3. It teaches us a lesson of reverence and obedience. If God be so near, let us observe him, and take notice of his presence. He knoweth what he doth when he sustaineth such a creature as thou art. This thought should continually affect us — that God is with us, still by us, not only without us, but within us, preserving our life, upholding our being. It should he a check to our sluggishness, and mispense of time — Doth God now continue me ? to what end and purpose ? If God were absent or gone, it were more justifiable to loiter or indulge the ease of the flesh ; but to spend my time vainly and foolishly, which he contiuueth for service, what have we to say ?
SERMON V.
A7id he is the head of the hody, the church : loho is the heginning, the Jirst-bo7ii from the dead ; that in all things he might have the pre- eviinence. — Col. I. 18.
The context is spent in representing the dignity and excellency of Christ. He is set forth by three things : — •
1. By the excellency of the benefits we have by him — the greatest the fallen creature is capable of for the present, ver. 14.
2. By the excellency of his person ; so he is set forth as the eternal and only-begotten Son of God, ver. 15, and proved by his being the Creator and preserver of all things. The Creator, ver. 16 ; the preserver, ver. 17. Now the apostle cometh to the third thing.
3. The excellency of his office. This is done in the text ; where, observe, that next after the Son of God there is nothing more vener- able and august than Christ's being head of the church. And again, that Christ hath another title to us than that of Creator : he is Eedeemer also. The same God that created us by his power hath redeemed us by his mercy. By the one he drew us out of no- thing, by the other he recovered us out of sin. Therefore, after he had declared what Christ is to the world and the church too, he showeth what Christ is particularly to the church. He hath a superiority over angels and all creatures, but he is our head : Eph. i. 22, ' He hath put all things under his feet.
454 CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. [SeR. V.
and gave him to be head over all things to the church/ Christ is the sovereign of the world, but, by a special relation to his people, ' he is the head of the body, the church : who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead,' &c.
In Avhich words observe : —
1. The titles which are given to Christ with respect to the church : he is the head, the beginning, the jirst-horn from the dead.
2. The consequence of it: that in all things he might have the 'pre- eminence.
1. The titles ascribed to Christ. They are three : —
[1.] The first is ' the head of the body, the church ' — where observe two correlatives, the head and the body ; the head is Christ, the body is the church. The head is the most eminent part of the body, the noblest both as to nature, and place, or situation. As to nature, the head is the most illustrious throne of the soul, as being the seat not only of the nerves and senses, but of the memory and understanding. In place, as nearest heaven, the very situation doth in a manner oblige the other parts to respect it. These things agree to Christ, who, as to his essence, is infinitely of much more worth than the church, as being the only-begotten Son of God. As to ofiice, in him there is a fulness of perfection to perform the office of a head to such a crazy and necessitous body as the church is. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in our head for the use of the body, Col. ii. 3 ; and he is also the fountain of life and grace to every particular member, John i. 16. And, for place, he reignetli in heaven with his Father, and from thence he vieweth all the necessities of the body, and sendeth forth such influences of grace as are needful to every particular member.
For the other correlative — the church is the body. By the church is meant the church mystical, or all such as are called out of the world to be a peculiar people unto Grod. Now, these considered collectively or together, they are a body ; but singly and separately, every believer is a member of that body: 1 Cor. xii. 29, ' Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.' All the parts and members joined together are a spiritual body, but the several persons are members of that body. Yea, though there be many particular churches, yet they are not many bodies, but one body, so it is said, 1 Cor. xii. 12, ' As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.' He is the head, and the many and divers members of the universal Christian church are but one body. The universal invisible church of real believers is one mystical body knit by faith to Christ, their head, and by love among themselves. And the visible universal church is one politic body, conjoined with Christ their head, and among themselves, by an external entering into covenant with God, and the serious profession of all saving truths. They have all the same king and head, the same laws — the word of God — the same sacraments of admission and nutrition, which visibly, at least, they subject themselves unto, and have a grant of the same common privileges in the gospel. But of this more anon.