3. In the last place, it ought to be our present, our constant, our greatest care to prevent being hardned by the [Page 164] deceitfulness of sin. For to this end, it is not enough to consider of it at one time or other in our lives, but we must be exhorting one another daily, while it is called to day, lest any of us be hardned through the witchcraft and deceitfulness of sin: And if it be so much the duty of others to shew that regard to one anothers souls; how much more doth it become us to do it, who expect to be called to an account at the great day for the discharge of our trust in this matter? It is a dreadfull passage we read of in the Prophet Ezekiel, and enough to make our ears to tingle at the repeating it,Ezek 33.8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man thou shalt surely die, if thou dost no [...] speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. We would fain believe this to have been some particular and extraordinary commission given to the Prophet by God himself, which doth not concern us; for what will become of us, if not only our own faults (which God knows are too many) but other mens shall be charged upon us? when either through neglect, or flattery, or fear of displeasing, or for any mean and unworthy ends, we [Page 165] betray our trust, and instead of preventing prove the occasion of mens being to much hardned through the deceitfulness of sin. But although we neither pretend to be Prophets, nor Apostles, yet it is our Office to take care of the Souls of men, and can we discharge that, as we ought to do, if we do not with all faithfulness warn men of the danger they run into through the deceitfulness of sin? It were happy for us if we could say, that all the Lord's people are holy; for then we should have nothing to do, but to praise and commend their Vertues, which were an easie and a delightfull task: but what pleasure is it to rake into the sores, or to reprove the Vices of a degenerate age? to be thought troublesome and impertinent, if we do our duty; and men of no conscience, if we do it not? But our work is neither to libel our Auditors, nor to flatter them; neither to represent them as better, nor worse than they are; nor to charge them with more guilt than their own consciences do charge them with: but our business is, to beseech and exhort them by the mercies of God, by the sufferings of Christ, by the love and tenderness they have for their immortal [Page 166] souls, that they would to day, while it is called to day, take heed lest they be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin. And that will appear to be very reasonable on these considerations.
The Precepts of Charity deliver'd by our Saviour and his Apostles are so plain, so full, so many, so easie to be understood; and those Precepts inforced by so just, and reasonable, and pious considerations, with respect to God, to the World, to fellow Christians, to the honour of our Religion, and lastly to our selves, from the comfort that is in well-doing, and the reward that follows it; that a man must have great impudence, to profess himself a Christian, and yet to think himself not obliged to do acts of Charity. But notwithstanding all this, and much more which might be said to this purpose, there are too many still who are ready to find out some plausible pretences to excuse them from well-doing; which being the greatest discouragements to men from continuing in it; I shall make it my present business to examin [Page 387] them, and to shew how little weight there is in them, especially being compared with the Authority of him who hath made this our duty, and the reward we may justly expect for performing it. And here I shall pass over the more common and trivial Objections, which every one can easily answer that makes them; and rather argue an unwilling mind to perform their duty, than one unsatisfied about the reasonableness of it; and I shall therefore insist on those that carry a greater appearance of strength in them: which are chiefly these two,
Call of Duty : Black Ops III - Season Pass torrent Full
SAint Paul was now a Prisoner at Rome for the sake of the Gospel, when he wrote this Epistle to the Colossians, but his mind was at liberty; [Page 430] And the compass of his thoughts and cares was so far from being confined within the Walls of a Prison, that it reached not only to the Churches of Asia planted by himself, as those of Ephesus and Galatia; but to those which had never seen him, as the Colossians and Laodiceans. Coloss. 2.1. For, saith he, I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Had not he trouble enough with the Churches of Rome and Greece, and those he had conversed with in other parts, but he must take upon him to interpose in the affairs of those Churches he had never seen? But such was the largeness of the Apostle's mind, the fervour of his Zeal, the extent of his Charity, that the care of all the Churches was upon him; but especially those which had been planted by his means, although not by his personal endeavours; among which, in all probability, this of the Colossians was one. For this Epaphras whom St. Paul calls a faithfull Minister of Christ to them, Coloss. 1.7. was imploy'd as an Evangelist under him; and particularly in the Cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse, which were [Page 431] not far distant from each other in Phrygia; and for the Churches there setled, S. Paul testifies, that he had a mighty zeal and concernment: From whence it arose, that hearing of S. Paul's Imprisonment at Rome, 4.13. he resolves to take a Journey thither to acquaint him with the State of those Churches, and to desire his Advice and Direction in the present danger they were in, of being seduced from the simplicity of the Gospel, by the plausible insinuations of false Teachers, who pretended to give them a more refined System of Religion, by a composition of Law and Gospel and Philosophy all together. S. Paul understanding by him the dangerous circumstances they were in, although Epaphras himself was made a Fellow-Prisoner with him; as appears by the Epistle to Philemon, Philem. 23 sent at the same time with this; yet he finds means by Tychicus and Onesimus to convey this Epistle to them. Wherein by an admirable art of insinuation, far above the eloquent exordiums of the Heathen Orators, he lets them understand, how passionately he was concerned for their welfare; and what an Agony he suffered in his own breast for their sakes, [Page 432] lest under some artificial colours and very fair pretences, they should be drawn off from the Love and Unity and Sincerity of the Gospel. For after he had told them what conflict he had for them that had not seen his face in the flesh, he immediately adds, that it was, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, Coloss. 2.2, 3. and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And when he hath thus set forth the excellency and sufficiency of the Gospel; he then lets fall an intimation of his design,V. 4. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. But lest they should suspect from hence that ill offices had been done them, and they had been misrepresented to S. Paul; in the next verse he tells them, that at that distance,V. 5. he did rejoyce, beholding their order, and the stedfastness of their faith in Christ. And therefore exhorts them, As they had received Christ Jesus the Lord, V. 6. so to walk in him: i. e. to adhere to that faith which they at first embraced; as he explains it, in the seventh [Page 433] Verse. Having thus removed all jealousie and suspicion as to their present stedfastness, he doth more openly address himself to them; in giving them caution against the most dangerous and deceitfull Errours.V. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit, after the Tradition of men, after the rudiments of the World, and not after Christ. Not as though there were the least prejudice to Christianity to be imagined by men's searching into the Works of God, or the Nature of Moral Actions, or the digesting our own thoughts or conceptions of things, which is all that is understood by true Philosophy; but that the Model of Religion which they were in so much danger of being deceived by, was made up, partly of Philosophical Precepts, and partly of Jewish Traditions and ritual Observations; by which the false Teachers endeavoured to corrupt and adulterate the Gospel of Christ. Accordingly in the following Discourse, the Apostle first disputes against the necessity of keeping the Ceremonies of the Law, now under the Gospel, and summs up the force of it, V. 17. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the [Page 434] body is of Christ. And having thus dispatched the hardest Question about the Obligation of the Law of Moses, he enters upon the debate about other Inventions, which they endeavoured to recommend to Christians.
[Page 445](3.) These new inventions though never so plausible, are a disparagement to the Gospel, as not containing sufficient, or at least not the most sublime and perfect directions for Humility and Mortification. For our Blessed Saviour was so far from being remarkable for these affected singularities, that the freedom and easiness of his conversation, was a great offence to those who understood little or nothing of Religion beyond these things.Mat. 12.19. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a Man Gluttonous, and a Wine-bibber, a friend of Publicans and Sinners. Not that he gave way to any thing like Luxury, or Intemperance, who was the most exact pattern of all true and real Vertues; but because they saw nothing extraordinary as to the severity of his Life in these Matters, they looked on him but as one of the common sort of men, making no appearance of more than usual Sanctity, as to eating and drinking. And when John's Disciples who were bred up with greater austerity, were really offended that Christ's Disciples did not fast as they did: our Saviour puts them off with a Parabolical Answer; Can the Children [Page 446] of the Bride-chamber fast, Matt. 9.12, 13. as long as the Bridegroom is with them? which answer might puzzle them more, as not understanding why fasting should be inconsistent with his corporal Presence; yet to let them see that he did not look on Fasting, as a Duty unsuitable to his Religion, he tells them, the days would come, when his Disciples should have their times of Fasting. But the Days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. So that it is not Occasional or Anniversary Days of Fasting, which are condemned here by the Apostle, as Will-worship, or neglecting the Body; but the imposing a new and severer course of Life upon Christians, as a way of greater perfection of Mortification, than what was required by Christ or his Apostles. This is that which the Apostle calls being subject to ordinances;V. 20. and living after the Commandments and Doctrines of Men. Theodoret observes that he doth not mean the Law by this, but the unseasonable Doctrine of these seducers; and it is evident from the foregoing part of the 20th v. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the World, i. e. if ye are freed from the Yoke of the [Page 447] Law, what reason is there ye should submit to another, which depends only on the Authority and invention of Men? But what then? Doth St. Paul make it unlawfull to submit to any Orders or Rites appointed by the Church in which we live? By no means. For neither doth the Apostle speak of those who had lawfull Authority, but of Seducers; nor doth he speak of things appointed merely for Order and Decency; but of such things which are supposed by the Imposers to have more of true Perfection and Sanctity in them: more Humility and Mortification; and consequently to be more pleasing to God, than bare obedience to the Precepts of Christ and his Apostles. Whoever introduce any such things into the Christian Church, and maintain any such opinions of them, are justly censured by the Apostle here, and fall under the condemnation of Seducers. 2ff7e9595c
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