had, or pretended to have, a great veneration for Moses, could not part with the traditions which they had received from their fathers, and which they sup- posed to be highly conducive to their spiritual benefit. But St. Paul tells both the one and the other, that they needed no help from the creature, since " in Christ dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead ;" and no created power could do any thing for them, any farther than he was expressly commissioned by Christ to do it : in a word, that " they were complete in Christ ;" and all attempts to add any thing to him, would retard, rather than advance, their conformity to his will, and would ultimately deprive them of all the benefits which they were thus erroneously labour- ing to secure.
This being the scope of the whole passage, we will draw your attention to the two things mentioned in our text ; namely
I. The Christian's completeness in Christ —
In Christ we have all that we can possibly need or desire —
[As God, he has " all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily ;" and consequently is an almighty and all- sufficient Saviour. But as man also, he has, by virtue of his mediatorial office, a fulness committed to him for the supply of his believing people; according as it is said, " It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell c." In our corporeal frame there is, if I may so say, a fulness imparted to the head for the use of all the members, that being the chief depository of all the senses : so there is in Christ, for the use of all his members : all that we need is treasured up in him : and he of God is made unto us " wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption d " ]
Nor can the creature add any thing to us —
[What, I would ask, can " philosophy, with all its vain deceits," add to us? Can it suggest one single truth which is not contained in the Holy Scriptures, or give us one atom of
spiritual discernment ? Can it devise any other way for
a sinner's justification before God, besides that which the Scripture reveals, through the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ? Can it add any thing to the
c Col. i. 19. d 1 Cor. i. 30.