Barnabas had wrote them in recommendation of him And thereunto the Apostle adjoyns his own counsel to them Acts 15.39 saying if he come unto you receive him Some conceive that he thus writes because of that ill understanding that sometime hapned between him and Barnabas on the occasion of Mark to shew now that there was no relique of it in his heart However that be 't is certain as we read in the Acts that Mark bewray'd a little weakness at the beginning Acts 13.13 quitting Paul and Barnabas in Pamphilia without any reason amid their conquests But afterward the Grace of GOD so mightily strengthened him and so eminently employed him in converting of Nations that beside the memory of it which remains in all the monuments of antiquity he hath also drawn from the pen of St. Paul two or three very honourable testimonies this here for one Phil. 24. and another like it in the Epistle to Philemon where he mentions him among his fellow-workers and the most advantageous of all in the second to Timothy 2 Tim. 4.11 Take Mark saith he and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the Ministry The third of those whom the Apostle mentions here is Jesus called Justus 'T is probable that his true name was Jesus and that Justus was but the name which the Latines and Greeks gave him calling him Justus instead of Jesus it being usual with them to alter foreign names in that manner when they pronounc'd them in their own dialects We have of this servant of GOD no other memorial at all For though some conceive that it 's the same Justus of whom speech is in the 18th Chap. of the Acts unto whose house St. Paul retir'd at Corinth when he saw the Jews resist his preaching yet this seems not possible because this man was by extraction a Gentile and uncircumcised though he had some knowledge and fear of GOD as appears by St. Luke's terming him a religious man or one that worshipped GOD a character he ordinarily gives to persons of this condition as to Cornelius the Centurion and divers others whereas that Justus who is in question here was indeed a Jew and circumcised as St. Paul sheweth adding immediately of him and the two other afore-named who are of the circumcision and he praiseth them all three in commune saying that they alone to wit of their Nation were his fellow-workers unto the kingdom of GOD and protesteth that they were a consolation to him A great and an illustrious testimonial given them that they laboured with him in preaching the Gospel for the advancement of the kingdom of GOD that is to say for the edifying of the Church which the Scripture ordinarily calls the kingdom of Heaven and in the same sense the kingdom of GOD. Now this is that that the Apostle says of these three servants of the LORD It remains for a conclusion that we intimate unto you briefly what edification you ought to draw from those particulars which we have noted in the Apostles present Text. And first by the pain the Colâ—ssians were in for St. Paul and by the care St. Paul takes for their consolation you may see the ardent and cordial affection which the flocks and Ministers of CHRIST should have for one another Make your profit of it ye the LORD's sheep and tenderly compassionate the labours and the sufferings of your Pastors Ye Pastors do likewise and prefer before all interests of your own the edification and consolation of those sheep whom the great Shepheard hath redeemed with his blood Then again the love which these five faithful men here mentioned did bear unto St. Paul they keeping ever neer him and cheerfully and constantly obeying his orders shews us with what fervour we should serve such as suffer for the Gospel and with what zeal we should inseparably adhere to the Apostles of JESUS CHRIST the Teachers and Founders of the Church For though their persons be no longer here below yet their doctrine is and will remain here to the end and in this respect they are still in their sacred writings sitting as it were on twelve thrones thence judging all the Israel of GOD. Moreover the Apostle's praising all the persons he here speaks of so liberally as he doth may inform us with what candor we should acknowledge the graces which GOD hath imparted to our brethren diffusing the sweet savour of their good name through the Church and honouring their zeal and their fidelity with our testimonials to their comfort and the edification of their neighbours Far from us be envy and malignity and pride passions of a base alloy and unworthy of a truly noble Christian disposition Let not the graces and dignity of Paul induce him to despise Onesimus I mean let not the advantages of such as are greatest cause them to disdain the least But consider we particularly the examples of each of those five faithful men and imitate them For it 's to this end that the holy Apostle hath proposed them and thought meet to consecrate the memory of them in his divine and immortal Epistles not that he might oblige us to dedicate festivals to them or render them religious worship or invocate them as our Mediators away with such a thought for all this appertaineth to GOD only The true honour we owe them is to serve GOD after their example and conform our lives to theirs and draw the pourtraict of their high and holy vertues on our dispositions and our actions Imitate we the fidelity of Tychicus the repentance and faith of Onesimus the courage and the patience of Aristarchus the laboriousness of Marcus and of Justus in the matters of the Kingdom of GOD. Let not meanness of birth or of condition let not the greatness of sins discourage any JESUS CHRIST rejecteth neither the poor nor the peccant that come to him with faith witness Onesimus who though a bondman and fugitive yet so effaced all this ignominy that he hath praise from the mouth of the Apostle and his name engraven here in the temple of GOD among the names of the most illustrious Servants of His. If you have followed the LORD constantly and evenly as Tychicus and Aristarchus did thank Him for the grace He hath shewed you and go on from good to better If it hath befaln you as it did Mark to slacken sometime in the work of your heavenly calling resume likewise as he did your former vigour and reduce your selves to that pass as it may be said of you that you are useful for the LORD's service In general Beloved Brethren let us all be as these holy and happy persons were fellow-workers with the great Apostle unto the Kingdom of GOD burning with him in an holy zeal to glorifie JESUS CHRIST living with him in all pureness and sanctity employing with him our tongues our hands and our pens for the converting of men and edifying of the Church and finally couragiously suffering with
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
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
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
naturally Let us learn then in the second place to give the LORD alone the whole glory of all that we are in His Son as in reality it belongs to none but Him He hath not only given us this rich inheritance the purchase of the blood of His Son CHRIST He hath even given us the capacity to enter into it and possess our part of it Besides His making us the present He hath also given us the strength to receive it For it is not with the inheritance of GOD as with the honours of earthly Princes these fall often into the hands of persons most uncapable to possess them That Divine honour of the Heavenly inheritance is given to none but those that are capable of it that is who have the conditions requisite for having part in it to wit faith and repentance But the same GOD who hath prepared the heritage for us gives us also the preparation which is necessary for entring into it according to what the Apostle saith elsewhere 2 Cor. 3 5. Joh. 6 44. It is GOD who is our capacity or sufficiency and what our LORD Himself averreth in St. John No man can come unto me except the Father who hath sent me draw him This again is that which the Apostle intendeth Phil. 2.13 in the Epistle to the Philippians That it is GOD who produceth in us with efficacy the will and the deed according to His good pleasure 2 Cor. 5.5 Eph. 2.10 1 Cor. 3.9 And elsewhere he compriseth this whole work of the grace of GOD in one only word saying It is He that formeth us for the self same thing Therefore he calleth us in one place the workmanship of GOD and His Creation in JESVS CHRIST and in another His husbandry and His building Whence it doth appear that the offer of grace which is made to all by the Gospel if there be nothing else doth not give us part in the heavenly inheritance I grant it is sufficient in its self and would produce its effect in man if the badness of his heart had not blinded him But this deplorable blindness he hath obstructeth the effect which these offers of the divine Grace should produce Wherefore GOD himself maketh us capable of them by that inward operation of His Spirit wherewith He accompanieth the preaching of the Gospel in the hearts of His elect by reason whereof they are called the taught of GOD. Joh. 6.45 It 's this teaching which renders them capable of entring into the communion of His Son according to what He saith in St. John Whoever hath heard and learned of the Father Ibid. cometh unto me Thus He made Lydia capable of having part in his inheritance opening her heart to understand the things Paul spake as the sacred History doth report It 's without doubt in the same manner He also made both St. Paul and these Colessians and all the rest of the faithful capable of the same effect enlightning them within and leading captive their hearts into the yoke of the Gospel In fine we may again observe how contrary to Apostolick doctrine the presumption of those is who vaunt them of meriting salvation If there be any thing in us to which merit is attributed without doubt it is our capacity and sufficiency that we are meet to partake of the Kingdom of GOD. But this very thing is a present from GOD for which we owe Him most humble thanks How then and by what right can we in justice demand pay and wages for it Would it not be altogether as if a patient should enter action against his Physitian and compel him to recompence the being cured by his art Or a poor man demand wages of us for receiving our almes or a prisoner for having been redeemed with our money Let a man turn and transform things as much as he will it is clear that gratification and merit are incompatible and that He who is of right obliged to render thanks cannot without folly pretend to have merited by that very thing for which he renders thanks Our sufficiency and capacity is a gift of GOD or it is not If it be a gift of His why pretend you that it is meritorious If it be not why doth the Apostle thank our LORD for having made us capable to have part in His inheritance The word Inheritance which the Apostle employeth here evidently confirms the same truth as an ancient Doctor of the Church hath well observed Chrysostom it loc Why is it saith he that the Apostle useth the word Inheritance To shew us that no man obtaineth the Kingdom of Heaven by his own works or performances But as an Inheritance depends upon happiness and not upon merit so is it in this matter None can exhibit a form of life and conversation exquisite enough to be worthy of the Kingdom The whole proceedeth from the gift of GOD. To proceed I doubt not but St. Paul took this term from the Old Testament wherein the Land of Canaan destined and given to the Children of Israel for an inheritance according to the promises made to their Fathers was the figure of this blessed spiritual and divine life in possession whereof GOD putteth us by the Gospel of His Son beginning it here below by the consolation and sanctification of His Spirit and reserving to complete it on high one day in the Heavens by the communication of His immortal glory For as each Israelite had his portion in the Land of Canaan the same in substance with the rest but diversly qualified so each believer hath his share in celestial life yet after such a manner as though for the main they all possess the same life nevertheless it is diversly proportioned and relished to each of them Again as none but the Children of Abraham had right and title to that ancient inheritance So there are none but the Children of the promise which are born of the word of GOD and not of flesh or of blood that have part in the new For this cause the Apostle entitles it The inheritance of Saints Away ye unbelieving and profane It is not for you that GOD hath prepared this glorious inheritance Deceive not your selves 1 Cor. 6.10 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor the Effeminate nor Thieves nor Covetous persons nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extertioners shall have part in the Kingdom of GOD. It is designed for Saints alone The portion of the profane and ungodly is elsewhere during this generation in the world and in its wretched delights and when it shall pass away in the lake of fire and brimstone But the Apostle having stiled that salvation which GOD communicateth to us in His Son the Inheritance of Saints addeth further in light As light is in Scripture the symbole of two things knowledge and glory so it may be taken here two wayes either for the knowledge of those divine things which GOD revealeth in His Gospel or for that soveraign joy
which he grounded this assurance â— Tim 4 7. saith particularly That he had kept the faith Whence appears that there are two sorts of persons which shall be excluded from the salvation of GOD purchased by the merit of JESUS CHRIST First all the rebellious and unbelieving that give no faith to the Promises and Declarations of the bounty of GOD as our Saviour said He that shall not believe shall be condemned Mark 16.16 John 3.36 He that disobeyeth the Son shall not see life but the wrath of GOD abideth on him Secondly they that believe but it is for a time only such as abide not in the faith but having receiv'd it at the beginning afterwards quit and reject it Whether it be that the scorching heat of persecution doth dry up and consume the tender bud or the overflowing irruption of pleasures or of worldly affairs doth carry it away Whether it be that the cares of covetousness or ambition do suffocate it or the deceitfulness of error and the hand of false Teachers do pluck it up out of their heart The Apostle therefore requires of the Colossians that to the end they might partake of the salvation of GOD they not only have faith but do persevere in it If indeed saith he you continue in the faith Yet this is not all he willeth moreover That they be founded and firm I grant it seldom happens that this vain and feeble faith which consists only in a naked profession and some slight movings of heart doth endure to the end in those that have it Scandal or tentation most commonly plucketh off their mask and openly carrieth them out of the fellowship of the Church Yet it seemeth not impossible but they may continue even to the last in this estate As a little chaff may abide in the floor if the wind blow not So there is some probability that these same persons in like manner may remain mingled with the truly faithful even until death if persecution or offence do not fasten on them But suppose that this do happen for all that they shall not be saved because the faith they have and in which they will have persisted is a nullity to which GOD hath promis'd nothing it s the shadow and the Idol not the substance and reality of faith Whence it follows that as chaff though it remain in the floor yet is not lock'd up in the Granary with the Wheat but left out or burned as an useless thing So likewise these people that have but this vain faith suppose they do abide in GOD's floor that is in the external Communion of the Church unto the end yet shall not for all this enter into His heavenly Garner that is His Kingdom but be excluded thence and rejected as having no lot or portion with true Believers They will think it fair to alledge that they have lived in the Church of CHRIST that they have perhaps even prophesied and cast out Devils and done wonderful works in His Name the LORD will openly tell them I never knew you Depart from me ye that make a trade of iniquity Mat. 7.22.23 The Apostle therefore to shew that he speaks of perseverance not in this vain shadow of faith but in true faith doth not simply say If ye continue in the faith but addeth being founded and firm If the Hypocrite or the Temporary do continue in the Profession or in the rudiments of Piety it is not because they are founded but because they are not tempted as a woman that remaineth chaste only for not having been sollicited to evil They ow their perseverance to the enemies favourableness and not to their own firmness This false constancy may deceive a man who seeth but the outside and the event of things But it cannot deceive GOD who knoweth the inside of it and who soundeth hearts and judgeth of things by what they are not by what they appear or by the events they have The Apostle therefore willeth that for partaking of His salvation we have true perseverance and do continue in the faith not simply and in any sort whatever but through being founded in it and firm GOD doth save such only It is but for them that He hath prepared His Kingdom The former of these two words here used by the Apostle is taken from buildings which being founded deep in the earth upon a rock are firm and solid and of proof against time and storms whereas buildings which have no foundation or but on sand are feeble and unable to resist the shock The LORD made use of this same comparison in the Parable we touched at the beginning and He reâ—â—â—ects on it too in that famous promise which He made S. Peter of building His Church in such manner on the stone that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The other word which the Apostle useth hath the same meaning and properly signifies in the Original a thing in such a settlement as 't is difficult to move and stagger it A thing that is fixedly seated and placed and neither branleth nor changeth This is the settlement of true Believers who shall have part in the salvation of GOD. Their faith founded on the Eternal Rock JESUS CHRIST their Lord seated and placed upon this immovable Basis abideth firm and not to be shaken The torrents and the winds do shock it in vain the tempests and the floods may beat upon it they cannot overthrow it Upon this Doctrine of the Apostle we shall raise two Observations The first is That the faith of those who persevere in the sense he intendeth doth differ from the faith of them who revolt not only in the event for that the one faileth and the other persisteth and abideth but also in the nature of the thing it self For the one are founded and firm and the others are not so Who sees not that there is a great difference between a house which is well founded and an house which is but built upon the sand JESUS CHRIST and His Apostle expresly declare that such as stand are founded and that such as fall are not Certainly then the faith of the former is quite different from the faith of the latter and this different success of the one and the others in that the one do fall and the others bear up doth indeed discover to us the difference which is between them but doth not make it It is the effect of it not the cause an argument of it not the original The same thing appears also from the comparing of the one elswhere to wheat and the others to chaff The wheat is not wheat because it abideth in the floor but clean contrary it abideth in the floor because it is wheat and in like manner the chaff becomes not chaff because it goeth out of the floor but on the contrary it goes out thence because it was chaff This diversity of events doth evidence the weightiness and firmness of the one and the levity of
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
float in your head to be pluckt away by an enemy on the first occasion It must be engraven on your heart with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond that is you should be so firmly perswaded of it as nothing may be able to efface it and enfeeble your belief of it I know well every one boasteth to be so But there is a great difference between words and things themselves Shew it me by your lives and I will credit it If you be fully perswaded of the truth of the Gospel How is it that you have not the charity which it so necessarily commandeth us How do you hate men whom it commandeth you to love and love the vices which it enjoyneth you to hate Let us lay by words and possess in deed that full certainty of understanding which the Apostle wisheth us This is the true way for us to abide all joyned together in charity to conflict with and overcome our enemies to edifie and preserve our friends to attract those that are without to retain those that are within to enjoy much consolation in all the trials of this world and to obtain in the end the Salvation and the glory of the other through the grace of our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit the true and only GOD be all honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen The SEVENTEENTH SERMON COL CHAP. II. VER III. Vers III. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledg IGnorance of the natures and qualities of the LORD JESUS is the source of all the errors and heresies which have exercis'd the Christian Church from its beginning down to this day 1 Cor. 2.9 And as S. Paul said of the rulers of the Jews that if they had known the true wisdom they would never have crucify'd the LORD of Glory So may we say of the authors of all the false and pernicious Doctrines which men have lusted to introduce into Religion that if they had duly known JESUS CHRIST they would not have ever troubled the Church I pass by the scourges of the first ages the impiety of the Arrians and the Dokites the extravagancy of the Nestorians and the Eutychians together with the numberless branches of the one and the others they all evidently sprung from ignorance of the true being of our LORD JESUS CHRIST and strike directly at Him ruining either His natures by attributing to Him the one a created and imperfect Divinity the others an imaginary and phantastique Humanity or His Person some of them dividing others confounding the natures which are united in it From the same original its clear have come those abuses and disorders which had the vogue in the following ages and which raising themselves by little and little from weak and obscure beginnings have at last got a superiority and suffocated the genuine simplicity and verity of the Gospel Hence proceeded that invocation of Saints which is at this day practised throughout all the Roman Communion Hence hath issued that second sacrifice which they call of the Altar and wherein the heart of Religion is made to consist If men had rightly known the excellency of our LORD's mediation and the effectual extent of His Cross they would never have address'd them to any other Intercessor never have had recourse to any other oblation From the said ignorance also as from a common spring of error have flowed in among people satisfactions and merits of condignity and congruity and indulgences and the rules and odly various Disciplines of Monks and in summ all Superstitions If people had well known what an one JESUS CHRIST is they would have been assuredly content with His Satisfaction and with his infinite merit and with that eternal indulgence which He hath purchas'd for all that believe and with the perfection of His Gospel Hence again hath come the setting up of another Head in the militant Church to be there as the Vicar and coadjutor of JESUS CHRIST If this JESUS whom the Father hath given over all things for an Head to the Church if the fulness of His power and of His wisdom and His infinite love had been well known never had this second Monarchy been erected in His Kingdom In fine we may say to these and to all others that err in Religion Joh. 4.10 as sometime our LORD Himself said to the Samaritan If you knew the gift of GOD and who this JESUS is that speaketh to you in His Scriptures you would seek all your Salvation in Him alone and demand of none besides Him any of the things that are necessary for the refreshment and consolation of your Souls Judg faithful Brethren how much it concerneth us to know Him well and to have Him still before our eyes Since this knowledg sufficeth to secure us from error Accordingly you see with what care the Apostle S. Paul represents Him to us and with what affection he lays out before us all the marvels of this great and divine Subject He described Him before to the Colâ—ssians in a sublime manner and to fasten their hearts to Him alone shewed them that in Him is found all fulness But he contents not himself with this He now informes them further in the Text which you have heard that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg In these few words there is a great deal of sense and truth Therefore we will employ this whole exercise in the explaining of them to you if GOD permit noting in order all that shall seem to us necessary both for the understanding of the Text and for the instruction and edification of your Souls I know well that the relative word whom is in the Original indifferently whom or which and may be referred either to JESUS CHRIST or to the Mystery of GOD whereof he spake just before if referred to the latter it is as if he had said that in this Mystery are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and I deny not but the words so construed do make a veritable sense it being certain that our LORD's Gospel here called His mystery is an inexhaustible treasury of all saving wisdom and knowledg But it is not needful to come to this and in my mind it s more pertinent and more fluent to refer this word to the Name of CHRIST which immediately preceded and to account the Apostle's meaning is that in JESUS CHRIST are hid these treasures which he doth intend Yet at the bottom as you shall see the sense is the same which way soever of the two you understand it And for a right conceiving of it we must first refute the exposition which some do give of this Text and then assert the true meaning There are some that take these words as if Paul would say that JESUS CHRIST knoweth all things and hath so rich and so abundant a knowledg that He is ignorant of nothing It 's a mistaking of the Apostle's
is not yet enough for my consolation CHRIST I confess sufficiently assureth me of the pardon of my sins What assurance doth he give me against so many enemies the world the evil Angels flesh and blood in midst of whom my way doth lye But Christian doth not the same Cross which hath merited your pardon give you also clear and undoubted evidence of your safety during the whole course of your life For since you understand by it that GOD hath delivered up his only Son to death for you how can you fear that he will with-hold any of the cares of his Providence from you Yet this is not all CHRIST JESUS who sheweth us these excellent and sacred verities in his death as it were engraven in great Letters on his Cross holds up others before our eyes of no less importance in his Resurrection Believers neither the pardon of your sin nor the assistance of GOD during your life would be sufficient for you for as much as after all death will swallow you up as well as unbelievers See then further in your JESUS the truth that is necessary to compleat your consolation By committing his spirit at the point of death into the Father's hands he teacheth you that GOD will receive your soul when you depart out of the world And by rising again the third day after he assureth you that your bodies shall one day be rais'd out of the dust And ascending into Heaven he assureth you that you shall be transported thither both soul and body to live and reign there with him in eternal glory As for the way which you must take to arrive at this high happiness his whole life and his death have clearly mark'd it out to you and he still shews it you from that lofty Throne whereon he is set Tread in my steps saith he if you will be exalted to my glory Follow the example of my innocence and of my charity if you desire to have part in the Crown of my Kingdom I have born injuries with calmness and patience I have constantly obeyed my Father even unto my death on the Cross and you see the honour wherewith he hath crowned me Imitate my obedience and you shall receive my recompence This is the lesson which the LORD JESUS giveth us shewing us incomparably more clearly than either the frame or government of the World or the Mosaical dispensation ever did both the Justice of GOD that we may dread him and the Power and Wisdom of God that we may reverence him and his mercy that we may love and serve him with all the strength of our souls serve him I say not with the sacrifices of old Judaism nor with the feeble and childish devotions of Superstition but with a pure and holy heart with works worthy of him with an ardent zeal a sincere charity a constant integrity and honesty a profound patience and humility an immovable hope and confidence These are the Verities which do constitute true Wisdom all of them as you see high and sublime but in like degree useful and salutiferous Here is not question of the nature of Elements of Animals of Plants or of Meteors nor of the motions of the Sun or of the Moon or of the other Planets but of the Beeing and the Counsels and the Conduct of that Great and Most High God who made and formed all those things and in comparison of whom Heaven and Earth are but a Mite of dust Question is not of numbers and figures which can neither diminish your mseries nor make your souls happy but of your peace with GOD of your consolation in this life and of your glory and immortality in the next It 's this which JESUS CHRIST teacheth us that Divine crucified Person who dyed and rose again for us It s this he shews us represented in high and splendid colours through all the pieces of his Mystery However Nature and the Law might discover the brims and first lineaments of this Celestial Wisdom it 's he alone who hath exhibited to us the whole body and shewed us the entire frame and structure of it Conclude we then that it is verily in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hidden as the Apostle saith Embrace we this Conclusion with firm belief and upon it bless we GOD first for that he hath vouchsafed to give his CHRIST unto Mankind and particularly for that he hath communicated him unto us mercifully presenting him to us both in his Word and in his Sacraments Next pray him to open our eyes more and more that we may discern these rich and precious treasures of wisdom and knowledg which he hath hid in him Let not the vileness of his Cross nor the veil of his Infirmity nor the simplicity of his Gospel and these Sacraments wherein he is offer'd to us offend us This very thing if we consider it as we ought makes up one principal part of the wonder and that we may rightly know and value this treasure let us cleanse our minds from the clay and mire of the earth let us purifie our understandings and rid them of the sentiments and opinions of the world which being fastned to its own dung doth prize nothing but the luster of its false honours and the vanity of its perishing riches and the delight of its unseemly pleasures Let us once set free our souls from these fordid and servile passions and acknowledg as is clear and visible and justified by experience that it 's an extream error and folly to seek one's happiness in such wretched things Lift we up our eyes unto Wisdom and desire the possession and embrace the study of it It is the jewel and ornament of our nature its whole dignity stands in it Without it man is little or nothing different from beasts nay in some sort in worse case than they as sinking beneath himself and falling into utmost misery But give we good heed lest we take a shadow for substance and a phantasm for true wisdom Be not deceived This wisdom is only in CHRIST JESUS All that pretended wisdom which hath the acclamations and applauses of people whether in the Courts or in the Schools of the world is but masked folly a disguised extravagance and a painted error which passeth by the principal and necessary part and amuseth its self about that which is of no profit nor any way provides for its own welfare which is the true end of wisdom Seek it therefore in JESUS CHRIST alone It is in him that you shall find the true substance of it And as those that have any treasure are wont to visit it often and have their hearts always in the place where it is so think you night and day upon this Divine Saviour in whom are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Consider him pry into him and diligently sound him He is an Abyss of good things Have your hand ever there and draw thence by faith study and meditation all
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
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
him when the LORD calleth us thereto It 's this way Christians that we shall get to that heavenly Kingdom in which St. Paul is lodg'd after his combats and there receive with him from the merciful hand of our Father the glorious crown of immortality which He on His great day will give to us and to all those that shall have lov'd the appearing of His Son unto Whom with Him and the Holy Spirit the only true GOD blessed for ever be honour praise and glory to ages of ages Amen THE FORTY NINTH SERMON ON COLOSSIANS CHAP. IV. VER XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII Verse XII Epaphras who is one of you a servant of CHRIST saluteth you striving alwaies for you in prayer that ye might abide perfect and compleat in all the will of GOD. XIII For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and for them who are of Laodicea and for them of Hierapolis XIV Luke the beloved Physician saluteth you and Demas also XV. Salute the brethren who are at Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his house XVI And when this Epistle hath been read among you cause that it be also read in the Church of the Laodiceans and that you read also the Epistle from Laodicea XVII And say to Archippus take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the LORD that thou fulfill it XVIII The salutation by the own hand of me Paul Remember my bonds Grace be with you Amen DEAR Brethren The LORD JESUS being upon the point to quit the earth and making as it were a declaration of His last will chargeth His Disciples above all things to love one another with a sincere and ardent affection like that He bore us This mutual love He appoints to be the badge of our profession Joh. 13.35 By this saith he shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Accordingly you know that His Spirit failed not to imprint this Divine mark upon those first Christians whom He formed in the City of Jerusalem by the Apostles preaching Acts 4.32 animated with the vertue of His heavenly fire The whole multitude of them saith the holy story was of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common This union and admirable correspondence continued a long time among the faithful and was observed by the Pagans with wonder witness he who about two hundred years after the birth of our LORD reproacheth Christians that they know one another by certain secret signs and love almost before they are acquainted and all of them call one another indifferently brethren and sisters Now as error and passion do abuse the best things this poor ignorant takes their holy and divine concord for some execrable conspiracy and referrs the mysterie of their amity unto infamous commerces whereas all their union grew from Heaven and was founded upon piety and breathed nothing but honesty and sanctity nor did tend but to the glory of GOD and the supreme happiness of men Beside the Apostles writings which expos'd in publick view did plainly discover to the unpassionate how pure and honest and holy the laws of their charity were the manners and the lives and actions of those primitive Christians did also evidently justifie the same There are left us GOD be thanked divers excellent informations in the books of the first antiquity by which the marvels of the charity and mutual love of those holy men do plainly appear And not to speak of others you have fair and illustrious marks of it in this conclusion of St. Paul's Epistle unto the Colossians who sheweth us that his prison neither hindred divers faithful men from joyning themselves unto him in this affliction nor him nor them again from minding absent Christians and charitably embracing the Churches of Colosse and Laodicea and Hierapolis You here see the love of Pastors to their flocks the dear affection of flocks to their Pastors and the divine communication of Churches one with another Psal 133.1 If therefore it be a goood and pleasant thing as the Psalmist singeth to see brethren maintaining a due entercourse with each other grudge not this hour My Beloved which we yet oblige you to spend in the consideration of this Text having not been able to finish it entirely in our last action Let this admirable amity of the first Christians rejoyce you and give you an ardent desire to imitate it Have ye for one another sentiments and movings of heart like to theirs You have already heard how St. Paul having advertised the faithful at Colosse that he sent Tychicus and Onesimus unto them to inform them of his estate doth give them the recommendations of Aristarchus and Mark and Jesus He now addeth those of Epaphras and Luke and Demas and then his own to the Church of Laodicea and to a faithful man named Nymphas with an order to impart this his Epistle to them and to advertise Archippus of his duty Whereupon he endeth with his ordinary salutation conjuring them to remember his bonds and recommending them to the grace of GOD. For the deducing of these four points by the assistance of GOD in the same order as they are couched in the Text we must first consider who these three persons were whose salutations the Apostle presents to the Colossians The first of the three is Epaphras of whom he spake afore in very honourable terms at the beginning of this Epistle where he stileth him Colos 1.7 8. his dear fellow servant and a faithful Minister of CHRIST and gives him the glory of having instructed the Colossians in the knowledge of the Gospel and of having taken the care to let him know the charity they had for him Here he qualifies him in like manner a fervant of CHRIST that is a Minister of his and an Officer of His house in the work of the Gospel Moreover he informs us that this holy man was a Colossian that is was born in their City or at least made his ordinary abode there Epaphras saith he who is one of you a servant of CHRIST saluteth you Some learned men * Grotius Phil. 2.28 are of opinion that it 's this same Pastor whom the Apostle calls Epaphroditus and of whom he says so much good in the Epistle to the Philippians But I do not see that this conjecture is either founded or followed by any of the ancients I confess that the name Epaphras is a contraction of Epaphroditus and such a diminution is ordinary in the Greek and in the Latin tongue in the proper names of men But if it were one and the same person there is no reason why the Apostle should name him diversly in these two Epistles in the one contractedly and with diminution in the other the name at length and entire Considering withal that no part of what is