SERMONS PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY. SERMON I. PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, 1622. COLOSSIANS i. 19, 20. For it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto himself; by Him, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. the THE whole journey of a Christian is in these words; and therefore we were better set out early, than ride too fast'; better enter presently into the parts, than be forced to pass through them too hastily. First, then, we consider the collation and reference of text, and then the illation and inference thereof. For the text looks back to all that was said from the twelfth verse. For the first word of the text (for), which is a particle of connexion, as well as of argumentation, is a seal of all that was said from that place. And then the text looks forward to the twentythird verse, where all these blessings are sealed to us, with that condition, If ye continue settled in the gospel. This is the collation, the reference of the text; for the illation, and inference, the first clause thereof, For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell, presents a double instruction; first, that we are not bound to accept matters of religion, merely without all reason and probable inducements; and secondly, with what modesty we are to proceed, and in what bounds we are to limit that inquisition, that search of reason in matters of that nature. When the apostle presents to us here the great mystery of our reconciliation to God, he, in whose power it was not, to infuse faith into every reader of his epistle, proceeds by reason. He tells us, That the Father hath translated us into the kingdom of his VOL. I. B dear Son, the Son of his love'. That were well, if we were sure of it; if our consciences did not accuse us, and suggest to us our own unworthiness, and thereby an impossibility of being so translated. Why no, says the apostle, there is no such impossibility now, for, Now we have redemption, and forgiveness of sins2. Who should procure us that? If a man sin against God, who shall plead for him? What man is able to mediate, and stand in the gap between God and man? You say true, says the apostle, no man is able to do it; and therefore, He that is the image of the invisible God, he by whom all things were created, and by whom all things consist, he hath done it. Hath God reconciled me to God; and reconciled me by way of satisfaction? (for that I know his justice requires.) What could God pay for me? What could God suffer? God himself could not; and therefore God hath taken a body that could. And as he is the Head of that body, he is passible, so he may suffer; and, as he is the first-born of the dead, he did suffer; so that he was defective in nothing; not in power, as God, not in passibility, as man; for, Complacuit ; It pleased the Father, that in him, all fulness (a full capacity to all purposes) should dwell. Thus far we are to trace the reason of our redemption, intimated in that first word, for. And then we are to limit and determine our reason in the next, Quia complacuit, because it was his will, his pleasure to proceed so, and no otherwise. Christ himself goes no farther than so, in a case of much strangeness, That God had hid his mysteries from the wise, and revealed them unto babes; this was a strange course, but ita est, quia, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. I would fain be able to prove to myself that my redemption is accomplished; and therefore I search the Scriptures; and I grow sure that Christ hath redeemed the world; and I search the Scriptures again, to find what marks are upon them, that are of the participation of that redemption, and I grow to a religious and modest assurance, that those marks are upon me. I find reasons to prove to me that God does love my soul; but why God should love men better than his own Son, or why God should love me better than other men, I must end in the reason 1 Ver. 13. £ Ver. 14. 5 Ver. 18. 1 Sam. ii. 25. of the text, Quia complacuit, and in the reason of Christ himself, Ita est, quia, It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure was it should be so. To pass then from the collation and reference, by which the text hath his coherence with the precedent and subsequent passages, and the illation and inference, by which you have seen the general doctrine, that reason is not to be excluded in religion, but yet to be tenderly and modestly pressed, we have here the person that redeemed us, and his qualification for that great office (That all fulness should dwell in him). And then we have the pacification, and the means thereof (Peace was made through the blood of his cross). And then the effect, the application of all this, to them for whom it was wrought (That all things in earth and heaven might be reconciled to God by him). In the qualification of the person, we find plenitudinem, fulness, and omnem plenitudinem, all fulness, and omnem plenitudinem inhabitantem, all fulness dwelling, permanent. And yet, even this dwelling fulness, even in this person Christ Jesus, by no title of merit in himself, but only quia complacuit, because it pleased the Father it should be so. In the pacification (which is our second part,) (Peace was made by the blood of his cross,) we shall see first, quod bellum, what the war was, and then qua pax, what the peace is, and lastly quis modus, how this peace was made, which was strange; per sanguinem, by blood; to save blood, and yet by blood. And per sanguinem ejus, by his blood, his who was victoriously to triumph in this peace; and per sanguinem crucis ejus, by the blood of his cross, that is, his death; the blood of his circumcision, the blood of his agony, the blood of his scourging, was not enough; it must be, and so it was, the blood of his cross; and these pieces constitute our second part, the pacification: and then in the third, the application, (That all things might be reconciled to God,) we shall see first what this reconciliation is, and then how it extends to all things on earth (which we might think were not capable of it); and all things in heaven (which we might think stood in no need of it). And in these three parts, the person and his qualification, the thing itself, the pacification, the effect of this, the reconciliation, the application, we shall determine all. And First, in the person that redeems us we find fulness. there had need be so; for he found our measure full of sin towards God, and God's measure full of anger towards us; for our parts, as when a river swells, at first it will find out all the channels, or lower parts of the bank, and enter there, but after a while it covers and overflows the whole field, and all is water without distinction; so though we be naturally channels of concupiscencies, (for there sin begins, and as water runs naturally in the veins and bowels of the earth, so run concupiscencies naturally in our bowels,) yet, when every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually; then (as it did there) it induces a flood, a deluge, our concupiscence swells above all channels, and actually overflows all; it hath found an issue at the ear, we delight in the defamation of others; and an issue at the eye, if we see a thief, we run with him; we concur in the plots of supplanting and destroying other men; it hath found an issue in the tongue, our lips are our own, who is lord over us'? We speak freely; seditious speeches against superiors, obscene and scurrilous speeches against one another, profane and blasphemous speeches against God himself, are grown to be good jests, and marks of wit, and arguments of spirit. It finds an issue at our hands, they give way to oppression, by giving bribes; and an issue at our feet, they are swift to shed blood; and so by custom sin overflows all, omnia pontus, all our ways are sea, allour works are sin. This is our fulness, original sin filled us, actual sin presses down the measure, and habitual sins heap it up. And then God's measure of anger was full too; from the beginning he was a jealous God, and that should have made us careful of our behaviour, that a jealous eye watched over us. But because we see in the world that jealous persons are oftenest deceived, because that distemper disorders them, so as that they see nothing clearly, and it puts the greater desire in the other to deceive, because it is some kind of victory and triumph to deceive a jealous and watchful person, therefore we have hoped to go beyond God too, and his jealousy. But he is jealous of his honour, jealous of his jealousy, he will not have his jealousy > despised, nor forgotten, for therefore he visits upon the children, 7 Gen. vi. 5. 8 Psal. L. 18. 9 Psal. xii. to the third and fourth generation; when therefore the spirit of jealousy was come upon him, and that he had prepared that water of bitterness which was to rot our bowels1o, that is, when God had bent all his bows, drawn forth and whetted all his swords, when he was justly provoked to execute all the judgments denounced in all the prophets, upon all mankind, when man's measure was full of sin, and God's measure full of wrath, then was the fulness of time, and yet then complacuit, it pleased the Father that there should be another fulness to overflow all these in Christ Jesus. But what fulness is that? Omnis plenitudo, all fulness. And this was only in Christ. Elias had a great portion of the spirit : but, but a portion Elizæus sees that that portion will not serve him, and therefore he asks a double portion of that spirit11; but still but portions. Stephen is full of faith; a blessed fulness, where there is no corner for infidelity, nor for doubt, for scruple, nor irresolution. Dorcas is full of good works 13; a fulness above faith; for there must be faith before there can be good works; so that they are above faith, as the tree is above the root, and as the fruit is above the tree. The Virgin Mary is full of grace, and grace is a fulness above both; above faith and works too, for that is the means to preserve both; that we fall not from our faith, and that dead flies corrupt not our ointment, that worldly mixtures do not vitiate our best works, and the memory of past sins, dead sins, do not beget new sins in us, is the operation of grace. The seven deacons were full of the Holy Ghost, and of wisdom; full of religion towards God, and full of such wisdom as might advance it towards men; full of zeal and full of knowledge; full of truth, and full of discretion too. And these were fulnesses, but they were not all, all fulness. I shall be as full as St. Paul, in heaven; I shall have as full a vessel, but not so full a cellar; I shall be as full, but I shall not have so much to fill. Christ only hath an infinite content and capacity, an infinite room and receipt, and then an infinite fulness; he would receive as much as could be infused, and there was as much infused as he could receive. But what shall we say? Was Christ God before, and are 10 Numb. v. 14. 11 2 Kings ii. 9. 12 Acts vi. 5. 13 Acts ix. 36. ! |