body obligeth us to pray for one another and not only Pastors for their Flocks but also Flocks for their Pastors Who was then or who hath since been greater then St. Paul Yet you see how he disdaineth not the prayers of private Christians He disdaineth them not said I He demands them and requires them expresly Elsewhere he demands the same assistance of the Ephesians and the Thessalonians Hence we may conclude that for any one to have the title given him of a Mediator between GOD and us it is not sufficient that he pray unto GOD for us For by this account the Colossians praying for St. Paul according to the warrant he gives them for it and the request he makes them about it might and should be stiled his Mediatours towards GOD which is infinitely absurd as every one would confess Whence first is refuted the abuse of those that give this glorious quality unto Pastors calling them Mediators between GOD and the people an abuse against which St. Augustine cried out long ago saying That if any man boasted Lib. 3. cont epâ— Parmen c. 8. he was a Mediator between GOD and his Flock good and faithful Christians could not suffer him but would look upon him as an Antichrist and not as an Apostle of JESUS CHIST and concluding that all Christian men recommend one the other unto GOD by their prayers but that we have one onely true Mediator Him that maketh request for us and for whom none makes request to wit our LORD JESUS CHRIST Hence secondly appears further that supposing the faithful departed do pray to GOD for each of us in particular as those of Rome pretend yet this would not be sufficient to acquire them that title of Mediator which they give them since that Flocks praying for their Pastors are not therefore their Mediators it being evident that for the meriting of this title there must be offered to GOD for us besides prayer a propitiation capapable of supporting it and of acquiring us the favour of the Father a thing that pertains to none to do but the LORD JESUS the prayers we make for one another having no other efficacy then what our common Head doth give them unto whom they ascend in the heavens and in whom is the propitiation for our sins Ibid. Paulo post as excellently saith St. Austin It 's the express doctrine of St. Paul who having said that there is but one Mediator between GOD and men even the man JESVS CHRIST immediately adds for a reason of this quality that He gave Himself a ransome for all But let us now see what
the will of the LORD is and elsewhere again he commandeth us to prove it The necessity of the other point Rom. 12.2 our LORD JESUS CHRIST sheweth us when He saith in the Gospel according to St. Matthew Not every one that saith unto me LORD LORD shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 I acknowledge that while the beleever is here below there want many degrees both in his knowledge of the will of GOD and in the obedience he renders Him of that ultimate and supreme perfection which he shall one day attain unto in Heaven 1 Cor. 13.12 according to the Apostle's assertion in 1 Epist to the Corinthians that now we see through a glass darkly and know but in part but then we shall see face to face and know as we are known Yet this hinders not but that setting this comparison aside that measure of faith and holiness which the faithful do at present attain unto may be termed a perfection and compleatness because it is without hypocrisie reaching to internals and externals and doth include all the parts of true piety and chastity not one left out And it 's in this sense that the truly faithful are oft-times in Scripture called perfect and compleat to wit in reference to the state and measure of the present life for a distinguishing of them not only from prophane and brutish men who take up no part of the will of GOD at all but also from hypocrites and carnal Christians who consider but a part thereof halting between two and are throughly and absolutely neither in CHRIST nor of the world Epaphras had reason to desire this perfection for his Colossians since that no one without it can inherit everlasting life And they who dogmatize that it is not universally necessary for the obtaining of salvation and that it is a matter of counsel as they call it not of command they I say are grievously mistaken and do by this pernicious errour open a door of licence unto wicked men and furnish them with pillows to sleep upon in mortal security For our parts dear Brethren follow we the prayer of Epaphras and take good heed we never count that thing superfluous or unnecessary which he so instantly beg'd of GOD for his flock and sheep And knowing that they shall have no part in Heaven whose righteousness doth not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and that JESUS CHRIST will receive in thither none but them that have done the will of GOD His Father let us apply our selves with all our might â—o know it and fulfil it Let us give our selves no rest untill by prayers and tears and by continual labour and exercise in the Gospel we have attained to be perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. Yet it is not enough to attain hereto we must abide and stand firm in it as the Apostle here says persevere constantly to our last breath in this brave and blessed undertaking neither the menaces nor the caresses of the world neither the Sophisms of seducers nor the scandals of false brethren nor the weaknesses of our own flesh ever prevailing over us to make us vary For you know that the crown of salvation is for them alone that persevere It 's thus that Epaphras strove to obtain of GOD by his ardent and assiduous prayers that the Colossians might abide perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. But because the Apostle knew how much it concerned this people to be firmly perswaded of the affection of their Pastor that he might assure them fully of it he alledgeth to them the authority of his own testimony For saith he I bear him witness that he hath a great zeal that is a very ardent affection for you and for them of Laodicea and of Hierapolis These were two Cities of Phrygia neighbouring on Colosse where the LORD JESUS had Churches that served Him in the faith of His Gospel And that of Laodicea is one of the seven to whom He caused to be written by St. John those excellent Epistles which are read in the first Chapters of his Apocalypse You see what care the Apostle takes to set Epaphras right in the Spirit of his flock Whence you may judge how execrable is the rage or envy of those who quite contrary to this holy man do by their detractions and ill offices endeavour to alienate or slacken the inclination of Churches towards their Pastors and in so doing render their ministry unprofitable to them But to proceed After the salutation of Epaphras the Apostle presents them that of Luke and Demas Luke the beloved Physitian saluteth you saith he and also Demas It 's the constant opinion from all antiquity that the first of these two is the same St. Luke that wrote the third of our Gospels and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles two of the most excellent pieces that we have in the Divine writings of the New Testament And verily besides the name of Luke his own history as seems to me leads us to it For himself relateth that he embarqued with St. Paul when he was carried prisoner into Italy and that he came with him to Rome as you may see in the two last Chapters of the Acts where he describes this voyage Therefore being there with the Apostle there is all the probability in the World that he 's the person St. Paul speaks of in this place it being not found that mention is made in Scripture of any other faithful man of that name He calls him Physician because of his former profession as you see that St. Matthew is sometimes termed a Publican because he e'rwhile was so before his conversion But that same heavenly call that had changed Matthew from a Publican into an Apostle and afore-time of a keeper of sheep made David a Pastor of Nations wrought a like miracle in St. Luke and of a Physician to the body made him a Physician of souls His two books shew us how able he was in this Divine art and as often as you read them at home or hear them publickly here where because of their excellency they are both of them explained to you make account that they are a quantity of wholsome medicines presented you to be applied to your souls as you have need I well know that there are some modern Expositors who referr what the Apostle saith here unto another Luke but they produce no valuable reason For whereas they alledge that the Apostle would have adorned this person with some more illustrious Elogie if he had spoken of Luke the Evangelist this is extremely feeble Is it not a very glorious qualifying of him to call him his well-beloved It 's a great honour to have the love of so holy an Apostle and an assured testimony of piety and vertue Withal it is not alwaies necessary to accompany the names of illustrious persons
His last breath with a spirit clear and a soul calm speaking to us of His approaching happiness and of the present grace of His LORD with so much efficacy as it stopped Your tears and in such manner forced the resentments of your grief that how just soever they were You had nevertheless a secret shame to make them appear in the presence and on the occasion of so vertuous a person as if Laments and Plaints should have in some sort offended His piety and dishonored the victory of his faith The same GOD that loosed Him so miraculously from earth to raise him up to heaven granted You to support the affection of His departure with a patience worthy Your vocation After so rude a blow He hath yet sustained You and conducted You to an honourable old age that few persons do attain And now I doubt not but Your principal consolation and the agitations of the present world and the infirmities of this age is the assured hope you have of arriving also one day at the port of that blessed immortality where contrary to the ordinary course of nature You have seen this dear Son enter before You. If in the holy exercises of Piety by which You daily prepare You for it the reading of these Sermons may find place and be of any use for Your consolation I shall therein have extream satisfaction at least I can well assure You it is one of my most ardent desires who pray GOD to preserve you with all your Family in perfect prosperity and remain inviolably From Paris April 1. 1648. SIR Your most humble and most obedient Servant DAILLE Imprimatur Tho. Tomkins Ex. AEd. Lambeth May 15. 1671. SERMONS ON THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS THE FIRST SERMON On the I II III IV V. VERSES Verse I. Paul an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the Will of GOD and the Brother Timothy II. To the Saints and faithful Brethren in CHRIST which are at Colosse Grace be unto you and Peace from GOD our Father and from the LORD JESVS CHRIST III. We give thanks for you unto GOD who is the Father of our LORD JESVS CHRIST praying alway for you IV. Having heard speak of your faith in JESVS CHRIST and of the love you have to all the Saints V. For the hope which is reserved in Heaven for you whereof you have heretofore heard by the Word of Truth to wit the Gospel THE Apostle St. Paul's Assertion is verified in the afflictions of the faithful by constant experience Rom. 8.27 and they ever work together for good to them that love GOD. Beside the excellent fruit which the afflicted themselves receive from them such as they sooner or later acknowledge with the Psalmist That it was good for them to have been afflicted Psal 119.71 they are also serviceable to the edification of others For as Roses the fairest and sweetest of Flowers do grow on a rough and thorny stock so from the afflictions of the faithful rugged and piercing to the flesh spring forth examples of their Vertue and instances of their Piety sweetest and most salubrious productions See what a rich store of benefits the tryals of Job and of David have yielded us It 's to them we owe that admirable Book of the Patience of the former and a good part of the Divine Hymns of the latter Had it not been for their afflictions we should not now enjoy after so many Ages that inestimable treasure of Instructions and Consolations What shall I say of the sufferings of St. Paul which did spead the Gospel all abroad and convert the world unto knowledge of the true GOD. His imprisonment at Rome alone under the Empire of Nero hath done the Church more good than the peace and prosperity of all the rest of the faithful that then were It gave reputation to the Gospel and made it gloriously enter into the stateliest Court in the world It inspired an heroick courage into Preachers of the truth It awakened the curiosity of some and inflamed the charity of others and filled all that great City with the Name and Odor of JESUS CHRIST Nor was it of use unto the Romans only It imparted its celestial fruit unto the remotest Regions and Generations For it was in this very confinement that this holy man wrote several of his Divine Epistles which we read with so much edification to this day as those to Philemon to Timothy to the Ephesians and that directed to the Philippians the Exposition whereof we last finished and the following to the Colossians which we have chosen to explain henceforth unto you if GOD permit Paul's Prison was a common receptacle whence have issued out those living Springs which water and rejoyce the City of GOD and will furnish it even to the end of the world with the streams it needs for its refreshment Having then already drawn from the one of these sweet Springs that Divine Liquor wherewith we have endeavoured according to the Ministry committed to us of GOD to irrorate the heavenly plants of your faith and love we now turn us my Brethren to the other a no less quick and plentiful one than the former Bring ye to it as the Lord requires souls thirsting for His grace and He will give you as He hath promised living water which shall quench your drougth for ever and become in each of you a Well springing up to eternal life The Church of the Colossians to whom this Epistle is addressed having been happily planted by Epaphras a faithful Minister of CHRIST the enemy failed not to sow forthwith his Tares within it by the hands of some Seducers these men would mingle Moses with our Saviour and together with the Gospel of the one retain and observe the Ceremonies of the other To make their error the more pleasing they painted it over with colours of Philosophy subtility of Discourse curiosity of Speculations and other such like Artifices Epaphras seeing the danger whereinto this prophane medly did cast the faith and salvation of his dear Colossians advertiseth St. Paul of it then Prisoner at Rome The Apostle to withdraw them from so pernicious an error taketh Pen in hand and writeth them this Letter wherein he sheweth them that in JESUS CHRIST alone is all the fulness of our salvation in such manner as that we should deeply injure Him to seek ought of it out of Him since in His Gospel we have abundantly wherewith to inform our Faith and form our manners without adding thereto either the shadows of Moses or the vanities of Philosophy At the entrance He saluteth them and congratulates them for the Communion they had with GOD in His Son Next he draweth them a lively pourtrait of the Lord JESUS wherein shine forth the dignity of His person and the inexhaustible abundance of His benefits Upon that he undertaketh the Seducers and refutes the unprofitable additions wherewith they sophisticated the simplicity of the Gospel Afterwards from dispute he
that the Apostle did the honour to write this Epistle S. Paul qualifieth the Christians at Colosse Saints and faithful Brethren He calleth them Saints a name he ordinarily giveth to all true Christians and which belongeth to them indeed forasmuch as GOD separating them from the rest of men by the effectual working of His Word and by the Sacrament of His Baptism cleanseth and purifieth them from the filth of Sin and delivereth them from the servitude of the flesh and consecrates them to His own name and service to be to Him a peculiar people addicted to good works Whence it comes that the whole body of the faithful is called in the Creed The Holy Church Mark this well my Brethren and make account that you cannot be Christians except you be truly Saints Suffer not your selves to be abused by the deceitfulness of those who promise you this glorious Name provided only you make profession to believe in CHRIST and that ye will live in the Communion of their Church how naught and impious soever ye be other wayes the body of the LORD is too lively and precious to have dead and rotten members I confess if you have the industry to hide your Vices under the false appearances of an outward profession you will gain thus much that men will give you the name of Christians and reckon you among the members of the Church as it might well be that among those whom the Apostle honours here with the Name of Saints and faithful there were some hypocrites But GOD who seeth the secrets of our hearts and upon whose judgement our whole condition doth depend will never count you Christians or members of his Son if you be not truly Saints Paul likewise and the Church who by a charitable judgement call you now Disciples of the LORD will change their opinion and rank you with profane men and worldlings when they shall discover your Hypocrifie The Title Faithful which the Apostle gives in the second place to the Colossians is common to all true Christians too and is taken from that Faith they give to the Gospel of the LORD The word Brethren that follows signifieth the holy communion they had with the Apostle and with all other believers of whatsoever quality or condition they were as persons all begotten of the same Father namely GOD all born of the same Mother Jerusalem from on high all partaking of the same Divine Nature all nursed in the same spiritual family bred up in the same hopes destined to the same inheritance consecrated by one and the same Discipline In fine He adds in CHRIST because it is of Him and by Him and in Him that we have all this Sanctity Faith and Fraternal union the titles whereof he hath given to the Colossians After having thus denoted and qualified the persons He writes unto He wisheth them according to His custom Grace and Peace from GOD our Father and from the LORD JESVS CHRIST By Grace He meaneth the favour and good will of GOD with the saving gifts and divine assistance wherewith he gratifieth those He loveth in His Son By Peace He signifieth that of GOD which is nothing else but the calm and tranquility of a soul that looketh to the LORD with assurance having remission of its sins by JESUS CHRIST and is delivered by the effectual operation of His Spirit from the importune tyranny of the lusts of the flesh It may yet well be that beside this first and chiefest peace the Apostle intendeth also that of men a sweet and calm estate exempt from their hatred and persecutions that they might without justling them or being troubled of them lead a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty You should also know that in the stile of Scripture the word Peace signifieth generally all kind of welfare and prosperity to which sense it may without inconvenience be interpreted in this place But he wisheth them these benefits From GOD our Father and from our LORD JESVS CHRIST From GOD because He is the first and highest spring of all good the Father of lights from whom cometh down every good gift From JESVS CHRIST for that He is as the channel by which the benefits of GOD stream down upon us it being clear that without the death and resurrection and in a word without the mediation of JESUS we could have had no part in the least of the Graces of GOD. He calleth GOD our Father because He hath adopted us freely in His Son and it is properly upon this relation that He communicateth His Grace and Peace to us whence it cometh that JESUS CHRIST hath given us order to call Him our Father in the prayer He hath taught us He calleth JESUS CHRIST the LORD because he is our Master who hath all power and authority over us as well by the right of Creation as by that of Redemption Such is the Inscription of this Epistle Let us come now to the second point of our Text wherein the Apostle congratulates the Colossians for the part they had in JESUS CHRIST We give thanks saith he to GOD for you who is the Father of our LORD JESVS CHRIST praying alwayes for you having heard speak of your faith in JESVS CHRIST and of the charity you have towards all the Saints for the hope that is reserved for you in Heaven which you have before heard of by the word of truth to wit the Gospel Here is as the Preface or Exordium of the Epistle which extendeth as far as the thirteenth Verse wherein the Apostle by the true praises he giveth the piety of the Colossians winneth their benevolence and declares to them His affection to prepare them for a right and faithful reception of the instructions he will hereafter propose to them as proceeding from a soul desirous of their salvation He protesteth therefore to them First In general that as often as himself and Timothy prayed GOD for them they did it with most humble thanksgivings for the happy estate wherein in Spirit they saw them Next he toucheth more particularly the grounds of this thanksgiving and proposeth three of them First The faith of the Colossians Secondly their charity and in the third and last place the inheritance reserved in Heaven for them Three particulars which comprize all the felicity of man The part He taketh in the happiness of the Colossians teacheth us one of the most necessary offices of our charity which is to interess our selves in the affairs of our Brethren to mourn with them that mourn to rejoyce with them that joy and be as nearly touched with their good and evil as our own Far from our practice be the envy and malignity of worldlings to whom the prosperity of others giveth trouble and their adversity gladness who feed themselves with their miseries and are sad at their mercies But the Apostle sheweth us moreover by this his example that the joy we have for the good of our neighbours should be elevated unto GOD who
he saith that the Gospel is preached to every creature Col. 1.23 that is under Heaven and at the tenth of the Epistle to the Romans where applying to the Ministers of the LORD JESUS what the Psalmist had sung of the Heavens Rom. 10.18 Their sound saith he is gone forth through all the earth and their words unto the ends of the World And elsewhere speaking of himself he saith That from Jerusalem Rom. 15.19 and round about it even to Illyricum he had made the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST to abound and after the time he wrote those words He sowed it besides in the Isle of Malta and at Rome Now if the other twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples and the Evangelists did labour each according to his measure in proportion with St. Paul as it is not to be doubted but they did no one will have cause to be astonished that all they together should have by that time carryed the Gospel through the whole world We read likewise in the writings of the first Christians Justin Clement Tertullian and others that in their time that is about 130 and 160 years only after the LORD's death all was full of Christian Churches and that there was no Nation either among the Greeks or the Barbarians nay the very Scythians or Tartarians wherein CHRIST JESUS had not servants And though these testimonies cannot be rejected without extream impudence there being no probability that either St. Paul or those other Writers would have spoken of the thing in such sort if it had not been true yet entirely to disarm incredulity I will add that the very same appears by the Books of Pagans of that time that are remaining For Tacitus a Roman Historian a passionate enemy of Christianity Amel. l. 15. though otherwise a grave man and of great esteem among his Countrymen hath left in Writing that in the eleventh year of Nero that is only eight years after the date of this Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians a severe search having been made after it there was found a very great multitude of Christians at Rome This sufficeth to justifie what the Apostle says For since that Preaching was able to penetrate so far on this side athwart Provinces that made as it were the heart of the Roman Empire it might be much more easily spread towards the East in the Estates of the Parthians and in the Indies even whither St. Thomas went as appears by tracks of it that remain of it to this day in those Countries and towards the South in Egypt and Ethiopia where St. Matthew Preached as the ancients do report and towards the North whither passed some of the other Disciples This was well nigh the whole world then known of the Greeks and Romans and thus without doubt the Apostle understands it in this place For as to those great Countreys discovered in the West about one hundred and fifty years ago which they commonly call the West Indies or the New world it is evident the Ancients had no certain knowledge of them and it is very likely that they were not yet peopled in the Apostle's time the furtherst memory which the Nations there have preserved of things yerst done among them being but for four or five hundred years at most Be it concluded therefore that taking the World as is commonly understood for Countries inhabited and known at that time the Gospel was then already come into all the world The Apostle mentions it to the Colossians First to confirm them the more in the saith they had given to the Gospel I confess that its truth depends not upon the success of the Preaching it nor upon the multitude of them that believe it Though all the world should reject it though Heaven and Earth should persecute it the faith of a Christian ought to abide alwayes firm and unshaken being founded as it is upon the word of GOD and not upon the consent of men as on the contrary though the whole universe should maintain errour we should not be for this either obliged to follow errour or excusable for having followed it this order of GOD subsisting for ever that we must not follow a multitude to do evil But thoug it be thus yet it is a great consolation to a faithful soul to see the truth spread abroad And since the Divine Vertue of the LORD is so much the more powerfully declared by how much the more men it converteth unto his Christ it is evident that this extension of the Gospel helpeth and confirmeth our Faith in as much as it furnisheth us with an excellent testimony of the power of GOD and of the efficacy of His word But I add also that the success here touched by the Apostle contains a manifest argument of the Divinity of the Gospel and that in two respects For first if you consider the thing in its self it is so great and marvelous as that it sheweth sufficiently that this Doctrine is not only true but even Divine and Celestial When St. Paul wrote this Letter it was not full thirty years that JESUS CHRIST had suffered death in Judea and yet the Gospel as he saith was already come into all the world How could it have made so much way in so little time penetrated so many obstacles flown into so many places infinitely distant if it had not been both of a Celestial Original and carryed by a divine force Certainly as the extension of the light of the Sun who inlightens the whole Hemisphere in an instant and the rapidness of its motion who visits all the Climats of the universe in four and twenty hours doth evidently shew us that it is a work of GOD and of a nature altogether different from that of Earthly and Elementary things In like manner this so swift and suddain course of the Evangelique Doctrine that fill'd the world in so little time pierced through and dissipated the darkness and made it self be seen so quickly from one end of the Heavens to the other invincibly proves that it is a divine thing and no humane production Look on all the disciplines that ever had sway in the World You shall not find any of them that was establisht in this sort and made such a progress in so small a time The religions of the Pagans lived only in the Countries where they were born and if sometimes they stretched further it was rather the curiosity of strangers that brought them from the place of their birth than their own design or vigour all those so famous sects of the Philosophy of the Greeks did abide each of them in the soil that bare them And the Doctrine which the Popes of Rome have established in their Communion came not to the estate wherein we see it but by a long succession of time one age gaining one point and another adding a second till after many ages it took in fine the consistence and form it hath at this day and wherein
grant likewise that JESUS the Son of GOD is the true and single Author of this second Creation But to this I adjoyn two things first That though this passage might be understood of this Reformation of the World yet it would of necessity infer That JESUS to whom it is attributed is the true Eternal GOD. For since this work is no less nay since it is greater than that of Creation it is evident that none but a true GOD could be the Author of it It being clear as we shall say anon that Creation is set before us in Scripture as an Argument of true and eternal Divinity And the thing speaks of it self For since a Divine and Infinite Vertue is requisite to regenerate men and destroy the servitude of Sin and Satan it must of necessity be acknowledged That JESUS the Author of this great work hath an infinite power that is to say is truly GOD no finite subject being capable of an Infinite power and none being infinite but GOD alone Thus you see it is in vain that the Hereticks do toil them their own Interpretation though it were admitted necessarily inferring the thing which they oppose to wit That JESUS is true GOD Infinite and Eternal and subsisting before all ages But I say in the second place that this Text cannot be understood of the Reparation or second Creation of the World First because the Apostle will by and by speak of that in the three Verses immediately following where He loftily describeth it saying That JESVS CHRIST is the head of the body the Church the beginning and the first-born from the dead By whom the Father hath reconciled all things to Himself as well Celestial as Terrestrial having made peace by the blood of His cross By means hereof unless we will render S. Paul guilty of vain babling and useless repetition we must confess that as in this second place he speaks of the Reparation and Renovation of things so in the former he spake of their first Creation Secondly this same appears again from his reckoning the Angels expresly among the things created by JESUS CHRIST yea he insisteth on them more than on the rest as we shall see hereafter saying That by Him were created things in heaven Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers But the Angels were not renewed nor repaired by JESUS CHRIST since that sin neither ruined their nature nor made it wax old nor subjected it to vanity It must therefore be concluded that the Apostle speaks here not of the reparation of things but of the first creation of them it being most certain that the Angels were created their nature though holy yet being not for all that eternal and without beginning I grant that by the Salvation which we have receiv'd from JESUS CHRIST the Angels have been re-united to us and settled again in peace and good intelligence with us from whom our sin had separated and estranged them and this is that the Apostle meaneth when he saith here beneath Col. 1.20 Epâ—hs 1.10 That GOD hath reconciled things in heaven and things in earth by the death of JESVS CHRIST and elswhere that He hath recapitulated or gathered together again in CHRIST both that which is in heaven and that which is on earth But this is not to be called a creating of the Angels nor can any example of such extravagant language be produced that creating of persons was put to signifie a reconciling them with those they hated and whose communion they avoided Otherwise since JESUS CHRIST reconciled us also with GOD the Father incorporating us into His family so as He is thereby become our Father and we His children in the same manner that we are brethren with the Angels it might to express this be also said That JESUS CHRIST created GOD the Father which no ear I say not Christian but that is ever so little rational could possibly endure Finally the contexture it self of the Apostles words doth evidently shew that they must be understood necessarily of the first and not of the second creation of things I confess the Holy GHOST sometimes useth the word Create 〈◊〉 signifie the Production of the second work of GOD that is the work of His grace in JESUS CHRIST But He never doth it without some addition and restriction that evidently limitteth the word to such a sense as for example Isa 65.17.18 when He saith in Isaiah that he is about to create new heavens and a new earth and that he is about to create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people gladness The very form of this language ordered in the Future Tense as you see and those New Heavens and that Jerusalem which He saith he is about to create do evidently shew that it is not of the first creation of the world He intended to speak So when the Apostle saith that GOD hath created them both that is the Jews and the Gentiles in Himself into one new man This latter word New leaveth no place for doubt but that he meaneth here the second Operation of God by which Jews and Gentiles were united into one onely people and not of the first whereby they were brought forth into their natural existence And likewise when he saith in the same place Eph. 2.15 26. that we are created in JESVS CHRIST unto good works which GOD hath prepared that we should walk in them The persons of whom he speaketh Vs that is the faithful distinquish'd from other men and the end of this work of GOD to wit good works these do sufficiently clear it that the Creation there meant is the second and not the first Nor can any reasonable man doubt of it In these places and others like them if there be any the word Create is still limitted and circumstantiated Otherwhere when it is used simply and absolutely it is not to be taken but for the first Creation as when Isaiah saith Isa 42.5 Rev. 4.11 that GOD hath created the Heavens and S. John in the Revelations that the LORD created all things and in a multitude of the like places Neither can there be brought so much as one to the contrary For as to that which the Adversaries alledge out of the Epistle to the Ephesians where they pretend that the Apostle's saying Ephes 3.9 GOD created all things by JESVS CHRIST must be expounded of the second and not the first Creation in this they do not prove but presuppose the thing in question nothing obliging us to depart in this place more than in the others from the common signification of the Word Forasmuch then as in this Text upon which we are this term Create is used simply and indefinitely without any limitation or restriction the Apostle saying and twice repeating that all things were created by the Son of GOD nay adding to shew the extent of this subject more fully both things which are in heaven and things which are in earth visible and invisible Thrones Dominions Principalities
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
elsewhere That GOD hath reconciled us to Himself by JESVS CHRIST But it seems that this is not precisely that Reconciliation which S. Paul meaneth here First because the things in heaven which he expresly puts among the parties reconciled have no part therein the Angels that dwell in the Heavens pure and holy as they are having never fallen into any alienation from GOD. Secondly because of that Reconciliation the Apostle will speak instantly in the words immediately following in which he saith Having made peace by the blood of His cross so as the former words must of necessity be referred to some other Reconciliation except we will render the language of this Divine Writer culpable of a vain and fruitless repetition The truth is they that understand these words of Reconciliation with GOD do find themselves much intangled in the matter and have recourse to divers means for clearing them of this difficulty Some affirm that though the Angels be holy and blessed yet they were not exempt from needing the death of JESUS CHRIST to merit and obtain their confirmation and perseverance in the estate they had a bold Doctrine and such as it is hard to find any foundation for in the Scripture For by this reckoning JESUS CHRIST should also be the Mediator of Angels a thing that seems to cross the end and the true nature of this Office First because a Mediator should partake of the nature of the parties whom he reconcileth as you see that JESUS CHRIST the Mediator between GOD and men is GOD and man whereas He took not the nature of Angels Secondly because every Mediator interveneth between parties that are at difference whereas the Angels are and ever were at perfect accord with GOD holily obeying His will Lastly because the blood of JESUS CHRIST was shed only to wash away sin and the Scripture every where represents the people of GOD's Covenant His redeemed ones and those whom He hath saved as justified and cleansed from their filth for which there was no place in the nature of Angels they being pure and clean from all sin For as to that of Job That GOD putteth no trust in His servants Job 4.18 and doth set light by his Angels it is evident and acknowledged by all Christians that this is not said to accuse those blessed Spirits or to suggest that if they were tried by the ordinary and legal justice of GOD they would be found guilty and have need of pardon but rather to signifie either that the Authority of GOD over His creatures is so great and so absolute as He oweth nothing to the Angels themselves how exquisite soever their Sanctity be the light of glory wherewith He crowns them being a gift from His own bounty and not the due reward of their merit or else that the infinite purity of this Supreme Majestie is so splendid and so glorious that the light of the most holy Spirits fadeth before Him and is found dusky and defective in comparison of Him as the shining of our lights and of the Stars themselves doth disappear at the brightness of the Sun Others therefore not able to savour and for just cause I think this Doctrine that the Angels were reconciled to GOD by JESUS CHRIST to exclude them from this passage do restrain the Apostle's words to men only understanding by the things that are in Heaven the already hallowed spirits of the faithful which death had taken out of this world and by the things that are on earth the faithful that yet live here beneath in flesh But not to dissemble this Exposition seemeth both forced and frigid Forced because the Scripture by things in heaven ordinarily meaneth the Angels whose element and natural habitation as you know the heavens are whereas souls separated from their bodies are receiv'd in and lodged there by a Supernatural grace and dispensation Frigid because the sense it attributeth to the Apostle no way answers the sublimity and dignity of his words For if his aim were to express nothing but that the faithful are reconciled to GOD what need was there to divide them into two ranks some that are on the earth others that are in the heavens Who doubts but He reconciled these as well as those But without question he purposed to magnifie this work of GOD by JESUS CHRIST and to this end saith that it extendeth not to men alone that are reconciled to the Father by the efficacy of the cross of the LORD but that it hath effect in heaven it self re-uniting and reconciling the things that are there What shall we say then to these difficulties and in what sense shall we take the Apostle's words That GOD hath reconciled all things in Himself both those that are on earth and those that are in heaven Dear Brethren we will leave them in their genuine and ordinary sense and say that these expressions do signifie the recomposing and re-uniting of the creatures both Terrestrial and Celestial not with GOD but among themselves with each other For as in a State the Subjects have a twofold union one with their Prince on whom thy all depend another among themselves being as members of the same Political Body joyned together by the bond of mutual concord amity and correspondence In like manner is it with things Celestial and Terrestrial the two principal parties of this great State of GOD's which we cal the Universe Besides the union they have with GOD as their Soveraign Monarch from whose bounty they receive the being and the life they enjoy they have another alliance and conjunction one with the other as parts of one Corporation having been formed and qualified for mutual commerce It 's in this relation and in this union that the beauty and perfection of the Universe doth consist when Heaven and earth have amicable entercourse and conspire to one and the same end with an holy and a reciprocal affection Sin having broken the first union and separated man from his Creator by the same means dissolved the second loosning us from the creatures For as again in a state when one part of the Subjects riseth against the Sovereign the rest that remain in their duty presently break with the Rebels and instead of the commerce they held before with them do make cruel and implacable war upon them while they continue in their disobedience Such hath the event proved in the world Man had no sooner rebell'd against GOD but heaven and all that remained in His obedience brake with man Whole Nature took up arms against this Rebel and would have even then utterly ruin'd him if the Counsel of GOD who would not destroy us had not hindred it And as from one disorder there never fail to spring up divers others this first rupture of man with GOD and the good Creatures brought forth divers others indeed rending mankind it self into several pieces the one divided from the other by diversity of Religions and the aversions and animosities that attend it
of the Gospel and to give it to the Fopperies and Vanities which they preach S. Paul to put the Colossians out of all doubt and ambiguity indicateth expresly to them what this Gospel is of which he speaketh That saith he which you have heard namely of Epaphras who had preached it among them and to whom he gave before an excellent Testimonial for fidelity and sincerity I mean saith he the Gospel which you receiv'd at the beginning from the mouth of true Servants of GOD and not these vain and dangerous Doctrines which evil workers would make to pass with you for the Gospel of CHRIST though they be nothing less then so But to confirm them the more in the faith he sets before them in the second place an excellent encomium of the Gospel which containeth a clear proof of its truth saying That it is the Gospel which was preached to every creature under heaven It is not the Doctrine which these false Apostles sowed here and there in some out quarters whispering and privily advancing the same among light and unstable spirits It is the true Word of the Son of GOD which had been proclaimed through the whole Universe by His command and according to the Oracles of His ancient Prophets That Word which going forth from Jerusalem did spread its self every way in a very little time and being accompanied with the power of its Author made it self be heard and believed in all the Provinces of the habitable earth in spight of the contradictions of Hell and the world His assertion that the Gospel was preached to every creature which is under heaven may be expounded two manner of ways but both of them amounting to the same sense First by a Figure very common in Divine and Humane speech the word Creature may be taken for Man the noblest and most excellent of all the Creatures And the LORD had so used the word before in the same matter when He commanded His Apostles to do what S. Paul doth magnifie in this place Go ye forth said He to them into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature Where it is evident that by every creature He understandeth men who alone are capable of hearing and receiving what is preached In this sense when S. Paul saith that the Gospel was preached to every creature it is as much as if he had said to all mankind and among all sorts of men agreeably to what he saith here a little after speaking of himself that he admonisheth every man Col. 1.28 and teacheth every man in all wisdom Secondly these words To every creature may in my opinion be taken also as signifying in all the world and this the rather because it is literally in the Original in all the creature with the Article the and not simply to every creature Now that S. Paul sometimes useth this term the creature to signifie the world this great body and collection of all things which GOD hath created this is manifestly to be seen in the Epistle to the Romans where he saith Rom. 8.19 20 21. That the great and ardent desire of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the children of GOD and again That the creature was made subject to vanity and more a little after That all the creature groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now where it is clear and confessed by the greatest part of Interpreters that the creature signifies the world and our Bibles to make us understand it the better do change the singular number into the plural rendring it les creatures and toutes les creatures the creatures and all the creatures whereas the Original readeth simply the creature and all the creature Taking it thus therefore in this place when the Apostle saith the Gospel was preached in all the creature which is under heaven he meaneth in all the world wherein we dwell wherein GOD hath seated mankind beneath the heavens I will make no stay here now to shew you how it might be truly said in S. Pauls time that the Gospel of our LORD was then preached to all mankind or in all the habitable world or how this event is a clear and solid proof of its truth We have already heretofore handled both the one and the other of these two particulars in expounding if you remember the sixth Verse of this Chapter which affirmed that the Gospel was come unto all the world Upon that Text which signifies no other thing than what the Apostle saith here namely that the Gospel hath been preached in all the creature which is under heaven We shewed first by good and irrefragable testimonies of Ancient Writers both Christian and Pagan that the heavenly Word had been preached within the Apostles days in all Countreys then known either to Greeks or Romans and receiv'd for the most part with fruit so as taking the word World according to the stile of all Languages not simply and absolutely for all the parts of the Terrestrial Globe but only for those which at that time were known to men and which they understood to be inhabited it might be said with truth and without any over-reaching Hyperbole as S. Paul declareth here that the Gospel had been preached in all the creature which is under heaven that is in all the world And in the second place we proved both by the importance of the thing it self and by the respect it hath to the Oracles of the Old Testament which had predicted it many ages before its event that this so swift so sudden and so admirable running of the Gospel through all the world in so few years is a certain and infallible evidence of the verity and divinity of this holy Doctrine obliging consequently both the Colossians heretofore and us at present to hold fast and persevere in the faith which we have given to it without suffering our selves to be ever mov'd away from it either by the cheating arts of false Teachers and their crafty Seducements or by the Threatnings and Persecutions of the world These things having been heretofore largely deduced and opened to you lest the repition of them should be irksome I will pass to the third head of our Text wherein the Apostle sets before the Colossians another Character of true Christian Doctrine to wit that it is the Word the Ministery whereof was committed to him It is saith he the Gospel of which I Paul have been made a Minister He opposeth his heavenly call to the temerity of the false Teachers who ran without having been sent and preached not what Heaven commanded them but what earth inspir'd them with their impulsions and instructions being from flesh and blood and not from the LORD JESUS It was otherwise with Paul all the faithful knew him to have been called from heaven and suddenly changed by the efficacy of Divine power from a Wolf into a Pastor made an Herald and witness of the Gospel immediately by the LORD JESUS instructed in His
in old time that your holy life might be new As your knowledge is greater than that of other ages so let your holiness surpass theirs The dimness of their light doth in some sort excuse their faults faults committed in the mistakes of childhood and in the obscurity of shadows With what pretext can you palliate yours you to whom GOD hath communicated all His counsel How will you defend that ardent and unruly passion which you have for the earth you whom by the Gospel he hath made to see all the beauties of Heaven How will you justifie the love and the adherence you have one to the pleasures of the flesh another to the heaps and honours of the world you to whom He hath shewed the riches and the glory of eternity in His Son JESUS CHRIST Sure to sin in such light is not an infirmity nor simply a naughtiness It is an impudence and an execrable insolency Take heed then Beloved Brethren that this great grace which GOD hath shewed you do not turn to your condemnation If you desire it should be saving to you purifie your selves and cleanse your selves from all filthiness and pollution For the mysteries of GOD are only for Saints Renounce the world's behaviour as well as its belief Walk in the wayes of Heaven in an Honesty and Purity worthy of the vocation wherewith GOD hath honoured you Let His mystery shew forth the wonders of its glory among you potently changing your whole life into its brightness and transforming you into the image of that JESUS CHRIST who hath vouchsafed to dwell in you and to take your hearts for His temple that after you have wisely managed His talents here below and happily travailed in His work He may crown you one day in the Heavens with that soveraign and eternal glory which He hath promised us and we hope for from His grace So be it THE XV. SERMON COL I. Vers XXVIII XXIX Vers XXVIII Whom we preach admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may render every man perfect in CHRIST JESUS XXIX Whereunto also I labour combating according to His efficacy which worketh in me powerfully DEAR Brethren There is a great difference between the Law and the Gospel both in regard of their own nature and in regard of the manner of their dispensation For to omit other things the Gospel is a mystery that is a verity so hid in GOD as if He had not vouchsafed to discover it to men Himself by a supernatural revelation no creature either earthly or heavenly had been ever able to bring it forth from the bottomless deeps of GOD's wisdom or to acquire any solid and distinct knowledge of it by the contemplation of the things of the world But the Law is a verity suitable to the sentiments of nature and so open to the view of Angels and men that if sin had not dulled and corrupted the strength of our understanding we should have easily comprehended it of our selves without any extraordinary manifestation from Heaven Accordingly you see how deplorate and how blind soever men be yet they fail not to discern the things of the Law and the rectitude and justice of the most of that which it commands us But if you consider the dispensation of these two doctrines you will find that whereas the Law was given by Moses to the Jewish nation only the Gospel of our LORD and Saviour was preached to all people on earth indifferently there having been no part of mankind to whom the benefit of this new light was not presented by the Apostles and their Schollars S. Paul if you remember informed us of it in the foregoing text where he affirmed first that the Gospel is a mystery sudden during all the ages and generations which had passed but now manifested to the Saints of GOD and secondly that the LORD hath made known the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles that is to say among other people of the world beside the Jews This he further confirms in the Text now read unto you by the extent of his preaching protesting that he declareth this Divine word to all men For having intimated before the subject of this great mystery of the Gospel and declared that it consisteth wholy in CHRIST JESUS alone who is the author and the matter of this coelestial doctrine he addeth whom we preach admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may render every man perfect in JESVS CHRIST And because his labours and his sufferings were one of the most glorious marks of the truth and the Divine authority of his Apostleship he maketh mention of them also in the following verse Whereunto I also labour saith he combating according to His efficacy which worketh powerfully in me For his design is to justifie what he had before told the Colossians namely that he was a Minister of the Church set up to fullfil the word of GOD among the Gentiles and this to the end he might establish the Colossans in the doctrine which he preached and secure them from the seductions of false Apostles who endeavoured to corrupt it by immixing with it the errors which they went to and fro a sowing in the world and did pretend that besides Faith in JESUS CHRIST there was a necessity of observing the ceremonies of the Law of Moses and of practising divers superstitions as the worshipping of Angels which they recommended and hugely exalted as S. Paul will shew us in the following chapter It was for the setting up of his own Ministry and teachings above these evil workers that he urged his heavenly call before It is for this end again that he exalted the Gospel in so lofty a manner and it 's for the same end that he here sets forth the exercise of his Apostleship which consisteth in two things one whereof is the preaching which he describes in verse 28. The other is the labour and conflict which accompanied his preaching declared in the verse following the last of this chapter These are the two points which we will treat of by the will of GOD in the present action the Preaching and the combats of S. Paul noting upon each of them what we shall judge apt for your edification and consolation which is the only mark that all the labour of this great Apostle tended to and the true end both of our word and your faith As for the Apostles Preaching we shall have four things to consider which he saith of it First the subject of it to wit JESVS CHRIST whom saith he we preach Secondly the manner of it which he expresseth in those words admonishing and teaching every man Thirdly the object to which this preaching of his was directed namely every man admonishing every man saith he and teaching every man and in the fourth and last place the end and aim to which it tended to wit the perfecting of those to whom it was directed that saith he we may
both of the desire he had to see them persevere still in so good a course and of the advice he gave them not to suffer themselves to be beguiled by the perswasive words of seducers as likewise of the adding that preservative of meditating incessantly upon the treasures of wisdom which are in JESUS for the saving themselves from this mortal danger It 's now our concernment to make a good improvement of so excellent a lesson We are as much environ'd or more than the Colossians sometimes were with people that endeavour to deceive us with words of perswasion that daily make all kind of attempts upon our faith and do not forget the sophisms of subtilty or the charms of eloquence presenting error to us farded with divers specious colours For the securing of our minds from their illusions let us tell them as the Apostle teacheth us That all the Treasures of wisdom are hid in that JESUS CHRIST whom we have embraced that He sufficeth to make us wise to salvation and that we need to know none but Him to obtain happiness If with fair and artificial words they represent to us the necessity of an expiatory Sacrifice for the recommending that of their own Altars or the utility of Satisfactions to make us receive theirs or the horror of fin which hath no entrance into the Kingdom of GOD to perswade us upon their Purgatory or the need we have of an Intercessor to oblige us to have recourse to the mediation of Angels and of departed Saints or of an Head to set up their Pope Let us answer them That we have all this most fully in JESUS CHRIST that His Cross is our Sacrifice His Sufferings our Satisfactions His Blood our Purgation That while we possess Him we shall need neither an Intercessor to open the Throne of the Grace of GOD to us and render both our persons and our prayers acceptable to Him nor an Head to govern and conserve us Let us account all that would turn us aside from Him or place any part of its Treasure elsewhere than in Him to be a seduction and an illusion And as good Physicians do not only preserve from poysons but also draw profit from them by making them Remedies so let us not content our selves to keep the venom of Seducements from hurting us let us manage them in such sort as that they may serve us Let the ardency they have for Error enflame our zeal for the Truth Let their pains-taking and industry sharpen our diligence and care Let us employ that acuteness and eloquence to the defence of the Gospel which they prophane in the service of an Imposture Let us have no less affection for the Cause of GOD than they have for the matters of flesh and blood And instead of the extravagancy of some who love ignorance and rudeness because Error doth abuse Knowledg and Eloquence let us on the contrary thence take occasion to labour in adorning and embellishing of Truth that even in this respect Falshood may have no advantage above it But if the examples of enemies should be of use to us much more ought the examples of Brethren be so which wholly and solely tend to our edification Let us make our profit of that of the Colossians whose faith and order the Apostle praiseth that we might imitate it Let us put our Church into such an estate as may give joy to the LORD to His Angels and to His Ministers I may not deny but that your saith and order may be in some degree praised without flattery since by the Grace of CHRIST my Brethren you persevere in His fear and assiduously rank your selves under His Ensigns no tentation having been able hitherto to make you desert these holy Assemblies But you are not ignorant that together with this well-doing there are many miscarriages among us that there pass divers things in our Congregations smally comporting with the dignity of the House of GOD and that the hardness of some doth stiffen it self against Discipline the only Bond of Order and if our Faith be constant against Error it is too too yeilding unto Vice Dear Brethren I had rather leave the examination of it to your own Consciences than here publish our sin and shame and will content my self with telling you 1 Cor. 6.10 that the Apostle banisheth out of Heaven the vicious as well as the idolatrous GOD who hath granted us to persevere in the profession of His Truth be pleased powerfully to amend by the virtue of His Gospel the defects which His gentleness hath hitherto born with in us and sanctifie us so efficaciously that after we have glorified Him on Earth by the good order of our conversation and the fruirs of a firm and unmoved Faith we may one day receive in the Heavens from His merciful hand the Reward and Crown of blissful immortality in His Son JESUS CHRIST who in the Unity of the Father and of the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth the only GOD blessed for ever Amen THE NINETEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER VI VII VI. Therefore as you have received the Lord JESVS CHRIST so walk in Him VII Being rooted and built up in Him and established in the Faith as you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving FOrasmuch as man naturally loveth novelty and variety it cometh to pass that he disgusteth the best and most wholsom things when he is held any long time to the usage of them What food was there ever in the world better more savoury more nourishing and more miraculous than that Manna wherewith GOD fed the Israelites in the Wilderness pouring it down daily from Heaven upon them by the Ministry of his Angels whence it is called the Bread of Heaven and the Bread of the Mighty that is of the Angels Nevertheless this wretched people were soon discontented at it disdaining that precious gift of GOD Numb 11.6 and sottishly regretting the fruits and fish of Egypt Our soul said they is dried up there 's nothing here our eyes see nought but Manna Dear Brethren this History is a fit emblem of what hath betided men in reference to JESUS CHRIST and His Gospel the true Bread of Heaven sent down from GOD into the Wilderness of this World for the eternal nutriment of Mankind of which that ancient Manna as you know was the figure according to what Himself teacheth us in the sixth of S. John For our nature is no less delicate nor hath an appetite less extravagant in respect of the Doctrines that are necessary to seed our Souls than it hath in respect of the Meat that is ordained for the refection of our Bodies The truth of the LORD JESUS is embraced at the first with hungring and heat every one admiring the wonderfulness of this heavenly food which wholly exceedeth the productions of the earth But because though it be throughout holy and salutiferous yet it is simple and uniform the vanity of man in desiring change and variety
that was born of the blessed Virgin and reciprocally the sufferings the qualities and the actions of the Flesh that was born of Mary are attributed to the Eternal Son of GOD as when the Scripture saith That GOD hath redeemed the Church with his own blood that the Lord of Glory was crucified that JESUS CHRIST is before Abraham was that he founded the Earth at the beginning and the Heavens are the work of his hands and other like expressions Dear Brethren such is the sense of these divine words of the Apostle Admire ye the force and the richness of the Scripture which hath in so few words blasted and beaten down all the inventions and dogmatizings of Error against the Truth both of the two Natures of our LORD and Saviour and of the union of them in His Person First These words do overthrow the impiety of those who bereave JESUS CHRIST of his Divinity and reduce Him to the degree and condition either of a meer Man or of a Person raised indeed above man yet made notwithstanding and created at the beginning as well as other Celestial and Terrestrial Creatures How can such blasphemy subsist before this Sacred Oracle which proclaimeth not simply the Divinity but that the Godhead and not this simply neither but that the fulness of the Godhead yea to omit nothing that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily If He be but a Man and no more no part of this fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him neither its Power nor its Wisdom neither its Goodness nor its Justice neither its Glory nor its Eternity For none of these Divine qualities do dwell in one who is but a man We must avouch that he hath in him verily those Perfections that fill up the Godhead that is the Divine Nature or deny that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him But if you grant me as deny it you cannot without giving the Apostle the lye that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him you must of necessity confess also that he is GOD no one if he be not GOD being capable of receiving holding and having in himself the fulness of GOD. For this fulness being infinite there is none but GOD that can contain it since there is not any but he alone who is infinite Now it dwelleth all in our LORD JESUS CHRIST It must therefore of necessity be confessed That He is GOD of a Nature infinite Whereby the frigid and frivolous evasions of those impious men are refuted who taking away from JESUS CHRIST the reality and true glory of Divinity do leave him the name of it and make a titular GOD of him a GOD as they speak created and raised up a while since who hath but the title of GOD not the nature the office not the essence Who can sufficiently detest the audaciousness of these Wretches that by this impiety of theirs do overthrow all the ground-work of the Scripture which hath insinuated nothing more clearly or more expresly than the one-ness of the true GOD Who is too so jealous of his glory as that he forbiddeth us upon pain of death to give his Name or his Worship or his Attributes unto any Creature of what quality soever If JESUS CHRIST be not the true Eternal GOD Creator of the Heavens and the Earth how will you miserable men avoid this condemnation you that give him the name and the adoration of the true GOD But S. Paul lays all their subtilty in the dust by saying formally here that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily The fulness of the Godhead is not an empty name or a titular dignity It is that which fills it it is that gloriousness it is that light it is that nature that truth and that perfection wherewith the Godhead is full It 's this therefore that dwells in JESUS CHRIST the substance of a true and real Divinity not an hollow and a vain shadow it 's the thing and not the title of Deity But as the Apostle doth by these words convince the impiousness of such as bereave our LORD and Saviour of the glory of his Divinity so doth he likewise confound the extravagancy of others who deprive him of his human nature foolishly affirming that he had but a false appearance in that kind For here are two subjects clearly represented to us one that dwelleth to wit the fulness of the Godhead another in which this fulness dwelleth to wit JESUS CHRIST the one is the Temple the other is the GOD that resideth in the same the one our Saviours Human nature the other the Eternal Son of the Father Two real and veritable subjects by the wonderful uniting whereof this sacred and adorable Sanctuary of GOD is made up and composed To take away the truth either of his Godhead with the former or of his Flesh with the latter is to destroy the Fabrick Again these words of the Apostle do in like manner overthrow the error of those who have corrupted the union of these two natures in JESUS CHRIST on one hand by dividing them as did the Nestorians on the other by confounding them as did the Eutycheans For if we sever JESUS CHRIST into two Persons the fulness of the Godhead will not dwell bodily in his Flesh This Man will have but gifts of the Divinity which are as it were some draughts and lineaments of it He will not have the Truth and the very Body of it Neither may it be reply'd That the Temple in which GOD resideth is a substance different from his Person For the Body is the residence of the Soul yet Soul and Body have but one and the same subsistence and do constitute but one and the same Person So as the dwelling of the Son in his Human nature as in his Temple doth not hinder but that this Human nature of his doth subsist with him in one and the same Person Yet though we may not divide these two Natures of our LORD it doth not follow that we must mix and confound them as they do who define the union of them by the Human nature its being made equal with the Divine and will have it to be become infinite and immense and endowed really in its self with all the properties of the Divine nature The Apostle saith indeed that the fulness of the Godhead dwells in CHRIST but he saith not that his Flesh was really chang'd into the Godhead The body by being personally united to the soul doth not thereby become soul It conserveth its own nature and hath only this advantage by that strict conjunction which knits it with the soul that they subsist together and make up but one and the same person Just so the Flesh of our LORD by the Word 's dwelling in it becomes one self-same Person with it being truly the body and the soul and in one word the nature of the Son of GOD yet it still keeps its original beeing and essential properties
absurd and ridiculous The spirits in prison 1 Pet. 3 20. of whom S. Peter speaks cannot upon any better ground be taken for the souls of the faithful detâ—ined in Limbus since those spirits were sometimes rebellious or disobedient in the time of Noah and perished in their sin which cannot be said of the Patriarchs and the Faithful In fine the Apostle's saying that the way into the holy places was not manifested while the first Tabernacle was standing signifies indeed that the High-Priest of the Church our LORD JESUS CHRIST did not carry not introduce our nature into Heaven in soul and body nor discover and make manifest the way to our Mansion of Immortality until the veil of the first Tabernacle was rent which is very true But thence it follows not that the spirits of the faithful consecrated before our Saviour's coming did not feel the fruit of his death and much less that they were detain'd in Hell But besides that this Tradition hath no foundation in the Scripture it doth plainly cross the same For our LORD promised the good Thief Luke 23.43 that the very day he was crucified he should be with him in Paradice where yet according to our Adversaries supposition he should not have entred till the forty-third day after And the Parable of that bad rich man doth plainly shew us that at that time as the souls of impenitent sinners were cast into the torments of Hell-fire so the spirits of the faithful were carried up into the repose and felicity of Paradice For that bosome of Abraham wherein Lazarus rested Luke 16.22 25 26. was not a pit without water as the pretended Limbus is counted to have been but a place of refreshment and consolation not situate in the vicinity of Hell but severed from it by a great gulf set between them And in truth since the faithful did even then drink of the Mystical Rock as well as we were sprinkled with his blood did partake of his sufferings why would any one imagine that our Saviour's Sacrifice had less virtue to introduce them into Heaven after their death than it had to justifie and sanctifie and comfort them in the days of their life As they bore a part with us in the same faith and conflicts on the earth so had they share of our repose and joy in Heaven neither is there any reason for our being admitted if you will needs have them excluded Accordingly certain it is that those elder Christian Writers who did barr the souls of the faithful that deceased under the Old Testament out of Heaven did as well deny reception there to the souls of Christians not assenting that either the one or the other were admitted till after the resurrection so as our Adversaries rejecting as they have reason to do the one half of this error and confessing that Christian souls sufficiently purged are received into Heaven it is nothing but pure obstinacy in them to retain the other half thereof and pretend that the condition of the faithful departed under the Old Testament was otherwise than under the New Be it then concluded that all this pretended deliverance of souls brought out of Limbus is but the fiction of an human spirit not only beside but even against Scripture and Reason But I add in the second place that though it were as certain as it is dubious and as true as it is false yet it would not be possible to refer this passage of the Apostles unto it First The spirits of the faithful departed this life are not at all in the power of Satan but in the hands of GOD to whom they recommend them at their death so as though JESUS CHRIST had brought them out of Limbus yet it could not be said that he had therein spoiled the Devils since that to spoil them is to take from them what they were possess'd of and its clear that though the souls of the faithful had been in this imaginary Limbus yet they would have been there out of the Devil's possession Secondly The word here used which the French hath translated mener en montre that is lead about for a shew is always taken in an ill sense for a shameful and ignominious shew such as that of Malefactors is when they are led through the City and publickly executed that the sight of their shame and punishment may keep men in their duty Now if our LORD had delivered the souls of the faithful out of such a Limbus it could not be said that he had made a shew of them in this sense it being evident that in this case they would have accompanied his Triumph by way of honour and that it would not have been any ignominy but a glory for them to have followed his victorious Chariot Moreover the Apostle's words are so placed in the Original that the spoiling and making a shew of and triumphing over which he speaks of do necessarily respect the same persons that is those whom he spoiled are the same he made shew of and triumph'd over Now he spoiled not the spirits of the Fathers he on the contrary did enrich them sure then it is not them he made a shew of neither can the action which the verb importeth be referr'd to them without depraving the Apostle's whole Context This is all spoken of one and the same subject to wit those Powers and Principalities that is the Devils as we have demonstrated and as all do accord They are the Devils whom JESUS spoiled It is the same that he publickly made a shew of and it 's they again whom he triumphed over As for the Latin Interpreter his saying Zanchy the LORD triumphed of them in himself I acknowledg that divers Greek Copies do read the Text in that manner and some of our Writers have so expounded it conceiving that our Saviour upon his crucifixion did bring the Devils whom he had overcome out of their Hells and shew them to the Angels and the Spirits made perfect bound and chained up as a glorious token of the victory he had gotten over them and they add that this triumph did continue too until his ascension into Heaven But the Scripture telling us nothing of this matter I think it dangerous to affirm the same it being better and more safe to keep to that which GOD hath revealed in his word than to take liberty to follow our own imaginations how plausible soever they appear And the reason which seems to have moved those men to advance this conjecture is exceeding slender For they have been induc'd to do it only by conceiving it absurd to say that JESUS CHRIST triumphed over his Enemies on the Cross seeing that to speak properly he overcame them on the Cross but it seems he triumphed only at his resurrection and ascension But first though there were in this some inconvenience yet nothing would enforce us to assert what they propose It would be sufficient for the avoiding thereof to say that our Saviour
heretofore took the care to make those draughts is Author of the verities they represented and that the body doth descend from the same Heaven that at first did make the shadows of it to be seen I pass by for this time the Lamb and the Sacrifices and the aspersions and expiations and all the Levitical Priesthood a true delineation of our grand Victime offer'd for the salvation of the world and of that eternal righteousness which His bloud hath procured for us and other like things which cannot but with extreme difficulty be mainteined nor accorded with the ways of the ordinary wisdom of GOD save by acknowledging and receiving as veritable what the Apostle doth here teach us and is evident enough of it self namely that all this was heretofore ordained for the prefiguring of CHRIST I will only speak a few words of the distinction of meats and dayes The Apostle opens the mystery of it elsewhere For as to observance of meats giving us order in the Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 5.8 to keep the feast of our Passoever not with the old leaven of naughtines and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth doth he not clearly shew us that abstinence from leavened bread observ'd by the first people was a Picture of the Innocence and sanctity of the second and that by consequence it 's to the same we must referr the distinction of other legal meats the beasts which were forbidden them representing by the characters of their natural qualities those moral imperfections that is those vices and corrupt affections from which our lives ought to be exempted As for example abstinence from Swines flesh which was an abomination to them did signifie that the people of the Messiah should have no commerce with those uncleannesses and ordures of deportment wherein men of the world notably represented by the genius of this animal do wallow And when the same Apostle telleth us that we should keep our feast in truth and sincerity and in another place Hebr. 4 9. that there remaineth unto us a Sabbath or a rest doth he not shew us again that the old feasts of Israel were shadows of ours even of that feast which the Messiah hath procured and appointed for the faithful and which doth consist in two things the one that they do absteine from the works of sin and of the flesh the common works of men and the other that they do celebrate a rest in GOD with eternal joy Now that the body of these shadows is in JESUS CHRIST is evident For innocency sanctity abstinence from sin joy and immortality do well in Him fully There it is and no other where that the truth the example and pattern the doctrine and all the cause of them are to be found together with an almighty Spirit of light which alone is capable of producing these divine things in every one of us Whereby you see it is so far from being consequent upon these distinctions having been heretofore ordeined of GOD that we ought now to observe them still that on the contrary it is to be concluded we may insist no longer on them For since they were appointed in the quality of shadows until CHRIST should be revealed who sees not but that now when CHRIST hath been fully manifested it would be meer folly in us to adhere unto them still even as if seeing and having in hand the very body of a thing we should busy our selves in following after and embracing the shadow of it Precisely such was the extravagancy of these false Teachers who are here noted by S. Saul and such also is the errour of all those who upon the like pretences intermedle with the imposing of laws upon Christians concerning usage of or abstinence from such things as are in their nature indifferent And it is in this matter for one that our adversaries of Rome are infinitly to blame who notwithstanding the reason of the things themselves and the so clear doctrine of this great Apostle both in this place and in many other have made and constituted a no less number of laws about the distinction of dayes and meats then were among the Jews themselves They have marked more then half of the dayes of the year some with black and others with white I call marked with black those which they have devoted to the sadness of fasts and abstinences as all the Fridayes and Saturdayes of the year the Ember weeks the Rogation-dayes the Advent the Eves and Lent I mean by marked with white those which they consecrate to joy as that great throng of Holy-dayes which they disperse through all the fower seasons JESUS CHRIST the Father of eternity hath made His Disciples free from the laws of time raising them up above the Heavens which do make and measure it But these men put them in subjection to dayes and months and reduce them under the yoke of the Jews and make their piety depend upon the Almanack If they do not exactly observe all the dayes of the year if they fast not one day if they eat not on another if on one they don't do penance if they make not mirth on another though upon the former they should have cause to rejoyce in GOD and upon the latter to afflict themselves for their sins or their sufferings they commit a mortal sin though they did it without contempt or scandal Was there ever a discipline less reasonable or more contrary to the doctrine of S. Paul who would not have Christians condemned for the distinction of a Festival-day of a new Moon or of the Sabbaths who reprehends the Galatians for their observing-dayes and months and times and years Gal. 4.11 Rom. 14 6. and counts it for a weakness in faith to esteem one day above another Neither may it be replyed here that we also do discriminate Sundayes and Easter and Christmas and Pentecoste We observe them for orders sake not for Religion for the Polity of the Church and not upon scruples of devotion For what a confusion would there be if we had no dayes appointed for the assembling of the faithful It 's for our mutual edification and not for the worth and value of the dayes themselves that we observe them and as an Ancient said not that the day on which we do assemble is more holy or more glorious S. Hieâ—ome l. 2. Comment in Ep. ad Gal. To. 9. p 314. then another but because what day soever we assemble it 's a consolation to us to behold our selves all jointly employed in holy exercises For the main to us all dayes are equal as uniform parts of the same time which flow on by the order of one and the same LORD all of them and are all employable to His glory but the necessity and infirmity of this poor life doth constrain us of force to divide and part them out for divers uses If it be thus O adversaries that you discriminate-dayes I shall
universal and eternal and that no Age nor Climat can dispense with men for them or exempt the Violaters of them from that righteous curse they threaten let us faithfully obey this holy and sacred order which the Apostle hath given Hearken we not to the vain glosses and frivolous distinctions by which humane subtilty endeavours to elude it and colour over its own abuses Observe we sincerely what this great Minister of JESUS CHRIST enjoyneth us He forbiddeth us to Worship Angels in point of Religion There is no reason that either the eloquence or the subtilty either the splendor or the power of men much less their pleasure and usurped domineering should have more efficacy upon us than this Heavenly Authothority And praised be GOD for that He hath given us the courage to obey His Apostle in this particular and to put away the Worshipping of Angels and men from among us notwithstanding the strong contradiction of flesh and blood Let us abide firm in this resolution Let us adore none but GOD since there is none adorable but He. It 's just that He alone should be served among us since it is He alone who hath created and redeemed us But Beloved remember I beseech you that rightly to render Him His due glory it is not sufficient to have renounced the errour of those ancient Phrygians whom the Apostle here opposeth and of our Adversaries of Rome to wit the adoration of Angels and men departed There must also be banishing of all strange service all Idolizing of any thing whatever For if GOD cannot suffer those who serve Angels and deceased Saints that is the most excellent natures that be and such as have the image of the Deity most clearly resplendent in them how much less will He endure those that adore Gold and Silver the excrements of the earth or their own belly the shamefullest and most infamous of all idols or the flesh which is but a vain and perishing figure or the grandeurs of the world which are but exhalations And we that have renounced the first fort of these false services how can we be excusable if we retain and exercise the second Now would to GOD we were as free from the one as we are from the other But it must be confessed to our shame these latter kind of Idols have still a great many Devoto's and Servitors among us That avarice which S. Paul calls an Idolatry is but too much exercised among us the flesh and vanity are here publickly served Wretched men where is your judgement You do not serve the Angels of Heaven and you serve the mettals of the earth You do not adore Spirits made perfect and you do adore profane flesh Neither the light of the Sun nor the brightness of the Moon hath been able to seduce your hearts and you have suffered your selves to be seduced by the glittering of Gold and Silver the false Sol and Luna of the Chymists You have put your hope in Gold and said unto fine Gold Thou art my confidence You that have disdained to put your confidence in Saints The belly with shame and horrour do I utter it the belly is your GOD yours who have made this glorious promise to have none but the Eternal only for your GOD How can you hope that the LORD should suffer you to give Him such Monsters for companions He who is so jealous of His glory that He cannot suffer the Angels themselves to be associated with Him Dear Brethren I pray let us deceive our selves no longer Let us once for all put clean away all these false services and exterminating every Idol from among us adore and serve none but GOD alone Let Him have the entire possession of our whole hearts let Him reign and exercise an absolue dominion in them governing all the sentiments and motions of them at His will that after having constantly adored Him in Spirit and in truth we may one day receive from His holy faithful hand the Crown of Glory and Eternity which He hath purchased for us by the merit of His only Son our LORD JESUS CHRIST To whom with Him and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be honour and praise unto Ages of Ages Amen THE XXIX SERMON COL II. Vers XVIII XIX Vers XVIII Let no man Master it over you at his pleasure by humility of Spirit and the service of Angels intruding into things he hath not seen beeing rashly puffed up with the sense of his flesh XIX And not holding the head from which the whole body being furnished and fitly knit together by joints and bands encreaseth with the encrease of GOD. DEAR Brethren The same pride that destroyed the first man at the begining is the cause of the ruine of such of his posterity as do perish For if you heed it well you will see that that 's the thing which maketh them despise or mis-embrace the CHRIST of GOD in whom alone stands our salvation It was pride that kept the Jews from embracing this singular gift of Heaven because saith S. John they lov'd the praise of men even as our LORD reproached them saying How can you believe seeing you seek honour one of another And S. Paul expresly informs us that the proud phancy they had to establish their own righteousness was the cause they submitted not to the righteousness of GOD. It was likewise pride that blinded the minds of the Gentiles so as they saw not the wonderful things of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST The haughty opinion they had of their own vain wisdome induced them to disdain the wisdom of GOD and to account the Cross of His Son foolishness though it be an inexhaustible treasury of sapience Again in fine it is pride that hath seminated among Christians themselves all the heresies that have grown up into any request since the Churches nativity to this hour Ignorance animated with presumption hath brought them all forth and bred them up For if the unhappy workers that divulged them had kept to the doctrine of GOD and not lash'd out beyond what He hath revealed in His word if the vain fierceness of their Spirit had not emboldned them to enterprise things above the reach of men they would never have thought upon corrupting Religion with their falsly-subtil inventions It would have remained pure throughout and sincere to this day and such as the Ministers of our LORD and Saviour deliver'd it at first to their Disciples by word and writing But their pride mis-leading them did induce them to attempt things above their capacity and adore and spread abroad their presumptuous imaginations as true secrets of GOD. The Apostle informs us in this Text that this was the origine in particular of those errors and false services which certain Seducers went about to introduce at that time among Christians We heard in the last exercise upon this subject what their errour was namely that under colour of a false humility of Spirit they taught
and a vapour Again as the creatures there possess true glory so do they exercise true sanctity All of it that 's seen here below is but a little sparkle of the perfection of those blessed inhabitants of that coelestial City The love they bear to their LORD is there perfect as well as the knowledge they have of Him Charity towards our neighbour concord union truth do there reign absolute Their souls have neither affections nor desires but which are conform unto the will of GOD. The light of his face governeth all their motions and shedding abroad its self continually upon them maintains them in an eternal holiness peace and blessedness The LORD JESUS hath discovered to us all these wonders above the Heavens having brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel But further He hath certified us to that these are things which concern us and pertain to us and opened by His cross and resurrection the way that will most assuredly bring us to them If we have the courage to follow Him of what condition or quality so-ever we may be He will congregate us to this holy company of His servants receiving our souls into His bosome upon their departure from this earth and raising up our poor bodies themselves one day revested with His immortality and His glory These be Dear Brethren the things which are above that the Apostle willeth we do seek in the same sense that our Saviour commands us in the Gospel Matth. 6.33 to seek the Kingdom of GOD and His righteousness signifying by that term First that we propose Heaven and Eternity to our selves for the utmost end of our whole life and place our supreme happiness in this rich possession that we make it our grand and only design And secondly that we employ in this noble persuit all the might we have seriously using all the means that the Word of GOD prescribeth us faith invocation piety sanctity and flee as a mortal pest every thing that keeps us off or turneth us aside from this mark For Prov. 21.25 as to the slothful who does nothing all day but desire and sets not his hand to the work he hath no part in those heavenly things His desire kills him saith the wise man as one that feeds on nothing but wind there must be knocking there must be seeking there must be working out our salvation with fear and trembling This treasure is not for cold and languid wills that evaporate altogether in vain wishings It shall be that man's prize who shall take it with an ardent and a generous courage and impulsed with a violent affection spare neither pain nor watching nor labour to obtain it That which the Apostle commandeth us in the following verse namely to mind the things which are above doth amount to well-neer the same sense For the word he useth comprehends the two actions of our souls towards objects we love the one a considering them and thinking on them the other a desiring and embracing them in our affections So you see he obligeth us first to list up our hearts to Heaven where the LORD JESUS is and to have that blessed Kingdom continually before our eyes which GOD hath there prepared for us together with all those great eternal good things wherein it consisteth He requireth that this thought do fill our souls day and night that it be the thought that hath superiority in them that governs all the motions of them the thought that regulateth our resolutions and decideth all our doubts That in all things which shall present themselves we ever reflect hereon to see how they refer unto it and whether they be compatible with it Such was the practise of the Father of the faithful He looked saith the Apostle for a City that hath foundation And Moses the grand legislator of the Jews He had regard saith the same Apostle unto the recompence that is as he explains himself in the Text They minded the things which are above And this thought as you see is also necessarily conjoynt with affection with an ardent desire of possessing such amiable and excellent things and with a stedfast hope of enjoying them at length This is then my Brethren the first of those two duties which the Apostle requireth of us to wit that we seek the things which are above Now unto it he annexeth a prohibition which follows necessarily from it namely that we seek not the things which are upon the earth Heaven and earth being so opposite as it is is not possible but they who seek the things of the one must renounce the things of the other The things of the earth are as you know the goods of the World riches gold silver honours pleasures and the like all that which earthly men the children of this generation do esteem and passionately love He does not mean we should have no care at all about the necessaries of the present life for the good things that refer thereto being gifts of GOD which we cannot be without one may both acquire and serve himself of them with thanksgiving yet not cleave unto them and use them yet not abuse them And the Apostle you know other-where commands us to have care of our families and to do every one his own business and to labour with our hands that we may carry our selves honestly towards them that are without and that we may have lack of nothing But he forbids us to seek the things of the earth in the same sense that he commanded us to seek those of Heaven that is to place our chief good in them and to desire them with choicest affection and prefer them before any other consideration It 's thus that those men sought the things of the earth Phil. 3.12 Luke 14. of whom the Apostle saith elsewhere that the belly was their God and they gloried in their shame and those in the Gospel-parable who preferred the care of their fields and of their oxen and the love of their wives before the call of Heaven Such a one in the Old Testament was that Esan who chose a little pottage of lentils rather than his primogeniture Such in the New were those sordid Gadarens who would have the Son of GOD be gone because He had made them lose their swine and those that love their fathers or mothers or brethren or other alliances or their worldly possessions more than the LORD JESUS or that prefer the praise of men before the praise of GOD. Such a one also was that besotted rich man who thought himself happy enough because he had goods laid up for many years and dreamt of nothing but enjoying them Now though the bare dignity of heavenly things and the meer meanness and unprofitableness of earthly things should be sufficient to recommend the former and to disgust us at the latter yet the Apostle for the swaying of us to duties so just as these sets before us two excellent reasons the first whereof is drawn from our
flesh for indeed it is the pattern of that life we live here below after our regeneration He sought not either the glory or the pleasures or the riches of the World He adhered not to any one of those things but used what was necessary for His food and raiment with great sobriety and frugality not tasting the fruition of it and so little fearing to be deprived of the fame that instead of the glory of the world He voluntarily suffered extreme ignominy poverty and nakedness instead of riches torments and the cross instead of pleasure And so you see my Brethren how the consideration of our being dead in CHRIST JESUS should turn us aside from the affecting and the seeking of earthly things But the life we also have in Him should no less set us at distance from the same and this is that the Apostle sets before us in the second place You are dead and your life saith he is hid with JESVS CHRIST in GOD. When CHRIST who is your life shall appear then shall you also appear with Him in glory It seems that the first words do tend to prevent an objection which might be made to the Apostle upon his saying that we are dead For how doth this consist with that which he asserted afore namely that we are risen again with CHRIST If we be risen we live and if we live it is not true that we are dead But this difficulty is easily resolv'd For first the life unto which we are dead is the life of sin and of the flesh as we have explicated it whereas the life unto which we be risen in JESUS CHRIST is the life of CHRIST and of His Spirit The one is the life of the old Adam and the other of the new Now it is not incompatible that one and the same person be deprived of the former and possessed of the latter Nay on the contrary it is not possible that such as live in the former manner should also live in the latter and as in nature the generation of one thing doth naturally presuppose the corruption of another so likewise in grace the life of the second Adam doth of necessity inferr the death of the first so that from our being risen again with CHRIST it is so far from following we are not dead to the flesh that quite on the contrary it thence necessarily follows we are dead to the flesh it not being possible to affirm the former without supposing the latter nor to place the life of CHRIST in us otherwise than by the death of Adam in us An inevitable necessity requires the one do dye that the other may live in us As for that life which we acquire by our resurrection with JESUS CHRIST the Apostle grants that it pertaineth to us and that in this behalf it may be said of us that we live as he doth say frequently both of other beleevers in general and of himself in particular Yet notwithstanding he shews us again that this life of CHRIST is not manifested and compleated in us that it is yet for the present hidden in GOD with JESUS CHRIST so as in this respect it might be said of us while we are on the earth that we live not and that we have not yet the life unto which CHRIST hath raised us after the same manner Rom. 8.22 23. as he spares not to say else-where that our being saved is in hope and we yet wait for the adoption as if we had not hitherto receiv'd the salvation and adoption of GOD. For the right understanding of this mysterie we must consider briefly what the Apostle here saith of it and first what that life is which he calleth ours Secondly how it is hid in GOD with JESUS CHRIST and then lastly what shall be that manifestation of this life which he promiseth us at the appearing of CHRIST The life of the faithful is that same which JESUS CHRIST doth give them instead of the life He taketh from them when He receiveth them into His communion This which he takes away was impure and vicious the other was pure and holy This was natural and earthly the other is spiritual and heavenly The principle of the former was a carnal mind and an irregular concupiscence the principle of the latter is a divine saith and a just and reasonable love The one consisted in a vicious fruition of the flesh and of the earth the other is a sweet and a legitimate possessing of the Spirit and of Heaven And as the former was mortal and perishing no less than the flesh and the earth from which it drew its nutriment so the other is incorruptible and eternal according to the nature of the Spirit that quickens it and of Heaven that maintains it The fruits of the former were sin and shame and damnation The fruits of the latter are righteousness honour joy and immortality That first life therefore to say true was a death rather than a life being such as after a short and feaverish agitation could not terminate but in eternal sufferings And this other on the contrary is alone truly worthy of the name of life which name also the Scripture does oft-times purely and absolutely give it â— Joh. 5. as when it saith that He that hath the Son hath life and He that hath not the Son hath not life and that He that believeth in the Son is passed from death to life But then you will say since we do believe how is it that the Apostle says our life is hid with CHRIST in GOD as if it were not in our selves Dear Brethren I answer it is very certain that the LORD JESUS doth even at present give all His true members the seminals and principles of this blessed life the which He casteth into their hearts by His Gospel and that He preserveth augmenteth and fortifyeth them there gradually by the vertue of His Spirit and by the usage of His Word His Sacraments and his Disciplines unto the making them bring forth the excellent fruits of charity and sanctity By reason of these beginnings and of the sure title they bring them to the plenitude and perfection of that life they are said in Scripture to live and to have eternal life at present even as we attribute to a plant the name and life of the kind which it is of when it hath once taken root and thrust forth some bud and verdure though it hath not yet its whole extent and perfection Yet it must be acknowledged too that the compleat form of this life which consists in perfect sanctity rob'd with glorious immortality resembling that which JESUS CHRIST our elder brother brought up out of His sâ—pulchre at His rising again and carried into Heaven with Him forty daies after will not be communicated to us but in the world to come For here below as you know both our knowledge is imperfect and our sanctity infirm as the Apostle saith else-where declaring that now we see but in
here that CHRIST is our life doth not simply signifie that He is the cause and author of our life but that it fully and wholly dependeth upon Him that without Him and separate from Him we have not a drop nor spark of life and that it is in Him alone we have all the being all the moving and all the feeling that respects the life of Heaven In very deed it is He that hath merited it for us by His death It is He that hath brought it to light by His Gospel It 's He hath shewed us a most accomplish'd pattern of it in His person at His issuing out of His sepulchre It 's He that hath given us the first-fruits of it by His word and Spirit and conserveth and increaseth them in us by His benediction It is He that keeps the fulness of it for us in His treasury on high as being the true Father of eternity And lastly it is He that taking this glorious life out of His heavenly cabinet one day will put it on us with His own hand Besides we do possess neither the beginnings nor the perfection of it but in Him and by the benefit of our communion with Him in that we are members and branches of His which cannot live but united with their head and incorporated in their vine The Apostle therefore saith that when this soveraign and only author of our life shall appear then we also shall appear in glory He hath appeared once already but in the flesh as the Apostle sayes GOD was manifested in the flesh He shall appear again a second time but in glory It 's this second appearing he doth mean when the LORD JESUS descending from the Heavens with the host of His Angels and seating Himself on a judicial Throne shall openly shew to all the creatures of the World His Glory and Godhead which the Heavens that contain his flesh on high and the weaknesses that cover His mystical body here below do now hide from the earth as we lately said Then saith the Apostle shall you also appear with Him in Glory At the coming of this sweet and happy season you as plants in the spring shall receive your life which from that sacred stock wherein it is now conserved shall be diffused into you and into all the other branches of this vine of GOD and crown you at an instant with its eternal verdure The glory whereof he speaks doth signifie the light the perfections the wonders and the pomp of blissful life perfect knowledge of GOD love and sanctity and joy the immortality of our bodies their beauty their brightness their strength and impassibility and in fine all the pieces of that infinite good the grandeur and excellency whereof we shall never distinctly comprehend untill the time that we possess it We shall then appear in this glory first because beside the first-fruits of it which we have JESUS CHRIST shall give us the fulness of it which we have not this undoubtedly the greatest and most illustrious part of His glory which now remaineth hidden in Him being then to be shed abroad upon us Secondly because the World which now despiseth and treads us under foot shall then see us in this glorious estate And as CHRIST our head shall be seen with astonishment by those that sometime pierced Him so they that now outrage His members shall then see them in their glory and be constrained to change their opinion and to acknowledge those for children of GOD and Saints of His whom in the present World they do deride and make by-words of Wisd â— 3 as saith the Book of Wisdome Thus you see Beloved Brethren what kind of life it is which JESUS CHRIST doth promise and communicate unto His faithful ones to wit the fruit of our faith and of that divine food which we have taken this morning the life of Angels the crown of Saints a super-eminent and eternal felicity in conjunction with a super-eminent and immortal glory It 's the rich treasury the living and inexhaustible spring of our consolation and sanctification Judge I beseech you what manner of persons they should be that have so high and so divine an hope and if it be not reasonable we should withdraw our thoughts and our affections from the earth to elevate them unto Heaven since it is there our life is and thence that we expect our chief happiness Christian are you not asham'd to long for earth you that have title for Heaven to labour for the meat that perisheth you that are destinated to a life which perisheth not to run after shadows you that in JESUS CHRIST have the substance of true and solid happiness How much more generous and constant are the children of this generation in their vanity Those of them that are of noble extraction and especially they that are brought up in hope of a Crown would not for any thing have a mechanick trade or foul themselves in sordid actions and even nations there are among whom they totally refrain from commerce with other men and account themselves defiled and profaned by having but touched a plebeian And you that are the issue of Heaven a child of the most High a brother of His Angels and an Heir of His kingdom you that are bred up with divine manna in the hope of an heavenly life and an immortal crown how have you the heart to grope in the mud and heap up dung to intermix with the miserablest bond-men of the earth and the profanest workers of iniquity A King's son heretofore refused to contend in the publick games because he saw no Kings do it Christian remember the dignity of your name separate your self from the exercises and divertisements of the people of the world Leave them the earth out of which they come and unto which they shall return Enter not into so ignoble and fordid a race in which you see none run but children of the earth the race of Mammon and the brood of vipers and serpents Purifie your hearts and your bodies let it never betide you to defile them with base and terrene either thoughts or actions Say not what shall we eat what shall we drink wherewithal shall we be clothed These are the thoughts and cares of bond-men These are the discourses of Pagans This is all they seek You that are Christians and whose life is hid in JESUS CHRIST seek His kingdom and His righteousness Let this be your ambition and all the passion of your souls Let this divine life and the glory wherewith it will one day crown you in the fight of Heaven and earth be night and day the object of your thoughts Take it away even at the present with an holy impatiency Begin betimes to live as you shall live eternally Let the contemplating of GOD let the love of His beauties let the meditating of His mysteries let the considering of and a conversing with His CHRIST be your employment and your refreshment in the present World
not to be doubted but that the precipitaâ—ed deaths and ruines of so many great ones whom the world hath seen and still doth see perish with astonishment are for the most part from the same source even the debauches they have been carried into The accidents of particular houses and persons infected with this leaprousie are less marked yet are they nevertheless very remarkable And he that shall look narrowly into them shall find in them admirable examples of the justice of GOD upon these kind of sins and this in special that He commonly takes away His covenant from houses where such disorders reign I might easily let you see like foot-steps of the wrath of GOD upon the covetous whose unrighteousnesse He often punisheth with loss of senses of health of honour and of that very wealth which they love much better than their bodies and their souls themselves not to speak of the infamy which GOD sometimes poureth out upon them and the horrible miseries into which He lets them fall in their persons and in their posterity But I must pass to the other part of this Text and speak a few words of it and conclude For the Apostle after this wrath of GOD which he hath represented as falling from Heaven upon the children of rebellion because of their pollutions and avarices reminds the Colossians that themselves had sometime been in the same condition in which saith he you also walked other-while when ye lived in these things To live in these sins is to have the principles of our life infected with the venome of them To walk in them is to produce the actions of them The one is the power and faculty of life the other is the exercise and function of it For the having in ones self the principles and faculties of life this the Apostle termeth living and by walking he understands a putting forth the actions of the same as appears plainly by his saying elsewhere If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit For a man that Gal. 5.25 for instance is asleep does nevertheless live and hath life though he performeth not the actions of it As therefore to live in the Spirit is no other thing but to have the faculties and powers of our nature renewed and as it were new-east and regenerated by the vertue of the Spirit of JESUS CHRIST so on the contrary to live in sin is in like manner to have our understanding and will and the other powers of our nature putrified and corrupted and as it were empoisoned with Adam's sin by the contagion of his flesh And again as those do walk in the Spirit who exercise piety and sanctity and do conduct all the actions and motions of their lives according to the will of the Spirit so they on the contrary walk in sin who follow and fulfill the lusts thereof and employ themselves in no other exercise but the serving it and doing those evil works which naturally flow from the habitudes of it But we have spoken largely heretofore if you remember of this first life of old Adam which the grace of the LORD JESUS hath destroyed and mortified in us We have only to observe in our way that since the exercise of man in his state of nature before grace is to walk in vices and in grossest pollutions it must be an huge error to imagine that he should be able in such a state to produce works either meritorious as some say or preparatory to grace as others do pretend All he doth for this time if you believe the Apostle in the case is not good but to prepare for Hell and merit the wrath of GOD and to have any other opinion of it will be a diminution of the greatnesse of the grace of GOD towards us Let us think then Beloved Brethren on that shameful and miserable estate in which we naturally were and should have continued for ever with the children of rebellion living and walking in sins the wages and fruit whereof could be no other than eternal death if the LORD through His abundant grace had not delivered us from such a condemnation And resenting as we ought the greatness of the benefit He hath conferr'd upon us let us incessantly bless His mercy and goodness Thanks be ever rendred unto thee O holy and merciful LORD for that we being servants of sin thou hast made us free by Thy Son and given us by thy Spirit Rom. 6.17 to obey that express form of doctrine which hath been delivered us by thy servants But as heretofore the vices in which we lived did continually produce all kind of pollutions and sins and henceforth since the cross and grace of our LORD hath dried up this source of impurity let there no more appear any track of them in our manners Let the holyness of that new man whose name and blood we boast of shine forth in all the actions of our lives Above all let us banish thence those two capital and accursed pests of luxury and avarices for which you have heard here before all the mouths of Heaven opened to fulminate against the rebellious that serve them the curses of this world and of that which is to come And if the ignorance of such as lived in error withheld not the wrath of GOD heretofore from coming on them for these two kinds of sins what must those expect now who commit the same crimes in the light of JESUS CHRIST Sure as much as the disobedience and the rebellion of the one is more grievous and more enormous than that of others so much more terrible will be the wrath that shall pour from Heaven upon them than all the judgements of GOD the world hath seen in time past Your ingratitude Christian who so ill brook your name and your disobedience surpasseth in horridnesse all the unbelief both of the first world and of ancient Israel they rejected but the preaching of Noah and the ministry of Mâ—ses whereas you outrage the Gospel of the Son of GOD and as much is in you is make Him a lyer Yet you know how they were punished you know the deluges which the fault of the one brought upon all the earth You know the abysse opened its mouth to swallow up the others alive Heaven and earth and the elements were armed against them If their punishment makes you tremble why do you imitate their faults yea why commit you such as are more hainous and blacker than theirs GOD is good and merciful I acknowledge but to sinners repenting To those that mock at His instruction and make a jest of His menaces He is severe and inexorable And if they amend not they shall know sooner or later to their cost that it 's a fearful thing to fall into His hands But the LORD JESUS whom we invocate please to give us better things so reforming this Church by the power of His Spirit and of His voice that henceforth these crying sins be no more seen
the sole infelicity of their extraction The men of Rome are at this day no wiser as who do not define Christianity but by an adherence to the See of their City The Apostle here doth thunder-strike the vanity of the one and the others proclaiming that neither the Jew nor the Greek and by consequent not the Roman or Italian are of any consideration in godliness so as to confer upon us or deprive us of the new Man And S. John Baptist had aforehand advertis'd the Jews of it Mat. 3.9 Presume not so say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father And it 's this our Saviour meant when he told Nicodemus That to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.3 he must be born again signifying that all that dignity of this carnal birth which did so mightily puff up the hearts of the Pharisees and Jews was but a thing of nought and contributed not at all to the entring them in his Communion Joh. 8.39 And elsewhere the Jews crying out that Abraham was their Father he answers them That if they were the children of Abraham they would do his works an evident sign that the children of the Saints are they that do their works as said one of the Ancients * Hierome Act. 10 35. and not they that take up their place and that as S. Peter said Of whatsoever Nation you be you shall be accepted of GOD if you fear him and work righteousness That which the Apostle adds a little after of Barbarians and Scythians tendeth also to take away all difference of people in matter of godliness against the vanity of the Greeks who despised all other Nations and called them Barbarians making no account but of their own because of the great politeness of their language and the civility of their manners and the study of Philosophy and Eloquence which flourished among them S. Paul denounceth them that this vain excellency is of no value in Christianity and that the illiteratness and political defects of Barbarians do not alienate them from GOD provided that putting off the old Man they put on the New The Scythians are those whom we call Tartarians and he makes particular mention of them either because of the ferity and extream rudeness in as much as they were accounted the most gross and least polite of all Barbarians or because of their probity justice and moral innocency as some think After nations he speaks also of the difference of ceremonies and conditions To the former referrs his saying that in Christianity there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision comprising under this one species all other semblable observations of things external and not commanded of GOD in religion signifying that men are neither furthered towards the kingdom of Heaven by being circumcised nor set back by wanting of it and likewise that as he faith else-where if we eat we have not the more and if we eat not we have not the less Whence appears how ill founded the ridiculous opinion of those is who put an higher eâ—â—mate upon themselves by far than upon others in point of holiness by reason of thâ—se external and voluntary devotions as for instance because they were a cowl or a certain particular habit because they abstain from flesh either alwaies or so a certain daies and do other like things in which they are not ashamed even to place Christianity What the Apostle addeth in the last place concerning the bond and the free doth also comprehend nobility and peasantry riches and poverty dignity and inferiority and in fine all that diversity of conditions which divideth men in the present world Though these qualities put a difference between them on earth they put none between them in Heaven nor in the mystical body of our LORD and Saviour into which GOD receiveth us all indifferently if He see the new man in us and doth equally exclude those in whom He finds it not The pomp of riches and honours and the glory of great birth doth recommend no one unto Him loâ—â—ness of extraction or of condition and the misery of poverty doth not 〈◊〉 Him to reject any He strips all men of that habit that makes up no part of them and judgeth of them only by that form of the old or new man which they bear within them Now having excluded all these things from the true constitution of piety he informs us for a conclusion wherein its whole force and vertue doth consist In this renovation of man there is saith he neither Greek nor Jew neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision neither Borbarian nor Seythian nor bond nor free but CHRIST is all and in all That which the Jews promise themselves in vain from their birth and they that Judaize from their circumcision and the Greeks from their Philosophy and Great ones from their dignity JESUS CHRIST alone doth give abundantly to all that are in Him He is all to them For in Him the Gentile finds Judaism and the nobility of Israel all they that are of faith Gal. â— being children of Abraham In Him the uncircumcised have the true circumcision which is not made with hands Barbarians Divine Philosophy and the Bourgeship of Heaven bond-men freedom of spirit poor men the treasures of eternity abject persons the glory of GOD and the excellency of His Kingdom And as He hath in Him an abundance of all sacred and salutiferous things so hath He them for all shutting not up the bosome of His grace against any who ever he be and conferring on all those of His communion universally righteousness wisdom sanctification and redemption and in a word all graces requisite for conducting them unto and putting them in the eternal possession of supreme beatitude Dear Brethren It 's this same blessed LORD the fountain and the fulness of all good that GOD presenteth to you at this time in His word and in His Sacrament Come ye all to Him seeing He is so bountifully offered unto you Let no one imagine either that he may do well enough without Him or that He may not enjoy Him He is both necessary for the greatest and accessible unto the least The dignity of Masters the abundance of riches the extraction of the noble the observances of the devout and such other advantages will be of no use at all to save those that have them so that JESUS CHRIST is no less necessary for them than if they had them not The low estate of servants the distressedness of the poor and the like other disadvantages do hinder no one from approaching and receiving of Him And as the brazen Serpent which sometime figured him in the desert was communicated indifferently unto all great and small poor and rich noble and ignoble and equally cured all those that looked on it and again as there was no remedy to be had against the biting of the fiery Serpents but that alone neither riches nor nobility nor science nor any other quality could cure any
have you observ'd examples of them What would S. Paul say if he were in the world to see his discipline so strangely forgotten among men that make profession to hold him for one of their principal Apostles He recommendeth to us not one of these names to which you oblige your selves He speaks of none but that of the LORD JESUS it 's in that name alone he commands us to do all we do whether in word or work because indeed Acts 4.12 there is none other under heaven given unto men whâ—â—eby we must be sav'd as said S. Peter the same Peter whom you pretend to be the head and the foundation of your Popes S. Paul sure gave and conserved this glory to his LORD's name alone with so much zeal and jealousie that understanding how some in the Church of Corinth joyned in some sort the names of servants of His with it calling themselves 1 Cor. 1.12 some of Paul others of Apollos others of Cephas and others of CHRIST as you see among our adversaries at this day some call themselves of Augustine others of Francis and others of JESVS this Holy man cryes out upon it as a Sacriledge and an utter overthrowing of Religion Is CHRIST divided saith he was Paul crucified for you Ibid ver 13. or were you baptized in the name of Paul Prescribing by these words or rather by this flash of lightning that the faithful ought not either call or distinguish themselves or glory or speak or do whatever in Religion in any other name than that of this holy and merciful LORD who was crucified for them and in whose name alone they were baptiz'd Yea he thanketh GOD that he had administred baptism but to few of them lest any once should thence taken occasion to believe or say that he had baptiz'd in his own name Then a little after resuming the discourse so much took he the thing to heart 1 Cor. 3 4 5 9. Are you not carnal saith he to these people while one of you says I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos Who then is Paul and who is Apolloâ— but Ministers by whom you believed even as the LORD gave to every man Ye are GOD's Husbandry Ye are GOD's building Is not this a telling us plainly that we ought neither bear the name of any other than of GOD nor act in matters of piety in any name but that of JESUS CHRIST In which likewise he here commandeth us to do and say all that we shall act in word or work But having considered what the Apostle affords us here against error for the instruction of our faith let us now observe what he teacheth us for the correction of our manners which is his principal intention He teacheth us My Brethren that if we will be truly faithful persons and Christians as we make profession to be we must have JESUS CHRIST continually before our eyes must examine address and sute our actions our speeches and purposes unto the name of CHRIST take it for the North-star in our course and in one word for the rule of our whole life That we never do any thing little or great otherwise than in His name That His name be the only motive inducing us to speak and act and the only mark at which our words and actions tend Think now first how great our confusion ought to be The Apostle willeth that whatever we do in word or work we do it all in the name of the LORD JESVS and the most of us quite contrary do almost nothing in His Name Heaven and earth are witnesses that the name of JESUS hath no part in our works or words They are all consecrated to His enemies they are inspired by their spirit and aim at nothing but their interests Tell me ye covetous is it in the name of JESUS CHRIST that ye toil night and day to heap up dung Is it He that taught you those black arts and inhumane dexterities to spoil the Orphan and the Widow for the enriching of your selves Have you had the confidence to call upon the name of JESUS that He might teach you and guide your hands to work deceit and bless your violences Is it to advance His glory and give His name a good odour that you make your selves famous among the Vassals of Mammon not disdaining any part of his drudgery how distastful soever to GOD and man And you that are ambitious can you indeed perswade your selves that those vanities that take you up are so important unto JESUS CHRIST Or that it is in His Name you lose your time about them You also whom the flesh and its pleasures do drown in their ordures in conscience is it in the name of JESUS CHRIST you are employed Is it for His glory or according to His will I say as much of the revengeful and the drunken and of all those that serve any one of the other vices which JESUS CHRIST hath expresly condemned and forbidden No one of all these do's act in His name Dear Brethren let us renounce these things if we will be Christians Let us never make any enterprize never set upon any action but first consider whether it may be done in the name of the LORD JESUS that is whether it be such as we may with a good conscience implore His help to finish it and judge either proper to advance His glory and conform or at least not contrary to His will and interests Hereby we are obliged to banish out of our lives first all vitious actions of which none can be done in the name of JESUS CHRIST since they are all displeasing to Him And they that in designs of such nature have the impudence to ask assistance of Him as some there be whom superstition hath inspir'd this sottish conceit into that they may do evil for a good end these I say offend JESUS CHRIST excessively rendring Him guilty of their crimes as much as in them is and inviting Him to take part in their vices But this rule of the Apostle doth not only oblige us to eschew evil and abstain from sin It requireth also that what good we do be done for CHRIST's sake and in His name that in our alms and in our devotions and in all the acts of our piety and charity we seek nothing but His glory the fulfilling of His will and the advancement of His Kingdom and not the praise of men or the interest of our own affairs It 's a taking of His name in vain to do otherwise It 's a prophaning the actions of vertue by employing them in the service of flesh and blood them which of their own nature and by GOD's intention are not to be done but for His glory and for His Son's name sake In fine this maxim of the Apostle's embracing generally all the things a Christian doth both in word and work 't is evident that it ought to regulate those also which are in their own nature indifferent
that is a retribution and a prize to the end he might raise our hearts unto this sublime hope and incite us thereby to labour chearfully for the receiving of so rich a recompence For as prizes are not given but to those that have laboured and striven so this life of GOD is not prepared but for those that shall in their vocation have fought a good fight and kept the faith and duly finished their course And as the Prince promiseth a Souldier honour and the Master a work-man wages and the one do perform if the others discharge their duty so the LORD promiseth us His kingdom and will according to His faithfulnesse assuredly give it to every one that doth believe and persevere Lo wherefore the holy Apostle calls that blessed life we hope for a reward or guerdon But lest this term should cause us to presume of some merit in our labours he pertinently adds another name to cure us of that error and calls the same reward an inheritance For an inheritance as all know comes not by merit but by another different title even because one is a child of the Family Expect then Faithful souls this Divine retribution not from the dignity or merit of your works but from the bounty and munificence of GOD who having freely adopted you into the number of His children will give you part in this eternal inheritance to which neither you nor any mortal man had naturally any right at all It is His grace and His faithfulness and His promise that conferrs upon you all the share you have in it And His goodness and word being immutable you ought to expect it with as much assurance as if you merited it though you acknowledge that you never can But because it might seem strange that the Apostle should promise Christians the reward of the inheritance of the LORD for services done to men he repeats what he had intimated afore namely that to speak properly it 's JESUS CHRIST they serve and not men For saith he you serve the LORD CHRIST It is true this Soveraign LORD is in Heaven in perfect glory and hath no need of our services much less of such as slaves and mercenaries do their Masters But such is His goodness that He allows us all that as done to His own person which we do to men according to His command and for His sake Thus He assureth us in the Gospel that it is to Him we give all the alms the visits and assistances wherewith we gratifie the least of His servants in His Name Mat. 25.40 You have done it unto Me saith He in that you have done it to one of the least of these All the duties of that obedience which He commands us are of the same nature in this behalf Doing them unto men we do them unto JESUS CHRIST who hath commanded them therefore it 's also unto Him that the least and lowest services do pertain which men perform to the Masters unto whom the order of His Providence hath put them in subjection which they perform I say because of Him or for His sake so that He being infinitely good and liberal they ought to attend assuredly that precious recompence which He promiseth those that serve Him But if so high and glorious an hope be not sufficient to affect us and sway us to that willing obedience which He requireth of us let us regard at least the penalty He denounceth in case we fail of our duty It 's this the Apostle sets here before the eyes of Christian servants when after proposal of the reward of the heavenly inheritance to such as discharge their duty he addeth But he that doth unjustly shall receive what he hath unjustly done and there is no regard to the shew of persons It 's a general sentence reaching all men of whatever condition they be servants or masters men or women poor or rich Whoever doth another wrong either by positive outrage or by not rendring what he owes him according to the laws of the Gospel shall receive at the hand of the supreme Judge what he hath unjustly done that is be payed for his fault and punished with a penalty exactly proportioned to their crime Nor should any one perswade himself either that the miserableness of his condition will move the Judge to pity him or that the splendor and grandeur of his quality will blind His eyes and so conceit the possibility of an escape In this Divine judgement no regard saith the Apostle is had to the look or outside of men GOD will weigh your cause alone not consider your person And as He will not take notice of the rich or the mighty not of Lords or Monarchs so as to spare them if they have lived in the practice of unrighteousness and violence so neither will He regard the poverty or meanness of the lowest as to exempt them from the punishments which their unjustness or infidelity deserveth but as He sometime commanded the Judges of Israel Lev. 19.15 He will judge justly not honouring the countenance of the potent nor respecting the person of the poor Whence it follows that servants which rob their masters or serve them not as they ought shall surely suffer for their injustice since granting that men do let their wickedness pass unchastised yet the supreme Judge of the World will not fail to call them to their tryal one day and bring to publick light the infidelities the theeveries and acts of disobedience which they think they have hid safe enough in the dark of their deceits and condemn them to the just torments they have merited by violating the sacred orders He hath made for humane society and doing that to others which they would not any should do to them Such is Brethren the Apostle's instruction to servants Let us now peruse what he prescribes to Masters Masters saith he render to your servants right and equity knowing that you also have a Master in Heaven First he gives them in charge their duty Secondly sets before them an excellent reason to sway them to it Their duty is to render right and equity to their servants It may not be imagined that the power of Masters over their servants is unlimited A mutual justice there is between them which obligeth them each to other reciprocally and either of them that trespasseth against the rules thereof is faulty And as it is just that servants should obey and be subject so is it likewise just that Masters should be of good conduct and give meet entertainment It 's this the Apostle means by that right which he chargeth them to render to their servants It compriseth work maintenance correction and wages So that Masters are obliged for the right discharging of this duty towards them to carry themselves in these four points with all prudence and equity giving them a reasonable task to do sufficient food moderate chastisement and a meet salary They that do otherwise and transgress in these things
is the only source thereof to render Him thanks for it This is the just and reasonable Tribute this liberal LORD demandeth of us for so many benefits as he communicateth daily to our Brethren and our selves If our lowness and poverty render us incapable of other acknowledgement let us at least faithfully acquit us of this so easie an one and so rightful and say with the Prophet Psalm 116.12 13. What shall I render to the LORD All his benefits are upon me I will take the cup of deliverances and call upon the Name of the Eternal One. Let us study with so much the more care to render this sacred due to the LORD by how much more black and detestable the ingratitude of men is in this behalf Far from blessing Him for the benefits he doth their neighbours they scarce give Him thanks for those they receive of Him themselves They impute them to their own industry or fortune and as saith the Prophet Sacrifice to their Drag for the good successes that betide them yea some so insensible there are as it is not godliness it self but they give the glory of it to their own will and the strength of their free determination But it is not enough to render thanks to GOD for our Brethren there must be also prayer for them For as it is He that gives them all the good things they possess So there is none but himself that can preserve or augment them to them and thus our thanksgivings should be ever followed or accompanied with Petitions as the Apostle sheweth in saying that be giveth thanks to GOD for the Colossians praying alwayes for them The Title He giveth to GOD calling Him the Father of our LORD JESVS CHRIST is not put here in vain but to distinguish and specifie the object of our prayers and thanksgivings The appellation of GOD under the Old Testament was The GOD of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob the Patriarchs with whom He contracted the Old Covenant and to whom He promised the New Now His Name is the Father of JESVS CHRIST by whom He hath abolished the Old Testament and accomplished the New Besides hereby St. Paul remindeth us of that we can never enough meditate that it is by the mean of this sweet and charitable Saviour GOD hath communicated Himself to us and if we have the honour to be His children 't is by JESUS CHRIST of whom He is properly the Father having not adopted Him as us but begotten Him from all eternity of His own substance by reason whereof that also which He assumed to Himself in the Womb of the Virgin hath the same glory according to what the Angel said The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee said he to the Holy Virgin and the Vertue of the Highest shall overshadow thee Luke 1 35. whence also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of GOD. But the Apostle addeth in his process what were those blessings of the Colossians for which himself and Timothy so assiduously rendred their thanks to GOD the Father of our Saviour Having heard speak of your faith in JESVS CHRIST saith he and of the charity you have towards all the Saints He had never been among them as He will say hereafter putting them after the opinion of most Interpreters Col. 2.1 in the number of those Who had not seen his presence in the flesh Therefore he saith it was by hearing that he understood of their faith and charity Here is faithful Sirs the true matter of our joyings and thanksgivings for our neighbours not that GOD hath given them vigour of health abundance of riches the favour of the great the glory of fame the knowledge of Sciences and such other worldly good things which to say the truth are but figures dreams and shadows that secure no person as we daily see either from diseases of the body or death or from trouble and disquiet of conscience or true misery But indeed for that Heaven hath revealed JESUS CHRIST to them and shed into their souls that holiness without which none shall see GOD. For these two Graces Faith and Charity comprize within their compass the whole Kingdom of GOD. Faith is the entrance thereof and charity the accomplishment The one cleareth our understandings the other sanctifieth our affections The one is the light of the soul the other is the heat thereof The one believeth and the other loveth The one beginneth and the other finisheth the happiness of our life Now Faith respects indeed generally the whole doctrine of GOD revealed in His Word believing it undoubtedly true but yet it fixeth particularly on the Promise He hath made us to give us Eternal Life in JESUS CHRIST His Son 'T is this properly that renders Faith saving and vivifying Without this it would not differ at all from the faith of Devils who believe there is a GOD and tremble at it But this love of GOD which it apprehendeth and embraceth giveth it salvation and enables it to produce in us all that 's necessary for getting in to the celestial Kingdom according to the assertions of JESUS CHRIST and His Apostles in divers places of the Scripture that whosoever believeth in the LORD is already passed from death to life That there is no condemnation for him and that being justified by faith we have peace with GOD. Hence St. Paul to describe here true faith addeth expresly these words Faith in JEVS CHRIST He sheweth us in like manner the object of Charity by saying The Charity you have towards all the Saints that is as we have intimated afore towards all Christians all the faithful I confess that Charity extendeth it self to all men generally there being none to whom we owe not love and on occasion the offices which a true and sincere affection is apt to produce since all men are the Works and Images of GOD since in Adam they all have one common nature with us and all are called to the participation of faith and of eternity in JESUS CHRIST by the Gospel which without distinction or exception inviteth all Nations and persons to repentance and grace But so it is notwithstanding that Charity embraceth not all men equally It hath divers degrees in it's affections and loveth it's neighbours more or less as it perceiveth more or less in them the marks of the hand of GOD and the tokens of His CHRIST and Spirit Seeing therefore they appear no where more clearly than in the Saints that is in true believers it is evident these make the first and principal part of the object of Charity Gal. 6.10 according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere Let us do good to all but principally to the houshold of faith Besides that Union we have with them a much more strict and intimate one than with any others their necessity also doth particularly oblige us thereto the hatred and persecution of the world putting them for the most part in such
case as none of Creatures do more need the offices of our Charity neither is there any object worthier of the affection and succour of a good and generous soul than innocence hated and oppressed unjustly therefore it is that the Apostle noteth here by name the Charity of the Colossians towards all the Saints He joyneth these two Vertues together Faith and Charity because in effect they are inseparable it being neither possible nor imaginable whatsoever error list to say of it that man should believe and truly embrace GOD as his Saviour in JESUS CHRIST without loving Him and His neighbours for His sake or that he should love Him sincerely without believing in Him He puts Faith before Charity not for that it is more excellent on the contrary he elsewhere openly giveth the advantage unto Charity but because it goes first in the order of things requisite to salvation It is the blessed root whence Charity springs forth 1 Cor. 13. and all other Christian Vertues It is the foundation of the spiritual building the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven the first fruits of the workmanship of GOD and the beginning of the second Creation As in the old Creation Light was the first thing He created so in the new one Faith is the first thing He produceth which the Apostle divinely expresseth to us elsewhere 2 Cor. 4.6 GOD saith he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of GOD in the face of JESVS CHRIST After the Faith and Charity of the Colossians the Apostle adds in the third place the Happiness that was kept for them in the Heavens For the hope saith He which is reserved in Heaven for you Some knit these words with what he had now said of the Faith and Charity of the Colossians and understand that these faithful people laboured with alacrity in the exercise of these Vertues for the hope they had of the celestial Crown and reward according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere of Moses that He chose rather to be afflicted with the People of GOD Hebr. than to enjoy for a little time the delights of sin and esteemed the reproach of CHRIST greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt because saith he he had respect to the recompence And he teacheth us in general of all those that come to GOD that they must believe that GOD is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek him Ibid. v. 6. And from hence it followeth not at all either that our works do merit the glory of Heaven or that our affection is mercenary If we should not hope but for what we merit our hopes would be very miserable But knowing that GOD is faithful and constant we hope with assurance for the bliss which He of His meer grace promiseth us and the less we merit it the more love we conceive towards GOD who giveth it to us and the more acknowledgement and service ought we to render Him for the same And for this gratuitous salary which He promiseth us we look not on it as a prey after which we hunt and without which we would have no love for the LORD but as an excellent evidence of His infinite goodness as a testimony of His admirable liberality that love of GOD which shines forth in it is the thing pleaseth and ravisheth us most of all and which enflameth our faith our zeal and our affection to the service of so good and amiable a LORD though then we should bind what the Apostle saith of the Charity of the Colossians with the hope they had of the heavenly glory there would be nothing in this but what were conform to Evangelical Truth Yet it seems to me more simple and fluent to refer it to the third Verse where he saith that He giveth thanks to GOD for the Colossians having understood their faith and charity for the hope He addeth now which is reserved in Heaven for you For to consider the condition of these believers on the earth it seems there was no great cause to congratulate them for their faith and charity the afflictions which they drew on them rendring them in appearance the most miserable of men But though the flesh make this judgement of it the Spirit that seeth above visible things the Crown of glory prepared for the faith and charity of the faithful holdeth them for the happiest of all Creatures congratulates them and rendreth thanks to GOD for the inestimable treasure he hath communicated to them I know saith the Apostle that your piety hath it's tryals and exercises in this world But I forbear not to bless the LORD affectionately for that He hath given it to you I know the bliss that is prepared for you on high in the Sanctuary of GOD. He takes the word Hope here as often elsewhere for the thing we hope for to wit the blessed immortality and glory of the world to come I confess we possess it not yet for hope is the expectation of a good to come Rom. 8.23 That we are saved saith the Apostle is in hope but hope that a man seeth is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for But this good though absent and to come is as assured to us as if we had it already in our hands The Apostle shews it when he addeth that this Hope is reserved in Heaven for you It is a treasure which GOD hath set apart having fully prepared it already keeping it faithfully for us in His own bosome Whence it is that we make an assured account thereof for He hath deposited it in the hands of JESUS CHRIST in whom is hid our life and immortality so as if we make an assured account of things which a man of probity and honour keepeth in trust for us how much more certain should we be of the life and glory to come seeing GOD hath put it for us in the keeping of so faithful and powerful a depositary The place where this rich treasure is kept deposited for us confirms yet more the hope and excellency of it to us for saith the Apostle it is reserved for us in the heavens Fear not ye Faithful Your bliss is not on earth where the Thief steals or infidelity and violence make spoil where time it self ruineth all things where Crowns the best establisht are subject to a thousand and a thousand accidents Yours is on high in the Heavens in the Sanctuary of eternity lifted up above all the odd variations and inconstancies of humane things where neither our changes nor the causes that produce them have any access But this same place sheweth you besides the excellency and perfection of the bliss you hope for inasmuch as all celestial things are great and magnificent Weakness poverty and imperfection lodge here below Heaven is the habitation of glory and felicity In fine the Apostle toucheth briefly in the
last words of this Text whence it is that the Colossians had conceived so high an hope Of which saith he you have heard heretofore by the word of truth to wit the Gospel This Soveraign bliss which is reserved for us in the Heavens is so highly raised above nature that neither subtility of sense nor vivacity of reason nor even the light of the Law could discover it to us much less give us the hope thereof 2 Tim. 1.10 That same JESVS CHRIST who hath destroyed death hath brought to light life and immortality by the Gospel Before this they were either entirely unperceived or imperfectly known and hoped for It 's therefore precisely from the Gospel that we draw both the faith and the hope of them He calleth the Gospel the word of truth not as some will have it because it is the Word of JESUS CHRIST who is the Truth and the life for this exposition is more subtil than solid but because it is the most excellent of all Verities those that are learned in the School of Nature and of the Law being mean and unprofitable in comparison of those which the Gospel doth discover to us It may well be that the Apostle would also secretly oppose the doctrine of the Gospel to those of the seducers which still recommended shadows and figures as we shall hear in the following Chapter whereas the Gospel presenteth us the substance and the truth of things And it seems to be in this sense that St. John after he had said The Law was given by Moses addeth in form of opposition John 1.17 But grace and truth came by JESVS CHRIST because the Law had only dark lineaments and shadows whereas the LORD JESUS brought us the lively image the body and the truth of celestial things The Apostle remindeth the Colossians that they had already heretofore heard this Word of truth as it were to protest unto them that he would promote no novelty among them having no other design but to confirm them more and more in the holy doctrine they had already received with faith from Epaphras and other Ministers of the LORD See well beloved Brethren that we had to say to you for the exposition of this Text. It remaineth that we briefly touch at for you the principal points we should gather of it as well for the instruction of our Faith as the edification of our Charity and the consolation of our souls As for Faith 't is for it's security that St. Paul telleth us at the entrance He is an Apostle of JESVS CHRIST by the will of GOD advertising us by this quality He assumeth to receive no doctrine into our belief which hath not been annunciated by these great and highest Ministers of the LORD Let us examine the Spirits and admit only the word of the Apostles If any one Evangelize beyond what they have preached let us hold him for an Anathema We have their Scriptures Let us assuredly believe all that we read in them Let the doctrine which appears not there be suspected to us and praised be GOD that according to this rule we have banished from our Religion that which error and superstition had thrust into Christianity You know that the GOD the CHRIST the Heaven the Worship and Sacraments we preach have been given us by the Apostles of the LORD established by the Will of GOD and do appear throughout in their Gospels and in their Epistles Whereas the Mediators whom our Adversaries invocate the High Priest they acknowledge the Traditions they maintain the Purgatory they fear the greatest part of the Sacraments they celebrate the adoration of the Host the veneration of Images and the voluntary Worships which they practise are not found at all either in the Old or the New Testament Let us therefore firmly retain our Religion as instituted by the Will of GOD and constantly reject what is beyond it as come of man and not of the LORD from the Earth and not from Heaven But it is not enough to make profession of it we must plant this doctrine in our hearts by a lively belief in such sort as we may be able to say with truth That we have faith in JESUS CHRIST and charity towards all the Saints We render thanks to GOD with the Apostle for that of His great mercies He hath vouchsafed to communicate this treasure of His Gospel to us and not in vain since there are among us that have truly made their profit of these spiritual riches But the life of the greater part renders them unworthy of the praise which St. Paul here giveth the Colossians For is this to have Faith in JESUS CHRIST to serve Him so loosely as we do and testifie so little zeal for His glory so little respect to His Commandments so little belief of his documents and so little affection for the interests of His Kingdom As for Charity I am ashamed to speak of it so cooled is ours For if we loved all the faithful should we leave the life of some of them and the reputation of others without succour Should we injure them instead of defending them Should we take away their substance instead of communicating to them our own Should we black their honour instead of preserving it Would their prosperity offend us Would their miseries content us Faithful Sirs remember they are the Saints of GOD His Children and the Brethren of His CHRIST Respect those so sacred names and spare persons that have the honour to belong so nearly to your LORD He will judge you by the treatment you shall give them and write on his account the good and the evil which they shall receive from your hands recompensing it or punishing in the very same manner as if you had honoured or violated Him in His own person He will cut you off from His communion if you do not carefully regard and practise theirs and will never avouch you for His Children if you acknowledge them not for your Brethren And here alledge not to me I beseech you that you have faith I know well that this divine light cannot be in souls which are cold and destitute of Charity But suppose that this were possible I tell you and declare that all your pretended faith should you have the highest degree thereof that may be in the world without charity would be but a shadow an Idol and an illusion and as St. James saith a stinking carkass James 2.26 Do all you will Have as much faith and knowledge as you please if you have not charity you are not a Christian you are but a false and deceitful image of one Charity is absolutely necessary to the perfection of a Christian It is the badge of this holy Discipline it is the honour and the glory of it and the Apostle as you see sets it down here among it's essential parts Faith shall cease in Heaven when we shall see instead of believing But charity shall remain for ever Have then a
so as it is declared in the Gospel not in Error and in Fictions and Lies as in false Religions nor in shadow and in figure as in the Law of Moses but nakedly and simply as it is in it self Of these three Expositions all good and convenient the First is to the praise of the Colossians the Second to that of Epaphras their Pastor and the third to the praise of the Gospel it self But as to Epaphras he speaks of Him by name in the two last Verses of this Text which make the second part of it And to commend Him to the Colossians and win him their hearts and respect He gives an excellent testimony of his fidelity his candour and his goodness As also saith he you have learned of Epaphras our dear fellow-servant who is a faithful Minister of CHRIST for you who also hath declared unto us your charity which you have in the Spirit This holy Apostle knew how much it concerneth Churches for their edification to have a good opinion of their Pastors and with what artifices the enemy laboureth ordinarily to decry the faithful servants of GOD and ruine their reputation among their flocks therefore it is that he here exalteth Epaphras as his piety deserved and to take out of the Colossians all suspicion against the purity of his teachings advertiseth them expresly that the doctrine they had learned of him was in truth the same Gospel of which he had spoken And from this great care the Apostle hath of Epaphras's reputation the Ministers of the LORD should learn to set themselves the best they can in the Spirit of their people abstaining not from evil only but also from its appearances and whatsoever might make them to be suspected of it It is not enough to approve the goodness of our life to our own conscience We must also if it may be content the judgement of our neighbours Innocence is necessary for our selves and reputation for others And since it serves to edifie them we are evidently obliged to preserve not our own only but also the reputation of our fellow-brethren whom GOD hath setled in the same charge for if we bite and rend one another who sees not but the particular reproach of each one will be the common infamy and ruine of us all But since the reputation of Pastors is a publick good which tendeth to the edification of the whole Church you see again that each faithful person oweth it a particular respect and that the crime of those who violate it unjustly is a kind of Sacriledge It 's a robbing of the Church and stealing from it it 's edification to black by calumny and detractions the life and doctrine of them that serve it or to expose them to laughter and contempt by scoffings and revilings But to return to Epaphras the Apostle crowneth him with two or three excellent Elogies First He calleth him his dear fellow-servant Admire I beseech you the candour and the goodness the humility and the modesty of this holy man His candor for whereas ordinarily there 's jealousie between persons of the same faculty St. Paul contrarily acknowledgeth and exalteth the Gifts and Vertue of this servant of GOD. His goodness for He tenderly loves Him as every where else He plainly sheweth that of all men there were none he more affected than the faithful Ministers of the Gospel His humility lastly in that being raised on the Throne of the Apostolick dignity the highest in the Church he maketh Epaphras as one may say to sit there with Him owning Him for His fellow Next He termeth Him a Minister of CHRIST It was much to be fellow-servant with St. Paul but it is much more to be the Minister of CHRIST the LORD of glory the Head of the Church the Soveraign Monarch of Men and Angels Judge with what reason some of our adversaries mock at the title we assume qualifying our selves Ministers of CHRIST or of His Gospel since it is the word that the Apostle useth here expresly to signifie that holy charge which GOD hath called us unto But He doth not term Epaphras simply a Minister of CHRIST He saith moreover that He is a faithful Minister the quality of Minister was common to him with many others the praise of faithfulness with few 'T is all that the Apostle did require in a good Steward of the House of GOD. 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Let each one hold us saith he for Ministers of CHRIST and Stewards of the mysteries of GOD. Moreover it is required in Stewards that each one be found faithful To have the praise thereof the Minister of the LORD must First Seek the glory of his Master and not his own and Secondly Keep close to His Orders without hiding from or envying to His Sheep any of the things committed to him for their edification without setting before them ought of His own invention beyond or against the will of the chief Shepheard But though all these good qualities greatly recommended Epaphras to the Colossians He addeth yet another which no less than the rest obliged them tenderly to love and cherish him namely that He employed the Master's talents to their edification He is saith he a faithful Minister of CHRIST for you They ought therefore to love him both for the dignity of his Office and for the profit that came in to them thereby For though we be obliged to love and respect all the faithful servants of GOD in general yet there is no doubt but we owe a particular affection and reverence to those who peculiarly consecrate their Ministry to our edification In fine the Apostle tells them that this holy servant of GOD had advertised Him of the pure and spiritual love they bore Him He hath declared to us saith he that is both to Him and to Timothy your charity which you have in Spirit I count that by charity he meaneth here not in general the Christian Vertue which we ordinarily call by this name for of the Charity of the Colossians so understood he had already spoken in the fourth Verse but the affection these faithful people had for St. Paul And He calleth it a Charity or Love in Spirit that is spiritual because it was founded upon the Spirit and not upon the flesh upon the interests of Heaven and not of Earth And here consider I beseech you how dextrous and industrious Epaphras was to knit spiritual friendships The Colossians had never seen St. Paul 't is he without doubt that had recounted to them the excellent vertue and piety of this great man and by this means enkindled in their souls that holy and spiritual charity they had for Him And see again how by the relation he makes to the Apostle of the love these believers bore Him He possesseth His soul with a reciprocal affection towards them O holy and blessed tongue that sowest nothing in the hearts of the faithful but charity and love how far now-adayes from thy candour and sincere goodness
his Brethren presented him GOD be gracious unto thee my Son Gen. 43.29 From such sentiments do flow those benedictions which we are wont to pronounce upon persons that are imployed in things beneficial and useful whether natural or civil as to instance with the Psalmist when we see the busie Reapers of a fair Field in Harvest time and say The blessing of the LORD be upon you Psal 129.8 we bless you in the name of the LORD But if this kind of natural beauty and perfection doth engage our affections and good wishes to the subjects in which we perceive it the gifts of divine grace which are incomparably more excellent should much more lively touch us my Brethren and kindle in our hearts greater flames of love and of desire for those that possess them For as high as Heaven is above the Earth and as much as eternity is preferable to time so much advantage have the beauties and perfections of Grace above those of Nature If therefore we judge rightly of them and estimate them according to their worth it cannot be that we should see them shine out in any without running to them and fastning forthwith on them as holy and as happy persons An eminent example of this motion of Christian Charity we have in our Text for the Apostle St. Paul here sheweth us he no sooner understood by Epaphras's report the Colossians faith and love but his soul was presently seized with ardent love unto them and his absence hindring him from giving them other evidences of it he incessantly presented prayer and earnest suits to GOD for their persevering and perfiting in piety that is for the continuation and the perpetuity of their happiness The summ of his desires for them is contained in three Verses as they evidently relate to three sorts of benefits for he wisheth them first in the ninth Verse the benefits that respect perfect knowledge of the truth next in the tenth those that respect the exercise of sanctity and finally in the eleventh such as concern perseverance in faith and patience in afflictions For present we will meditate only on the first of these three Articles remitting the two next to another action And for this cause saith the Apostle we also since the day we heard it cease not to pray for you and to crave that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding For right understanding this Text we will consider in it three particulars by the help of the grace of GOD which we implore for this effect First The Motive of the Apostle's prayers Secondly Their form manner and quality and in fine which is principal and most important the subject of them that is what He requested of GOD in His prayers As for the Motive that induced the Apostle to pray for the Colossians He signifies it to us in these first words And for this cause since the day we heard it we cease not to pray for you For these words sending us back to the precedent Verses with which they have a tye do shew us that the knowledge which the Apostle had by Epaphras's relation of the faith of the Colossians towards JESUS CHRIST and of their charity towards the Saints of their heavenly hope and of their other spiritual graces whereof He spake afore that this knowledge I say having filled Him with love towards them made Him continually pour out His Vows and prayers before GOD for the compleating of their salvation I confess the affection they bore Him in particular and whereof He maketh mention in the Verse immediately preceding contributed something also to this care he had to pray for them But it 's principal cause was their piety and sanctification that they had the first fruits of the Spirit and the beginnings of the Kingdom of Heaven Seeing the foundations of the Gospel and of the building of GOD so happily laid and established among them He beseecheth the Supream Master and Architect of this spiritual work to finish it and powerfully set the last hand to it The same reason made Him in like manner present His prayers to GOD for the Ephesians as he testifies at the beginning of the Epistle Ephes 1.15 16 17. he wrote them using almost all the same words that serve Him here Having saith he to them heard of the faith you have in the LORD JESVS and the charity you have towards all the Saints I cease not to render thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers that the GOD of our LORD JESVS CHRIST the Father of glory would give you the Spirit of Wisdom and of Revelation Faithful Sirs learn by this example of the Apostle to pray the LORD principally 〈◊〉 those in whom you see the work of His Spirit appear Rejoyce ye for their faith and their zeal and love them for the honesty and purity of their life But remember that the first and principal office which your charity oweth them is the continual succour of your prayers Object not that they are too far advanced to need them During the course of this life the progress of a Christian is never so great but the prayers of his Brethren are necessary for him It 's then when he is most advanced that the enemy maketh most attempts and layeth most ambushments for him The nearer he is to the Crown the more need he hath of divine assistance As there is none in the lists whom we favour more with our wishes acclamations and applauses than those that come nearest to victory so in this carrier of the Gospel we should affectionate and accompany with our vows prayers and benedictions those most that run best and are nighest to the mark of the heavenly calling We never make more wishes for a Vessel than when after a long and dangerous voyage it comes upon our Coast or we see it ready to arrive in the Haven When the believer having escaped the shelves and tempests of the world steers the true course of Heaven and makes if we may so say with Oars and Sails to the Port of Salvation 't is then we should redouble our wishes and benedictions for his safety 't is then we should fear more than ever lest some mishap marr all his progress and bereave him of the reward of his pains But let us now consider the manner and the quality of the Apostle's prayers Since the day saith he that we heard these good news we cease not to pray GOD and to make request for you First He did not pray alone We cease not to pray saith he where you see he speaks of more praying with him comprising in this number Timothy whom he had expresly named already at the beginning of this Epistle and the other faithful that were at Rome with him Being put on by one and the same charity animated with one and the same desire they all lifted up their hearts and Votes to GOD together with the Apostle for the
in Darkness after the Spirit or after the Flesh and other like Phrases which all signifie a certain form and condition of life good or evil as it is qualified According to the stile of Scripture the Apostle saith here to the end that you may walk meaning that you may live that you may direct and form your lives But how will he that we walk worthily saith he as is seemly towards the LORD It is word for word in the Original worthily of the LORD or in a fashion worthy of the LORD But our French Bible hath faithfully represented the sense of these words it being evident that the Apostle intendeth we should lead a life that answereth to the honour we have of being Children and Disciples of JESUS the LORD His co-heirs and heirs of His Father He else-where often useth this manner of speaking or others altogether like it As when he exhorteth the Philippians to converse in such sort as may be worthy of the Gospel Phil. 1.28 Eph. 4.1 1 Thes 2.12 and the Ephesians to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith they had been called and when in like manner he adjureth the Thessalonians to walk worthy of GOD who hath called them to His Kingdom and Glory The teachers of merits have drawn from these passages that proud name which they ordinarily give them calling them merits of condignity pretending that to walk worthy of GOD signifies meriting of life by their works properly and in the accompt of exact justice But they are evidently deceived For not to speak of the vanity of this presumption which Scripture and reason it self do thunder-strike a thousand wayes it is clear that to be worthy of any thing signifieth not at all in these passages the meriting it properly and exactly For who is there that would thus interpret the Apostles saying walk worthy of GOD that is lead a life that merits GOD There are people found that have opinion of themselves good enough to imagine they merit Heaven and the glory of the life to come There hath none been yet seen that I know who vaunted Himself to merit GOD. This language would be monstrous and surpass the pride of Devils themselves It 's too much presuming but to affirm that any merit the gifts of GOD. Common sense permitteth not a man to think or say that he merits GOD. As ill doth what the Apostle saith elsewhere suffer this gloss Converse in a fashion worthy of the Gospel and live in a fashion worthy of the Vocation of GOD. For who ever heard say that our works do merit either the Gospel or the Vocation of GOD a thing past and which we have already received from the liberality of the LORD before the having done any one good work It is clear that in all these places the worthiness whereof the Apostle speaketh is nothing else but a certain well-beseemingness arising from the correspondence that is found between us and the subjects whereof he saith we are worthy Just as when St. John Baptist exhorteth the Jews to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance he meaneth not that merit repentance but that answer thereto that are suitable to the sense we have of our own sin and of the Grace of GOD. In like manner here a life holy and full of piety and of good works is worthy of GOD not because it merits Him but because it hath some suitableness with His sanctity and glory It is worthy of the Gospel because it is correspondent to it and conform to what it requireth of us It is worthy of the Vocation of GOD because carried to things to which He calleth us and produceth the fruits which He demandeth of us Would you then know Christian what your life should be let it be worthy of the LORD St. Paul hath comprised all in these few words And as sometime a Prince faln into the hands of his enemy who demanded of him how he should treat him answered as a King signifying by that one word all the moderation and generosity he desired should be used towards Him So the Apostle in these two words embraceth the whole form of our carriage How shall we live Lead saith he a life that may be worthy of the LORD This is enough to let us understand that neither avarice nor cruelty nor hatred nor envy nor any other of the passions of the world must have any place in our manners but that justice charity and all other pure and celestial affections should shine forth in them that there should be mixed in them nothing base nor abject but that all should be great and generous and elevated above the dunghills of the Flesh Have then Believer this supream LORD continually before your eyes Interrogate your Conscience upon each of the things that are presented to you whether they be worthy of Him and do not any that may not be put in this rank Flee all that crosseth the quality of His disciple all that swerveth from the rule which He hath given you all that diverts you from the Kingdom to which He conducteth you This LORD is purity and sanctity it self He is entirely separate from sinners He never had any communion with vice This LORD is soveraignly good He hateth no man He prayed even for them that Crucified Him and did infinite benefits to them that injured and blasphemed Him This LORD neither possessed nor coveted the honours and grandeurs of the earth All His glory is divine and His grandeur celestial His discipline is like His life He enjoyneth us throughout nothing but a singular innocency sanctity and goodness and the good things He promiseth us are spiritual and not carnal the inheritance He hath purchased for us and to the possession whereof He leadeth us is in Heaven and not on the earth Upon this it's easie to judge what is this form of life worthy of Him which the Apostle commandeth us It is a life that hath resemblance with His wherein shine forth both the examples of His Divine Vertues and the marks of His doctrine and the badges of His house and the first fruits of His glory It is a life that treadeth under foot the baseness of all vices that disdaineth what the flesh and the world do promise to their slaves and beholding with contempt all that the earth adore hath no passion but for Heaven It 's a life sweet and humble and innocent that obligeth all men and injures none at all that without turning to the right hand or the left runs on and advanceth incessantly towards the mark of the supernal calling It 's thus you must live faithful soul if you would satisfie the light you have received of the knowledge of GOD. I confess it is an high design But neither is it for low and common things that GOD hath given you His Son and His Spirit If our infirmity makes fear let the power and the might of the LORD assure us And if there escape us sometime any act unworthy of Him as in
have cause to complain of it as He yerst did of that of Israel I expected saith He it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes Sure He hath had no less care of ours than of theirs He hath planted it in like manner with choice Vines He hath also environed it with a brave and admirable hedge He hath watered it with the rain of His Clouds and made the beams of His Sun of Righteousness to shine on it and may justly say of it What was there more to be done to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Be we not ungrateful to so sweet a Master Let not our sterility confound His expectation Let our fruits be answerable to His cares and our secondity to His husbandry Let there be no soul barren and unprofitable among us Let each one Fructifie of that He hath each one improve the dressing and sap the LORD hath given us Let the sinner present Him his repentance the Just his Perseverance the Rich his Almes the Poor his Praises Old Age its Prudence Youth its Zeal Let the Knowing abound in Instruction the Strong in Modesty the Weak in Humility and all together in Charity And since it is the good pleasure of our Heavenly Father that we have here divers combats as none may live piously without persecution prepare we also for this other part of our duty and supplicate the LORD with the Apostle that He do strengthen us with all strength according to the power of His glory that He do give us a firm and unmoveable patience to persevere constantly in the Holy Communion of His Son so as neither the promises nor the threatnings of the World neither the Lusts nor the fears of Flesh may be ever able to debauch us from His Service O GOD our task is great and we are feeble Our enemies are Giants and we but Dwarfes Therefore thy self work in us merciful LORD the work which thou commandest us Perfect thy glorious power in our weaknesses Strengthen our hands and confirm our hearts that we may combat vigorously and atchieve great things in thy Name and after the trials and tentations of this life may one day receive in the other from the Sacred and Sweet hand of thy Son the glorious Crown of immortality which we breathe after So be it THE V. SERMON COL I. Ver. XII XIII Vers XII Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us capable to partake of the inheritance of Saints in light XIII Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His well-beloved Son DEar Brethren Though the first Creation of man be a most illustrious master piece of the goodness power and wisdom of GOD this great worker then making Adam of the dust and forming Him after His own image to live and reign on earth in a soveraign felicity Yet it must be confessed that our restauration of JESUS CHRIST is much more excellent and admirable For whether you consider the things themselves which have been given us or have respect to the quality of those to whom they have been communicated or to what the LORD did for the communicating of them you will see that the second of these two benefits of His doth surpass the first every way The first gave us an humane nature the second hath communicated to us a divine one The first made us a living soul the second maketh us a quickning spirit By the one we had an earthly and animal being by the other we receive a spiritual and heavenly one The one seated us in the garden of Eden the other elevateth us to the Heaven of Glory There we had a Lordship over living Creatures and the Empire of the Earth here we have the fraternity of Angels and the Kingdom of Heaven There we enjoyed a life full of delight but infirm and depending as that of other living Creatures on the use of meat and drink and sleep Here we possess one full of vigour and strength which like that of blessed spirits is sustained by its own vertue without need of other nourishment The one was subject to change as the event hath declared the other is truly immortal and immutable and above the accidents that altered the first The advantage of the first man was that he might have not dyed the priviledge of the second is that he cannot dye But the difference will appear no less in the disposition of the persons to whom the LORD hath communicated these benefits if you attentively consider it I confess that dust which GOD invested with an humane form merited not a condition so excellent and received it from the meer liberality of the Creatour But if it were not worthy of such a savour at least it had nothing in it which rendred it uncapable thereof in the rigour of justice Whereas we not only have not merited the salvation which God giveth us in His Son but have over and above merited that death which is opposite to it If the matter upon which the LORD wrought in the first creation of man had no disposition for the form He put in it so neither had it any repugnancy thereto whereas in our second Creation that is in our redemption by JESUS CHRIST He findeth in us souls so far from complying with His operation that they potently resist it So you see that to effect the first work He employed only the single out-going of His will and word whereas for creating the second it was necessary He should shake the Heavens send down His Son to earth deliver Him up to death and do miracles that astonished men and Angels It 's with this grand and incomprehensible mysterie of GOD that the Apostle entertaineth us my Brethren at this time in the Text which you have heard For having finished the exordium that is the Preface of this Epistle and intending from thence to enter on His principal subject to slip the more gently into it after representing to the Colossians the Prayers he made to GOD for them he now adds the thanks he offered Him for their common salvation and by this means opens the entry of his dispute touching the sufficiency and inexhaustible abundancy of JESUS CHRIST for saving of believers which leaves no need of making any addition to his Gospel Giving thanks unto the Father saith he who c As this Text consists of two verses so it may be divided into two articles In the first the Apostle giveth thanks unto GOD for His making us capable of entring into the inheritance of His Saints In the second is proposed what he hath done to make us capable of this happiness namely delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son These are the two points we will handle if it please the LORD in this action humbly beseeching Him to guide us in meditating so excellent a mysterie and touch our hearts so vively with it as that it
and death of our LORD because He by dying sealed the truth of what He preached in His life this is evidently to mock the world His miracles also confirmed His doctrine and yet neither Scripture nor any wise man ever said that we have remission of sins by His miracles as St. Paul saith here and elsewhere often that we have it by His blood and by His death Besides if this reason must take place since the Martyrs suffered to seal the same doctrine it may be also said that we have redemption and remission of sins by their blood which is not read at all On the contrary the Apostle vehemently denies that either himself or any other was crucified for us but CHRIST alone These reasons do destroy another shift these people use to wit that we have salvation by the death of JESUS CHRIST because in dying He gave us example of patience and perfect obedience For by this account the Martyrs whose sufferings had in them the like patterns should have saved us as well as CHRIST We add that patience and obedience do constitute part of our sanctification whereas the Apostle saith we have in JESUS CHRIST by His blood the remission of sins and not simply sanctification What they say for a third evasion is no better that CHRIST hath acquired by His death the right of pardoning sins For either their meaning is that the LORD hath rendred sin remittable by the satisfaction He hath made for it or they simply intend that CHRIST obtained by His death the power of pardoning sins which He had not before If they answer the first they grant us the very thing that we demand If the second they do thwart the Gospel which testifies that our LORD often remitted sins unto men while He lived and said expresly that He had authority on earth to forgive them In fine that which despair of so bad a cause suggesteth to them in the last place is of no more validity namely that the remission of our sins is attributed to the death of CHRIST because it preceded His resurrection the glory whereof lighteth up faith and repentance in us the true causes of that remission But they cannot produce any one example of so strange a manner of speaking and to say that the blood of CHRIST washeth away our sins because the effusion thereof preceded His resurrection the cause of that faith by which we obtain the pardon of them this is as much or more absurd than if you should say that it 's by the darkness of the night we are enlightned by day because the light of the Sun which then shineth on us had the darkness of the night preceding it After this account the remission of our sins should be everywhere attributed to the resurrection of CHRIST JESUS to His ascension up to Heaven and to the miracles of His Apostles and not to His Death whereas quite contrary it is ever constantly referred to the death to the blood and to the Cross of the LORD as to its true cause and not ever to His resurrection For as to that which the Apostle somewhere saith viz. that CHRIST rose again for our justification his meaning is not that our sins obliged Him to rise as they had obliged Him to dye Rom. 4.25 according to what he had affirmed that He was delivered for our offences but that He might apply to men the fruit of His death in justifying them by the Vertue of His blood therefore was He raised from the grave and crowned with highest glory this being necessary for the production of those divine effects in the world Say we then that the LORD by pouring out His blood and His life on the Cross did truly satisfie the avenging Justice of the Father undergoing for us and in our room that death which we deserved and without this laid down there can be no rational asserting what the Apostle saith here and in divers other places to wit that we have remission of sins in JESUS CHRIST by His blood But from the same Apostolical assertion it is also very evident that none other but our LORD alone is capable of satisfying for us For since the remission of sins is our Redemption who seeth not but that if any one procure it for us he must be our Redeemer a title which by the unanimous consent of all Christians appertaineth singly to JESUS CHRIST Moreover it 's by the blood of our LORD that this remission hath been purchased so as neither Paul nor Cephas nor any other having been Crucified for us it likewise followeth that no one of them hath either satisfied GOD for us or merited the remission of sins â—eo Mag. Serm. 12. de Passion Though their death be precious in the sight of GOD said an Ancient long since yet there was none of them how innocent soever he might be whose suffering could be the propitiation of the world The just have received crowns not given them and from their constancy and stedfastness in the faith have grown up examples of patience not gifts of righteousness This glory is due to nothing but the blood of CHRIST And as He is the only victime that was offered up for our sins so is it sufficient to expiate them all Never man found favour but through this sacrifice Never did the sword of GOD spare any but for the sake of this blood St. Paul teacheth it us in this Text and it 's the last particular we have to observe upon it For when he saith We have redemption in JESVS CHRIST by His blood he intends not to speak singly of himself and the Colossians but of all the faithful that were on earth and even of those that had lived from the beginning of the world unto that time There neither was nor ever had been salvation in any other but in Him And as sin and death descended from Adam upon all men so the righteousness and life of all the faithful cometh from JESUS CHRIST Rev. 13.8 Heb. 9.15 He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world and His death intervened for a ransome of the transgressions that were under the Old Testament as well as of those that are committed under the New His blood is the remission of the sins both of the one and the other people It 's being to be shed in due time gave it the same efficacy for the generations that preceded His Cross as it had afterwards by its actual effusion in those that succeeded it GOD the Father appeased by this sacrifice ever present in His sight as well before as after its oblation did communicate the fruit and merit of it that is to say grace and remission to all those that believed in Him under the one and the other Testament Behold Beloved Brethren that which we had to say to you concerning the Redemption we have in JESUS CHRIST The Text of the Apostle teacheth it us and the table of the LORD representeth it to
us This is the mysterie of the bread we there break and of the cup we there bless in remembrance and for the communicating of that sacred body which was broken for us and of that divine blood which was shed for the remission of our sins Let us carefully improve a doctrine so necessary and which is so diligently inculcated on us in the word and in the Sacraments of our LORD referring it to our edification and comfort Learn we from it first the horrour of sin a spot so black as could not be washed out but by the blood of JESUS CHRIST That remission of it might be given us it was necessary the Father should deliver up His dear Son to dye and the Son give His blood the preciousest jewel of the universe a thousand times more worth than heaven and earth and all the glory of them From this meditation conceive a just hatred against Sin since it is so abominable in the eyes of this Soveraign LORD on whose communion alone depends all your bliss shun it and pluck it out of your Consciences and your hearts As for sins already committed seek the remission of them in the blood of CHRIST Give your selves no rest till you have found it till you have obtained grace till it be exemplified in your souls by the hand and seal of the Holy Ghost Lay by the pretended satisfactions and merits of men Have no recourse but to the righteousness of JESUS CHRIST which alone is able to cover our shame and render us acceptable to GOD. But having once obtained pardon for the time passed return not into it for the future When sin shall present it self to you repell it couragiously opposing to all its temptations this holy and healthsome consideration It 's my Master 's the murtherer of the LORD of glory It 's the accursed Serpent that separated man from GOD that put enmity between Heaven and earth that sowed misery and death in the world and obliged the Father to deliver up His Son to the sufferings of the Cross GOD forbid I should take into my bosome so cruel so deadly an enemy But from this same source we may also draw unspeakable consolation against the gnawing guilt of sin and the troubles of Conscience For since it 's by the blood of the Son of GOD that we have been redeemed what cause is there to doubt but that our remission is assured The superstitious hath reason to be in continual affright since man in whom he puts his confidence is but vanity The propitiatory I present you Faithful soul is not the blood of a man or of an Angel creatures finite and incapable of sustaining the eternal burnings of the wrath of the Almighty It is the blood of GOD's own Son who also is Himself GOD blessed for ever It 's a blood of infinite value and truly capable of counter-poising and bearing down the infinite demerit of your crimes Come then sinner whoever you be Come with assurance How foul soever your transgessions be this blood will cleanse them away How ardent soever the displeasure of GOD against you be this blood will quench it Only bedew your soul with it Make an aspersion of it on your hearts with a lively faith and you shall no more need to fear the word of the executioner of the avenges of GOD. But Faithful Brethren having thus assured your Conscience by the meditation of this divine blood of our LORD admire ye also His infinite love which He so clearly sheweth us and confirmeth to us This King of Glory hath so loved you that when your sins could not be pardoned without the effusion of His blood He would dye upon a Cross rather than see you perish in Hell He poured out His blood to keep in yours and did undergo the curse of GOD that you might partake in His blessings O great and incomprehensible love the singular miracle of Heaven which ravishest men and Angels What should we fear henceforth since this great GOD hath so loved us Who shall condemn us since He is our surety Who shall accuse us since He is our Advocate He hath given us His own blood What can He any longer refuse to bestow on us He hath laid down His soul for us how much more will He grant us all other things that may be necessary for our salvation But as this thought doth comfort us so ought it to sanctifie us Of what Hells shall not we be worthy if we love not a LORD who hath so passionately loved us If we obey not His commandments who hath blotted out our sins If for this precious blood which He hath given us we do not render to Him ours and consecrate to His glory a life which He hath redeemed by the offering up of His own in sacrifice for our salvation And after an example of so ravishing goodness how can we be ill affected to any man Christians GOD hath forgiven you a thousand and a thousand most-enormous sins how have you the heart to deny your neighbour the pardon of one slight offence He hath given you His blood you that were His enemy How can you refuse a small almes to him that is your Brother and that upon the account both of nature and grace Let the goodness of the LORD JESUS mollifie the hardness of your heart let the vertue of His blood melt your bowels into sweetness into charity and into love both toward Him and towards His members Discharge you this very day at His table of all the bitter passions of your flesh Put off there pride hatred and envy and clothe you there with His humility and His gentleness Do him new homage and give Him oath to be never any others but His alone presenting your selves with deepest respect before this Throne of His grace Remember both at this time and ever after that blood by which He hath obtained Redemption for you that is the remission of your sins This blood is the peace of Heaven and of earth This blood hath brought us out of Hell and opened Paradise unto us It hath delivered us from death and given us life This blood hath blotted out the sentence of our curse that stood registred in the Law of GOD it hath stopped the mouth of our accusers and pacified our Judge This blood hath effected a renovation of the world It hath quickned the dead and animated the dust and changed our mortal flesh into a celestial and divine nature Dear Brethren GOD forbid we should tread under foot a thing so holy or account such precious blood profane or common Let us reverence it and receive it into our hearts with an ardent devotion And may it display its admirable efficacy in them causing the royal image of GOD even holiness and righteousness to flourish there to the glory of the LORD and our own consolation and salvation Amen THE VII SERMON COL I. Ver. XV. Vers XV. Who is the image of the invisible GOD the first-born of every
and believing that the Son of GOD is another person than the Father let us confess that His Divine nature is the same with that of the Father that is to say that He is one only and the same GOD with Him blessed for ever since without this the doctrine of the Apostle that JESVS CHRIST is the image of GOD cannot be fully and firmly established But let us now consider how and why he here termeth GOD the Father whose image JESUS CHRIST is invisible Sure the Divine nature is spiritual as our LORD said to the woman of Samaria that GOD is a spirit And every spiritual nature is invisible it being clear that the eye seeth no objects but such as are corporeal such as have some figure and colour and do cast forth from them some kind of species into the air and into other diaphanous and transparent bodies through which they gliding with incredible swiftness come to strike our senses things these that have none of them any place in spiritual and immaterial substances For this cause Moses when He would yer-while teach the Israelites that GOD had nothing gross or material in His essence nothing that might be represented by the workmanship of the pencil or the chizel in visible images doth expresly remonstrate to them that on the day He manifested Himself giving them the Law upon Mount Sinai Deut. 4.12 Deut. 4.15 16. they heard indeed a voice speaking but saw no likeness at all beside that voice Whence he concludeth that they should take good heed they made no graven image or likeness representing any kind of thing no effigies of any form whatsoever to be of religious use to them as a pourtrait of GOD as most Nations then did and to this day still do This truth is clear and undoubted nor was it ever contested but by the Anthropomorphites who attributed to GOD an humane body and members an extravagancy long since condemned and abolished in all Christendome But the Apostle here terming GOD invisible doth not meerly intend that neither our eyes nor our other senses can apprehend the form of His nature He signifieth also that our very understandings cannot comprehend it and that it is hidden from all our conceptions For it is frequent in Scripture to put seeing for knowing and to signifie the apprehensions and conceptions of the mind by the names of the senses of the body And it is thus we must take what the Apostle saith elsewhere that GOD the King of ages 1 Tim. 6.16 is invisible and in another place that He dwelleth in inaccessible light and that no man hath seen nor can see Him The Angels themselves how high soever their understanding be above ours yet cannot comprehend the true form and nature of this supream and most glorious Majesty because His essence is infinite and no finite subsistence is capable of conceiving an infinite being And therefore the Seraphim Isa 6.2 in Isaiah standing before GOD covered their faces with two of their wings to testifie that they could not bear the splendour of His glory I grant that through His grace we do know something of His nature and it 's this the Scripture meaneth when it saith of Moses and other believers that they saw and beheld Him more or less according to the divers degrees of the knowledge He gave them of Himself the highest of which degrees will be that we shall attain unto in the Kingdom of Heaven and the Holy GHOST to express it to us 1 Joh. 3.2 1 Cor. 12.12 sayeth that we shall see GOD as He is that we shall see Him face to face and know Him as we were known But how fair and clear and excellent soever all this knowledge be which faithful men and holy Angels have of GOD either in this world or in the other it is not to speak strictly a seeing that is an apprehension which reacheth and conceiveth the true and proper form of it's object so as this remains still firm that GOD to speak properly is invisible But why doth the Apostle ascribe this quality unto GOD the Father particularly in this place Dear Brethren he doth it very pertinently and thereby sheweth us how it is by JESUS CHRIST His Son that GOD hath manifested Himself to us For there is a secret opposition between the word image and invisible GOD is invisible saith the Apostle but JESVS CHRIST is the image of Him This eternal Father hath a nature so sublime and so impenetrable by any sense of ours that without this His image which shines forth in His Son neither men nor Angels would have known ought of Him He had remained eternally veiled up in that inaccessible light in which He dwelleth without being known of any but Himself But now He hath vouchsafed to manifest unto us that which may be known of Him by this eternal and most perfect image of His person that is to say by His Son For first it is by Him He made the world the Theatre of His wonders And it 's by Him also He conserveth it and governeth it in so admirable a manner It is to Him likewise that we must refer the revelations of GOD under the Old Testament It 's the Son as most of the ancient Doctors of the Church have very well observed that appeared unto Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs that led Israel through the wilderness and inspired its Prophets But the Apostle in this passage hath respect particularly and propery to the manifestation of GOD in the fulness of time when his eternal and essential image did discover all His glory to the Jews first and afterwards to the other Nations of the world rendring it of invisible as it was in it self visible in that flesh which He vested Himself with in the Blessed Virgins womb It was then properly that the Son appeared before our eyes as He is in reality from all eternity the image of the invisible GOD the resplendency of His glory and the engraven mark of His person For the office of an image is to represent that to us which it is the figure of Now it was principally in this last manifestation that the Son made us see all the wonders of His Father the abysses of His justice and of His mercy the depths of His wisdom and His infinite power which the world knew not before The Creatures of this universe do shew us only the edges as it were and the footsteps and the bigger lincaments of them JESUS CHRIST hath unfolded and laid open to our view the whole substance and form of them The world and the Law it self were but imperfect draughts and obscure shadows JESUS CHRIST is that enlivened image in which the Majesty the nature and the goodness of GOD do appear with all their fulness But it is high time now to come to the other point wherein the Apostle having compared JESUS CHRIST with GOD His Father of whom he is the image considereth Him with respect to the
couragiously where He calleth you Love men as He lov'd them cheerfully employing all that you are or can do for their edification communicating your goods to the poor your light to the ignorant your assistance to the oppressed Let not their badness withhold you from being good If they offend you pardon them and pray for them and conceive as the LORD said that they know not what they do neither their injuries nor their soothings of you turning you ever from piety Fear not the hatred nor the force of the world Remember that as this JESUS whom you serve is the image of GOD so He is likewise the first-born of every creature He hath them all in His hand He commandeth the Heavens and the Elements He governeth men and beasts All the parts of nature owe Him and render Him a prompt obedience and will they nill they do nothing against His orders Having the Master of all things for Head and Saviour how is it you are not ashamed of your timidity The wind maketh us to shake as the leaves of the wood The least sound affrighteth us and instead of glorifying the LORD here in His palace in peace and joy while His voice maketh the world tremble we tremble while the world is in repose Is it this that we promised JESUS CHRIST Is this to bear His Cross with patience and resist for His salte even unto blood Is this that lively and unmoveable faith whereof we make profession which should carry us through waters and through flames without appalling If the Providence of the LORD were unknown to us our weakness would be less inexcusable but now that we have lived for so long a time by continual meer miracles of His goodness why doubt we so easily of a carefulness and fidelity we have so many a time experimented and had proof of You see on the present occasion what thoughts for us He hath inspired into the sacred powers that govern us and even the supream among them what order they have taken for our safety and what care they declare themselves resolved to take of it for the future receiving us under the protection of their edicts Dear Brethren it is an admirable effect of the love which the LORD beareth us Let us enjoy it with perfect thankfulness both towards Him and towards His Ministers the Princes of whom He is the first-born in a particular manner Let us not disturb the work of His grace by our fears and diffidences but assured of His infinite goodness and power let us rely upon the truth of His promises and rest upon His favourable Providence quietly and comfortably finishing this short journey which we have begun waiting till this holy and merciful LORD after having conducted and comforted us in this desert do raise us up on high to the mountain of His holiness where far from evils and from dangers and from fears we shall glorifie Him eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever Amen THE VIII SERMON COL I. Ver. XVI XVII Vers XVI For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by Him and for Him XVII And He is before all things and by Him all things subsist AMong all the reasons for which we have a right to the things that we possess there is none more just or more natural than that which ariseth from the production of them it being evident that what issueth from us should depend upon us and that it is just every one should dispose of what he hath made Thus you see that among all the Nations of the earth children do belong to the Parents who begat them and works either of the mind or body are theirs that formed them and set them forth This right is the first and the most ancient foundation of all the possessions and dominions of mankind the power which men have to give to sell or exchange things proceeding from hence that either themselves or those of whom they received them did give or preserve that being which they have For if you go back to the first sources of humane laws and institutions you will find that men assumed not Dominion or possession save of the persons whom they had either naturally begotten or saved in war by preserving and giving the life they might have taken from them and of things which they had either made and composed as buildings or at least improved and cultivated as the grounds they cleansed and tilled It 's from thence that were formed by little and little those good and just establishments of Families of Cities and of States and of Laws necessary for their government which have maintained mankind to this present time You see likewise that GOD our Soveraign Lord to justifie both the right He hath to dispose of us as seemeth Him good and the obligation we have to serve Him ordinarily urgeth this reason that He hath created us It is He that hath made us saith his Prophet and not we our selves Psal 100.3 We are His people and the flock of His pasture It 's by the same consideration that He silenceth the refractory and prophane who have the insolence to blame His disposals Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it Rom. 9.20 21. why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power to make divers vessels of the same mass It 's further by the same reason My Brethren the Apostle proveth in this place that JESUS CHRIST the Son of GOD is the Lord of all things Having said afore that He is the first-born that is the Master of every creature he now alledgeth us the proof of it taken from his being the Creatour of all things For by Him saith he all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalites or Powers All things were Created by Him and for Him And He is before all things and by Him all things subsist This reason is clear and invincible For if man who giveth to the things He maketh only the form of their being working in all his operations upon borrowed matter do yet acquire thereby a right of dominion over them as we said even now so that He may dispose of them as He will How much more justly is the Son of GOD the Master and Lord of all the Creatures since He created them that is gave them the whole being which they have not the form only but the matter also whereof they consist having brought them out of nothing having entirely made and formed them by the sole might of His power without any subject for His displaying it upon existent when He first created them And this proof clearly inferreth that which we laid down in the precedent action to wit that when the Apostle there calleth JESUS CHRIST the
if the Heavens and the Elements and the Winds and the Meteors and the Plants things deaf and dumb and inanimate do preach and celebrate the wonders of their LORD all of them obeying His voyce and faithfully serving His designs what will our ingratitude be if with these senses and this excellent reason He hath given us we alone of all His creatures should cross His counsels and dishonor His Name instead of glorifying it The glory He requireth of us is only that we walk in His Commandments that we abound in good and holy works that we depart from all evil and live in such manner as may oblige our neighbours to acknowledge that this JESUS whom we serve is truly a great GOD. Acquit we us then faithfully of these duties and assure our selves that if we advance His glory He will provide for our bliss and guard us from all that opposeth the same For since all things Celestial and Terrestrial visible and invisible were created and do still subsist by Him there is nothing in the whole world that should make us afraid All the Armies of Heaven of the Elements and of Nature are in our Masters pay and neither war nor work but for His interests and by His order These very Thrones these Principalities these Powers and these Dominions which He hath exalted above all His other creatures do not employ the mightiness and the glory of their nature but for Him and for those that fear Him They are ministring Spirits sent forth to serve for their sakes that shall receive the inheritance of Salvation They keep us in all our ways They defend us in life they assist us at death and convey us up into the bosom of our true Abraham Let us live in assurance under the protection of so good and so great a LORD that we may one day receive at His hand blissful Immortality the great and last Donative His Benignity conferreth To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true GOD blessed over all things be for ever Honor Glory and Praise Amen THE IX SERMON COL I. Ver. XVIII Vers XVIII And it is He who is the head of the body of the Church and who is the beginning and the first-born from the dead to the end He might have the first place in all things IT is not without just cause Beloved Brethren that the Apostle St. Paul speaking of the union of JESUS CHRIST and His Church which was represented at the beginning of the world Eph. 5.32 by the marriage of Adam and Eve doth pronounce it aloud to be a great secret For in effect there is nothing in this mysterie which way soever you take it but is very great and worthy the admiration of men and Angels First if you weigh the thing it self is it not wonderful strange and unheard of in the world that the Creator should unite Himself with the creature The LORD of glory with worms The King of Heaven with dust and ashes The Saint of Saints with sinners Then again if you consider the foundation of this Union what can be conceived of a more ravishing nature than the birth and the death of the Son of GOD upon which this Divine alliaâ—â—e was contracted this mystical Spouse having had so vehement a passion for the Church that to make her His He made Himself a man like us and shed out all His blood upon a Cross If you contemplate the form and manner of this Union it is so strict and intimate that it perfectly mingleth together the parties whom it doth unite and makes them one only body one flesh and one Spirit joyning both their persons and their affairs and in such manner confounding their interests that JESUS CHRIST is wholly His Churches and the Church wholly Her CHRIST's The firmness of this Union is no less admirable being such as all the powers of the Earth of Hell or of Heaven are not able to dissolve it and whereas Nature hath bound nothing in the whole Universe but time doth lose it in the end the sacred clasps of this the Churches eternal Union with her LORD shall never be undone either in this world or in that which is to come by any of those innumerable ages that shall roul forth Finally if you respect the effects of it what can be mentioned of more glorious and saving import than the fruits this Union doth produce It filleth our understanding with light it purifies our affections it sanctifies our hearts it keepeth the peace of GOD in them it changeth slaves of Devils into Children of the most High it transformeth Earth into Heaven and instead of that death and curse which we deserved it giveth us eternity and glory For 't is from it alone that all those Divine graces do flow down which we enjoy in this world and all the advantages and felicities we hope for in the other It need be no wonder therefore that the Scripture doth make use of so many different resemblances to figure out to us so excellent and so rich a subject there being to be found no one so accomplished as might singly suffice to represent us all the marveils of it For this cause it borroweth to express this same one all the unions that nature or art or humane society doth afford us comparing it sometimes to the Union of a Vine with its branches or of an Olive with the graffs that are set into its slock sometimes to the knitting of a Foundation with the building which it beareth or of a corner stone with the two walls which it binds together sometimes to the conjunction of a Prince with His subjects or of an elder brother with the younger or of an husband with his wife But among all these sacred pictures of our union with the LORD there is hardly any more proper or more genuine than the two similitudes which the LORD my Brethren now sets before you the one in those words of His Apostle which we have read to you and the other on that sacred Table whither you are invited to the feast of His Lamb. The first is drawn from the natural union of the head with its members and the second from the union of bread and drink with the bodies which are nourished thereby By reason of the one CHRIST is our head and we His body By reason of the other He is called our bread our meat and our drink and we the creatures whom He feedeth and quickneth And though in other respects these two images be very different yet in this particular they agree that they excellently represent to us both our union with the LORD and the life which is thence derived to us it being clear that as well the head as the food doth each of them give life to the bodies with which they are united This hath induced me to believe that the meditation of this Text will be useful for the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper for which we prepare our selves since for the main
elected and imploy'd to compass it or the love of the Son who for our welfare spared not his own blood Sinner approach the Throne of GOD with boldness He is no longer environed with flames and Lightning flashes He is full of grace and clemency Fear not His indignation or His severity Peace is made Your Rebellions are expiated your sins are purged GOD requires nothing of you but Faith and Repentance His Justice is contented and doubt not but the satisfaction it hath received is sufficient He that made it for you is the Well-beloved of the Father the Lord of glory in whom all fulness dwelleth You will find abundantly in Him all the good things that are necessary for your felicity the light of wisdom to dissipate your darkness and illuminate your understandings unto a perfect knowledge of Divine things a righteousness most compleat and of proof every way to justifie and exempt you from the Curse of the Law and to open the entrance of the Tribunal of GOD to you A most efficacious Sanctification to mortifie the lusts of your flesh and fill you with Charity Honesty and Purity And a most plentiful Redemption to deliver you from death and from all the evils that have connexion with it and put you in Eternal possession of Immortality Make your advantage of this Divine Well of Life Give no ear to them that call you any otherwhere You are happy enough if you possess the LORD JESUS He is the only Prince of Salvation the Way the Truth and the Life And as for Creatures whether Earthly or Heavenly fear them not If you are JESUS CHRIST's they shall do you no evil He hath reconcil'd them all to you He hath taken out of them all the will and all the power they had to hurt you They desire your good and secretly favour you owning you for their Friends and Allies Heaven looks down on you in peace and calleth you up into its holy place The Angels bless you and direct all your ways This Earth will hold you no longer than your common LORD shall judge expedient for His own glory and your salvation But if this general peace which you have now with GOD and the World do rejoyce you the means by which it was procured should no less ravish you even that blood of CHRIST shed out upon a Cross the grand Miracle of GOD the price of your Liberty the Salvation and the Glory of the Universe What and how ardent was that love which gave so rich and so admirable a Ransom for you What will He deny you who hath not kept back His own blood from you who to make you happy abhorred not a Cross the most infamous of all punishments who to raise you up to the most eminent Contentments underwent the extremest Dolours the lowest disgrace to bring you unto highest glory the Malidiction of GOD to communicate to you His Benediction O over-happy Christians if you could discern your blisses Where is the anguish of Spirit or the trouble of Conscience or the loss or the suffering or the reproach which the meditation of this love should not consolate Who shall condemn us since the Son of GOD dyed to merit our Absolution Who shall accuse us since His Blood and His Cross defend us Who shall take from us the Benevolence of the Father since He hath obtain'd it for us and conserves it towards us Who shall pluck out of our hands a life He hath given us a Salvation that He hath so dearly bought But dear Brethren these considerations which open to us so rich a Source of Consolation oblige us also to a singular Sanctification For how great will be the hardness of our hearts if these great evidences which GOD hath given us of His love do not affect us if they kindle not in us an ardent affection towards a GOD who hath so loved us a sacred and inviolable respect towards a Redeemer who hath done so much for us He hath reconciled and reunited all things in Him both Terrestrial and Celestial Let us live then henceforth in such sort as may answer this happy alliance Let us no more afflict heaven no more scandalize the earth by the impurity of our deportments Let us labour in conjunction with all the Creatures for the service and to glory of our common LORD Imitate we the purity the zeal and the obsequiousness of those Celestial Spirits into whose Society we are entred by the benefit of this Reconciliation Let us be cloathed as they are with a beautiful and pleasing light Our lot is to be one day like them in Immortality let us be so for the present in Sanctity Our peace is made with GOD. Let us not make war upon Him any more He hath pardoned us all the exorbitancies and rage of our Rebellion never turn we to any of them again He will be our good LORD and gracious Master Be we His faithful Subjects and obedient Servants Let the Blood of CHRIST wipe away both our guilt and our filth Fasten we our old man to His Cross Let the nails that there pierced His flesh pierce also the members of ours Let the Cross that made Him dye make to dye all our lusts and extinguish by little and little in us that earthly carnal and vicious life which we derive from the first Adam to regenerate and raise us up again with the second unto a new an holy and spiritual life worthy of that Blood by which he He hath purchas'd it for us and of that Spirit by whom He hath communicated the beginnings of it to us and of that Sanctuary of Immortality where He will fully finish it one day to His own glory and our eternal blessedness Amen THE XI SERMON COL I. Ver. XXI XXII Vers XXI And you who were somtime estranged from Him and who were His enemies in your understanding in wicked works XXII Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh by death to render you holy and without spot and unreprovable before Him DEar Brethren It was long since observed by Philosophers and we still find it by experience that general things do move the spirits of men very little The cause is that being naturally glewed up too close every one to his particular interests they mind only that which toucheth the same and are not sollicitous about a common concern till they are made some way smartly sensible that themselves have part in it The ministers of the Church therefore should not content themselves with proposing the maxims of heavenly doctrine in gross and in general only to the souls whose edification is committed to them that they may get hold of them and produce some good effect upon them they must apply to them in particular each of those Divine verities St. Paul whose example should serve for a rule to all the true servants of GOD takes this course in divers places of His Epistles and particularly in the Text we have now read you For
miraculous School illuminated and consecrated by His Spirit Who could doubt but that it was from the mouth of this holy man that the Mysteries of GOD should be learned and that what was contrary to His Doctrine ought to be judged false and vain I confess his Mission was extraordinary and miraculous and is not to be made a precedent for others Yet notwithstanding what he here saith of it affordeth us two Instructions which reach all Pastors generally The first is that they should never intrude themselves into this Sacred Office if GOD call them not so as they may say with good conscience as Paul doth in this place that they have been made Ministers of the Gospel It is true JESUS CHRIST now speaketh not to men from heaven as He yerst did to S. Paul to call them unto His work But so much He doth that He maketh us perceive His will first by the moving of His Spirit within us which never faileth to incite us to His work when GOD calleth us thereto and secondly by the voyce and authority of His Church that is to say of His faithful people to the Body and Community of whom He hath given the power to apply the right of this Ministry to such as they discern meet for it as the examples of the primitive Church registred in the Book of the Acts and elswhere do shew us And as for Ordination as it is called which is done by the Imposition of the hands of other Ministers already established I confess it also ought to intervene for the compleating and crowning of the call accordingly you see it is seriously practised among us But I add that it is not yet so absolutely requisite but that in case of extreme and invincible necessity as in places and times when there are no true Ministers of JESUS CHRIST found to give it the call of the Church that is of a body of faithful people may suffice to a valid instituting of a Pastor the person supposed to have the ability and inclination requisite for such a charge The other particular that we have to learn here is That all Pastors of what rank soever they may be are Ministers and not Masters of the Gospel It 's the title which the Apostle here assumeth according to the Declaration he makes elswhere that he hath no dominion over the faith of believers 1 Cor. 1.24 but is an helper of their joy The duty of a Minister is to propose what hath been committed to Him what he hath received of the Master If he go beyond it and will have his own will and his private imaginations bear sway he is no longer a Minister he doth the act of a Master and consequently sets up a tyranny since the Church neither hath nor can have any lawful Master but JESUS CHRIST This dear Brethren is th◠which we had to deliver upon this Exhortation of the Aposile to the Colossians Make account that it is to you also he directs it Amid the scandals which Satan casteth in the way of your faith and the temptations he offereth to turn you out of it have still in your hearts and in your ears this Sacred voyce that says aloud from heaven to you Continue in the faith being founded and firm and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard and which hath been preached to every creature under heaven whereof I Paul have been made a Minister Oppose the authority of this Divine command to the Seducements and illusions of the world to the flatteries and babble of Sophisters to the suggestions and lusts of the flesh From what Coast soever counsels contrary to it do come whether from within or from without judge them impious and abominable And blessed be GOD who hitherto so settled you in the belief of His Word that neither the forcible attempts of open Enemies nor the fraud of false friends hath been able to remove you at all But dear Brethren it is not enough to have stood fast hitherto There must be preparing for more combats to come after those that are past For we have to do with Enemies with whom we must look for neither peace nor truce They will be still setting on work one Engine or other and if repulsed on one side will not fail to attaque us immediately on another Be we therefore in like manner still upon our guard Let us have no less zeal and constancy for our our preservation then they have rage and resoluteness for our ruine Fortifie we our faith daily Arm it with Armor of proof Found it on the Eternal Rock and so fasten it that nothing may be able to pluck it out of our hearts To this purpose let us continually read and meditate that heavenly Word whence we have drawn it Let us fill our souls with this Divine wisdom and render it familiar to us Let us instruct our youth in it Let us make it to abound on all hands among us Let it be the matter of our mutual entertainments and the most usual subject of our cogitations For as an ancient yer while said very prudently Chrys Hom. 〈◊〉 de Lazaro The reading of the holy Scriptures is an excellent and an assured Preservative to keep us from falling into sin and ignorance of the Scriptures is an huge Precipice a deep gulf of Perdition In the design of our perseverance let us particularly make use of the two means which S. Paul here furnisheth us withal The one that the Gospel which we have heard hath been preach'd in the whole world the other that it is the same which was committed to our Apostle It 's in the belief of this Gospel that he would have us abide firm It 's to this faith that he promiseth the peace of GOD His Favour and His Eternity GOD saith he hath reconciled you to Himself that He might present you holy without spot and unreproveable if indeed you continue firm in the faith and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel From whence it follows that if we have this Gospel among us we may certainly assure our selves that by retaining it we shall obtain the peace and the Salvation of GOD. The only question therefore is Whether the Doctrine which we have embraced be truly this Gospel or no If it be I have no further search to make I am content to have found what is sufficient for me that I may appear before my GOD without confusion and receive of Him life everlasting But that the Doctrine whereof we make profession is the same Gospel that Paul preached the same that he and the other Apostles sowed in the world and which the world overcome by the force of its truth did in the end receive and adore This I say is so clear that I do not think the Devil himself as hardned in impudence as he is can deny it For the GOD whom we serve and the CHRIST whom we adore and His Merit in
which we trust and the Worship we give Him in Spirit and in truth and the Heaven we hope for and the Sacraments we celebrate and all the other Articles of our Religion do they not every where appear in the Books of Paul and of the other Apostles Are they not to be seen in all the Monuments of these great men as well in their Writings as also in the Churches which they planted through the earth Let us therefore my Brethren abide firm in this faith since it most assuredly is the Gospel which was heretofore preached in all the world and was commited to S. Paul's ministring And if those of Rome do alledge to us their Devotions and Traditions let us boldly tell them that if those things were any part of the Gospel they would appear in what the Apostles preached to whom JESUS CHRIST gave the Ministry thereof And in the mean time there is not found any one of them in the Sacred Volumes which they have left us to be the rule of our faith Neither the adoration of the Hoast nor the veneration of Images nor the invocation of Saints departed nor the other points for which they have Excommunicated us And herein their Head doth evidently discover how Apostolical he is to banish those from his Communion whom S. Paul here expresly declares to be at peace with GOD holy and unreprovable before Him For to have this happiness he doth not oblige us to believe or practice this pretended Gospel of Rome He requireth us only abide firm in the belief of his the Gospel which he preached to the faithful and left in his Epistles In them our Religion is to be seen full and whole But not one Article of that which Rome would by all means constrain us to receive But there is no need we should make further stay upon this matter the truth of that Doctrine which we embrace being so clear that no man who understands Christianity and owns the Divinity of it can call it into question And on the other hand the absurdity of the Doctrine we reject is so palpable and so rudely beats against the foundations of Reason and Scripture that it s very difficult for a man who hath had any taste of the Gospel ever to yield up his consent to the errors we contest except GOD have blinded him in punishment of his ingratitude The great combate which we have most cause to fear is that of the passions of our flesh It 's these properly that enfeeble faith that darken its light that hide the truth from its view and paint up error These are the true causes of their change who desert us and of the offence of many that are infirm among us Experience shews it us daily And accordingly you see Matth. 13.21 22. our Saviour hath advertis'd us of it having said in one of His Parables that it is either the fear of persecution or the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that makes the seed of heaven unfruitful in the hearts of men and obstructs their perseverance And S. Paul somwhere imformeth us 2 Tim. 1.19 that they that reject a good conscience make shipwrack also in respect of faith When a man is once sold over to pleasure or avarice or ambition it is no wonder if in the sequel he disgust the truth and fall into error The passage is easie from the one to the other Besides the slaves of sin not finding the contentation of their passions in the profession of Truth which is for the most part under the cross their interest carries them to seek their satisfaction in the world this gives an huge shake to their minds and brings them by degres to relish the worlds side and party as it is natural to us to believe easily the things we desire Here therefore it is dear Brethren that we must put to our might and fight in good earnest if we would continue firm in the faith Give me a man that embracing JESUS CHRIST hath cast off the lusts of the flesh and of the world and I will be secure of his perseverance Take me away the colours wherewith avarice and ambition and vanity do paint-over error in the thoughts of the worldly-minded and I will not fear its seducing of any Cleanse your Conscience and your Faith will be out of danger The Devil without doubt made use of his best weapons against our LORD and you know that having represented to Him the hunger and the necessity he was in he omitted not to spread before His eyes the pomp of the Grandeurs and riches of the world It is a wile he still puts in practise and his Ministers do not forget this piece of his play they fail not to tell such as they would destroy that they will give them wonders Faithful Brethren let us fence our selves seasonably against this tentation Mortifie we in us all the lusts of Flesh and Earth accustom our selves to a not-dreading the Cross and the sufferings of our LORD suffer not the world to dazle our eyes Look we upon it as a deceitful shew unable to content its own adorers To the false goods wherewith it feedeth its bond-servants let us oppose the true ones which the Gospel promiseth Let the sweet and noble hope of these enflame our souls with an ardent desire of heaven and its immortality Let it sweeten all the bitterness that attends our profession and make execrable to us all that tendeth to turn us away from so blessed a design Courage Christian yet a little patience and you have overcome Your faith if you abide firm in it will open in your heart for the present a living spring of such joy as is a thousand times sweeter than all the pleasures of Worldings And it shall be crowned one day with that supereminent and immortal glory which the Gospel that you have believed doth promise to all those which shall constantly persevere in the Vocation of the LORD JESUS To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be all honor and praise to ages of ages Amen THE XIII SERMON COL I. Ver. XXIV Vers XXIV Whereupon I now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and to fill up the remainder of the afflictions of CHRIST in my flesh for His body which is the Church THE Gospel of the LORD JESUS hath many admirable evidences of its divinity and among them the sufferings of its Confessors and Martyrs are in my opinion not the least illustrious For if you seriously consider them you will find that there never was any doctrine in the world that drew more persecutions upon its followers or that inspired them with so much courage and resolution to undergo the same or was in effect sealed with such a deal of blood and patience Other religions as being sprung from the earth are welcome there and the world that well knoweth its own blood and its own spirit shews them kindness and
our members whether the hand or the foot Paul is the hand of CHRIST as one of the members of His body yea one of the most excellent Surely then all that he suffereth partaineth to CHRIST It 's His affliction and His hurt None of the wounds of His servant is alien to Him And you see even among men it 's an offending a Prince to offend His Minister it 's an affronting the Husband to injure the wife to fall upon the servant is to make battery on the Master Though the union of these ranks of persons be nothing so strict or so intimate as that of JESUS CHRIST and the faithful yet it sufficeth to denominate those outrages and injuries the Prince's the Husbands or the Masters injuries which are done to the persons that appertain to them under that relation Accordingly you see in the course of civil affairs men interess themselves as much in such kind of causes and take as heinously or more the outrages done to persons depending on them and dear to them than those that are directly aimed at themselves Thus in the Heavenly State of the Church JESUS CHRIST owneth both the good and the evil that is done to His faithful ones He saith of those that visit that comfort and feed His poor members that they visit and comfort and feed Himself Of those that refuse them these good offices He complained that they have denied them to Him And Paul had learned this lesson from His own mouth For when in the darkness of his ignorance he agitated with the fury of his zeal without knowledge persecuted the Disciples JESUS had cryed to him from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9.4 It is me thou outragest in the person of those faithful people whom thou purposest to bind and imprison Thou dealest them never a blow but reacheth me I miss not by being in Heaven to bear a part in all that they suffer one earth The blood thou drawest from them is mine and as their persons belong to me so all their afflictions and torments are mine The Apostle instructed by this Divine oracle boldly calleth afflictions of CHRIST all that which he suffered after he had the honour to be His. But he doth not barely say here that he suffereth the afflictions of CHRIST He saith he fills up the rest or that which is behind that which was yet wanting of them To understand it aright we must remember what he teacheth us elsewhere to wit that whom GOD hath foreknown Rom. 8.28 He hath also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first born among many brethren And that one of the principal parts of this conformity is their suffering here below and their partaking of the cross of CHRIST according to the constant advertisement He giveth us in Scripture as that if any one will follow Him he do take up his Cross that such as will live godly in Him shall suffer persecution and that it is by many afflictions GOD leadeth us into His Kingdom Now as the wisdom and understanding of the LORD is infinite He hath not only ordeined this in general but hath defined and decreed in His eternal counsel both what the whole body of the Church shall bear in gross and what each of the faithful of whom this body is composed shall suffer in particular through what trials he shall pass where his exercises shall begin and where they shall end And as His hand Acts 4.28 1 Pet. 1.20 and His counsel had before determined all that the LORD JESUS suffered in His own person by reason whereof S. Peter calleth Him the Lamb that was pre-ordeined before the foundations of the world So likewise hath He resolved upon and formed in the light of His eternal Providence the whole lot of each one of the faithful all the parts and passes of their combat The case of the head and of the members is alike There doth not any thing betide them by meer chance The procedure and proportion of their whole laborious course is cut out and fashioned before all ages According to this holy and veritable doctrine the Apostle doubted not but that His task was ordained in the counsel of His GOD and the number of his sufferings determined and the quality of them regulated Having then already dispatched a good part of them he meaneth here that which remained for him yet to finish according to the counsel of GOD. I accomplish saith he in my present sufferings the remainder of the afflictions of CHRIST I dispatch my task by little and little and what I now suffer makes up a part of it It is one draught of the cup which the LORD hath ordained for me a portion of the afflictions which I am to pass through for His CHRIST's sake and cause It 's one of the conflicts which I must endure for the consummating of my whole course But it may not be omitted that the word here used and which we have rendred I do fill up is in the Original very emphatical and signifies not simply to fill up or to finish but to fill up in ones turn in consequence of and in exchange with some other I reckon that there is represented by it a secret opposition between what JESUS CHRIST had suffered for the Apostle and what the Apostle at that time was suffering for JESUS CHRIST The LORD saith he hath in his rank compleated all the sufferings that were necessary for my redemption I now in my turn fill up all the afflictions that are useful for His glory He did the work which the Father had given Him to do on earth and I after Him and after His example do that which He hath charged me with He hath suffered for me I suffer for Him He hath purchased my salvation by His cross I advance His Kingdom by my combats His blood hath redeemed the Church my imprisonment and my bonds do edify it For you see My Brethren that the conformity which is between JESUS CHRIST and each one of the faithful doth require that there be such a resemblance between His sufferings and ours And this is that which the Apostle intends by the word here used Hitherto we must also referr his saying particularly that he fills up the remainder of the afflictions of CHRIST in his flesh For as the LORD did suffer in this infirm and mortal nature which He had put on and after He had put off the infirmness of it and rendered it immortal and impassible suffered no more in like manner it 's in this flesh that all the afflictions shall be filled up which we are to suffer by the order and counsel of GOD. When we shall have once quitted it there will be no more conflicts and sufferings for us to undergo then there were for the LORD JESUS after His death upon the cross It 's this same thing the Apostle signifies in the passages before alledged that he beareth the
called him saith he had been made not the Master or the Prince or the Judge or the Monarch or the High-priest but the Minister of the Church Whereby you see on the one hand how very farr from the mind of this holy man the doctrine and practise of those is who qualifie themselves with those vain and haughty titles which are not heard of in the Scriptures among the names of the Apostles and Pastors there and who are not ashamed to say and to write openly that Bishops are Judges Masters and Princes of their flocks That he of Rome in particular is the Monarch of the Church its King and its Soveraign Lord on earth whose feet it ought to kiss the lowest homage a vassal can do to his Master that he hath power to impose laws on the Church which shall bind the Conscience so as it can have no faith or salvation out of his obedience that he hath though indirectly even power and dominion over the temporalities of the Church not so much as the Scepters and Crowns of the Soveraign powers of the earth excepted Judge by this if it be not a mocking of the world to strive that they may be taken for true heirs and successors of S. Paul and S. Peter S. Paul calleth himself a Minister of the Church These men say they are the Lords and Monarchs of it S. Paul protesteth that he hath no dominion over our faith These men pretend that they have an absolute empire 2 Cor. 124. such as every man is bound under pain of damnation to believe all that they command for this very reason because they command it S. 1 Pet. 5.1.2 3. Peter stiles himself a Presbyter that is an Elder with the Presbyters or Elders These men say they are their Soveraigns and Kings S. Peter ordereth the Pastors to feed the flock of CHRIST not as having Lordship over his heritages And these men attribute to themselves a direct and a supream dominion over them In sine JESUS CHRIST both Paul's and Peter's Master saith expresly to His Ministers Mat. 20.25 You know that the Princes of the Nations are Masters over them and exercise authority upon them but it shall not be so among you And these men exercise both upon people and Pastors in sum on the whole Church a mastership and a dominion much more absolute more rough and rigorous than ever did any Monarch upon his subjects and such as wanteth neither the pomp of dignity nor the splendor of riches nor arms nor guards nor any other of the ordinary and visible marks and badges of a worldly royalty But you have to observe here also on the other hand how false and unjust the derision is which our adversaries make of the name of Minister which Pastors among us do assume imputing in a manner their modesty to them as a crime and almost accusing them that they are not arrogant I know well that the word here rendred Minister is often used in the language of Scripture and the Church to signifie the ministry of those who have the care of the poor and of the stock of the Church and we have reteined it in this sense in our vulgar tongues in which they that are put into such charges are called in French Diacres in English Deacons as you know which is precisely the Greek word here used by the Apostle But however since S. Paul hath not stuck to use this name Col. 1.23 2 Cor. 3.6 6.4 for the expressing of his office calling himself here as you see a Minister of the Church and before a Minister of the Gospel and elsewhere yet a Minister of the new Testament and again in another place a Minister of GOD and Minister of CHRIST it seems to me that no one can blame us for having followed the example of his humility us who are so far beneath him and that the taxing of us for calling our Pastors Ministers is evidently a reviling this great Apostle who hath so often used this name in this sense yea even to signifie the highest dignities that be in the Church such as without contradiction his Apostleship was For it is evident that he meaneth this here when he saith he was made a Minister of the Church He adds in the second place According to the dispensation of GOD which hath been given me Hereby he sheweth first that it was not man but GOD the supream Master and Lord of the whole universe who called and consecrated him to the Ministry of the Gospel You all know the history of it it being told us at length in the book of the Acts it is full of so many wonders that the vocation of this holy man ought to be counted very singular many circumstances meeting in it which do not occur in the call of any other Apostle JESUS CHRIST had called the rest during the dayes of His flesh He called S. Paul after His resurrection and His sitting at the right hand of the Father He conversed with the rest on earth To this person He spake from Heaven The others were invited by our Saviour and won by little and little Him He overcame and subdued at once by an extraordinary exercising of His Divine power seizing him sodainly by the miraculous force of His right hand If the rest before their call had no affection for the LORD at least they had no hatred nor aversion for Him Paul burned with a furious zeal against JESUS CHRIST and all His and made warr upon Him and had weapon in hand when he was plucked by coelestial power out of the bonds of iniquity and in a moment changed from a persecutor to a Minister of the Church But beside the Author of his call he further discovers to us here the nature of his Ministry by saying that this dispensation of GOD was given him I am not ignorant that the dispensation of GOD may be taken for the conduct and wise disposel of the Providence of GOD who governeth all things and particularly the things of the Church by His eternal counsel And if the Apostle had said simply that he had been made a Minister according to or by the dispensation of GOD it might have been so understood But he addeth expresly that this dispensation of GOD was given him and this necessarily obligeth us to understand it not of the LORD's conduct which was not given him but of the divine office of a steward in His Church to which S. Paul was called and which was commited to him For that the quality and condition of his Apostleship was such 1 Cor. 4.1 he teacheth us expresly elsewhere Let every one saith he account of us as Ministers of CHRIST and stewards of the mysteries of GOD. Whence it clearly follows since the Apostle was a steward or a dispenser that his Office was a stewardship or a dispensation as he calleth it here And from thence it appears again how false the opinion of those is who attribute a
His peace His Spirit His Holiness His consolation His life and His immortality But the Apostle doth not speak here of the riches of the glory of the Gospel in general and towards all He addeth particularly among the Gentiles Sure there is no sort of men whether Jews or Greeks but the Gospel sheweth forth riches of glory in them if they receive it Yet we must acknowledge that never-did its glory break forth with so much splendor as when it was preached to the Gentiles First that exceeding great and inexhaustible abundance of goodness and grace which the Gospel goeth fill'd up with did pour forth it self and if I may so speak overflowed all bounds in saving the Gentiles the most hopeless of all men when it raised them from this grave or rather from that abyss of misery wherein they had lain not four dayes as Lazarus in his Sepulchre but for four thousand years For this cause the holy Apostle comparing the grace of GOD in His Son 〈◊〉 15.8.9 shewed to the Jew with that shewed to the Gentile at His calling of each of them doth name the former Truth for that it was promised and the second simply and altogether Mercy Then again how very admirable was the vertue of the Gospel which effected that in a few dayes that the Law had not been able to do in so many ages The Ministers of the Law did compass Sea and Land and after all found it very hard to make one proselyte and with all their diligence for two thousand years that they toiled had not reduced so much as one Nation to the Service of GOD though they employed even sword and strength to that end when they could But the Gospel quite naked and without other weapons then its Cross brought unto GOD many a people converted from Paganism They were a sort of men that worshipped stocks and stones they lay plunged in a bruitish ignorance and in the most infamous vices there was a mixture in them of the stupidity of beasts and the wickedness of Devils Certainly to make so much as one of these a Christian to bring him out of this infernal pit 〈◊〉 and place him in the Church to make him of a slave of Satan a child of GOD was as an Ancient writing on this passage rightly says no less a miracle than if some one should suddenly change an unclean and deformed dog into a man and from the dunghil whereon he lay cause him to sit upon a royal throne It was truly therefore a great and an ineffable richness and abundance of glory for the Gospel to transform so speedily not a small number but hundreds and thousands of Pagans into so many believers And in this the Apostle secretly strikes at the false Teachers who would mix such a noble and glorious mystery with their feeble traditions as if it had not strength and vertue enough of it self to subsist without the succour of their inventions Finally he intimates in two words the ground of all this richness of glory that the Gospel hath which is saith he CHRIST in you that is to say that CHRIST whom they possessed and who dwelt in them by faith 1 Tim. 1.1 And he addeth that He is the hope of glory after the same manner that elsewhere he calleth CHRIST our hope that is He of whom we hope for highest glory and in whom we do infallibly find all the blessedness that we can either defire or expect It is not without design that he advertiseth them that JESUS CHRIST is all the fullness of the mystery of the Gospel He lays a foundation hereby for what he will more clearly tell them hereafter namely that it is in vain that the seducers would mingle the Ceremonies of Moses and the service of Angels with it All this great mystery begins and ends in JESUS CHRIST since it is no other thing 1 Tim. 4.16 as himself defineth it elsewhere than GOD manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into Glory that is JESUS CHRIST our LORD born put to death raised again glorified and set forth in the Gospel for us Such is the mystery whereof the holy Apostle hath spoken to us Judge now Beloved Brethren what grace GOD hath shewed us in communicating so rich and so admirable a secret to us Many Kings and Prophets have desired to see and hear it and not at all had the happiness Heaven and earth did sigh four thousand years after the blessing we possess But in the end only the last ages did obtain it The Jews saw the wonders of GOD but obscurely and through veils and shadows The Gentiles saw them not at all being covered with a disinal night living without GOD and without hope This divine mystery appearing at once in the end of times as a great light that shines forth sudainly from Heaven did dissipate the shadows of the one and dispel the darkness of the other changing by its vertue the whole face of the universe in a moment It hath particularly shewed the riches of its glory among us having brought our Fathers out of the horrours of Paganism which did once cover this whole Land Let us embrace therefore with all the affections of our souls this great and inestimable favour of the LORD's Let us keep it pure and uncorupted without immixing in it ought that 's alien to it It is not only sufficient for our happiness It is even rich and abundant in glory They that would stuff it out with Ceremonies and services whether of Moses's teaching or mans inventing as false Teachers heretofore did and our adversaries at this day do they understand not aright the inexhaustible opulency wherewith it overslows They obscure the resplendency of its heavenly glory by their additions they hide it and cover it again with the veil which JESUS CHRIST hath rent in sunder Let us say to such as propose them unto us We are contented with the mystery which GOD hath vouchsafed to manifest unto His Saints It sufficed for their bliss It will well suffice for ours We do not desire any other riches than those which it aboundeth with or any other glory than that which it shines withall It is enough that this JESUS CHRIST who fills it up is in us the hope of true glory There is no need to associate with Him either Moses or Angels or Saints But Faithful Brethren the securing of this mystery from the errors of superstition is not all For the conversing of it pure among us and placing it in that glory which is due to it there must be a putting far away the filth of vices and of carnal and earthly passions GOD hath not lighted up this great Sun among you that ye should continue to live ill and do the same works in such a blessed light as are done in darkness Far be it from Him He hath discovered to you the mysteries hidden
crucifie their flesh with it's affections and who forgetting the things which are behind do advance some steps daily towards the mark and prize of their calling such as Paul whose speech about it you are now hearing hath prevailed to render by the efficaciousness of his Preaching perfect in CHRIST JESVS It 's a mistake it 's a folly to fancy any others These double or middling Christians that would at once be both Christians and worldlings disciples of Heaven and of Earth have no more place in reality of nature than in the Scriptures of GOD. If you would have place among the perfect ones of the life to come be betimes among the perfect of this life There 's no ascending to the one of these perfections but by the other If you will be one day in the number of full-grown men of JESUS CHRIST be now in the number of His Children Walk in faith and in love during this Pilgrimage if you pretend to the vision and glory of the heavenly Country But it is now time My Brethren to say something to you of the Apostle's labour and combats having spoken of his Preaching Whereunto I also labour saith he combating according to His efficacy which worketh powerfully in me Sure there is no Christian but meets in the way to Heaven with many thorns which the flesh the World and the Devil do sow there for that they cannot suffer that any one should undertake so glorious a design but they must cross him 〈◊〉 utmost of their power Yet among all the faithful there are none that have more labours and combats to undergo than the Ministers of the Gospel This high Office besides that it is first very painful in its self doth next draw the hatred and persecutions of the enemy upon them more than others and again among all those whom GOD hath honoured with this divine employment it must be acknowledged that the Apostles are the men who had most difficulties to surmount and afflictions to wade through All our pains to say true are but Childrens play in comparison of the combats that these great Warriers had to fight For who doth not know that in every work of importance the beginning is ever much more difficult than the progress and prosecution The Apostles brake up the ground wherein we labour They opened and planed the race in which we run They with infinite pain laid the foundations of the house which we build The business at that time was to overthrow Paganism to demolish Judaism to fill up great deeps and to make plain mountains whereas we enter upon a work already setled and fixed They went through a Country where was neither way nor path nor any thing favourable to them whereas we go in the track they have made To all this we must also adde the great extent of their charges which enclosed the whole universe and obliged them to take care of all the Nations of the World whereas we labour each of us in a small parcel of this great and vast heritage of the Son of GOD. What shall I say of the persecutions which Satan raised up and brought upon them in all quarters animating all the powers of the world against them and subtily engaging them in this war some by a zeal for the Religion of their Fathers others by reasons of State some by a jealousie for reputation others by their passion for pleasures and vices To overcome so many difficulties and to advance as they did a work whose success was in appearance as impossible as if they had undertaken to displace the bounds of the world and to change mountains and seas it was evidently necessary that these holy men should toil in an extraordinary manner and strive with a quite other vigor than any of all the rest of the faithful ever had But though they all applied themselves to such service with an indefatigable and couragious earnestness and with an admirable constancy of mind yet sure S. Paul did particularly signalize himself among those blessed Patriarks of the new people and Israel of GOD For as to labour which he mentions first none of them all preached CHRIST with more fervour none of them pressed men to yield themselves to Him with more vehemency none began with more allacrity nor went on with more assiduity There never was tongue more active nor pen more Divine nor mind more vigilant He alone travelled well-nigh as many countries as all the rest together He visited all nations sowing the Gospel every where watering it night and day by His speech by his tears and by his cares with incredible pains He had no sooner achieved one conquest but he enterprized another and the end of one labour was to him but the beginning of another Never did ambition or avarice though the most restless of our passions put men of the world to half the pain that the design of bringing mankind to the perfection which the LORD JESUS promised caused unto him And as the inclination which the Sun hath to communicate his comfortable beams to all creatures keeps him in a perpetual motion without permitting him to have one moments rest So S. Pauls charity and the passion he had to shed abroad every way the light and life and blessedness wherewith his Master had filled him pressing him alike both day and night made him take his course without ceasing and roul continually about mankind presenting his treasures sometimes to one country and sometimes to another passing all the days he lived in this glorious unquietness Neither did he overlash at all when he said somewhere being compelled to it 1 Cor. 15.10 by the unequitableness of his Calumniators that he had laboured more abundantly than any of the rest That part of his story which S. Lake hath told us in the Acts doth justifie the truth of those words of his and these fourteen divine Epistles which he hath left us and which do themselves make up part of his admirable labours do as clearly shew us how the case stood indeed His combats were no less than his ministerial labours For by them he meaneth the perils and the sufferings upon which his discharging his Apostleship and the preaching of the Gospel did cast him every hour which he frequently compares to the combats that were at that time solemnized in Greece because those that entred into them had divers pains and inconveniences to suffer as he sheweth at large towards the end of the ninth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians He had more enemies to sustain 1 Cor. 9.25 26 27. than any of the rest Jews and Pagans without Seducers and false brethren within It may make us tremble but to read the persecutions and the crosses he received from the one and the others Himself hath drawn up a little Catalogue of them wherein he represents to us through what depths of afflictions he had passed and did still daily pass being pursued out of measure both by his own
by the Letter which he wrote thereupon registred in the said Book it doth appear that there was much loosness and coldness and many defects in this flock whether such corruption had got footing there so early as S Paul's own time or whether as I judg more probable it were slipt in afterwards through carelesness of the faithful and the craft of foes However it be there is great likelihood that Laodicea was troubled at this time with the same evils that the Colossians were and that these Seducers who endeavour'd to infect the one apply'd themselves also to the other Therefore the Apostle would have this Epistle which is as a preservative against the venom of these false teachers to be communicated to those of Laodicea an evident sign that since they had need of the same remedies they were threatned with the same maladies But to the Colossians and the Laodiceans whom he here expresly nameth he further adds indefinitely all those which had not seen his presence in the flesh His name was so very famous among Christians that there could hardly be any one of that number but had heard speak of him knew him by reputation and consequently had seen him in heart and in spirit But he speaks of those only that had not seen him present in body whether he by these words do understand all the faithful in general that had not at all enjoy'd his presence in what coast or country soever they were for we know that the care of this eminent Apostle extended to them all Or whether he speak here of the faithful in Phrygia or in Asia only which in my opinion is more likely For there being no possibility that S. Paul and the other Apostles should present themselves every where they often sent Evangelists who were as their assistants and coadjutors hither and thither to divers places to travel for the Conversion of Souls And so though the Apostle had traversed the greatest part of Asia the less and honoured with his presence and preaching many of the principal Cities in it and in special the Province of Phrygia Act. 16.6 18.2 3. as may be gathered from the Book of the Acts Yet it may not be doubted but that there remained still many Cities to which he had not been able to go in person Expositors both ancient and modern for the most part do conclude from these words of S. Paul that he had not been yet in the City of Colosse nor in the City of Laodicea when he wrote this Epistle and they suppose that he had converted those people and founded Churches among them by the Ministry of Epaphras without conveying himself in person thither Nor can it be denyed but that the words do give us some apparent ground so to conceive For saying That he hath a great conflict for the Colossians and the Laodiceans and for all those that had not seen his presence in the flesh he seems to enroll the Colossians and the Laodiceans among those that had never seen him Theodoret. in his Preface to this Epist on the place it self Nevertheless there are Authors found among the Ancients and they of as great repute as any for height of Learning as well as for choiceness of Wit and solidity of Judgment who are otherwise minded and do hold that S. Paul had been both at Colosse and at Laodicea accounting it improbable that he should have gone through Phrygia twice as S. Luke expresly testifies and not have seen these two Cities the principal ones of that Country And for these words and all those which have not seen my presence in the flesh they conceive them added not to rank the Colossians and the Laodiceans with such as had not seen the Apostle but quite contrary to distinguish and separate them from them as if S. Paul had said that he had a great combat not only for them but even for those who never saw his presence in the flesh But this disterence being of no great importance at the bottom and means necessary for an exact decision of it also failing there is no need we should stay to solve it but may leave every one at liberty to take either way of the two neither of them endamaging the truth of faith or holiness of life And thus we have seen who they were for whom the Apostle sustained this great combat which he speaks of Consider we now the combat it self what it was I doubt not but he means thereby first and principally that care and sollicitousness and thoughtfulness which the consideration of these Churches drew upon him For though their faith and constancy afforded him much contentment and encouraged his hope yet when he cast his eyes upon the great tentations that surrounded them the hate and persecutions of the world the seducements and artifices of the false teachers and reflected on the weakness of humane nature he could not but fear left so many things and those of so much force should debauch them from piety Love is not without apprehension no not in the greatest safety how much less in the midst of so many dangers The Apostle assureth us elswhere that the affection he bore to the faithful was so great that he sympathiz'd in all their miseries and was as if he had suffered them himself The care which I have of all the Churches Cor. 11.29 saith he keeps me besieged from day to day Who is weakned but I am weakned also who is offended but I also burn And in the same place he represents unto us the pain he was in for the Corinthians in particular 2 Cor. 11.3 I fear saith he lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so by any means your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in CHRIST Just the same did he apprehend for the Colossians and Laodiceans and other Christians in Asia even lest the cheats and crafts of Seducers should disorder their faith and make a like spoil among them as they made in the Church of the Galatians as appears by the Epistle he wrote them upon this occasion Yet these just fears wherewith the thoughts of the Apostle were incumbred were not his whole combat For under this word he compriseth also all that he did to divert the danger which he apprehended First he was perpetually in prayer for the safety of these dear Churches and as Moses in elder time upon the mountain ceas'd not lifting up his hands to the Almighty for the Victory of his Israel that was in fight the while with Amalek So this great Apostle from that high station where JESUS CHRIST had set him in His Church did continually present his supplications and sighs to Heaven for the good success of the Combats which his Master's troops were engaged in 2 Thes 1.12 Phil. 1.4 Colos 1.9 We pray always for you saith he I still make request for you all in all my prayers We cease not to pray for you and to
so dwelleth in the humanity of JESUS CHRIST that the same one who is man is also truly GOD these two natures being so strictly united that they are but one only and the same person by means whereof it may be rightly said that if the Word of the Father be almighty and eternal as indeed it is omnipotency and eternity and infiniteness are in JESUS CHRIST for He is truly the Word of the Father but it cannot be inferred that S. Peter for example or S. Paul had in them an infinite power or wisdom because GOD dwelled in them for that GOD dwelt not personally in them that is so as each of them was GOD but only by the grace of His Spirit Finally I add in the second place that all this dispute is beside the Apostle's scope whose meaning they have misapprehended For his intention here is not to speak of what JESUS CHRIST knoweth What would this conduce to the end he hath proposed to Himself namely the confirming of us in the Gospel and the fortifying of us against those traditions and speculations which false teachers would add to it that we might reject them and content our selves with this JESUS CHRIST whom the Father presenteth to us in His word Who sees not that the Knowledg which our LORD hath of things that He knoweth in Himself is altogether extraneous to this purpose For the thing in question is what we must know to serve GOD aright and be saved in the sequel But JESUS CHRIST revealeth not unto us in the Gospel all that He knoweth either as GOD or as man And so from His knowing all things it followeth not that it is enough for us to embrace His Gospel For will the false Teachers say though He know all for His own part yet He hath not discover'd in the Gospel which His Apostles do preach unto us all that is necessary for us to believe or to practise What then you will say is the true sense of these words Dear Brethren it is not hard to discern if you afford ever so little attention to the thing The Apostle considers the LORD JESUS here not simply and absolutely but so as He is set forth and revealed to us in His Gospel as far as He is the subject of the Apostle's preaching and the object of our faith It 's in this respect he saith that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hid in Him thereby signifying that this CHRIST who is present to us in the Gospel is an object so rich and so divine as He containeth all the matter of wisdom in Him that all the verities whereof it is composed are found fully and abundantly in Him so as for the having of true wisdom there is no need of studying any thing but CHRIST alone we need but know Him and shall be ignorant of nothing As if I should say that the treasures of wisdom or natural science are hid in the world my meaning would be not that the world knoweth the things and verities which appertain unto this science but that it doth contain them that it is a theatre whereon they are exposed to our view and an object by the contemplation whereof we may acquire and learn them And as if I should say that Man is the treasury of all the knowledg of living Creatures I should understand thereby not what man knoweth of them but what he exhibiteth of it being as an exact model and patern of all that the nature of living Creatures comprehends so as by careful studying and meditating him all that may be known of them may be drawn forth In this very manner the Apostle saying that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg doth shew us what is the knowledg not that CHRIST hath in Himself but which He can give to us not what He knoweth but what He maketh us to know He being as it were an abyss of wonders wherein are found all the riches of that heavenly truth in the knowledg whereof true wisdom consisteth From whence the inference he aims to make upon it doth clearly flow namely that we ought to shut our ear against any other doctrine how plausible and probable soever it be For since JESUS CHRIST is the Magazin and the treasury of all wisdom in whom is found all that we ought to know not only for necessity but even unto plenty who seeth not but that it is an extream folly for men to turn themselves another way or trouble their heads about the study of any other object And so this wisdom and this knowledg of which the Apostle speaks is not that cognisance which the LORD hath of the things He knoweth either as GOD or as Man but it is that knowledg of Divine things which we have need of for our attaining to Salvation and in the having whereof the true perfection of our nature doth consist And when he saith that the treasures of this wisdom are hid in Him his meaning is not that these Divine things are known unto our LORD such a conception would be frigid and impertinent but that they are all displayed and set forth in Him that they dwell in Him that they are found there that they are enclosed and to be seen in Him through the veil of the infirmity of His Cross which in a manner hideth and overspreads them This is in my opinion the true and genuine sense of the Apostle's expression Let us now examine each of the terms of it which are all of them wondrous elegant and rich and afterwards consider the truth of them First he calleth this wisdom and knowledg which is in JESUS CHRIST Treasures to intimate both the Excellency and the Abundance of them the word Treasure importing both the one and the other For as you know we properly call such a collection a treasure as is of things not worthless and of no value as dust or chass but precious and exquisite as gold and silver and precious stones and jewels But besides worth this term signifieth abundance also For you will not say that that man hath a treasure who hath but two or three pieces of gold or silver or a diamond or four or five Emeralds To have a treasure is to have a great and a considerable mass of rare and precious things And hereby the Verities which JESUS CHRIST exhibits and affords us the knowledg of are distinguished from those which are found otherwhere Perhaps a good number of knowledges will be found otherwhere but they are unprofitable and of no value They do not make a treasure This worthy title appertaineth only to things rare and precious But the Verities which JESUS CHRIST teacheth those that study Him are so many pearls of inestimable price they are divine jewels such as neither the barbarous Sea coasts nor the Mines of the new World do yield such as neither the Heavens nor the Earth nor any of the store-houses of Nature can furnish us with But abundance also is
they used to offend the Faith of the Church and to defend their own Inventions Tertullian This induced one of the most ancient Christian Writers to call them the Patriarchs of Hereticks and to say that all Heresies are maintained by their rules and animated with their spirit and do lodg in their thickets and bushments as in their strong hold He calls them Animals of glory and all Christian Antiquity treats them very coursly as we understand by what is left us of the Books or that time wherein the commerce of Philosophy is accounted so dangerous that it hath been charged upon some as a great crime to have but look'd into Aristotle's Books and learned his Logick On the other side we meet with Fathers also who have high esteem of Philosophy and it cannot be denied but that even they that blame it do make use of it and many times with good success and much to purpose It 's not my design to break up this question or to produce here all that may be said either for Philosophy or against it The holy Apostle doth not oblige me to it as who blameth here not the substance thereof but the ill use of it which false Teachers made employing it either to the inventing or the defending of their errors this he evidently sheweth by that having ordered us to take heed that none make prey of us by Philosophy he adds immediately and by vain deceit by these words limiting what he had generally uttered and giving us to understand that he rejected not the use of Philosophy but when it was made to serve Error and Imposture We must therefore here as in all other subjects carefully distinguish the abuse from the thing it self and the substance from what is accessary to it and the truth from that error which is superadded thereto by the wickedness or weakness of men For there is not a thing in the world so good and so laudable in its own nature but our Vices do foul it in handling the same Intemperance hath defamed Wine Meats and Spices Luxury Gold Silver Precious Stones Silk and Perfumes all of them Creatures of GOD very good and very excellent Cruelty Murther and Parricide have defiled Iron a most necessary instrument of our life and Fire which we cannot be without hath often served the rage and the injustice of Tyrants What is there more admirable than Beauty among the ornaments of the body and then Eloquence among the ornaments of the mind Yet they frequently become through the corruption of men means of debauchery and seduction Not so much as the Scriptures themselves the most salutiferous effect of the goodness of GOD but are sometimes profaned by error and vice ignorance and levity wresting them to mens own ruin and wretchedly turning that to destruction which was not given but for our salvation It is not meant that upon this pretence we should cast off a due using of any of the works of God who being infinitely wise hath made nothing but is useful By this account it would not be lawful to make use of any thing since there is nothing which viciousness and ignorance doth not abuse I say the same of Philosophy If its Authors among the Pagans if Hereticks among Christians have made it serve the interest of error it follows not that it must be totally rejected nor should we do as the man that rooted up his Vines because having taken too much of the fruit of them he was overcharged with it or as he who would have his Rose-bushes burned because he had been sometimes prick'd in gathering their Flowers All that may be thence concluded is that this plant must be discreetly handled the fruit enjoyed but with moderation the flowers gathered but with heed taken of the thorns This is all the Apostle forbids us in it even deceit and not instruction that in it which is vain and not what is found to be solid Error and Sophistry not Science and Ratiocination Philosophy it self doth wash its hands of its Disciples faults It disavows their Errors and renounceth all that they have brought forth without its direction by ill arguing how great soever otherways their reputation be It is so far from defending them that it self affords us weapons wherewith to combat them and offers us its lights to discover the weakness of their false discourses For it hath observed and taught the rules of legitimate Reasoning with such admirable skill that there is no falshood to be met with but it gives us a conviction of So as if error be in the discourses of men of this profession as without doubt there is no small measure it is certain that in this unhappy production they have swerved from their own rule it being impossible that a falshood should ever be duly and rightly concluded from truth Whence it follows that no error or doctrine contrary to truth is to speak properly Philosophy it is an abuse of it It may well be an imagination and an extravagance of the Phil sopher not a part or a true fruit of Philosophy And when the Apostle saith here that Hereticks make a prey of men by Philosophy that is as he addeth by a vain deception he takes the word Philosophy as the vulgar doth for the accustomed and ordinary discourses of Philosophers and not for true Philosophy and that which is properly so called As long as the Philosopher carefully keeps within the bounds of his faculty and transgresseth them not he instructeth and doth not deceive The bounds of Philosophy which it hath set it self are the things that may be known by the light of natural reason While it keeps this road it travels securely and I confess what it teacheth in this kind may do good service to the Gospel so far would it be from clashing with it For who sees not that its discoveries of the nature of Plants of living Creatures of Metals and Meteors of the transmutation of Elements the motions of the Heavens of Times and Seasons of the concatenation of inferior Causes with the superior and the Conclusion it raiseth from this Contemplation That there is above the Universe an Invisible Eternal most Wise and Almighty GOD upon whom it all depends who seeth not I say that this is laudable and excellent and nothing in effect but a report of the handy-work of GOD and a demonstrating of his Divinity If the Philosopher had staid him there and deduced nothing thence but this clear consequence That the same Supream Beeing whose sootsteps and whose glory he had perceiv'd in his works ought to be supreamly adored served sought and loved never had the Apostle ordered us to be afraid of Philosophy for he himself makes use of such discourse Acts 14. 17. when he speaks to the Gentiles as you may see in his Oration to the Lycaonians and the Athenians in the Acts and he doth elsewhere evidently confirm it when he saith That GOD hath made manifest unto men what may be
the New Testament were then but fore-told and promised not fully and clearly revealed as now by their accomplishment they have been by means whereof it was meet that during all that time they should be exercis'd in the observing of these typical rites and held in and kept under the Pedagogie of Moses until the fulness of time according to the Apostle's Doctrine in the Epistle to the Galatians Now that JESUS CHRIST hath openly exhibited the very body of truth and fully brought to light all the causes and motives of true sanctification these exercises of the Church's infancy are no longer seasonable and they that still stick to them are no less ridiculous than he that would still keep up the centries of a vault or the models of a building even after the Fabrick is finish'd and brought to its perfection or retain under a School-master's Ferule and in the restraints of childhood a man grown up and come to ripeness of years This is that we had to say for the exposition of this Text. It remaineth for a conclusion that we extract those instructions and consolations which if we meditate on it attentively it will afford us First Since the Apostle assureth us that we are compleat in CHRIST you see how vain those mens pretensions are who set forth certain rules of perfection as they call them beyond the Gospel Let us content our selves with our LORD's fulness and seek our perfection in him alone And instead of amusing our selves about the inventions of men embrace and practise CHRIST's Discipline advancing daily towards the utmost degree of perfectness For we may not flatter our selves with an imagination that a man may nevertheless appertain to him though he lead an wholly vicious and corrupt life S. Paul here protesteth plainly to us that all such as are in him are made compleat Whence it necessarily follows that such as are not compleat are without his communion and by consequence should not promise themselves any share in his salvation it being prepared for those only that are in him If this Doctrine do trouble us let us impute it to our vices and our loosness and taking once this truth to heart with all our might endeavour after that perfection which is in JESUS CHRIST accounting that without it we cannot possess either his grace in this world or his glory in the world to come I well know that to speak absolutely no one is perfect and that if we compare our condition on earth with that in heaven all our perfections are but weaknesses Yet it is true that JESUS CHRIST doth even in this life in some sense compleat his faithful ones and this perfection which he giveth them is not a vain name or an imagination It 's a thing and a most real truth it is a piety and charity sincere and free and without hypocrisie which though it sometimes fail doth notwithstanding produce true fruits and works quite different from those of Worldlings and Hypocrites according to what our LORD said even that if your righteousness do not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Object not that you are yet on earth and that perfection is not to be found but in heaven and that to live as an Angel one should be without a body It is not the perfection of Heaven that we demand of you The LORD will not reject you for having not had in this life the transcendent brightness of the next But though a child be not obliged to conduct his life with as much prudence and reason as a man of years it doth not follow that he hath licence to live without rule and in the debanches and disorders of slaves Every Age hath its bounds and its measures and its perfection Our childhood here below must not be without discipline under the pretence that it is not come to full growth Christians I complain not that there are defects in your knowledg and practice which have no place in Heaven but that there are in you vices which ought to have no place on earth I blame you not for that there is a great difference between you and Angels but that there is none between you and worldly men I require not what is above the strength of your age but what is worthy of your profession and doth not at all exceed your light I beseech you only to labour as much for JESUS CHRIST as the children of this generation do for the interests of their lusts This doth not exceed the capacity of our nature since you see what the servants of sin do and it s necessarily your duty except you imagine that we owe less to JESUS CHRIST than Worldlings do to their foolish and vain passions The first piece of that compleatness which we have in him is this Divine Circumcision which is not made with hand but by the efficacy of his Spirit Without it we can have neither place in the communion of his people nor right to his Inheritance It 's a Circumcision of which we may truly say that every soul that shall not have receiv'd it shall be cut off from his people The Apostle shews us wherein it consists to wit in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh JESUS CHRIST hath put the sword in our hand that 's necessary to cut away this wretched flesh namely his sacred word wherein he discovers the horridness of sin and infernal venom of vices and the vanity and iniquity of all the lusts of the flesh He hath shew'd us the perdition which they that serve it fall into and hath put it to death on his Cross and buried it in his Sepulcher He hath spread before our eyes the wonders of GOD's love and the eternity of the Kingdom appointed for faithful servants He hath given us rules and examples of this part of our sanctification in his Gospel and in his life and offereth us the lights and consolations of his Spirit to lead us in this work Grasp we then this Divine Knife of his Gospel Thrust it hardily in to our hearts and cut out thence all the impurity of the vices that are there Let us rid our selves of them and cast them behind us Exterminate all the productions of the flesh as execrable things Leave not one of them in our selves Having subdued Avarice combat Ambition Pluck out Luxury and all its passions from our inward parts Root up Hatred and Wrath and Cruelty and spare the life of none of these Monsters Let us not rest until we have cleansed our hearts of all this cursed brood For it is not enough to have cut off some of them One sole Enemy abiding in our bosome is able to destroy us The body of the sins of the flesh must be put off saith the Apostle and not one or two of its sins only I confess the labour is hard but it is necessary and that at all times for it is the
us powerfully forming our hearts and opening them by the might of his Spirit that they may receive his truth yea that he doth imprint and engrave it on them himself by a most efficacious action The term Energy for such is the Original and 't is that which we have render'd efficacy deserves great consideration properly signifying in the stile of the Book of GOD a powerful operation which surely accomplisheth its design and infallibly produceth its intention such as is the action by which GOD created the World an evident sign that the operation by which he produceth faith in us is so strong as that it bears down all contradiction so as none of those upon whom he vouchsafes to put it forth can resist it or hinder their understanding from believing The Apostle addeth that GOD hath raised JESUS CHRIST from the dead either to determine the object of our faith which is principally JESUS raised from the dead by the glory of the Father or which I think to be more pertinent to compare our mystical Resurrection with JESUS CHRIST's For seeing it is GOD who by his efficacious action giveth us that faith by which we rise again in CHRIST and seeing it is He again who hath raised our LORD from the dead it is evident that both the one and the other of these two works hath the self-same principle to wit the Almighty Power of GOD. Christians judg with what Power He worketh in his faithful ones since that he exerteth the same virtue to give them faith by which he raised his own Son from the dead as the Apostle informeth us yet more clearly in another place Eph. 1.10 20. where he prayeth that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he shewed in CHRIST when he raised him from the dead Neither let his saying that the Father raised him disquiet you as if this did cross the Scripture's asserting elsewhere that the LORD JESUS himself rais'd up the Temple of his Body when the Jews had overthrown it Joh. 2.19 It is true that he raised up himself but since his Power is the Power of the Father as being one only and the same GOD with him 't is evident it may be truly said that the Father raised him up the working of one of these two Persons being the working of the other as our Saviour declareth in S. John Joh. 5.19 that whatsoever the Father doth the Son doth in like manner also Whence it comes that the Scripture attributes the Creation of the world indifferently to the one and to the other Dear Brethren This is that which the holy Apostle the great Minister of GOD doth tell us in this Text. Oh how happy should we be if we had these Divine Instructions written in the bottom of our hearts and engraven in Capital Letters upon all the parts of our lives If our actions did justifie as our words profess That we are buried and risen again with JESUS CHRIST by Baptism and by the faith of the operation of GOD who raised him from the dead But alas it must be confessed to our shame there appears in the lives of most of us no print of the burial and least of all of the resurrection of JESUS The flesh lives and exerciseth as horrible tyranny in them as it doth in the lives of the men of the world It hath all its sentiments and all its motions at liberty The new man that breathes nothing but Heaven and loves nothing but Holiness hath no place in them it is so far from reigning there that it 's banish'd thence and acts no more than a dead body fast shut up in the grave Yet if nothing depended on the matter save our shame impudency would bear it out But the worst is our salvation and our eternal damnation doth depend upon it for JESUS CHRIST saves none but his Members such as are made conform to him and have been buried and raised again with him Awake we therefore from this mortal Lethargy which hath benummed our senses to this day Labour we day and night in prayer with sighs and tears and not cease until we feel the old man dye and the new live in our hearts As for the former both Nature and Experience do sufficiently shew us the extravagancy of its desires and the vanity of all its motions For I beseech you what profit does the flesh receivâ— from all the trouble that either its self takes or that it gives to others What benefit hath it from the turmoiling of its avarice or the burning of its ambition or the shamefulness of its pleasures or the sweetness of its revenges It torments its self it toils its self it embraceth wind and smoak and then perisheth oftentimes shortning its own duration by the violence of its agitations It hath but a little body which daily weakens to lodg and seâ—d and clothe for some years yet it travels and disquiets its self as much as if it had a million to maintain for the space of many ages Was there ever a greater folly Certainly should a man of composed mind behold our busie employments in the earth with the motives and designs of so many motions and troubles as we consume our selves in I make little question but he would take well-nigh all men for frantick or foolish and cry out not simply with the Wise man Vanity of vanities all is vanity but yet louder and in a tone more tragical O madness O phrensie All the World is but a company of sensâ—ess men But the seeing of the vanity of the flesh is not sufficient for the conceiving of a due horror at it Christian enter into the Sepulcher of your Saviour and you shall perceive there that besides vanity the life of the old man is all full of venom and wretchedness This sacred Body which you see lying in that Tomb in so pitiful an estate was pierced with nails potion'd with gall crowned with thorns cover'd with the reproach of men and the curse of GOD separated from its Soul and brought down to the dust to divert from you the punishments justly prepared for the disorders of your flesh Think what Hells it deserved since it was necessary that the LORD of Glory should suffer such strange usage to redeem it from them Having once discerned by such sensible evidences the vanity and malignity of the old man and the perdition into which he leads his Vassals how can you have the heart to let him live within you Beloved Brethren crucifie him and out him of the world He is unworthy to live Pierce him through with the thorns and nails of your JESUS Give him his gall to drink Put him to death with him and bury him in his Sepulcher to come forth no more Let his Avarice and Ambitions and all his Concupiscences remain eternally extinct in the dust of that salvifique grave that there appear no more
that supposing a man be perfectly cured of vicious habits and inclinations yet would he nevertheless be faulty by reason of his fore-passed sins and consequently liable upon this account unto the curse with which and the terrors that precede it true life is so incompatible that it is not imaginable a man in such a state could ever resolve to serve GOD freely and sincerely Therefore GOD that he may throughly quicken us doth not only deliver us from the tyranny of vice and of the flesh by that Princely Spirit which he poureth into our inward parts but moreover pardoneth us all the sins whereof we are guilty and it seems in very deed if we do accurately observe the moments of his action in us that it 's there he does begin first remitting our former offences to the end that the sense of this goodness of His may cause us to love him and encline us to obey him and conform our selves with all our might unto his holy will The Apostle attributeth unto this remission two remarkable qualities One that GOD forgiveth us all our offences that is doth not impute to us any of our sins either in whole or in part but treateth us as if we had committed none at all Another is that he doth it freely and of meer grace for so doth the word giving used here in the Original properly signifie as our Translation hath well express'd by rendring He hath freely forgiven us The Scripture tells us not of any other kind of pardon For as to that which our Adversaries do assert to wit whereby the fault is remitted but the punishment exacted either in whole or in part or is bought out with the payment of our own satisfactions or the satisfactions of others it's a figment of their own Schools of which the Holy Ghost says nothing any where but represents unto us all that remission which GOD gives the faithful either at the beginning or in the progress of their regeneration as an entire pardon and purely gratuitous As for that satisfaction by which our LORD and Saviour obtained it for us it is so far from any way diminishing that it does infinitely exalt the bounty of GOD towards us since that he so loved us as that he might pardon our faults with the consent of his Justice he would have his only Son to shed his precious blood for the contenting thereof This is that we had to deliver upon this Text of the Apostle's Dear Brethren Let us hold fast what it hath taught us of the condition that all men are naturally in before GOD calleth them to his grace Let not their outward appearance deceive you nor the pleasures of their flesh nor the splendor of their pretended virtues either civil or moral All this is but a false image of life covering a carkass that 's stinking and abominable before GOD. Make account that they are dead and that if they walk it is not a true principle of life but sin the poyson of life which doth animate them and set them on working The issue will one day clear it to us all when the just judgment of GOD having stript them of that fallacious disguise which now hideth the hideousness of their nature shall shew it before Heaven and Earth and make us plainly see that they were but Sepulchers whited without and full of filth and infection within and cast them thereupon into that wretched and eternal death which is prepared for them with the Devil and his Angels Bless we GOD who hath deliver'd us from this perdition by his great mercy and hate we sin and the corruption of the flesh which had involv'd us in it Look we on them as pests and poysons that destroy our life and reckon we that we have liv'd no more time than what hath been exempted from our serving of them You deceive your self Worldling who count the days of your unclean pleasures or your vain honours the best part of your life To say plainly it was the time of your being dead and not of your being alive After so many years as you have tumbled up and down the earth you have not yet liv'd a moment You have all along been in a state of death And they that write upon your Tombs that you liv'd so many years and died such a day do grosly err You did not live when you offended GOD and your Neighbour or lost your time in the filth of your infamous delights And on the day that you shall quit the earth you will not cease to live for to say true you never liv'd but from one kind of death you will pass into another from the death of sin to a death of torment Christians if you love life and hate horror at death renounce sin and mortifie your flesh You cannot live except it dye Put in exercise that noble life which the LORD hath given you in his Son Act according to the Principles which he hath put into you by his Spirit and lay forth continually in good and holy works the Graces wherewith he hath vested you Faithfully love and serve him Let your minds meditate on nothing beside him your hearts desire none but him your tongues speak only of him Let the contemplation of the wonders of his love and the hopes of his glory be the whole food of your souls Respect those men in whom you see his Image shine Affect them and serve them for his sake looking upon their lives their estates their honour their bodies and souls as sacred and inviolable things Endeavour to enrich them by communicating of your prosperities unto them Offend no man Do good to all Let your charity and your innocence be conspicuous in the sight of GOD and Man Faithful Brethren This is that life truly worthy to be called life which GOD doth reward for the present with a joy and contentment of Conscience that 's a thousand times more sweet and savoury than any of the vain delights of the world and which he will crown one day with that glorious Immortality he hath promised It 's for this that he hath vouchsafed to forgive us freely all our offences all those so many horrible Crimes which had merited Hell-fire and is still ready to pardon all the sins we have committed since This so great and admirable loving-kindness of his tendeth only to withdraw us from sin and oblige us to love and revere so good a GOD. It 's for the self-same end that he hath raised up his Son from the dead and enliven'd us with him giving us faith hope and charity the principles of a new life even that henceforth renouncing sin and the flesh and turning our hearts towards Heaven where our treasure and our glory is we might live soberly righteously and godly in the present world looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great GOD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST Amen The Twenty-fifth SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER XIV Ver. xiv Having effaced the obligation
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
when to represent his modesty Psal 131.1 he saith that he hath not walked in great things and too high for him Dear Brethren we have no need to ascend so far back as the Apostle's time for examples of this vanity Our Adversaries of the Communion of Rome do afford us a sufficient store who as they retain the errour of those whom the Apostle here taxeth serving Angels as they did so do inherit their temerity intruding into things they have not seen They do magisterially pronounce that men must serve and invoke Angels and Saints departed They boldly define the Religious Worship that is to be given and divide it us into its kinds naming one of them Dulia and the other Hyperdulia all with as much confidence as if they spake of things most obvious to sence I urge not for the present that Scripture doth blast this whole errour every where intimating that we ought to serve no one in Religion but GOD alone and with loud voice anathematizing the Worship of any creature I pretermit what it saith particularly against the Adoration and Worshipping of Angels as also that S. Paul doth expresly prohibit it in the Text. I keep singly to the rule he here gives me that no belief be afforded those who intrude into things they have not seen and do demand of these hardy Doctors in what Region in what part of Divine Revelation have they seen these Services these Dulia's and these Hyperdulia's of which they so positively speak Where is it that the Holy Ghost hath shewed them these brave Doctrines To what Prophet hath He revealed them To what Apostle hath He signified them Of what Evangelist have themselves learnt them Sure they must here be husht of necessity They have not seen one of these pretended mysteries in the Book of GOD. They cannot shew us any track of them any where except it be in the fancies of Plato and of the Heathen Philosophers the Disciples of Daemons and not of GOD men taught in the School of errour and not in that of truth They proceed further yet and make us discourses about the Orders of Angels and distribute to them their business and cut them out their Ministrations they rank the Saints and give to them each his Charge and employment And if you ask them how these Spirits being in Heaven do hear our Prayers and requests and by what means they see the secret motions of our hearts They answer some of them that the mirrour of the Trinity upon which they incessantly have their eyes doth present them all the Idea's of them others that GOD reveals them to them some other way But whence do they know this It is neither sense nor natural reason that hath shewed it them If therefore they have seen it any where it must be in the Revelation of GOD. Yet it is clear and they cannot deny it that neither this pretended mirrour nor any one of their other conjectures do appear there at all Cajetan in 22. q. 88. a. â— And one of their most famed Authors sufficiently declares it We do not know saith he by any certain reason whether the Saints do perceive our Prayers or no although we do piously believe it as if it were piety and not pittiful credulity to believe things of which we have no assurance But let him make what account of it he pleases This is evident that since he confesseth they have no assurance of these things it must of necessity be confessed also that it is extreamly ill done of them to intrude into them except he will reject the Authority of the Apostle in his condemning those here most expresly who intrude into things they have not seen This vanity doth further shew it self in the things they give out concerning the state of Souls in their fabulous Purgatory the scituation the structure and partitions whereof they represent together with the fire and torments of the Spirits that are there imprisoned with such a deal of confidence as if they were just now come from thence after many years stay in the place Nevertheless the truth is that neither they nor their Ancestors euer saw one jot of it either in the Scriptures of GOD or in the nature of things there being not a word any where of any one of these imaginations That which they say of their Transubstantiation with its conditions and circumstances and of the manner how the body of CHRIST is present in every crumb of their Hoste and in every drop of their Chalice Their positions likewise concerning their pretended Sacrifice of the Mass and concerning the relative or Analogical adoration of Images and concerning the Characters which some of their Sacraments do imprint upon the souls of men and in one word all the points of doctrine that we contest with them are of the same nature All of them are things they have not seen they intrude into them walk in them and strout vainly commanding the belief or practice of them under pain of damnation how doubtful and uncertain soever they be and furiously anathematizing all those who make the least doubt to receive them As for us Dear Brethren who through the grace of GOD have learned to preferr His voice before the imaginations of men and to fear the thundrings of Heaven more than the fulminations of Rome let us leave them in this vain humour or to say better pray to GOD to bring them out of it and give them to distinguish their own dreams from His declarations And for our further acquitting of our selves let us religiously keep to the Apostles direction Intrude we never into things we have not seen Neither be so simple as to follow those that do or to suffer our selves to be mastered over by them Let us rest in the things which GOD hath clearly revealed to us in His word which He hath so set before our eyes in that Divine Treasury of His truth as very children may there behold them This portion is sufficient for us if we cultivate it well we shall find in it abundantly wherewith to inform our understandings wherewith to calm our Consciences and sanctifie our hearts and perfect all the faculties of our souls Let no man presume above that which is written 1 Cor. 4.6 Rom. 12.3 Take heed of being wise above what is meet but be wise to sobriety Let the word of GOD be the rule of our science and His Book the bound of all our curiosity All knowledge is had without knowing any thing beyond it This consideration alone is enough to preserve us from all the errours of Rome For since the intruding into things we have not seen is a temerity condemned here by the Apostle and in matter of Religion we can have seen none but such as GOD hath revealed in His Word it evidently follows that we are obliged not only to forbear believing but also to proceed to the rejecting of all the Doctrines about which we are in contest with Rome
no one of which appeareth in the Word of GOD. And it is manifestly sin to reduce them into act or practice since according to the Apostle Rom. 1â— 23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin it being certain that there cannot be any true faith of things which are not found in the Word of GOD seeing the same Apostle sheweth us that that hearing which produceth Faith in us is of the Word of GOD as we have intimated afore But I come to the other point where S. Paul taxeth the arrogance and presumption of the false Teachers It 's this properly that leads or to say better 〈◊〉 them into that Vtopia of things they never saw They are saith the Apostle râ—shly puffed up with the sense or understanding of their flesh By this understanding or 〈◊〉 of their flesh he meaneth all the vivacity ability and acuteness that nature hath endowed us with what ever degree of vigour and light reason doth of its self attain unto For under the word Flesh Scripture comprehends the whole nature of man that is to say not his body only to which this name doth properly belong but also his soul yea even his understanding his will and his reason which is the excellenceâ— part thereof forasmuch as sin since it infected our nature hath in such a manner condensated and corrupted and altered all the faculties of our soul that it hath turned them after a sort into flesh and blood not that it hath to speak propâ—ly destroyed the substance of them which as you know is still spiritual and immortal but by reason of its deading the vigour and embasing and deprâ—ving the dispositions of them having â—â—fâ—ned us to the earth and to our selves and filled 〈◊〉 afflictions and wills with so perverse and so violent a love of the flesh that all 〈◊〉 light of our understandings is obscured and blackned by the Conâ—agion of this poison and their conceptions are totally tainted with it all our discourses and reasonings in this misâ—rable estate being nothing but flesh and blood untill the Spirit of GOD doth come and reform us and oâ— carnal and natural as our understandings were make them spiritual by the infusion of its holy light into them Thus it is that our LORD 〈◊〉 16.17 1 Cor. â— and Saviour said to Peter It is not flesh and blood that hath revealed this secret in thee but my Father which is in Heaven And S. Paul protesteth that the natural man cannot comprehend the things which are of GOD. It 's therefore properly this reason or 〈…〉 of the natural man that is of a man not illuminâ—tâ—d from on high which the Apostle here calls the sense or understanding of the flesh But the good opinion which those Seducers have of it he terms a passing up with much elegancy For to say true it is but wind they are â—lown up with filled they are not Now not satisfied to have thus discovered their vanity he further adds that they are puffed up rashly that is to say in vain and without 〈◊〉 For indeed whatever the pretended acuteness of our mind may be it 's at the bottom so small a matter it 's a faculty so feeble so limitted and of so narrow an exâ—â—â—â— that if it give us any vanity 't is without cause They that best know themselves and do possess this part in an higher degree well perceive it and franâ—ly confess that all the light of our understanding is but a vapour it 's Science ignorance and its ability presumption For who is there but does daily find by making trial that the point of this so much esteemed understanding turns at the least difficulties that its sight is dazled at the meanest lights and that its reason is confounded in the plainâ—st meditations And when we consider not barely what each single person of us knows but all the Science that all mankind hath acquired during so many ages as its greatest and most accomplished wits have been busied about it we find that it s so little in comparison of what we are ignorant of that a drop of water hath more proportion to the whole Ocean It 's therefore without doubt a vanity extreamly foolish to make oftentation of it and to presume much of a man's self for so small an advantage But it is a much worse extravancy yet to take this understanding of the flesh for our guide in matters of Religion which are all of them divine and coelestial while it is incapable of conducting us in the very things of Nature and of the earth as experience lets us daily see so as we must conclude that all those who laying by the Word of GOD would instruct us in Religion by the light of their own understandings are all of them taken with as high degree of senslesness as ever was and that beside vanity there is phrensie in what they do and some such bruitishness as those mad people shewed who yet while would raise the Fabriâ—â— of their Tower up to Heaven This is just the malady of all the Hereticks and Sâ—ducers that ever rose up in the world Accordingly you see that the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galatians doth enroll Heresie among the works of the Flesh because it is a production of its understanding which incitated and heated by the presumptuousness thereof doth bring forth this wretched brood And it is remarkable that these same Seducers whose puffing up and pride the Apostle here discovers did notwithstanding make profession of humility of spirit as he himself doth testifie to shew us that we should not rely upon apparencies and that oftentimes under the habit and looks and outward actions of humbleness there are hidden hearts puffed up with vanity and swoln with pride And such is at the bottom the Genius of all those that would have their inventions to be valid in Religion Their very having the audaciousness to exceed the institutions of GOD doth evidence an insufferable arrogance forasmuch as instead of being content with His Orders and submitting to them with an humble and teachable spirit they undertake to cut out new wayes to Heaven I leave now to each one the care of applying this observation to those new rules which the spirit of superstition hath multiplyed for divers Ages almost to an infinity They all set the Cross over their Gates the services they perform to Angels and men the habits they shape for their zealous their countenances and their very looks and eyes ever fixed on the ground do promise a profound humility But GOD knoweth what the reality is And remitting the dijudication of it unto Him I only advertise you that you should not suffer such fair outsides to abuse you remembring how the Apostle hath here taught us that a profession of humility of spirit doth sometimes cover a foul rashly puffed up with the sense of its flesh as also that not seldom this very humility and pretended mortification is the matter which feedeth its pride and
to extinguish and abolish in all the members of His Son that first life which they inherited from old Adam Secondly because the execution of this decree of GOD is begun and advanced in them for the present The mortal blow thereof the flesh receives in this life from the hand of JESUS CHRIST and cannot possibly recover it again Then in the third place because this execution already begun in them will not be long a finishing natural death which considering the few daies we spend here below is not far from either of them devesting first their souls of all terrene and carnal reliques and then the resurrection being finally to refine their bodies also at the last day when earthly life shall be entirely and quite and clean dissolved and destroyed It 's for these three reasons that the Apostle saith here and else-where that the faithful are dead in regard of the life of sin and of the flesh not that they have not in them yet some remainders of them but for that this death is ordained by the decree of GOD and already begun in them and will soon be infallibly finished Even as we reckon among the dead a malefactor whom a supream Court and a sick person whom a prudent and able Physitian have condemn'd to dye neither do we stick to say that he is gone he is dead because his death is inevitable and all the life that remains for him is no longâ—r any thing So when a man hath been mortally wounded we immediately rank him with the dead because his vitals are struck and all the movings and perceivings he yet hath are but his last gaspings and the last combat his life makes before it doth end It 's in the same manner with true believers The flesh in them is wounded to death and if it does yet stir if it struggle if it give them any blow this at most is a small matter in comparison of that life it other-while exercised in them At that time it reigned in them Now if it do fight yet it rules no longer It finds a spirit in them which resists it which makes head against it and in this unto-it-fatal conflict it loseth by little and little all the blood and life it hath yet left it Wherefore the LORD JESUS whose death as we have said is both the cause and the pattern of ours did not dye in an instant but a lingring death having continued five or six hours in an agony before He gave up the ghost It is thus that the old man dyeth in the faithful He is already pierced with the nails of our Saviour and fastned to His cross and in a dying estate and without hope of recovery Nevertheless he strugleth still and will be a-while in this estate losing blood and strength and motion and life not all at once but by little and little This same is the condition of true believers Whence appears the pernicious error of those men who having the old man not bound not pierced not wounded to death in them but living and reigning at full liberty and with his whole vigour do yet imagine that they pertain to JESUS CHRIST and are of the number of His true members It 's a mortal mistake JESUS owneth none for His but such as are dead with Him whose flesh is either already laid down and destroyed in the grave as theirs who live in Heaven or at least nailed to His cross as theirs who yet combat on earth I confess the presumption of those who vaunt they sin no more and feel no longer in themselves any motion or contradiction of the flesh is extremely vain But your errour worldling is no whit less who having sin reigning and the flesh living in you do not forbear to perswade your self that you are a true Christian If the flesh doth still breath in a true Christian if it hath still some motion and some feeling in him yet it hath dominion in him no longer It lives in him no longer it languisheth in him and is so weak as it plainly appears to be at the pangs of death Put it into this estate if you will be truly Christian Fasten it to the cross of JESUS Pierce it through with His nails and with His thorns Make it drink of His vinegar Take from it its pleasures draw out its blood and strength Again since this is our condition since we by the beneficence of our Saviour are dead in such sort as we even now explained you clearly see Christian that what the Apostle concludes upon it doth evidently and necessarily follow from it to wit that we should not seek any more the things which are on earth For since we have in JESUS CHRIST put off that carnal and vitious life for the maintaining and welfare whereof earthly things are subordinate who is there but comprehends that it would be an insufferable extravagancy for us to amuse our selves still about them It would be an errour as ridiculous as if one went an hunting after game or a buying precious stones and stuffs for a person either already dead or at least in the agony of death Such a person hath no more need of those things they being good only to feed or fashion that liâ—e which he no longer hath It 's just so that you Christian do who labour so ardently in the seeking after and acquiring of riches honours and other goods of the present World All this is the equipage of a life that you no longer have The flesh for whose delight and adornment those goods do serve is dead or at least death-struck in you It is crucified with the LORD and a crucified one hath nothing to do with meat nor jewels nor other things of the earth Luke 12.20 Thou fool said our Saviour to the rich worldling in the Gospel-parable this very night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast laid up As if he had said that being once dead he could no more enjoy them Christian how is it you do not consider not only your dying e're long but that you are to say truth dead already that there is no carnal life for you any longer so as to conclude thereupon that you have therefore no need of all this earthly pelf which with such a deal of pain you scrape together I confess that while we are on earth we cannot altogether be without it But neither can you deny that for a living Christianly here we need but a little of it and for a little time because we have little left us of that life for which it is necessary Let us proportionably have little affection and adherence to it Let us use it but for necessity and not for delight Let us look upon the world with the eyes of pilgrims taking but so much of it as is requisite for our passing on Set we before us the example of the life of our LORD led on earth during the daies of His
a as glass darkly 1 Cor. 13 1â— Phil. 3.12 and that we have not yet apprehended nor are already perfect By reason whereof he compares our condition here below to childhood during which there is imperfection in our thoughts words and judgements Whereas in that other blessed world 1 Cor. 13.11 we shall see face to face and know as we have been known and all that is in part being done away we shall be at the highest pitch of perfection and in the full vigour of a truly mature age Withal this body which makes up a part of our being is yet subject to the laws of natural life nor can it be sustained but by the use of terrene and corruptible elements and by the low and vile functions of eating and drinking and sleeping Whereas that divine life which we have in JESUS CHRIST is freed from all these infirmities requiring a coelestial and in some sort spiritual body which is conserved by the sole vertue of the quickening spirit without needing the commerce of any earthy and perishing things Whence it does appear that to speak properly and exactly we shall not have this blessed life till after the last resurrection We now have but title to it and the first buddings the rudiments and initials of it which is the thing the Apostle excellently signifies when speaking of Himself and of all the faithful he saith that we have the first-fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.22 that is as it were the first lineaments of this divine and spiritual nature whereof the LORD hath made us partakers to use St. Peter's words 2 Pet. 1.4 Wherefore St. Paul here doth at once very truly and very admirably well say that our life that is the life we have by JESUS CHRIST is for the present hid with CHRIST in GOD because the Father doth yet keep it in His hand reserving the full displaying of it in us unto the time He hath fore-ordained in His counsel Untill then it doth not appear but abideth hidden in GOD as a sure and certain effect in its true and immutable cause The world sees it not in us and the first-fruits of it we already have are to it so unknown that far from believing we have any life more excellent than its own it accounts us on the contrary the miserablest and despicablest creatures of the earth and doth think our life to be foolishness and meer frensie and judgeth that the end thereof will be without honour as the Author of the Book of Wisdom well saith And in truth Wisd 5 3 GOD doth most frequently put this heavenly treasure in earthen vessels and chooseth for this blessed life persons weak and contemptible and such as are of no consideration among the men of the World as St. Paul expresly observes neither is there in them 1 Cor. 1.26 27. Isa 53.2 any more than was sometime in their head either form or comelyness or any thing that should induce those that see them to desire them Whereto may be added the afflictions that do extremely disfigure them and darken that little lustre which they have Aimd these meanesses and infirmities it is hard to discern any one ray of that glory they are destinated to Themselves in their great tentations enter into doubt of it And when the spirit that quickens them doth for their consolation discover the perfections and wonders of their future life most clearly and with the greatest evidence so it is that notwithstanding this that which they see and taste of it is so small a matter in comparison of what they shall have in the end that it might well be said their life is hidden in reference to themselves And thus St. 1 Joh. 3.2 John informeth us Beloved saith he we are now children of GOD but it doth not yet appear what we shall be But we may not forget what the Apostle here adds to wit that our life is hid in GOD with CHRIST whereby he signifies two things first that CHRIST is yet at present in some sort and in some sense hidden to wit in regard of the glory of His person For though His Salvation and His dominion have been discovered by His Gospel unto every creature both Jews and Gentiles yet having withdrawn His up-risen and glorified humane nature up to Heaven into the Sanctuary and He from thence governing His kingdom by the secret motions of His spirit His person remaineth hidden from the eyes of the World this great veil of the Heavens which on all sides environeth the Sanctuary into which He is entred hindring us from seeing His glory how sparkling and radiant soever it be Secondly the Apostle signifieth by these words that our life is properly and directly in CHRIST that he is the source and the cause of it and that two manner of waies the one in that He merited it for us by His sufferings the other in that He produced and formed it in us by His Spirit by reason whereof He is called the Author and the Prince of life and St. John saith Joh. 1.4 that life is in Him Then again our life is in CHRIST as in its original pattern wherein at present doth exist the true and perfect form of that sanctity glory perfection and immortality in which the life we shall be invested with consisteth Wherefore He is termed our elder brother our principle or beginning and our first-fruits as we have said at the entrance of this discourse From whence there redoundeth unto us a great and a firm consolation against all the tempests of the present World when we consider that how sad and frightful soever at times our undoing is yet we live in GOD and in His CHRIST CHRIST is the sacred and inviolable stock that beareth us in which the sap of our life is perfectly safe above the rigors of winter and ardors of summer and all other perils that menace us GOD is faithful and CHRIST is living and it is not possible that either the one should deny Himself or the other dye Since then the Father is the depositary and the Son the stock of our life let us make sure account that though we feel it but feebly and faintly in our selves yet we have it and possess it and shall eternally have it so as nothing shall be ever able to extinguish it Let this sweet hope sustain us and cause us to wait patiently for the term of that full and entire manifestation which the Apostle in the sequel promiseth us When CHRIST your life shall appear then saith he you also shall appear in glory His calling CHRIST our life is a brave expression full of force and emphasis sutable to that we read in Jeremy where speaking of the LORD 's anointed Lam. 4.20 he calleth him the breath of our nostrils to signifie that it is upon him our whole life dependeth and that if we may so say it is by his sacred mouth we draw our breath Thus the Apostle's saying
Sanctifie this earth during the time you tarry on it and change it as much as may be into Heaven adorning it with an Angelick life and conversation This is the way to make sure your crown For it will not be given in Heaven but to those that have desired and sought it in the time of their abode on earth None shall reap eternal life but they that have sowed to the Spirit No man shall have fruition above but he that hath hoped here below and no man hopeth here below but he that cleanseth himself from the filth of vices He that hath this hope in JESVS CHRIST purifieth himself saith St. John Represent incessantly unto your selves this glorious coming of the Son of GOD. Consider that He will not long delay Yet as little a while as may be and he that should come will come Consider that He will come on the sudden as lightning which in an instant shines out from the clouds and as the thief that comes at the point of time he was least looked for How much will our confusion be if He should surprise us in the disorder of our worldly affections and occupations But GOD forbid that this should betide us He hath waited sufficiently for us Let us employ that little time which is left us with so much the more care the less we have had for that which is past Let us watch let us pray let us be doing Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling Let us lead lives worthy of the name of Christians which we bear worthy of the Master whom we serve and of the food He hath given us and of the love He hath born us and of the glory He keeps for us cleansing our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and waiting with an holy joy and setled patience for the revelation of this great GOD and Saviour to His Glory and our Salvation Amen THE THIRTY FOURTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER V. Verse V. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication unclearness inordinate appetite evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry DEAR Brethren In all the designs of our lives the End is the principle that moveth us to act and the rule of our actions The fair aspect it gives us is the thing that inslameth our hearts and kindleth in them the desire of possessing it which thereupon awakeneth the powers of our souls and causeth each of them to employ what ability and industry they have in the pursuit the understanding its light to find out and make a due choice of means fit to conduct us in it the will and affections and other faculties of our nature which depend upon them their motions to get these means and set them on work All this is done as you know and experiment it daily only to attain that End we have proposed to our selves The ends which men aim at are infinitely different and oftentimes even contrary to one another and consequently their courses very different also as if some went East and others West or some took their way Southward and others their march Northward Yet notwithstanding such diversity of intentions and prosecutions they are all incited and led on in the self-same manner there being not one of them but the desire of some end he loveth hath seized and swayed unto action and at length induced to take the course he steers according to the passion he hath for the attainment of it and the judgement his understanding makes of means proper to bring him to it The end therefore being the first spring that setteth us a going the principle of our motions and as it were the North of our course the guide and measure of our actions You see My Brethren that it infinitely concerneth us to take it right and having once taken it to have it continually before our eyes for the referring and addressing of all our travails to the same Wherefore our LORD condemns those as unadvised and injudicious persons who enterprise a design without having first duly considered it without having sate down and taken their counters in hand and exactly calculated all the cost that is without having maturely and composedly examin'd what the thing is which they desire and what abilities they have to compass it as that ridiculous builder who laid the foundation of a Tower and was then constrained to give over not having wherewithal to finish it For this reason also the Masters of Moral Philosophy that they might rightly form their scholars to it have been wont to set before their eyes the felicity of man that is his End for the enkindling a love and desire of it in their hearts and then they propose to them the means that are to be used to attain it Such is the method that the holy Apostle hath followed in this part of his divine discourse which we are explicating to you He shewed us at the entrance Heaven and JESUS CHRIST who reigneth there sitting at the right-hand of His Father together with that life and immortality and glory which He keeps for and promiseth to His faithful ones This is the end we should tend unto Seek said He the things which are in Heaven and I perswade my self there is not a man so stupid and savage but an object so good and so desirable does make impression upon and possess with love of it and a secret passion to obtain it Now though the splendor of so noble and so sublime an happiness should as soon as it appears put out all that fallacious appearance of the things of the earth wherein the children of this world do vainly seek their good and which they foolishly take for the end of their lives yet the Apostle to preserve us from this error and fully inform us of our true end hath further expresly advised us not to place it in things here below Mind not the things saith he which are upon the earth Having therefore each of you setled this divine end of your lives in his heart according to the Apostles doctrine look at it continually Let it be night and day before your eyes This thought alone is capable to direct all your steps to govern all your actions to purifie your souls to render you invincible against all your enemies to conserve the peace and the joy of GOD in you and maintain His consolations in you amid the greatest storms Yet this doth not satisfie our Apostle He not content with having mark'd out our aim to us and shewed in general what we ought to decline doth particularize us the means we are to use for arriving one day at that blessed Heaven whither he had elevated our hearts He discovers to us and tells us one by one the shelves and dangerous passages of our course and finally goes over the most part of our duties in the conduct of this grand design He begins with vices of the flesh and of the earth the two pernicious pests of
a perpetual disorder which displaceth every thing and overturns all yet all hath its certain causes It 's therefore with a great deal of reason and elegance that the Apostle compares this strange convention of so many evils which are so divers and do all work with some sequel and dependance unto a body and each of those vices of which it is composed as covetousness fornication and the like unto the members of a body He calleth them our members because that old man which is made up of them is wholly ours and does invest all the principles of our life from their root and invelope them and mingle so deeply with them that it all in a sort is nothing but corruption and malady this venome infecting all the actions and all the motions of our nature its understanding its affections and passions together with the thoughts words and actions which flow from them so that as our animal and natural life consisteth in the exercising of our members and in their actions in like manner our moral life is all of it nothing but a continual exercising of these vices and of the sins they produce as is to be clearly seen if you consider the lives of profane and unregenerate persons For they are nought else but a continual exercise of vices of ambition of vanity of covetousness of luxury and sensuality as they are addicted more or less to the one or the other of these sins the perpetual running of a foul and muddy stream which a corrupted spring doth daily thrust forth that you cannot observe so much as one of its swellings or rollings exempt from its filthiness And this may suffice for comprehending the reason why the Apostle calls these parts of the old man our members For as to that consideration which some do propose in this matter namely that the members of our bodies having been created of GOD they are not ours but in regard of use and not in regard of their original whereas the members of the old man are ours all manner of waies having been made and formed in us by our own fault and naughtiness and not by the hand of GOD who created man upright and pure man distorting and depraving himself this conceit I say seems to me more subtil than solid For though the matter of it be very true yet it is so wide from the Apostles design in this place that there is little likelyhood he thought upon it when he called the vices here of our corrupt nature our members Without doubt he so doth only because it is in the exercising and acting of these vices that the carnal life of men doth consist For the rest if you remember what we said upon the precedent Text of the death of the old man in us you will not think it strange that the Apostle after having said that we are dead does not yet forbear to exhort us to mortifie the members of this same life which we have put off in JESUS CHRIST For our being dead in this respect doth not import that the life of the flesh is entirely and absolutely extinct in us this will not be effected untill we shall quit it at our leaving of the earth and put on coelestial and spiritual bodies at the day of the resurrection but the Scripture doth thus speak first because JESUS CHRIST hath by His death His resurrection and His ascension into Heaven destroyed and abolished all the causes that gave nutriment and sustenance to the life of the old man and secondly because the old man 〈◊〉 receiv'd his deaths wound in each of us by the faith that ingrafted and incorporated us into JESUS CHRIST so as if we persevere it is not possible that he should recover But this death of His as we said doth not arrive all at once It 's executed by little and little and the exercise of a believer during his stay here below is to busie himself incessantly about it daily to weaken and wound that flesh of his which is already nailed to the cross of his LORD to entinguish by little and little all the life it hath remaining that is to mortifie his members as the Apostle here speaks In this sense you see these two conceptions are so far from having ought that 's contrary or incompatible in them that quite otherwise the one doth evidently and necessarily follow from the other For since we are dead in JESUS CHRIST since the arrest of the death of our old man is past since JESUS CHRIST hath done on His part all that was necessary to execute it since this flesh condemn'd is already fastened to His cross it is evident that it ought to live no longer and that by consequent each of us should incessantly bestirr our selves to put it to death by mortifying its members beating down and weakening their vigour driving deep into them our Saviour's nails and thorns untill they be effectually reduced unto that state of death unto which they were condemned having no more either motion or sentiment or force or life at all in us Lo My Brethren the thing the Apostle means by these words mortifie your members To say it in a word he would have us weaken and extinguish the vices of our old man and put them in such a state of death as hath no more strength nor vigour nor stirring But as this holy man's whole language is full of profound wisdome I am of opinion he thus speaks to give a further blow to those seducers whose error he had been refuting in the fore-going chapter These men to recommend their disciplines gave out that they did not at all spare the body that they had no regard to the satiating of the flesh that they oppos'd its pleasures and humbled and mortified it And you know that this is at this very day the language of those votaries who place Christianity in such exercises They speak of nothing but their mortifications St. Paul therefore doth here correct the vain conceits of this error and sheweth us what true mortification is and that that is worthy of the study and exercise of the faithful It is saith he the members of the old man we are to mortifie and not those of the body It is vices It 's fornication and covetousness and pride that we must quell and kill with blows and not our body And as one of the Prophets sometime said to the superstitious of his age who fasted and afflicted themselves and rent their clothes Rend your hearts and not your garments Joel 2.13 in like manner the Apostle here opposeth the internal mortification of sins as only necessary and truly worthy of a Christian unto the external mortification of the body unto which error did and still doth tye up its self For in truth to what purpose is it to beat a man's breast and rend his back while sin mean time reigneth in his heart To what purpose is it to afflict the members of this body while the members of the
without His death we could not have had the pardon of our sins nor the grace of the Holy Spirit nor the hope of immortality all which are things absolutely necessary to the devesting us of the old man and to the revesting us with the new Whereas now JESUS CHRIST dying on the Cross hath there pierced through and fastned up our old man and by the vertue of His sufferings created and formed in us another new man as different from the old as Heaven from the Earth and Life from Death Therefore the Apostle doth elsewhere conclude from the death of JESUS CHRIST the death of the old man in us and the life of the new 2. Cor. 5.15.17 If one died for all saith he then are all dead and He died for them that they might live henceforth in Him and no more unto themselves If any man be in CHRIST he is a new creature And in another place he saith expresly Rom. 6.6 11. that our old man was crucified with CHRIST that the body of sin might be destroyed and that we being dead with Him might live to GOD in Him Thus the death of CHRIST is at once the destruction of the old man and the production of the new the one was abolish'd by it and the other created This flesh of the mystical Lamb which GOD to day presents us hath slain our flesh and enlivened our spirit and from that Divine blood of His wherein the old man is drown'd is issu'd forth the new created in righteousness and holiness like as heretofore the Israelite was seen to come alive and glorious out of that very gulf of the Red-sea wherein the Egyptian lay sunk and overwhelm'd But oh new wonder as our LORD's flesh and blood is the principle that gives being to our new man so is it his nutriment And as in nature things are sustained by the same means that they were set up so in grace the new man is conserved and increased and strengthened by the same blood of JESUS CHRIST out of which he was formed And that heavenly meat and divine drink which you shall anon receive from the hand of GOD are not given you but for the feeding and perfecting of your new man I go yet further and durst say that this new man whom the Apostle would at this time vest you with is none other rightly considered than the same JESUS CHRIST whom we have put on at Baptism and whom we receive in the Supper propagated if I may so speak and pourtrayed in us by His own vertue who transformeth us into the likeness of His death and resurrection by reason that entring into and dwelling in us He formeth in us a man like Himself that as He did dyeth unto the flesh and with him leaveth in his sepulchre all his old life as an infirm and useless offal and being enlivened with Him and adorned with His light and endowed with an heavenly nature leads thenceforth a spiritual and glorious life Thus you see that the body of CHRIST was crucified and His blood shed and that the one and the other are given us in the Supper to devest us of the old man and vest us with the new This is the end and fruit of all that mysterie unto the participation whereof you are this day called Make account then that the best preparation you can bring unto it is a serious meditating of what the Apostle doth here inform us He exhorted the Colossians afore to mortifie the vices of their flesh and all the infamous passions of that Pagan life they had sometime led in the darkness of their ignorance as fornication covetousness anger evil speaking impurity of language and lying Now to cut up these and other like vices by the root and to comprise all the parts of sanctification in few words he commandeth us to put off the old man with his deeds c. There are others that take these words for a reason of his precedent exhortation drawn from that estate which JESUS CHRIST had put them into by Baptism as if his meaning were that they are obliged to renounce the vices he had been forbidding them since in their Baptism they did put off the old man on which these vices depend and of which they make up a part and put on the new which is contrary to them and incompatible with them Whether you understand it thus or take the text simply for a prosecution of the precedent command shewing us that for the due execution of it we must perform what is here added all amounteth to well-nigh the same sense And for the right comprehending of it we will treat if GOD permit of the three points which offer themselves in the Apostle's words first of the old man which we must put off secondly of the new which we must put on and the form it consisteth in to wit a renewing in knowledge after the image of Him who created it and in fine of that indifferency of nations and ceremonies and conditions which the Apostle affirmeth in this matter requiring nothing in reference to it but CHRIST who is the all of it and in all May it please GOD so to inlighten our understandings for the right discerning of this saving truth and touch our hearts to love and practise it effectually sanctifying us by the vertue of His word and precious Sacrament that we may all go out hence new men conformed in purity and charity and every vertue to that LORD JESUS in whose name and communion we by His grace do glory The Scripture sets before us the person of Adam and of JESUS CHRIST as two different stocks of mankind or as it were two opposite heads or principles of this nature which we call humane They have this in common that both the one and the other hath a great number of children which are issued from them and do depend upon them and that each of them doth communicate to his own his being his form his life and his condition imprinting his image on them which every of them beareth according to the quality of his extraction They differ or to say better are opposite in that the one is earthy the other heavenly the one hath a carnal vicious infirm nature full of ignorance and error and subject to death and the curse The other hath a spiritual holy nature full of light and wisdom acceptable unto GOD immortal and inheriting eternity The one propagateth in his children sin and death The other communicates to his righteousness sanctity and life The one transmits his nature by a carnal generation the other imparteth his to his descendents by a spiritual generation and such an one as hath nothing in common with flesh and blood The nature of the one is deprav'd by the empoisoned breath of the old Serpent which creepeth on the ground and liveth on the dust thereof That of the other hath been formed and conserved by the Eternal and coelestial Spirit It 's for these reasons that
utmost and highest point of its perfection in the Heavens when there shall be seen a compleat and Angelical sanctity to shine forth in it with glory and blessed immortality In fine the Apostle doth also briefly touch at both the manner after which and the pattern by which this renovation is wrought in us For the manner of it he saith That this new man is renewed in knowledge thereby shewing that JESUS CHRIST for the communicating of this new Nature which is in Him as in its source unto us doth give us and day by day augment the knowledge of his truth in us for as ignorance and error is the first and principal deformity of the old Man and the cause of all the rest so on the contrary Wisdom and Knowledge is the first and principal lineament of the new Man whereby are formed in us all the other vertues in which it doth consist as Love of GOD and Charity towards men and all the other holy habitudes which depend upon them it being manifest that we love none but the things we know and proportionably to the knowledge we have of them Wherefore the LORD begins the admirable work of his grace hereat And we have an excellent image of this method of his in the first Creation of the World where Moses expresly observes that the first thing GOD created by his Word was Light which is the symbol of Knowledge as darkness is of Ignorance This the Apostle plainly pointeth at elsewhere GOD saith he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness 2 Cor. 4 6. hath shined into our hearts This light of Knowledge once lighted up in our souls by the Spirit of the LORD doth presently expel Vices out of them and shewing us the holy and glorious face of GOD in JESUS CHRIST transforms us into his likeness as saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 3.18 We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD with open face are transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the LORD It 's this he meaneth in the Text when he saith of the new Man that it is renewed after the image of him who created it that is of JESUS CHRIST our LORD For he properly is the Pattern by which that new Nature we are made partakers of is formed He is both the Author and Exemplar of it and 't is for this that it is called by his Name to wit the new Man Therefore the Apostle elsewhere to express the end and effect of his Ministry toward the Galatians Gal. 4.19 saith That he travelleth in birth until CHRIST be formed in them He had no other design but to revest them with the new Man Certainly then the new Man is nothing else but JESUS CHRIST formed in us that is nothing else but the form of this holy and blessed LORD engraven and imprinted on us by the seal of his Word and Spirit which is precisely the thing he here calls his Image If you know JESUS CHRIST you cannot be ignorant what this his form and image is JESUS CHRIST is the Saint of Saints a man full of all purity righteousness charity patience constancy and truth and in sum of all the lights of holiness Sure then his form and image can be no other than a genuine representation of these Divine qualities a soul in which appears a goodness an humility an honesty I say not equal for it is not possible to arrive unto so high a perfection but at least semblable and proportionate to his And this is that which S. Paul elsewhere compriseth expresly in two words saying That the new man is created after GOD in righteousness and true holiness Thus you see Brethren what that Old and what this new Man is which the Apostle speaks of in this place The one is the image of the first Adam and the other of the second He commandeth us to put off the old Man with his Deeds and to put on the New a manner of speaking no less elegant than familiar in Scripture which is wont to say of all the things that are found in this or that subject that it is clothed with them As when the Prophets say that GOD is clothed with strength with Glory and with Magnificence that he is cloathed with Justice that he will cloath his Priests with salvation and their enemies with shame that he will cloath the Heavens with darkness and so in a multitude of other places where it is evident that the term Cloathing is taken figuratively to express simply the putting of any thing in such or such a Subject whether it be internally or externally Whence it follows that to put off on the contrary is simply to quit a thing which one had and rid himself of it Thus to put off the old Man is nothing else but to rid our selves of his Vices and of his corruptness to pluck up for instance out of our hearts his covetousness and his ambition and the habitudes of his other sins But the Apostle expresly addeth that we put him off with his deeds that is to say that we not only pluck up out of our hearts the habits of Vices which are as it were the roots and stocks of it but that also we cut off from our lives all the actions whether interior as desires and lustings or exterior as other sins which proceed from the same and are as so many fruits of this accursed plant For to speak properly the old man is one thing and the act of sin that issues from it another The one is the corruptness it self of our nature the other is the effect it produceth The one is as the Plant and the other as its Fruit. For example cruelty or covetousness is one of the very members of the old Man murder or stealing ing are acts of it The Apostle would have us put off the one and the other that neither Vice nor its acts might have any place in us In like manner to put on the new Man is on the other hand to deck and adorn our understanding our will our affections and all the parts of our life with those excellent vertues in which the new man consisteth as we have said afore to endeavour it studiously and take no rest till we have them formed in us and our whole nature be covered and enriched with them But though these two words to put off and to put on be in this passage figuratively taken yet do they shew us notwithstanding against the gross and sensless error of some that as well the old Man as the New do both of them signifie the form and disposition not the substance and very essence of our nature For when a thing is utterly destroyed we do not say it puts off what it had but that it is perisheth And when the substance of a thing is produced altogether of new we say not that it 's cloathed but created so as the Apostle here commanding us to
faithful it mingleth and consociates them changeth them into one body and one spirit gives them the same will and the same affections Now surther it is to form and conserve this holy union among us that the Apostle does recommend to us the peace of GOD in the second part of this Text. Let the peace of GOD saith he hold the first place in your hearts to the which you are called in one body For this peace of GOD is not that which we have with GOD by faith in JESUS CHRIST His Son when as being appeased by the satisfaction of His Crosse He looks upon us in Him with a propitions and favourable eye as a Father and not as a Judge not imputing our sins to us which may be termed Peace of conscience But it is the peace we ought to have with one another all of us living amiably together as children of one and the same Father and heirs of one and the same grace and glory It 's the daughter of Charity and a fruit of that holy and Christian love which binds us perfectly together The Apostle calls it the peace of GOD first because He loves it above all things and upon this account is often stil'd in the Scriptures the GOD of peace hating nothing in the world more than trouble and discord and contentions and wars Secondly because He commands it us every where in His word And lastly because He is the Author of it who gives it and inspires it by His Spirit into all those that are truly His children And the Apostle hath expresly given it this title in this place for the more effectual recommending of it to us and that He might induce us to receive it with the greater respect as a thing of GOD's holy sacred and divine which we cannot violate without offending grievously that Soveraign Majesty to whom it doth belong 〈◊〉 many waies He willeth that this Peace of GOD do hold the chief place in our hearts The term he makes use of in the original is admirably expressive and elegant for it properly signifies to have the super-intendance of a thing to be the judge and arbiter of it to govern and regulate it and give it law That is the Apostle means that this Divine peace be the Queen of our hearts the mistresse and governesse of all your motions that that keeps them in due respect and with-holds them from ever attempting ought that tendeth to violate or disturb it And if the resenting of an offence for instance or an opinion of our own worth or any other such consideration do begin to kindle wrath or hatred or animosity against our brethren or excite some other passion of like nature in our hearts that this Peace do forthwith advance and stay the commotion and agitation of our minds calming the storm and speedily repelling all these sentiments of the flesh as so many incendiaries or evil spirits without giving them entrance or audience That it do enjoyn us and inspire into us humility and patience when we have been offended regret and the making of satisfaction when we have offended any other and cause us to seek carefully after all that it shall judge necessary to maintain amity and good intelligence among us as kind words and obliging deeds banishing both from our mouths and from our manners all that 's apt to cause or keep up our dividing from our neighbours The advertising of us that this is the peace of GOD were enough to perswade us to give it such place in our hearts But that the Apostle might overcome all possible obstinacy he here further represents unto us two considerations besides which oblige us to give it this super-intendency over our souls The one is that we are thereunto called and the other that we are one body For the first you know that our LORD and Master JESUS CHRIST doth every where call us to this Peace of GOD and that He hath given us precepts for it in His Gospel and examples of it in His life For what was there ever in the world more meek and peaceable than this Divine Lamb He contended not Mat. 12.19 nor cryed and His voice was not heard in the streets as the Prophets fore-told of Him He was gentle and lowly in heart He never repulsed any and received sinners with open arms how bad and abominable soever they had been He invited His greatest enemies unto His salvation and offered His grace to the most obstinate and bore their contradictions without answering again and their reproaches with silence and their rage without exasperation and did weep bitterly for that Jerusalem that rebellious City would not know the things of her peace Such is the pattern He gave us commanding us likewise expresly to be sweet Mark 9.50 and simple as doves without gall and without bitternesse and to be in peace among our selves And His Apostles repeat this lesson to us in divers places Rom. 12.8 as St. Paul here and other-where again If it be possible as much as in you lyeth have peace with all men And it 's for this that JESVS CHRIST came into the world even to pacifie Heaven and Earth Jews and Gentiles Isa 2.4 11.6 7 8. to extinguish enmities and wars and change swords into plow-shares and spears into pruning-books to take away the poison of asps and the cruelty of wolves and the fierceness of lions and transform bears and the savagest beasts into lambs Isa 66.12 and make them all live and dwell peaceably and amicably together finally to make peace overflow as a river as the ancient oracles had magnifically foretold Isa 9.5 by reason whereof He is also expresly stiled the Prince of Peace And you know it was the legacy He bequeathed us when He was preparing to dye for us Joh. 14.2 Peace I leave with you said He my peace I give unto you not to speak of the blessing and the dignity He promiseth those that shall love the same Blessed saith He are the Peace-makers Matt. 5.9 for they shall be called children of GOD. After all this who can doubt but He calleth all His unto peace as the Apostle here affirms Since He forms them to it by His voice by His lise by His promises and by the whole design of His Mediatorial Office But besides the command and order He hath given the very estate and condition He hath by His vocation put us in doth manifestly oblige us thereunto and this the Apostle represents unto us in the second place when having told us that we are called unto peace he adds in one body or to express the full and whole force of the Greek words in one only body It 's a doctrine universally received and most expresly asserted in divers places of Scripture that the whole Church doth make up but one only mystical body of which JESUS CHRIST is the head and the faithful are the members being animated under Him with one and the same
the name and title they have in Christian Morality Works that are the same as to the external action do sometimes prove nevertheless very different and even contrary one good another bad because the Spirit that produceth them is not the same As for instance the alms of an ambitious man and of a true believer have no external difference the ones act in that regard is the same the others is yet if you consider the inward springs of them both you will find that the one is a piece of vanity and the other a fruit of charity Whence it comes that notwithstanding all the resemblance they have in open view they are yet at the bottom works of a quite different nature the one evil and condemned of GOD the other good and acceptable to the LORD The one with all its outside paint and colour is an act of vice the other of vertue The same is to be said of those two kinds of Preaching which the Apostle mentions in the Epistle to the Philippians the one of those that Preached CHRIST through envy Phil. 1.15 16. and of contention the other of such as preached Him of good will and of love The language of them both was the same but the diversity of their designs render'd their actions so different that the one 's to say the truth was a sacriledge and an abomination the other 's on the contrary one of the best and most excellent works of Christian piety and charity Thus you see the rule which S. Paul gives us to order all the external actions of our lives our words and works even that we do all in the Name of the LORD JESVS The rule is short and easie but of vast and almost infinite use As a little square serve 's an Artificer to design and mark out a multitude of lines and to discover and correct all those that are amiss so by this little rule which the Apostle puts in our hands there is no humane action but we may certainly perceive whether it be right or wrong good or evil and conform to the will of GOD or otherwise neither is there any part of our lives but this rule if we take care to adjust them by it is capable of guiding and forming unto perfection Now as the name of GOD in Scripture signifies sometimes that Ebrew word of four Letters which the LORD takes for His name and memorial distinguishing Himself by that appellation from all those GODs to whom the error of Nations wrongfully gave that quality and the honours due to it so likewise the name of JESUS is sometimes taken for this very word JESUS which as you know is the name that was given Him by the express command of GOD. And so those of the communion of Rome seem to understand it Phil. 2.10 in that passage of S. Paul where it is said that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth uncovering as oft as they hear the word JESUS pronounced as if the Apostles meaning were that all creatures coelestial terrestrial and infernal should do reverence when those two Syllables JESUS are uttered Wherein verily they are much mistaken the import of that passage beeing quite otherwise It 's not thus neither that S Paul takes the name of JESUS in our Text as if he simply intended that in our actions and discourses we should not fail to intermix alwayes the word JESUS having it incessantly in our mouths and never doing nor saying any thing without pronouncing it first Far be it from us to imagine that such a thought should fix upon the Apostles mind It is not the word nor the letters or syllables of this name that he recommends unto us I grant we cannot have it too much in our mouths provided it flow into them from the heart and that it be a religious and respectful consideration which makes us mention it and not a vain and childish superstition as if there were some secret vertue annexed unto words We are to note then in the second place that as the Name of GOD is very often taken in Scripture for the power the authority the will respect and consideration of GOD in like manner is the Name of JESUS Thus Moses foretelling the coming of the Messiah Deut. 18.19 And it shall come to pass saith he that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak in my Name I will require it of him Which He shall speak in my Name that is by my order and authority and in acquitting himself of the charge which I have committed to Him And it 's thus we frequently read that the Prophets spake in the name of GOD that is by His express command they being sent and dispatched from Him 2 Kings 2.24 And it 's said of Eliah that he cursed the children that reviled him in the name of the LORD that is by His authority And this form of speech was so common among the Jews that the Priests and Elders demanded of the Apostles in the fourth Chapter of the Acts Acts 4.7 in whose name they had done that miracle meaning upon whose authority and by whose order they had undertaken it The same exposition is to be given of that which the Psalmist singeth We will boast in the name of the LORD our GOD Psal 20.8.25 that is in His help and power and speaking of the faithful unto GOD They shall rejoyce saith he in thy name that is in the confidence they have in thy power and goodness of like import is that which he addeth that the Horn of His anointed shall be exalted in His name that is by His might and by the vertue and order of His providence So David entring into combat with the Philistin 1 Sam. 17 4â— Thou comest against me saith he with a sword and with a spear and with a shield but I come against thee in the name of the LORD of hosts whom thou hast defied In the name of the LORD that is for His glory which thou hast reproached and in assurance of His protection and succour in the same sense that King Asa mean't it on a like occasion Help us saith he O LORD our GOD. For we rely on Thee 2 Chr. 14.11 and are come forth in Thy name against this multitude that is in Thy quarrel and with confidence in Thee It 's therefore in the same manner we are to take this phrase in the name of CHRIST which often occurs in the Books of the New Testament as in S. Matthew Prophecying and casting out Devils in the name of the LORD that is Mat. 7.22 24.5 Acts 5.28 by His authority and in His might and when men are said to come in His name that is to avouch themselves His and to affirm themselves sent by His order to speak and teach in the name of JESVS CHRIST and likewise to be assembled in His name
GOD. Let us eschew at once these peoples miscarriage and their misery and according to the Apostle's prudent and divine injunction whatever we do whether the action be addressed unto GOD or respect our neighbour do it all as unto GOD and not as unto man Let us seek for neither other spectator nor other remunerator than Him alone Be we content with his approbation and with the testimony of our own consciences whatever censure men do pass upon us being assured as St. Paul here adds that if we serve the LORD if it be Him we obey if it be to His will and glory that we consecrate and direct the course of our lives we shall infallibly receive from His bountiful hand the reward of the inheritance and on the contrary that they that do unjustly and despising His truth are injurious either to His Majesty or His creatures shall receive what they have unjustly done without respect of persons Looking for so great and dreadful a judgement at which the least of our actions whether they be good or evil shall be examined in presence of the assembly of the whole universe what manner of persons 2 Pet. 3.11 I beseech you ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness Let us search our hearts and make inspection into all the parts of our life let us cleanse our souls and bodies from all filthiness and impurity and timely judge our selves wounding and cutting off with the righteous sword of a lively and serious repentance all the evil we find in our selves and living henceforth justly soberly and religiously without scandal before men and with all good conscience in the sight of GOD that we may next week present our selves at His holy Table to our edification and comfort and appear at the last day before His sacred and dreadful tribunal without confusion to the glory of JESUS CHRIST who hath redeemed us and our own eternal salvation Amen THE FORTY SIXTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. IV. VER II III IV. Verse II. Persevere in Prayer watching in it with thanksgiving III. Praying together also for us that GOD do open us the door of the word to publish the mysterie of CHRIST for which also I am prisoner IV. That I may manifest it as I ought to speak DEAR Brethren Prayer is the Christian's sacrifice the holiest exercise of his devotion his consolation in troubles his stay in weaknesses the principal weapon he useth in combats his oracle in doubts and perplexities his safety in perils the sweetning of his bitternesses the balm of his wounds his help in adversity the support and ornament of his prosperity and in a word the key of the treasury of GOD which opens it to him and puts in his hand all the good things that are necessary for the one and the other life this of the earth and that of heaven Hence it is that the holy Apostles give it us in charge with so much affection and diligence in all those divine instructions of theirs which are come to our hands Not to seek further off for instances of it you see how St. Paul being upon the point to conclude this excellent Epistle to the Colossians after he had informed their faith and regulated their manners and explained their duty both in general towards all men and towards certain sorts of men in particular within the societies in which they live sets an exhortation to prayer at the head of some other documents which he addeth before he makes an end Persevere in prayer saith he watching therein with thanksgiving And in truth it 's with a great deal of reason that he reminds us of so important and so necessary a duty For since GOD is the Father of lights from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift how can we without His favour and benediction either acquire or conserve the faculties and habits of this divine life unto which the holy Apostle would form us together with the vertues that relate to it Since then prayer hath the promise of obtaining from His liberality whatsoever it shall ask of him in faith it 's upon good ground that the Apostle wills the Colossians to address themselves continually to GOD by prayer for the meet and faithful discharging of those duties he prescribed them After this he further adds two advertisements more the one of conversing wisely with those that are without and the other to season their speech the principal instrument of conversation with the salt of grace Whereupon he concludes this Epistle with the praises of Tychicus and Onesimus who were the bearers of it and with salutations he makes them on the behalf of some then with him adjoyning his own to the Colossians themselves and likewise to the faithful of Laodicea This is the summ of this last Chapter of his letter as you shall here more particularly by the will of GOD in the following actions At present we purpose His grace assisting to entertain you with what he saith of prayer in those three Verses we have read and to do it in order we will treat one after another of the two points that offer themselves in the same first of prayer in general Persevere in prayer watching therein with thanksgiving Secondly of their praying particularly and expresly for him which he requireth of them Praying together also for us c. Man being in some sort secretly conscious of his own weakness and knowing how little succour second causes can afford him for the conservation and the happiness of his life is in a manner naturally inclin'd to call unto his aid by prayer that veiled and invisible Deity whose Providence he scenteth in every thing though he perceiveth not its form All religions in the world do give clear and very express testimony to this truth there never having been any known but that had its prayers and letanies addressed to GOD and greatest idolaters and the deplorablest wicked men are wont to cry out when a danger surpriseth them O LORD help me O GOD deliver me lifting up their eyes at that time to Heaven as if nature in that case did its self compell them to do homage to that Majesty which they outrage or blaspheme through the rest of their lives But what Nature doth too too imperfectly teach us we learn plainly and fully from the Scripture where we have both express commands to call on GOD and promises of favourable audience and examples of all holy men under the one and the other Covenant whose orisons the Holy Spirit hath taken care to keep up for us in these sacred registers of the Church St. Paul presupposing therefore here that the Faithful he wrote to had this exercise of prayer familiar among them according to that common principle of nature and of Scripture does only regulate them in the manner of performing it advising them to persevere in it to watch in it and to accompany it with thanksgiving As for perseverance in prayer 't is not without reason that
your children and servants in the same devotion That there may not be a person within your doors but understands and exerciseth himself in this divine liturgie of all Christians Then take heed to acquit your selves in this duty as you ought that is to perform it with fervency attention vigilancy and perseverance to wash your hands in innocence to purifie your souls and bodies for the presenting them unto this supreme and most holy Divinity without offending His sight Ye know what the Prophets say of those whose hands are full of blood even that they are an abomination to the LORD that He is weary to bear them that He abhorreth their devotions and disdaineth their vain oblations that He hides His face from them when they dare stretch out their polluted hands unto Him and will not hear their prayers though they should multiply them to the utmost Wash you saith he make you clean Isa 1.11 seq take away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed do right to the orphan debate the ease of the widow This Christians is the incense wherewith the LORD would have you persume your offerings of prayer that they may be pleasing to Him Hearken to His voice if you desire He should hear yours Obey the word of His Gospel if you would have Him receive the words of your supplications We complain that we have long prayed in vain But let us not disparage His veracity rather confess we have not prayed as we ought that is with such faith such repentance and amendment of life as necessarily should have accompanied these sacrifices Henceforth then for it is yet time turn ye unto Him with all your heart and lift up pure hands without wrath and doubting and vigorously persevere in this holy exercise with assurance that He will hear you But Dear Brethren among other things which you shall crave of GOD pray Him also for us that He would open us the door of the word to the end we may declare the mysterie of CHRIST and manifest it to you as we ought For if Paul a chosen vessel made and formed immediately by the hand of Heaven consecrated by CHRIST's own voice and fill'd with the treasures of His Spirit in all abundance did notwithstanding require the assistance of the Colossians prayers in the administration of this charge how much more is the succour of yours necessary for us for us I say who in comparison of him are but children We conjure you therefore both by the glory of our common Master and by the interest you have in His work that you never fail to remember us in your sacrifices of prayer but alwaies beseech this supreme LORD to perfect His strength in our weakness to give us a mouth fit to declare His mysteries and to purifie our lips as He sometime did His Prophets and untye our tongue as He did Moses's and fill our souls with that Divine fire which heretofore did in a moment form His Apostles clearing up our minds unto a distinct knowledge of His Gospel wisdom inflaming our hearts with the zeal of His house and cleansing them from the filth of all humane passions Now if the LORD inclined by the ardency and constancy of your prayers do vouchsafe to conferr upon us some small portion of His grace look ye on it as a thing that pertains to you a thing given to your prayer and for your edification Use it and make advantage of it Let it not be said that this great mysterie of CHRIST was declared unto you in vain and that it being manifested to you as it ought ye received it not as you should GOD keep you from such an unhappiness For how weak soever our preaching be it is notwithstanding sufficient My Brethren to render every one inexcusable who shall not have received it with faith neither your ears nor consciences being able to deny but that we declare unto you all the counsel of GOD in His Son JESUS CHRIST Let us all in common beseech Him to deal so graciously with the one and the others of us that all may rightly discharge their duty we speak unto you ye hearken unto us as is meet and that being knit together by a firm and indissoluble Charity we may prosperously advance His work in all sanctity innocence patience and constancy to the glory of His Name the edification of those among whom we live and our own salvation Amen THE FORTY SEVENTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. IV. VER V VI. Verse V. Walk wisely towards those that are without redeeming the time VI. Let your speech be alwaies with grace throughly tempered with salt that ye may koow how ye ought to answer every one DEAR Brethren while the Church of CHRIST is here on earth it 's condition is to sojourn for the most part amid people of another profession For though the merit of our LORD and Saviour be sufficient to bring all mankind unto the communion of GOD and though his salvation be tender'd by His own will and order to all those that have His Gospel preached to them yet so horrible is the obduration and blindness of our nature that the most of men abide out of the covenant of GOD wickedly and foolishly rejecting the great honour He offers them Divers whole Nations there are that irritated with the same fury have utterly shut the door against JESUS CHRIST refusing to suffer any of His servants within their coasts And even of those in which He hath some reception it is commonly but a little part that doth acknowledge Him the greatest and most considerable in the world persecuting Him or deriding His mysteries Not so much as private families but the Gospel sometimes makes this partition in The same roof often covereth persons of different religions 'T is a division which JESUS CHRIST hath raised in the world not that He positively willed and design'd it or that such is the nature of His doctrine neither of those doth properly tend but to unite all things and recombine Earth with Heaven in an eternal peace but it grows from the naughty and the cruel disposition of men who despise His counsel and disdain their own salvation Once by this means it com's to pass that the Kingdom of CHRIST remains as it were inlock'd with forcin States and His faithful ones mingled among persons of a contrary religion with whom this commune habitation doth of necessity oblige them to have much commerce This is the reason why the Apostle having regulated afore most of the duties of our life do's here in a few words point out in what manner we should converse with these aliens as to faith among whom we are dispersed And this advertisement was at that time the more necessary for that Christians in those beginnings which were as the nativity of the Church saw themselves environed on all sides with Jews and Pagans the two religions which then took
man judge you and this word doth aptly suite the Apostle's sense For these Seducers would make their ordinances about the distinction of meats and dayes to pass for necessary laws which they meant to impose on the faithful and by the same judge them praysing and approving such as absteined from the meat they forbad them and observed the dayes they had marked out to them and condemning as guilty of a sin those that failed to doe the one or the other And the Apostle a little after the Text mocking at their pretended laws will shew us the form of them Why saith he are ye charged with Ordinances to wit Eat not taste not touch not And this is that which should be heedfully marked For as concerning those who through a certain feebleness of mind did at that time still scruple the violating of these Mosaical distinctions but however without condemning such as practised otherwise or obliging them to such observations as necessary things those the Apostle would have to be supported with patience and sweetnes and he sharply reproves such as gave them any offence But though he hath this condescendency for the infirm yet he is altogether rigid and inexorable against these pretended teachers who acting the Legislators would put Christians under their yoke and not content with that supportance which would have been given to their infirmity did pretend to make others subject to it and fiercely condemned those that observed not their traditions It 's to them what he saith here is addressed Let no man condemn you let no man judge you And if notwithstanding his prohibition these men have the presumption to proceed and condemn Christians for such things it is evident that in this case he would have us despise all their judgements their fulminations and their anathema's holding them themselves worthy of condemnation since they dare to make laws in the house of GOD according to the instruction he gives the Galatians about the same Gal. 1.9 If any one evangelize to you beyond what you have receiv'd let him be an execration It 's thus that the Apostle guardeth and fortifyeth the liberty of Christians in reference to meats and dayes against the attempts of all such as would intrude to make laws in the Church about such things being indifferent in their own nature But because these false teachers covered themselves with the authority of Moses to the end that this pretext might not dazle the eyes of the simple he prevents it and granting that such distinctions had place yer-while in Judaism by the ordinance of GOD he shews by the quality of their nature that the usage of them is ceased now under Christianity This is the signification of those words which he addeth for the second part of the Text. The which things saith he are shadows of those that were to come but the body of them is in CHRIST It is evident he means the distinction of meats the feasts the new Moons and the Sabbaths of which he had been speaking and in general all other like things and he saith that they are shadows of things which were to come not to signify that they still subsist of right on the contrary he affirms that they have no more place but simply to declare unto us what their nature is and for what end they were both instituted of GOD and practised during their time by His people He saith then that they are shadows of things to come of which the body is in CHRIST A shadow is the representation of a body but an obscure one and gross and imperfect and such as shews us meerly some of its lineaments and not the lively colour and true form of its members Whence it comes that this word is taken in the Greek language in which the Apostle wrote for that which we call a rough draught which is a dark and gross painting done only with lines and not with the lustre and diversity of colours opposed to that which they call painting to the life And S. Paul himself doth elsewhere make this opposition when he saith that the law had a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 and not saith he the lively image of the things and again in another place he stileth the law the pattern Heb. 8.5 and the shadow of heavenly things But here as you see he takes the word shadow properly and not figuratively for a rough draught opposing it to the body its self which it representeth and not to another kind of more express and more lively image What then is this body of which the legal observations were shadows It is saith the Apostle things to come a body which is of CHRIST or in CHRIST The things he meaneth were already come and accomplish'd for the most part at the time he wrote forasmuch as CHRIST in whom they are having been manifested hath fullfilled all the mysteries of salvation But the Apostle considering them as in the time when the shadows were afoot under the Law calls them things to come because at that time they were indeed not come CHRIST who was to exhibit them being not then revealed At that time they were future now they are present These things my Brethren are the Offices and the Benefits of our LORD JESUS and all the parts of that heavenly discipline which He hath brought into the world The Apostle therefore saying that legal observances were shadows of them doth mean first that they figured them and referred to them and secondly that that representation of them which they afforded was dusky and obscure and gross that it was not a clear distinct and lively pourtrait of them but only as it were a tricking a naked and simple delineation such as a shadow is in respect of the body which projects it This was one of the principal offices of the Mosaical law even to figure out the CHRIST that was to come For GOD having purposed in His infinite wisdome for just and great reasons not to send CHRIST into the world until the last ages and as the Scripture speaks the fulness of time did judge it meet to give in the mean time the figure model or designe of this great master-piece of work in the law of Moses First for the entertaining of His people during this time of their minority in those low and puerile exercises which suited with the weakness of their age until the revealing of CHRIST as the Apostle excellently teacheth us Gal. 3.4 in his Epistle to the Galatians Secondly He proceeded in this manner for the justification of His Gospel when it should be once come For the shadows and delineations of it which we see in the law do clearly shew us that it is the workmanship and designement of GOD and the admirable resemblance between these ancient figures long since drawn by His own hand in the Tabernacle of Moses and the bodies of the things that have been revealed in JESUS CHRIST doth irrefragably prove that He who
with so rich a portion not envy any of the creatures the perfections and happiness they have Our whole life would be a perpetual feastival whereon free from the travail and turmoil of worldlings contemplating in spirit the glory of the Palace of our LORD meditating His promises breathing after His benefits and enjoying them for the present by faith and Hope we should in repose wait for the blessed day of our glorious triumph But alas how far are we from such a felicity This wretched and perishing earth is the sole object of our minds Our souls are no less fastned to it than our bodies It swalloweth up all our thoughts it possesseth our affections it takes up our cares and our labours and hath the use of all our time We have no desires and love but for the false goods which it sheweth us nor fear and horrour but for the evils wherewith it threatneth us As for Heaven and the things it comprehendeth we are so far from seeking them that we not so much as think of them except it be dreamingly or in manner of a divertisement when we are told of them in this place looking on the stately representations which JESUS CHRIST hath drawn us of them as an empty picture fair indeed and pleasing but good for nought saving to feed our eyes with a short and bootless pleasure not attracting nor engaging our desires This is the cause why our whole life is miserable full of griefs and fears of weaknesses of regrets and infelicities The least strokes overturn us the least losses and slightest afflictions bear us down because not being fastned to Heaven the only firm and sure place of the World we fluctuate exposed to the mercy of all that comes against us And as children cannot be appeased when their puppets are taken from them because they have set all their affection on them so are we seized and do take on when we come to lose some of these toyes of the earth There is no way to comfort us because we have fastned our hearts to them And to say truth our condition is worse than other mens they at least are subject but to the evils that either the infirmity of nature or as they call it the inconstancy of fortune do bring with them whereas besides these the bad Christian who is not a Christian but in name is moreover exposed to the persecution of the World so as to say plainly there is nothing more foolish nor more wretched than he who hath part in the temporal sufferings and hardships of true beleevers and none at all in their consolation or blessedness inasmuch as his profession exposes Him to the hatred of the World and his vice excludes him from the Kingdom of GOD. Awake then ye that are worldly and come once out of so dangerous an errour Let not the trumpet of Heaven the voice of our great Apostle have founded now in your ears in vain Do not add this contempt to your other crimes He hath advertised you of your duty He hath declared the reasons that oblige you to it Take heed lest if you shut your ears against JESUS CHRIST who speaks by His mouth you perish in the end with this earth and the things you seek on it How do you not perceive that you shall never find there the happiness you seek Why hath not the experience of so many millions of persons who daily spend themselves in this vain labour taught you that the things of the earth are all of them but vanities and illusions transient figures which promise pleasure honour and contentment but afford none which do not cure the maladies of the body nor of the soul which infinitely toil out those that seek them and never fill the hearts of those that possess them multiplying their desires and their fears inflaming and envenoming their passions instead of extinguishing them which are subject to infinite mutations which men and elements may bereave you of every moment and which considering the short and uncertain duration of the life we lead here below you can enjoy but a very little time supposing that nothing does deprive you of them before death At that time Matt. 16.26 What will it profit a man to have gained the whole world and lose his own soul It is sure a blindness incredible to one that saw it not I do not say that a Christian who hath hopes of the world to come but that even any reasonable man should adhere with so ardent and obstinate a passion unto such wretched and fruitless things We perceive it and confess it and make the bravest discourses in the World upon it and after all that false lustre which we behold in these things hath such a faculty to bewitch our senses that not a person but lets himself be caught thereby But the worst is that besides errour and vanity there 's in it a tendency to eternal damnation For men may not slatter themselves None can serve two Masters nor look on Heaven and earth both together He that seeks the one must of necessity renounce the other it being no more possible to seek than it 's to find at once the things beneath and those which are above Faithful Brethren choose you and take the better part and leaving worldly men to labour in vain after the things of the earth and to seek in it what they shall never find turn you your hearts and eyes towards Heaven as the Apostle calleth you to do There Christian is the felicity you desire There dwelleth rest and joy and immortality and the perfection of both soul and body These are the only things that are truly worthy of your prayers and your pains Seek them and mind them night and day Give your selves no rest till you have found them and do feel the first-fruits and beginnings of them in your hearts Let these thoughts sweeten your sufferings and consolate your losses T is in vain that you threaten me ye people of the World You cannot deprive me of what I possess nor hinder me from finding what I seek since upon the things of Heaven you have no power Whatever you bereave me of the best part of my treasure and the only part that deserves that appellation will still remain entire to me Let the same thought arm us against all tentations Thou Tempter promisest me the things of the earth but I seek those of Heaven which thou canst not dispose of Though I should lose all I have here below even to this flesh its self yet shall I find it again with a thousand-fold increase in Heaven Let this thought again keep us continually busied in the good and worthy actions of piety charity and honesty Let our manners resemble those of the inhabitants of that divine City which wee seek Let the light of their knowledge the ardency of their love the purity of their affections shine forth now betimes in our lives 'T is that to which that new nature JESUS
CHRIST hath given us in raising us again with Himself doth oblige us These thoughts and works of Heaven are necessary productions of the principles and faculties of that life unto which we have been raised up You can neither be Christians without having part in the resurrection of our LORD nor have part in His resurrection except you walk with Him and wear that lightsome robe of sanctity wherewith He vesteth all the associates of His resurrection He Himself calleth us hereto from that lofty Throne whereon He sitteth at the right hand of GOD Faithful soul saith He to each of us look unto me and I will give thee light Fear not for I govern the Heavens and the earth Only fix thine eyes thy thoughts and thine heart on me and I will guide thee by my counsel and receive thee one day into my glory Dear Brethren this He doth promise us and of this He will give us earnest next LORD's-day at His holy table Let us do what He demands of us or to say better let us pray Him to do it in us and He will assuredly do what He promiseth us Unto Him unto the Father and unto the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen THE THIRTY THIRD SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. III. VER III IV. Verse III. For ye are dead and your life is hid with CHRIST in GOD. IV. When CHRIST who is your life shall appear then shall ye also appear with Him in glory DEAR Brethren The LORD JESUS being not only the author and the cause but also the pattern and exemplar of that great Salvation which GOD of His infinite mercy offereth to mankind in the Gospel it is not possible that we should have part in it or assuredly enter into this rich possession without having in us a resemblance of the same soveraign LORD and being as so many copies of this Divine Original where all His features and lineaments may appear though in a form and measure much less perfect and eminent than His. Rom. 8.28 Of this the Apostle expresly informeth us in his Epistle to the Romans saying that those whom GOD did fore-know that is love and discriminate from the rest of men according to His good pleasure to communicate really faith and eternal salvation unto them He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son Heb. 2.12 13. For this cause He doth us the honour to call us sometimes His children and sometimes His brethren by reason of the resemblance we have with Him the nature the condition the quality and as 't is commonly termed the fortune of children following the fathers and of brethren being like their elder brothers Whence the Apostle concludes in the Epistle to the Hebrews that He who sanctifyeth that is the LORD JESUS Heb. 8.11 and they who are sanctified that is the faithful are all of one that is of one and the same mass of one and the same form and nature And to make it plain to us the Scripture compareth Him sometimes to a Vine-stock Jo. 15. Rom. 11. otherwhile to an Olive-tree of each of which we are branches all of them things between which there is by nature a strict communion the one and the others having the same constitution and qualities And thence again it is that Saint Paul calleth Him our first-fruits when speaking of our death and the resurrection which is to succeed it he saith that CHRIST was made the first fruits of them that slâ—ep 1 Cor. 15.20 the first-fruits as you know being of the same condition and nature with the rest of those things out of the mass whereof they are taken Now although this consormity of the faithful with the LORD JESUS be of a large extent yet it doth principally appear in two heads wherein the Scripture doth particularly consider it to wit in His Death and in His Resurrection the happy remembrance whereof we have celebrated this morning For the death of JESUS CHRIST hath produced a death like it in all true believers reducing them by its efficacy and virtue unto a state conform to His when He was stretched out on the Cross and lay in the Sepulchre In like manner His Resurrection transmitteth into them a life like that which He resumed when having overcome death He issued out of His grave His Death is not only the cause but also the pattern of ours and likewise His Life is both the principle and exemplar of ours It 's of this death and this life Dearly beloved Brethren the effect and the image of the Death and Resurrection of the LORD that we make account to entertain you in this action For after our having celebrated the memory of the death and resurrection of this Great Saviour and participated of the one and the other by the vertue of His Spirit and our Faith what can we more pertinently meditate than the precious fruit which each of them produceth in us and the images of the one and the other of these mysteries which this Divine dead and again risen perâ—â—â— doth draw and form in us inasmuch as He changeth us after a sort into Himself by an impression of His omnipotent vertue so as if we have truly receiv'd Him we are become dead and risen again with Him St. Paui teacheth us this excellent and saving truth in the series of our ordinary Texts by these words which we have read for the subject of this exercise In those that preceded which we expounded eight daies since this great Apostle drew us from the earth that he might elevate us to Heaven where JESUS sitteth at the right hand of the Father Seek saith he the things which are above and not the things which are on the earth But because he knew how difficult such a transportation would be for persons who are still so many waies fastned to the earth to work so high a design thoroughly into us besides the reasons already represented which were taken from our resurrection with the LORD and from His presence and glorious soveraignty in the places he would elevate us to he further proposes two more for that end in this passage The one taken from our death For saith he ye are dead and the other from that new life which we have received a life hidden it 's true for the present in GOD but such as will be plainly and plenarily discovered one day at the manifestation of the LORD JESUS Your life saith he is hid with CHRIST in GOD. When CHRIST c. These are the two principal points we will treat of in this action the grace of our LORD assisting and Him we invocate praying that this word of His may be effectually in us His power to salvation throughly changing us into the similitude both of His salutary death and of His glorious life that being dead unto our selves we may not live henceforth but in Him unto His honour and the edification
spirit and knit together by one and the same Faith Hope and Charity No one hath part in the Kingdom of Heaven who lives not in the communion of this body Sure then it 's one of our greatest concernments to maintain peace among our selves and to put it as the Apostle gives us order in the highest place of our hearts that it may govern with supremacy all our thoughts all our motions and sentiments For there are no natural bodies but their members do conspire and live with one another in a perpetual and inviolable peace The societies of States and Families which are bodies but of another kind namely political and oeconomical are governed in the same manner their primary and most sacred law is that all the orders and persons of which they are compos'd have peace with one another Now if this hath place both in nature and in the societies of mankind how much more ought it to be observ'd in the Church which is a divine a coelestial and supernatural body Our own interest doth naturally require it For as war doth weaken and ruine the States into which it thrusts its self and whose members it divideth so on the contrary Peace establisheth fortifieth and conserves them according to that saying of our Saviour Matt. 12 2◠Every kingdom divided against its self shall be brought to nought and every City or house divided against it's self shall not stand The Apostle addeth in the close and be ye thankful which some referr to the same scope that the rest of the Text hath as if he intended that those thanks we owe to GOD for the free favour He hath shewed us in receiving us unto peace with Him do also evidently oblige us to maintain peace with our brethren And I acknowledge the argumentation is good and pertinent Yet it is better to take this clause for an exhortation he maketh us in general to be thankful towards GOD and towards men For as ingratitude is one of the blackest and most detestable vices expresly enrolled by the Apostle among the marks of those wretched times whose extreme corruption he foretells in the second Epistle to Timothy so is it sure that gratitude 2 Tim. 3.2 or thankfulness is a vertue most necessary of any and in my opinion he went not very wide from the truth who called it the mother of all other vertues Cicers It enkindleth piety in our hearts raiseth up the love of GOD and of His CHRIST and carrieth us to serve and obey Him and by consequence to exercise all honesty and vertue It is certain that upon this account no man sins without ingratitude Add hereto that thankfulnesse is the source of all the services and duties we persorm to our Princes to our Countrey to our Parents to our Superiors and all that have obliged us offices as you know that have an huge extent in 〈…〉 it's with a great deal of reason that the Apostle 〈…〉 give us charge also touching Thackfulnesse Dear Brethren These are the three Vertues which he tells us of in this Text. Let us not neglect any one of them But embrace them all three and deck our lives internally and externally with them In the first place above all let us put on Charity as the soul of Christianity the perfect bond of your union the mark of GOD's children the abridgement of all our duties and the mother of all Vertues Having it you have all and without it you have nothing Without it all the profession you make of the Gospel your prayers your religion and your services are but an empty noise a sounding brass 1 Cor. 13.1 as the Apostle speaks and a tinkling cymbal Because the Israelites wanted this GOD had all their devotions and all their sacrifices in abomination How much more will He reject yours if you have the impudence to present Him any without Charity Now that His Son JESUS hath so magnifically discovered to you the necessity and excellency of it For what can you alledge any longer for excusing your selves from this duty Nature it self verily sufficiently obliged you afore to love your neighbours since that they are your brethren even after the flesh issued from the same Adam and the same Noah animated by the same Spirit clothed with the same body born and bred upon the same earth and if you devest your selves of all the difference that vanity and opinion hath created you will see that in truth there is none at all between you and them You are subject to the same accidents they are and the death that at last brings them down will no more spare you than it does them Having so strict a conjunction with them you ought to look upon them as your other selves and love them as your neer relations and not account any thing that betides them forein or indifferent The Heathen who knew no more had the understanding to draw this conclusion from it But the Cross of our LORD and Saviour hath discovered to us other reasons of Charity that are much more excellent and much more pressing For He so loved men that He died to save them Christian how can you hate or despise persons whom your Master hath so much loved and esteem'd upon whom you see His blood whereby they have been wash'd and purified together with your selves His Spirit with which they have been sealed as well as you The first-fruits and earnests of that heavenly inheritance unto which they and you are called to live eternally together in the same It 's by that they are to be considered and not by what they are upon this earth which with the whole heap of all its pomps and riches and nobility and honours and other pieces of vanity is but a figure that passeth away and perisheth If your neighbour hath nothing on the earth if he be despised and accounted the filth and off-scouring of the world as the Apostle speaks remember that he hath his share in Heaven that he is an heir of this eternal Kingdom the child of GOD and brother of JESUS CHRIST Let this dignity of his which is so high and so precious in the sight of GOD and His Angels induce you to love him to tender him and apply your self to him let it mitigate your resentments if he hath offended you let it stretch for your hands to a ready communicating of the succour of your alms of your consolations and of your good offices if any necessity of his does call for them For such is the nature of true Charity it loves not in word and with the tongue but indeed and in truth Let ours then abound in alms and in beneficence unto the poor in consolations of and in good offices to the afflicted Let it be firm and constant Let not our brethrens ill successes no nor their offences if it befall them to do us any be ever able to break this sacred bond of perfectnesse which spiritually joyneth us and them together in our