2. If Christ were before all things, let us prefer him above all things. This consideration is of great use to draw off our hearts from all created things, and to lessen our respects to worldly vanities, that they may be more earnestly fixed on what is eternal and glorious. He that was before the world was will be when the world shall be no more. Christ is from everlasting to everlasting, Ps. xc. 2. To him should we look, after him should we seek : he is first and last, the beginning and ending. It is for an everlasting blessedness, for the enjoyment of an eternal God, that our souls were made. He that was from the beginning, and will be when all things shall have an end, it is he that should talce up our minds and thoughts. How can we have room for so many thoughts about fading glories, when w^e have an eternal God and Christ to think of ? What light can we see in a candle when the sun shineth in his full strength ? All things in the world serve only for a season, and then wither ; and that season is but a short one. You glory in your riches and pre-eminence now, but how long will you do so ? To-day that house and lands is thine, but thou canst not say it will be thine to-morrow. But a believer can say, ' My God, my Christ, is mine to-day. and will be mine to all eternity.' Death taketli all from us — honours and riches, and strength, and life ; but it cannot take God and Christ from us. They are ours, and ever- lastingly ours.
Secondly, We come now to the second point — his sustaining all things by his almighty power : ' and by him all things consist.'
Doct. 2. That as Christ made all things, so he doth sustain them in being and working.
Let me explain this, how the creatures are preserved by Christ.
1. This is to be understood not only meritoriously as a moral cause, but efficiently as a natural cause of the creature's sustentation : for the
Col. I. 17.] pue-existence of christ before all things. 449
apostle cloth not consider here so much what Christ doth as a Mediator, as what he doth as God. It is true Christ, as Mediator, hath reprieved the world from that ruin which might come upon it for man's sin ; but here his merit is not considered, but his power : Heb. i. 3, ' He upholdeth all things by the word of his power.' The weight of the whole creation lieth upon his hands. As Daniel telleth Belshazzar, that his breath and his ways were in the hand of God, Dan. v. 23, so is the being, life, and operation of all the creatures. If he should withdraw his withholding hand, they would quickly return to their first nothing ; which showeth the great power of our Redeemer. Moses complaineth, Num. xi. 11, 12, ' Thou hast laid the burden of all this people upon me. Have I conceived this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldst say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom ? ' But Christ hath the care and charge of all the world, not to rule them only, but to sustain them. A king or a governor hath a moral rule over his subjects, but Christ giveth them being and existence, and doth preserve and keep them in their present state and condition from dissolution.
2. Not only indirectly, but directly. Indirectly, Christ may be said to sustain and preserve the creatures, as he keepeth off evil, or removeth those things that may be destructive to them : as he preserveth a town that repelleth their enemies. But directly, he preserveth them as he con- tinueth his providential influence : Acts xvii. 28, * For in him we live, and move, and have our being ; ' as the root feedeth the fruit, or the breath of the musician maintains the sound : Ps. civ. 29, ' Thou takest away thy breath, and they die, and return to their dust.' Life, and all the joys and comforts of it, every minute depend upon God. It is by his providential influence and supportation we subsist. The greatest creature cannot preserve itself by its power and greatness, and the least is not neglected ; both would sink into nothing without this continued influence.
3. He doth this not only mediately, by means appointed, but immediately, as his efficacy pierceth through all. God preserveth the creatures by means, for he giveth them those supplies which are proper for them : as to man, food and raiment ; for other creatures, what may relieve them ; and the wise dispensing these supplies, without any care and solicitude of the creatures, is a notable part of his providence. But here we consider his intimate presence with all things, by which he upholdeth their beings ; which all the means of the world cannot do without him. God doth as it were hold the creatures in his own hand, that it may not sink into its old nothing, as a man holdeth a weighty thing. This is supposed to be alluded unto. Job vi. 9, ' Let him loose his hand and cut me ofi".' If he doth but loose his almighty grasp, all the creatures fall down.