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 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 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 him3? 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. 31 Sam. ii. 25. 4 Ver. 15. |