professed himself the Messiah ; and therefore they put him to death : his tempers, and dispositions, and habits, they could not but admire. And so, at this day, the men that hate us, under the idea of " God's elect," cannot but acknowledge that the consistent Christian is, of all characters, the loveliest upon the face of the earth s. I call upon all of you therefore, brethren, to " shew forth these virtues ;" and thus to " put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, by well-doing'."]
■ 1 Pet. hi. 4. l 1 Pet. ii. 15.
Col. iii. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom.
IT was declared to be one of the principal advan- tages which the Jews enjoyed above the heathen, that they had " the Oracles of God committed to thema:" and we are still more highly privileged, in that we have in our hands the New-Testament Scriptures, whereby we are enabled to understand the writings of Moses and the prophets more fully than the writers themselves understood them. What part of the Christian records the Colossians could possess, we do not exactly know : we are sure that the sacred canon was not yet complete ; nor were the different epistles which are come down to us, collected into one volume. It is probable enough that one or two of the Gospels might have been seen by them : and the possession of such a treasure would be a very sufficient around for the exhortation before us. To us who enjoy a complete collection of all that God has ever seen fit to reveal, — at least, as much of it as is at all necessary for our edification and comfort, — the exhortation may be addressed with proportion- ably greater weight. To impress it the more power- fully upon your minds, we shall take occasion from it to shew you, in what light the sacred volume should be regarded, and in what manner it should be improved.
a Rom. iii. 1, 2.