2. Let us consider how this power hath been exercised to the intro- duction of idolatry, and divers corruptions and superstitions, to the
Col. I. 18.] christ the head of the church. 4G3
destruction of kingdoms, the blood of the martyrs, and tumults and confusions too long to relate.
Use 3. To persuade you to accept Christ as your head. We are to preach him as Lord, 2 Cor. iv. 5 ; you are to receive him as Lord, Col. ii. 6 ; our consent is necessary. God hath appointed him, and the church appointeth him — God by'authority, the church by consent. We voluntarily acknowledge his dignity, and submit unto him, both with a consent of dependence and subjection. Some God draweth to Christ and gives them to him, and him to them, John vi. 44. All that live within hearing have means to seek this grace, and if they so do, they shall not lose their labour. God sets not men about unpro- fitable work : mind but the duties of the baptismal covenant, and the business is at an end, Acts ii. 39.
Use 4. To put us upon self-reflection. If Christ be your head —
1. You must stand under a correspondent relation to Christ ; be members of his mystical body, which is done by faith and repentance.
2. None can be a true member of Christ's body who doth not receive vital influence from him, Kom. viii. 9. It is not enough to be members of some visible church ; they that are united to him have life, there is an influence of common gifts according to the part we sustain in the body. A common Christian hath common graces, those gifts of the Spirit which God gives not to the heathen world ; as know- ledge of the mysteries of godliness, ability of utterance about heavenly things, Heb. vi. 4.
3. If Christ be our head, w^e must make conscience of the duties which this relation bindeth us unto ; as obedience and self-denial.
[1.] Obedience to his laws and the motions of his Spirit. His laws, Luke vi. 46, * Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? ' The motions of his Spirit : Kom. viii. 14, ' As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God/
[2.] Self-denial. Christ spared not his natural body to promote the good of his mystical body ; he exposed his life for our salvation, we should hazard all for his glory. Nature teaches us to lift up the hands to save the head.
4. There must be suitableness and imitation : 1 John ii, 6, ' He that abideth in him, ought to walk as he walketh.'
.5. If you be planted into this mystical body, you will make con- science of love and tenderness.
Use 5. Let us triumph in this head, depend on him. There are two arguments — his ability and his sympathy.
1. His ability. He can give us life, strength, health : Eph. iii. 16,
* That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man : ' Col. i. 11,
* Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.'
2. His sympathy. He is touched with the feeling of our infir- mities : Heb. iv. 15, ' We have not an high-priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' The head is concerned fur the members.
46 i CHRIST THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW CREATION. [SeR. VI.
SEKMON VI.
Who IS the beginning, the first-horn from the dead. — Col. I. 18.
I COME now to consider the first particular title which is given to Christ.
There are two other titles given to Christ — the one respects the state of grace, the other the state of glory. And,
First, With respect to the state of grace, he is called a/3%^, the be- ginning— that is, Origo mundi melioris, the beginning of the new creature as well as the old ; for the same place and dignity which Christ hath in the order of nature he hath in the order of grace also. Therefore he is called * the beginning of the creation of God,' Kev. iii. 14. The word apx^/ is not taken there passively, as if it were the first thing that was created, but actively, that he giv^eth a being and beginning to all things that are created, and by the creation of God is meant the new creation. So that the point is —
Doct. That Jesus Christ is the author and beginning of the new creation.
I shall briefly explain this, and pass to the next branch. Christ is the beginning two ways : —
I. In a way of order and dignity.
II. In a way of causality. I. In a way of order, as first and chief of the renewed state. This is many ways set forth in scripture. Two things I shall take notice of:-
1. That he is the builder of the church.
2. The lord and governor of it.
1. As founder and builder of the church : Mat. xvi. 18, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church.' Christ challenges it to himself as his own peculiar prerogative to build the church. More fully, the apostle, Heb. iii. 3-5, ' For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he that builded the house hath more honour than the house ; for every house is built by some man, but he that buildeth all things is God. And again, Moses was faith- ful in all his house as a servant, but Christ as a Son over his own house.' The scope of the apostle is to prove that Christ must have the pre-eminence above all others that have been employed in and about God's house. Moses was one of the chief of that sort, that had greater familiarity with God than others, and intrusted by him in very great and weighty matters ; yet Christ was not only equal to Moses, but far above him. He proveth it by a comparison taken from a builder and an house, and from a lord of the house and a servant in the house ; but Christ is the builder of the house, and Moses but a part of the house. Christ is the Lord, and Moses but the servant, therefore Christ is more excellent and worthy of greater honour. One of the noblest works of God is the church of the first-born ; none could build, frame, and constitute this but the Son of God coming down in our flesh, and so recovering the lost world into an holy society which might be dedicated to God. For the materials of this house are men