Use 1. Then let the excellency and dignity of Christ's person be more upon your minds and hearts ; think often of those two notions in the text — that he is the image of the invisible God, that therein you may be like him. You cannot be the image of God so as he was, but you must be in your measure. ' The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily,' but you must be ' partakers of the divine nature.' He showed himself to be the Son of God by his works, when the Jews said he blasphemed when he said he was the Son of God : John x. 27, ' If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.' He allowed them to doubt of them, if he did not those works which were proper to one sent from God. Certainly this is the glory of man, to be the image of God ; there is no greater perfection than to live in the nearest resemblance to his Creator. Christ is more excellent, because he hath more of the image of God upon him.
2. Consider, again, that he is Lord of the whole creation, and there- fore called ' the first-born of every creature.' Well, then, we should be subject to him, and with greater diligence apply ourselves to the obedience of his holy laws, and use the means appointed by him to obtain the blessedness offered to us. There is in us a natural senti- ment of the authority of God, and we have a dread upon our hearts if we do what he hath forbidden ; but we have not so deep a sense of the authority of Christ, and play fast and loose with religion, as fancy
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434 CHRIST THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS. [SeR. III.
and humour and interest lead us. Now, from this argument, you see we should honour the Son as we honour the Father, and be as tender of his institutions as we are of the commandments evident by natural light ; for he is not only the messenger of God, but his express image, and the first-born of every creature. Not to believe him, and obey him, and love him, is to sin, not only against our duty, but our remedy and the law of our recovery.
SEKMON III.
For hy Mm were all tilings created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, ivhether they be thrones, or domin- ions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by him, and/or him. — Col. I. 16.
The apostle had told us in the former verse that Jesus Christ is the first-born of every creature. The Arians thence concluded that he himself was created out of nothing in order of time before the world. But it is not ' the first created of any creature,' but ' the first-born,' which noteth a precedency, not only in point of antiquity, but dignity ; and is as much as to say. Lord of every creature. For the first-born was the lord of the rest, and the title may be given either relatively or comparatively.
1. Relatively ; when the rest are of the same stock, or have the relation of brethren to him that hath the pre-eminence. So it is given to Christ with respect to new creatures : Eom. viii. 29, ' That he might be the first-born among many brethren.'
2. Comparatively only ; when several persons or things be com- pared, though there be no relation between them. So David is called ' the first-born of the kings of the earth,' Ps. Ixxxix. 27 — that is, superior in dignity and honour. So here it is taken not relatively, for so Christ is primogenitus, the first-born, that he is also unigenitus, the only-begotten. None went before, or come after him, that are so begotten of Grod. What he asserteth in that verse, he now proveth by the creation of all things, in ver. 16, and the conservation of all things, ver. 17. We are now upon the first proof. Surely he that created all things is supreme lord of all things, or hath the right of the first-born over them. Two ways is Christ said to have a right to the creatures : as God, and as mediator. His right as God is natural and perpetual ; his right as mediator is by grant and donation. It is a power acquired and obtained. His natural right is antecedent to his actual susception of the office of mediator ; for it comes to him by creation. He made all, and it is fit that he should be sovereign and lord of all. But the other power and sovereignty is granted to him as a part of his reward and recompense for the sorrows of his humilia- tion : Phil. ii. 9, 10, ' Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.' The apostle speaks not of this latter now,
Col. I. 16.] christ the creator of all things. 435
but of the former — his right as the only-begotten Son of God : lie is the first-born, that is, Lord of the whole creation. And good reason, ' for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth,' &c. In the words, the creation of the world is ascribed to Christ. Take notice —