ERMONS PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DA¥.
COLOSSIANS i. ] 9, 20. For it plcased the Father, that in Him should ail fulness dwell; and, having ruade peace through the blood of his cross, by I:[im to recovcile ail things unto himself; by Him, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 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 the text, and then the illation and inference thereof. For the text looks back to ail that was said from the twelfth verse. For the iïrst word of the text (for), which is a particle of connexion, as well as of argumentation, is a seal of ail that was said from that place. And then the text looks forward to the twentythird verse, where ail these blessings are seaied to us, with that condition, If ye cotiue settled in the gosTel. This is the collation, the reference of the text; for the illation, and inference, the first clause thereof, For it pleased the Farder, that in should allless dwell, presents a double instruction; first, that we are hot bound to accept matters of religion, merely without ail 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 hot, to infuse faith into every reader of his epistle, proceeds by reason. He tells us, That the Father bath translateà VOL. I. B
2 PREACII}:D ON CHRIST.MAS DA' °. [EERo d«ar,o, te,on Ids love . Tht were well, if we were sure of it if out consciences did hot accuse us, and suest to s out own unworthlness, and thereby an impossibility of being so transhted. Why no, sys the apostle, there is no such imossibility now, for, Now we a re»tion, ad firyiens of SVho should procure us that $ If a ma:» siu çqainst God »allpleadr M»? SVhut man is able to mediate, and sgand in the gap betxveen God and man You say true, says the apostle, no man is able to do it; and therefore, He tkat imçqe tke invisible God, he by whom all thiçqs u'e created, and by «hom all thinys consist, he bath done i . Hath God reeoneiled roc to God; and eeoneiled me by way of atisfaetion (for that I know his justice requires.) What could God pay tr me What eould God suffcr od himself eould hot; and therefore od hath tnken a body thnt eould. And as n the Head body , he is paible, so he may surfer; and, as he is the fir-born v the dead, he did suffe; tht he was defeefive in nothing; hot in power, as Gv, hot in pssibility, as man; for, Co.mplacuit; It pleased the Father, that in kim, all/dns 0 full eapaeity to all purposes) hould du'elL Thus far we re to trace the ason our redemption, intimated in that first word, for. And then we are to limit and determine out reon in the next, Quia cuit, beoeuse it w llis will, his pleasure to proceed so, and no otherwise. Christ hilnself goes no faher than so, in a case of much strangeness, That God ad hid his mysteries from the wise, and revled them mtto bab ; this was a strange course, but ita et, quia, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. I would fain be able to prove to myself that my redemption accomplished; and therefore I search the Scriptures; and I grow sure that Christ bath redeemed the world; and I search the Scriptures again, to find what marks are upon them, tt are of the paicipation of that redemption, and I grow to a religious and modest assance, that those marks are upon me. I find ferons to prove to me tt 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 mmt end in the reoa Ver. 13. t Ver. 14. s 1 8am. ri. 25. * Ver. l& t Ver. 18. blatt. .
mss. L] os s«T[v[T-. 3 of the text, Quia complacuit, and in the reason of Christ himseff, Ira est, quia, It is se, 0 Father, beeause thy good pleasure was it should be se. Te pass then frein the collation and referenee, by whieh tho text hath his eoherence with the preeedent and subsequent passages, and the iilation and inferenee, by which you have seen the general doctrine, that reason is net te be exduded in religion, but yet te be tenderly and modestly pressed, we have here the person that redeemed us, and his qualification tbr that great office (That all fidtess »hould dwell in k/m). And then we havo the pacification, and the means thereof (Peace was ruade throu.qh the blood of his cross). And then the effect, tlae application of all this, te them for whom it was wrought (T]tat all thigs i earth and heaven mitht be 'econciled te God by him). In tho qualification of the person, we find loleMttulbtem, fulness, and omnem loleuitudinem, all fuluess, and omnem plenitudiuem ithabitantem, ail fulness dwelling, permanent. And)-et, even this dwelling fulness, even in this person Christ Jesus, by no title of merit in himself, but only quia comTlacuit, because it pleased the Father it should be se. In the pacification (which is our second art,) (Peace n'as nade by the blood of his cross,) we shall ueo first, quod bellum, what the war was, and then qua: Tax, what the peace is, and lastly quis modus, how this peace was ruade, which was strange; per san9uittem, by blood; te save blood, and yet by blood. And per satguiuem ejus, by his blood, his who was victoriously te triumph in this peace; and per crttci 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 net enough; it must be, and se it was, the blood of his cross; and these pieces constitute out second part, the pacification: and then in the third, the application, (That all things ni9kt be 'econciled te God,) we shall sec first what this reconciliation is, and then how if extends te ail things on earth (which we might think were net capable of it); aud all things in hcaven (which we might think stood in no need of it). And in these thrëe parts, the person and his qualification, the thing itself, the pacification, the effect of this, the reconciliation» the application, we shall determine ai1. ]32
6 PEEACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY. [SER. |- these accessory, supplementary, additional fulnesses to be put to him. A fulness to be added to God. To make him a competent person to redccm man, something was to be added to Christ, though he were God; whcrein we see to out inexpressible confusion of face, and consternation of spirit, the inconprehensibleness of mans sin, that even to God himself there was required something else than God, belote we could be redeemed; there was a fulness to be added to God, for this worlq to make it all fuhless, for Christ was God belote; there vas that fulness; but God was hot Christ before there lacked that fulness, lot disputin, therefore, what other ways God miht bave taken for out redemætion, but givin him all possible thanks for that way which his goodness bath chosen, by the way of satisfying his justice (for howsoever I would be glad to be discharged of my debts any way, yet certainly, I should think myself more beho]den to that man who would be content to pay my debt for me, than to him that should intreat my creditor to forgive me my debt,) for this wor] to make Christ able to pay this debt, there was something te be added te him. First ho must pay it in such money as was lent; in the nature and flesh of man; for man had sinned, and man nmst pay. And thon it was lent in such money as vas coined even with the image of Goal; man was marie according te his image: that image being defaced, in a nev mint, in the womb of the blessed Virgin, there was new money coined; the image of the invisible God, the second person in tho Trinity, was imprinted into the human nature. And thon, that there might be all fulness, as God, for the payment of this debt, sent clown the bullion, and the stamp, that is, Goal te ho conceived in man, and as ho provided the mint, the womb of the blessed Virn, se hath ho provided an exchequer, where this money is issued; that is his church, where his merits should bo applied te the discharge of particular consciences. Se that here is one fulness, that in this person dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". Here is another fulness, that this person fulfilled all righteousness, and satisfied the justice of God by his suffering; there was no sorrow like unto his sorrov; it was se full that it exceeded all others. And thon there is a third * Coloss. il. 9.
fulness, the church ', (which is his body, the fulness of him tht tIleth all in all;) perfect God, there is the fulness of his dignity; perfect man, there is the fulness of his passibility; and a perfect church, there is the fulness of the distribution of his mercies and meritsto us. And this is omnisTlenit«lo, ail fulness; which yet is farther extended in the next word, Iihabitait, Itloleased the Father, that all «less shoulà dwell i him. The Holy Ghost appeared in the dove, but he did hot dwell in it. The Holy Ghost bath dwelt in holy men, but not thus; so, as that ancient bishop expresses it, Habitavit in 'alomone per saTientiam ', He dwelt in Solomon, in tho spirit of wisdom; in Joseph, in the spirit of chastity; in Moses, in the spirit of meekness; but in Cristo, inplenitutine, in Christ, in all fulness. loxv this fulness is hot fully expressed in the hypostatical union of the two natures; God and man in the person of Christ.:For (concerning the divine nature,) hero was hot a drain of glory in this union. This was a strange fidness, for it was a fulness of eml)tiness; it xvas all humiliation, all exinanition, ail evacuation of himself by his obedience to the death of the cross. But when it was donc, (s tho apostle speaks in another case,) lest the cross of Christ should be evacuated, and mde of none effect , he came to make this fulness perfect by instituting and establishing a church, Te lolrit of te Lord shall test upo Mm, sa)'s the prophet of Christ. There is a fulness in general for his qualitication: the spirit of the Lord; but what kind of spirit . it follows the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and power, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; we sec the spirit that must test upon Christ is tho spirit in those heams, in those functions, in those operations, as conduce to government, that is, wisdom, and counsel, and power. So that this is Christ's fulness, that ho is in a continual administration of his church; in which he itows over upon us his ministers, (for o.f his fidness bave ail we recelved, and grace for.qrace": that is, power by his grace, to derive grace upon the congregation;) and so of his fulness, all the congregation receives too, and receives in that full measure, That the are filled with all the a Eph. i. 23. s Remigius. ? 1 Cor. i. 17. John i. 16.
8 »RACnn o fule of God'; that is, ail the fulness that was in hoth natures, united in one person, when the fulness of the Deity dwelt in him bodily, ail the merits of that person, are derived npon ns in his word, sacraments, in his church; which church bcing to continue to the end, it is most propcrly said, in him, (in him, as head of the church,) ail fulness, ail means of salvation, dwc]l, and are to be had permanently, constantly, infallibly. 1Now how came Christ hy ail this fnlness, this superlative fnlness in himse|f, this derivative fulness upon us. That his merits should be able to build, and fumish such a bouse, to raise and rectiïy such a church, acceptable to God, in which all fulness should dwell to the world's end. It was only because it pleased God, (for this personal naine of the Father (itpleased the leather) is but added suppletorily by out translators, and is llOt in the 6riginal,) it pleased God to give him wherewithal to enable him so far, for this com¥1acuit is, (as we say in the school,) :ox bene- ¥1aciti, it expresses only the good will and love of God, without contemplation or foresight of any goodness in man; first, we are to consider this fulness to have been in Christ, and then from this fulness amse his merits; we can consider no merit in Christ himself beïore, whereby he should merit this fulness; for this fulness was in him belote he merited anything, and but for this fulness he had hOt so merited. Ylle homo, ut in «nitatem.filiiI)ei ast«meretur, tnde raeruit °. How did that man (says St. Augustine, speaking of Christ as of the son of man,) how did that man merit to be united in one person with the eternal Son of God. Quid e.qit atte. Quid credidit nay, what had he believed. Had he either faith, or works, beforo that union of both natures. If then in Christ Jesus himself there were no lora*visa merita, that God's foresight that he would use this fulness well, did hOt work in God, as a cause fo give him this fulness, but because he had it of the free gift of God, therefore he did use it well and meritoriously, shall any of us be so frivolous, in so important a matter, as to think that God gave us our measure of grace, or out measure of sanctification, because he foresaw that we would heap up that measure, and employ that talent profitably. Vhat canst thou imagine he Eph. iii. 19. Augustine.
could foresee in thee . A propenseness, a disposition to goodness, when his grace should come. Either there is no such propenseness, no such disposition in thee, or if there be, even that propenseness and disposition to the good use of grace is grace, it is an effect of former grace, and his grace wrought before he saw any such propenseness, any such disposition; grace was first, and his grace is his, it is noue of thine. To end this point and this part, non est discipulus supra ma.qistrum; the fulness of Christ himself was rooted in the comTlacuit, it ileased the Fither; (nothing else wrought in the nature of a cause,)and therefore that measure of that fulness which is derived upon us from him (out vocation, out justification, out sanctification,) are much more so we have them, quia complacuit, because it hath pleased him freely to give them; God himself could sec nothing in us till he of his oxvn goodness put it into us. And so we bave gone as far as out first part carries us, in those two branches, and the fruits which we bave gathered from thence. First, those general doctrines, that reason is hot to be excluded in matters of religion; and then, that reason in all those cases is to be limited with the quia complacuit, merely in the good pleasure of God. In which first part you have also had the qualification of the person that came this day to establish redemption for us, that in him there was fulness, (infinite caiacity, and infinite infusion,) and all fulness, defective in nothing, (impassible and yet passible, perfect God and perfect man,) and this fulness dwelling in him, in him as he is head of the church, that is, visible, sensible means of salvation to every soul in his church. And so we pass to out second part, from this qualification of the person, ( t pleased the Father that in him all fu[ness skould dwell,) to the pacification itself, for which it pleased the Father to do all this, that Ioeace miyht be ruade throuyh the blood of his cross. In this part St. Chrysostom hath made out steps out branches. It is much, says he, that God would admit any peace; mayls, per saçoulnem, more that for peace he should require effusion of blood; mayis, quodper ejus, more, that if must be his blood, his that was injured, his that was to triumph; et adhuc mayis, quod per sanyuinem, crucis ejus; that it must be by the blood of his cross, his heart's blood, his death; and yet this was tho case;
He rnade eace troy t blood OE Ms cros. There w then a war before, and a hea war; for the Lord of Hosts was our enemy; and what can all our musrs corne to, if the Lord of Hoets, of all hosts, bave raised his forces against us[ There was a hea war denounced in the [imcitiasonam, when God raised a war between the devil and us. For if we could consider God to stand neutral in that war, and meddle with neither side, yct we were in a desperate case to be put to fiht against powers and principalities, against the devil. How much more when God, the Lord of Hosts, is the Lord even of that ho too [ when God presses the devil, and makes the devil his soldier, to fight his battles, and directs his arrows, and his bulleS, and makes his approaches and his attempts eflctual upon us. That which is fallen upon the Jews now for their sin against Christ, that there is hot in all the world a soldier of their race, hot a Jew in the world that bears arms, is truc of all mankind for their sin against God; there is hot a soldier amongst them able to hurt his spiritual enemy or defend himselt It is a strange war here there are hot two sides; and yet that is our case; for God uses the dcvil against us, and the devil uses us against one another; nay, he uses every one of us against ourselves; so that God, and the dcvil, and we, are all in oe army, and all for our destruction; e bave a war, and yet there is but one army, and we only are the country that is fed upon and wasted; from God to the deuil e bave hot one friend, and yet, as though we lacked enemies, we fiht with one another in inhuman duels; Ubi orimur omlcidw ', (as St. Bernard expresses it poweully and elegantly,) that in tho duels and combats, he that is murdered dies a murderer, because he would haro been one; oclsor liter peccat, occis erliterp«it; he that cornes alive out of the field cornes a dead man, because he cornes a deadly sinner, and he that remains dead in the field is gone into an everlasting death. So that by this inhuman effusion of one another's bloed, we maintain a war against God himself, and we provoke him to that which ho eresses in Iiah , "My sword shall ho bathed in heaven; the sword of the Lord shall ho ruade drunk th blood; their land shall be soaked th blood, and their dust me fat Ad mtes Temph, ser. 1. Is %ç 5.
with fatness." The saine qurrel whieh God hth gins pnrticular men, and paicular nations, for paicular sins, G bath against ail mankind for Adam's sin. And there is the war. But what is the peace, and how are we included in that That is out second and next diuisition, Tat æeace ipt be ruade. A man must not presently think himself included in this peace, because he feels no effects of this war. If God draw none of his swords of war, or famine, or pestilence, upon thee, (no outward war,) if God raise not a rebellion in thyself, nor fight against thee with thine own affections, in colluctions between the flcsh and the spirit; the war may last for ail this. In&cciar«m tempore, bell«m nanet, licet pu.qa cesset; though there be no blow stricken, the war remains in the time of truce. But thy case is hot so good; here is no truce, no cessation, but a continual preparation to a fiercer war. Ail this while that thou enjoyest this imaginary security, the enemy digs insensibly under ground, ail this while he undermines thee, and will blow thee up at last more irrecoverably than if he had battered thee with outward calamities aH that rime. So any state may be abused with a false peace present, or with a fruitless expectation of a future peace. But in this text there is true peace, and peace already made; present peace, and sale peace. Pax non promissa, sed missa, (says St. rnard, in his musical and harmonious eadences,) not promised, but already sent; on dilata, sed data, hot treated, but concluded; on prophaata, sed prwsertata, not prophesied, but actually established. There is the presentness thereof; and then mme by him who lacked nothing for the making of a sale peace; for, aKer his names of counsellor, and of the mighty God, he is called, for the consummation of ail, princeps pacis; a counsellor, there is his wisdom; a mighty God, there is his power; and this counscllor, this mighty God, this wise and this powerfid Prince, bath undeaken to make out peace; but how, that is next, per san,«inem, peace bein ruade l,y blood. Is eflhsion of blood the way of peace effusion of bloM may make them from whom blood is so abundantly drap, glad of peace, because they are thereby reduced to a weakness. But in out wars such a weakness puts us farther off" from peace, and purs more fierceness in the enemy. But here mercy and truth have met together; God would be true to his own justice, (blood was forfeited, and he would have blood,) and God would be merciful fo us, he would make us the stronger by drawing blood, and by drawing out best blood, the blood of Christ Jesus. Simeon and Levi i,, when they meditated their reven,,-e for the rape committed upon their sistdr, when they pretended peace, yet they required a little blood; they would have the Sichcluites circumcised; but when they had opened a rein, they nmde theln bleed to death; when they were under the soreness of circumcision, they slew them ail. God's justice required blood, but that blood is hot spilt, but poured ri'oto that head to our hcarts, into the veins and wounds of out own souls; there was blood shed, but no blood lost. Before tiRe law vas thorouhly established, when Moses came down from God, and deprehended the people in that idolatry to the cali before he would present himself as a mediator between God and them for that sin, he prepares a sacrifice of blood , in the execution of three thousand of those idolaters, and after that he came fo his vehement prayer in their behalf. And in the strengtll of the law all things were purged with blood, and without blood there is no remissioni% Whether we place the reason of this in God's justice, which required blood, or vhether we place it in the conveniency that blood being ordinarily received to be sedes anirnw, the seat and residence of the soul; the soul for which that expiation was to be, could not be better represented, nor purified, than in the state and seat of the soul, in blood; or whether we shut up ourselves in an humble sobriety to inquire into the reasons of God's actions, thus we see it was no peace, no remission, but in blood. 1Nor is that so strange, as that which follows in the next place, Ter saçqttinen ejus, b 9 kis blood. Belote, under the law, it was in sa.quine hircorum, and «itulorum; in the blood of goats and bullocks; here it is in san-.quite ejus, in his blood, lot his, as he claims all the beasts of the tbrest, all th¢ cattle upon a thousand hills , and all the tbwls " Gen. xxxiv.» Exod. xxxii. 28, and 32. « Iteb. ix. 22. PsaL L. I0.
of the mountains, tobe his; not his, as he says of go|d and silver, the silver is mine, and the go|d is mine 8 hot his, as he is Lord and proprietary oç a|| by Creation; so a|| b|ood is his; no, no his, as the b|ood of a|l the martyrs was his b|ood, (which is a near relation and consanguinity,) but his so as it was the precious b|ood of his body, the seat of his sou|, the marrer of his spirits, the knot of his life, this b|ood he shed for me; and I bave blood to shed for him too, though he cal| me hOt to the tria|, nor to the g|ory of maryrdom. S««nyus næ ææ :oluntas mea, the blood of my soul is my will; scindatur vena ferro compunctionis, open a rein with thut knife, remorse, eompunction, ut si non sensus, certe consensus 1oeccati euat, that though thou canst not bleed out all motions to sin, thou mayest all consent thereunto, iYoli esse nimium justus; toli sapere plt«s quam oportet; St. Bernard makes this use of those counsels, Be hot righteous overmuch, nor be ot overwise; cui putas vezw parcettdum, si justitia et sapientia egent minutione, what rein mayest thou spare, if thou nmst open those two veins, righteousness and wisdom. If they may be superfluously abundant, if thou must bleed out some of thy righteousness, and some of thy wisdom, cul qenw 1oarcendum, at whut rein must thou hOt bleed. low in all sacrifices, where blood was to be offered, the fat was to be offered too. If thou wilt sacrifice the blood of thy soul, (as St. Bernard calls the will,) sacrifice the fat too; if thou give over thy purpose of continuing in thy sin, give over the memory of it, and give over all that thou possessest unjustly and corrul»tly got by that sin; else thou keepest the fat from God, though thou give him the blood. If God had given over at his second day's work, we had had no sun, no seasons; if at his fifth, we had had no being; if at the sixth, no Sabbath; but by proceeding to the seventh, we are all, and we have all. Naaman, who was out of the covenant, yet, by washing in Jordan seven times 8, was cured of his leprosy; seven times did it even in him, but less did hot. The priest in the law used a sevenfold sprinkling of blood upon the altar; and we observe a seven-fold shedding of blood in Christ; in his "circumcision, and in his agony, in his fulfilling of that prophecy,—I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the 8 Hag. il. 8. Eccles. vil 16. 8o 2 Kings v. 14.
14 rREcnr.n o ctmsrAs vAY. [SER. . hairl,mand in his scourging, in his crowning, and in his nailing, and lastly, in the piercing of his side. These seven channels bath the blood of thy Saviour ïound. Pour out the blood of thy soul, sacrifice thy stubborn and rebellious will seven times too; seven times, that is, every day; and seven times every day; for so often a just man falleth ; and then, how low must that man be at last if he rail so often, and never rise upon any fall. and therefore raise thyself as often and as soon as thou fallest. Jericho would not fall but by being compassed seven days, and seven times in one day. Compass thyself, comprehend thyself, seven times, many times, and thou shalt have thy loss of blood supplied with better blood, with a true sense of that peace which he hath already ruade, and made by blood, and by his own blood, and by tlte blood of Iris cross, which is the last branch of this second part. Greater love hath no man than to lay down his lire for his friend«, yet he that said so did more than so, more than lay down his lire, (for he exposed it to violences and torments,) and ail that for his enemies. But doth not the necessity diminish the love. where a testament is, there must also of' necessity ho the death of the testator;,vas there then a necesssity in CrisFs dying. simply a necessity of coaction there vas not; such as is in the death of other men, natural or violent by the hand of justice. There was nothing more arbitrary, more voluntary, more spontaneous than ail that Crist did for man. And if' you could consider a time, before the contract between the Father and him had passed, for the redemption of man by his death, we might say that then there was no necessity upon Crist that he must die; but because that contract was from ail eternity, supposing that contract, that this peace,vas to be ruade by his death, there entered the oportult patP «, that Crist ought to surfer ail these things, and to enter into his glory. And so as for his death, so for the manner of his death, (by tle cross,) it,vas not of absolute necessity, and yet it was not by casualty neither, not because he was to surfer in that nation which did ortlinarily punish such malefactors, (such as he was accused to ri liait L. 6. t Prov. xxiv. 16. t Joshua v;_. ' John xv. 13. » Heb. ix. 16. tt Luke xxiv. 26.
be,) seditious persons, with that manner of death but a]l this proceeded eacto, thus the contract led it, to this he was obedient, obedient unto death , and unto the death of the cross. y blood, and hot only by coming into this world, and assuming our nature, (vhich humiliation was an act of infinite value,) and hot by the blood of his circumcision or agony, but blood to death, and by no gentler nor noler death than the death of the cross, w this peace to be ade by him. Thouh the oe dro of his blood had been enough to bave redeemcd infinite worlds if it had been so cotmcted and so app]ied, yet he ave us a morning shower of his blo in his cioeumcision, and an evening shower at his psion, ami a shower after sunset, in the piercing of his side. Ad thogh any death had been an incoprehensible ranso for the Lod of lire to bave iven, for the children of death, yet he refused hot the deth of the cross; the cross, to which a bitter curse was nailed by Moes from the beginning; he tht is hanged is hot only accursed of o, (as our translation bath it,) but he is the crse of Goel, (as it is in the original,) ho accursed, but curse; not a simple curse, but the curse of God. And by the cross, which besides the infamy, vas pinful dth as that many men hnguished many days upon it before they died; and by his blood of this torture, aad this shame, this paial and this ignominious death, vas this peoee de. In out grt work of crucifng ourselves to the world too, it is hot enough to bleed the drops of circumcision, that is, to cut off some excessive aad notorious pmctice of sin; nor to bleed the drops of an agony, to enter into conflict and collucttion of the flesh and the spirit, whether we were hOt better trust in God's mercy for out continence in that sin, than lose all that plesure nd profit which that sin bngs us; nor enough to bleed the drops of scourging, to bo lashed th viperous and venomous toagues, by contumelies and slanders; nor to bleed the drops of thorns, to bave thorns and scruples enter into out consciences with spiritual afflictions; but we must be content to bleed the reams of nailin to thooe crosses, to continue in them all o live if God see that necsary for out confirmation; aad if men will pierce and wound us after o deaths in ooe good naine, P. ri. 8. Deut. . 23.
]6 PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY. [ffEFt. I. yea, if they will slander out resurrection, (as they did Chrisçs,) if they will say that it is impossible God should bave mercy upon such a man, impossible that a man of so bad lire, and so sad and comfortless a death, shonld have a joyful resurrection, here is out comfort, as that piercing of Christ's side was after the csummatum est, after his passion ended, and therefore put him to no pain, as that slander of his resnrrection was after that glorious triumph; he was risen and had showed himself before, and therefore it diminished hot his power; so ail these posthume wounds and slanders after my death, after my God and my sonl shall have pased that dialogue, éni Domine Jesu, and Euye bone sere, that I shall have said upon my death-bed, Corne Lord Jesu, eome quiekly, and he.hall bave said, "Vell done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Master's joy, when I shall have said to him, In naus tuas Domine, Into thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit, and he to me, IIodie mecum eris in Paradio, This day, this minute, thou shalt be, now thou art with me in Paradise; when this shall be my state, God shall hear their slanders and maledietions, and write them all down, but hOt in my book, but in theirs, and there they shall meet them at judgment, amongst their own sins, to their everlasting confusion, and find nie in possession of that peaee made by blood, ruade by his blood, made by the blood of his cross, whieh were all the pieces laid out for this second part, with whieh we have done; and pass from the qualification of the person, (it pleased the Father in him allfulness should dteell,) whieh was out first part, and the pacification, and the way thereof, (by the blood of his cross to makepeace,) whieh was out second, to tlle reeoneiliation itself, and the application thereof to all to whom that reeoneiliation appertains, that ail things, tchether they be things in earth, or things in heae, miyht be recociled uuto him. All thi was done; he in whom itllea,ed the t:ather that thi, fulness,kould du'ell, had ruade this peaee by the blood of his cross, and yet, after all this, the apoetle cornes upon that ambassage ', we pray ye, in Christ's stead, that ye be reeoneiled to God; so that this reeoneifiation in the text is a ubsequent thing to this peaee. The general peaee is ruade by Christ's death, as a general pardon is giron at the King's coming; the application of this peace is in the church, as the suing out of the pardon is in the office. Joab ruade Absalom's peace with his father youn# man ayain, says David to Joab; but yet ho was hot reconciled to him, so as that ho saw his face, in two years. God hath sounded a retreat fo the battle,.As I lire, saith te Lord, I rould ot te deatl of a sinner; ho bath said to the destroyer, It is enough, stay now thy hand; ho is pacified in Christ; and ho hath bound the enemy in chains. ]ow let us labour for our reconciliation; for ail things are reconeiled to him in Christ, that is, offered a way of reeonciliation. Al[ things in heaven and earth, says the apostle. And that is so large as that Origen needed hot to bave extended it to hell too, and conceive out of this place a possibility that the devils themselves shall corne to a reconciliation with God. But to all in l::»,ven and earth it appertains. Consider we how. First thon, there is a reconciliation of them in heaven fo God, and thon of them on earth to God, and thon of them in heaven, and them in earth, to one another, by the blood of his cross. If we consider them in heaven to be those who are gone up to heaven from this world by death, they had the saine reconciliation as we; either by reaching the hand of faith forward to lay hold upon Christ before ho came, (which was the case of ail under the law;) or by reaching back that hand, to lay hold upon ail that ho had done and suffered when ho was corne, (which is the case of those that are dead before us in the profession of the gospel.) Ail that are in heaven and were upon eartb, are reconciled one way, by application of Christ in the church; so that, though they be now in heaven, yet they had their reconciliation here upon earth. But if we consider those who are in heaven, and have been so from the first minute of their creation, angels, why bave they, or how h»ve they, any reconciliation. How needed they any, and thon how is this of Christ applied unto them. They needed a confirmation, for the angels were ereated in blessedness, but not in perfect blessedness; they might fall, they did fall. To those that fell can appertain no reconciliation, no. moro thau to those that die in their sins; for 9uod lw»Hni «o 2 8,m. xiv. 21. VOL. I o C
RECHD 0 CttlISTMAt DAYo SEIo I, r, aelis cas «; the fll î tho angels w»ought upon them as the dcath of a man does upon him; they are both equally incapable of ehane fo better. But to those angels tbat ood, their standing being oî grace, and their confirmation being hot one transient act in God done at once, but a continual succession ad enanation of daily grace, belougs thls reconciation by Christ, because ail matter oî race, and where any deficieney i tobe suplied, whether by way of reparation, as in nmn, or by way of confirmation, as in angels, proceeds from the cross, from the merits of Christ. They are so reconcil then, as that they are extra k«ps«s Feri««b«n, out of the danger of falling; but yet this stability, this i,ffallibility, is hot yet indelibly imprinted in their natures yet the angels night fall if this reconciler did hot sustain them; for if those words, that God round folly '* (weakness, i,firmity,) in his angels, be to be underst of the good angels that stand confirmed, (as without all doubt they « cannot be understood of the ill anels,) the best service of the best agels, divested of that successive grace that supports them, if God should exact a rigorous accourir of if, could hot be acceptable in the sight of God; so the angels have a pacification and a reconciliation, lest they should fall. Thus things in hea,'en are reconciled to God by Christ; and things on earth too. First, the creature, as St. Paul eaks; that is, other creatures than men. For at the general resurrection, (which is rooted in the resurrection of Christ, and so hath relation fo him) the creature shall be delivered from the bon'ge of corruption « into the glorious libey of the children of God; for which the whole creation groans and travails in pain yet. This deliveranee, then, from this bondage, the whole creature hath by Christ, and that is their reconciliation. And then are we reconciled by the blood of his cross, u'hen, having crucified oursel,'es by a true repentance, we receive the seal of roeonciliation in his blood in the sacrament. But the nost proper and most liteml sense of these words is, that ail things in heaven and eah be reconciled to God, (that is, to his glory, to a fitter disposition to glorify him,) by being reconciled to another in Chri; that in him, as head of the chureh, they in heaven, and we upon earth, _uthe. * Job iv. 18. Cvh. om. 21.
be united together as one body in the communion of sai:ts. For thie text bath a conformity and a harmony wlth that te the Ephesians, and in sense, as well as lu words, is the saine, T« God might yatker to#ether in one, ail tMnys in Ckrit, botk u'hich are in heazen, and u'Mch are on earth, eren i him*; where the word whieh we translate, te yather, doth properly signit), recopitulare, te bring ail things te their first head, te God's first purpose; whieh was, that angels and men, united in Christ,Jesns, might glorify him eternally in the kingdom of heaven. Then are things in heaven restored and reeoneiled, (says St. Augustine,) cure quod ex anyelis lal»sum est, e.r hominibus 'edditur, when good men bave repaired the ruin of the bad angels, and filled their places. And theu are things on earth 'estored and reeoneiled, «hen God's elect children, are delirered from the corrq,tions of this rorld te which «ren tke!/ are subject kere «. Cure kumiliati homines 'edêunt, unde alotatw tperbiendo ceciderut, when men by hunfility are exalted te those places ri'oto which angels fell by pride, then are ail things in heaven and earth reeoneiled in Christ. The blood of the sacrifices was brought by the high priest, it mnctum sawtorum, into the place of greatest holiuess; but it vas brought but once, in the feast of expiation; but it the other parts of the temple, it was sprinkled every day. The blood of the cross of Christ Jesus bath had his eflèet in mncto mnctorum, even in the highest heavens, in supplying their places that fell, in eonfirnfing them that stood, and in uniting us and them in himself, as head of all. In the other parts of the temple it is te be sprinkled daily. Here, in the militant ehureh upon earth, there is still reeoneiliation te be made; net only toward one another, in the hand of eharity, but in ourselves. In ourselves we may final things in heaven and things on earth te -eeoneile. There is hevenly zeal, but if it be net reeoneiled tÇ diseretion, there is heavenly purity, but if it be net reeoneiled te the bearing of ozae another's infirmities, there is heavenly liberty, but if it be net z.econciled te a care for the prevention of scandal, al] things in our heaven and our eath are net reeonciled in Christ. In:t word, till the flesh and the spirit be reconciled, this recon- ]ph¢. i. 10. * Gregory.
ciliatlon is net accomplised. For nelther spirit ner flesh must be dcstroyed in us; a spiritual man is net ail spirit, still. Dut ten is flesh and sçirit reconci]ed in Christ, wen ail te faculties vf the seul, and ail the organs of te body, we lorlfy îm in tis world; for ten, in te next world ve sall be glorified by him and with him in seul and in body too, where we shall be thoroughly reconciled te on another, no sui, no controversies; aud thoughly te the angels; when we shall net only 1,e as the angels ' in som one propey, but equal 's te th angels in all; for on erunt duw societates anyelorum et komitum ", men and angels shall net make two compani, sed omnium beatitt«lo erit, uni adkwrere eo, this shall be the bleedness of them both, te be united in one head, Christ Jesus. And these reconcilings are reconcilings enough; for these are all that are in heaven and cash. If you will reconcile things in heaven and earth with things in hell, that is a reconciling out of this text. If you will mingle the se'ice of God and the service of this world, there is no reconciling of G and mammon in this text. If you will mingle a truc religion and a false religion, there is no reconciling of God and Belial in this text. For the adhering of perns born within the church of Rome te the church of Reine, out law says nothing te them if they corne; but for reconciling te the church ofRome, by perns bore within the allegiance of the king, or for persuading of men te be se reconciled, our law hath called by an infamous and capital naine of tremon, and yet every tavern and ordinary is full of such traitors. Every place frein jest te earnest is filled th them; fm the very stage te the death-bed; af a comedy they will persuade you as you sit, as you laugh, and in your sickne they will persuade you, as you lie, as you die. And net only in the bed of sickness, but in the bed of wantonness they persuade too; and there may be examples of women that bave thought it a fit way te in a seul by prostituting themselves, and by enteaining unlawful love, with a puose te conve servant, which is somewhat a strange topic te dmw arguments of religion from. Let me sec a Dominican and a Jesuit reconciled in doctrinal papistry, for freewill and predestination; let me sec a French Iatt. x. 30. * Luke . 36. Auste.
papist and an Italian papist reconciled in state papistry, for tho pope's jurisdiction; let me sec the Jesuits and the secular priests reconciled in England, and when they are reconciled to one another, let them press reconciliation to their church. To end all, those men hve their bodies from the earth, and they bave their sou|s fom heaven; and so ail things in earth and heaven are reconcilcd: but they hve their doctrine from the devil; and for things in hell there is no peace ruade, and w]th things in he|l there is no reco_nciliation to be had by the blood of his cross, except we will tread that blood under out feet, and make a mock of Christ Jesus, and crucify the Lord of Life again.