THE AUTHOR'S EPISTLE.

[PREFIXED IN THE ORIGINAL TO THE PART CONTAINING CHAP. II.]

TO MONSIEUR,

MONSIEUR BIGOT,

LORD OF LAHONVILLE,

COUNSELLOR OF THE KING IN HIS COUNSELS, INTENDANT, AND CONTROLLER-GENERAL OF THE GABELS OF FRANCE.

SIR,

AMONG the advantages which the reformation of the church, embraced by our fathers in these latter ages, has afforded us, we must, doubtless, ascribe the pre-eminence to the free use we have of the word of Christ, which he, of his abundant grace, has recovered for us. This Divine taper, lighted up from heaven in the house of God to shine unto his people, to express it in the terms of the gospel, remained hid a long time under a bushel, Matt. v. 15; the negligence and fraud of men keeping it in this shameful condition. It is now set anew in its candlestick, where it diffuses in every direction among us its enlivening and saving light; and that too in such abundance, as that we may truly say in this respect, the word of Christ dwelleth in us richly, Col. iii. 16. It reigns alone in our assemblies, where its voice, and no other, is continually heard to resound; the fables and legends of men being altogether banished from them. It is read there in a familiar language, which every one understands; whereas if it be read any where else, it is in a tongue dead, and barbarous, and unknown to the people. It is explained among us with all fidelity, sincerity, and diligence; whereas amidst the darkness of former ages, it was so unworthily treated by preachers, that, to read their sermons, one would think they had designed to make them openly ridiculous. I confess that those persons who abide in the erroneous opinions of their ancestors are somewhat ashamed of their gross and profanely licentious practice; and they have in some measure reformed it. Yet there remain but too many defects among them still, and this one in particular, that they explain in public only some pieces, and, if it may be so said, shreds of Scripture, sometimes taken from one book, sometimes from another, never showing their hearers any complete body. For it cannot be denied that this manner of handling the word of God deprives the faithful of much edification; it being evident that the view and consideration of an entire book gives us a more complete knowledge and greater admiration of it than the view of any isolated part. This fault is so much the less pardonable in our adversaries, as, besides being less profitable, it is also contrary to the custom and authority of those ancient doctors of the first ages of Christianity, whose true sons and legitimate successors these gentlemen boast that they are. For it was usual at that time for pastors to expound in the church whole books of Scripture throughout, by sermons continued upon the chain of the holy text, from the beginning of a volume to the very end, which is clearly proved by the remains of their writings. There are extant still the Sermons of St. John Chrysostom upon Genesis, upon the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, upon the Acts of the Apostles, and upon all the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, which were delivered by this great man, part of them in the church of Antioch, and part in the church of Constantinople, the greatest and most populous churches of all the East. And among the Latins, we have the Tractates of St. Augustine upon the whole Book of Psalms, and upon the Gospel of St. John, and upon his First Epistle, which were in a similar manner made and delivered in the assemblies of his people. An evident sign that,

about the beginning of the fifth century, when these two excellent and famous personages flourished, this custom was in repute among Christians. Whether then the thing be considered in itself, or the suffrages of the ancients be taken, it is manifest that our fathers and ourselves had the best reasons in the world to re-establish this sacred and just usage in the church.

Now, sir, this book which I address to you is a fruit of it. For having undertaken, in conformity to this order, to expound in our holy assemblies the Divine Epistle of the apostle St. Paul to the Colossians, and being come to the end of it, by the grace of our Lord, because the whole work could not be commodiously contracted into one volume, I have divided it into three parts, of which this is the second. The piety which has long flourished in your house, sir, and the exquisite knowledge that God has given you of his truth, induce me to believe that this book, which wholly treats of his Divine mysteries, and nothing else, will not be displeasing to you. It is this that has given me the liberty to put your name upon it; a name which numerous excellent graces, with which God has adorned both your family and your person, render very dear and very honourable in our church. I am sorry that this present is not more worthy of it. But such as it is, I do not despair of its obtaining from the dignity of its subject, and from the favour of your kindness, that acceptance to which it cannot pretend upon any merit of its own. Please you then to receive it as a sincere testimony of the respect I bear your virtue, and of the grateful sense I have of the friendship with which you honour me; as well as an inviolable pledge of the prayers which I present unto God for your prosperity, and of the fervent affection I have to be, as long as I live,

Sir,

Your most humble and most obedient servant,

Paris, April 1, 1648.

DAILLÉ.

THE AUTHOR'S EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

[PREFIXED IN THE ORIGINAL TO THE PART CONTAINING CHAP. III. IV.]

TO MONSIEUR,

MONSIEUR DE RAMBOUILLET,

LORD OF LANCEY, AND OF PLESSIS-FRANC.

SIR,

THESE sermons will not be new to you; so little time having elapsed since you heard them at Charenton, no doubt you will recognise them at first sight. The support they then received in our holy assembly imboldens them now to present themselves in public. Perhaps it had been better to rest contented with that favour which our people showed them, and not publish them again in this form. For beside that the eye is much more delicate than the ear, and the defects of a discourse are far more easily observed on paper, where they remain, than in the air, where they do but pass; there is also a great difference between an auditor, whom devotion obliges to hear you, and a reader, who owes you nothing. The one thinks he should sin against piety if he denied you his attention; the other, that he does you a favour in heeding you, and may examine you without a crime. The judgment of the one is half made for you, whereas that of the other is at its full liberty. These reasons would have withheld me from hazarding the edition of these small books, if the matter had wholly depended upon my opinion. But the desires of my friends and the entreaties of the bookseller interposing, their violence has overcome my modesty. Yet I should have had vigour and firmness enough to defend myself against it, if the question had been simply of myself and my reputation. For as the present age is so polite and well informed, that the most eloquent speakers, and the most accomplished writers, can scarcely satisfy it; I well know that, to please it, graces and perfections are needed which I do not possess. But that also is not the object I seek; my weakness, and the calling wherewith God has honoured me, have abundantly secured me from such a passion. The motives which caused me to yield to the too favourable opinion of my friends, were the welfare of Christian souls, which they laid before me, and the service they believed this book might render them. The success will inform us whether they had reason to promise themselves so much from it. For my part, the thing being uncertain, I held myself obliged to give place to their judgment, and to prefer the profit which they imagine the faithful may receive from my poor labours to any other consideration. And if it be temerity to hope for this result, at least it is not a crime, but a laudable affection, to desire it. Of one thing, sir, I am well assured, that you will not dislike the gift I make you of this third and last part of my work. For, independently of that sweetness of spirit and obliging disposition which every one observes in you, and to say nothing of numerous evidences which I have received of your kindness towards me in particular, I am confirmed in this opinion, by your piety, well known in our church, both by the excellent fruits of your charity in the ordinary course of your life, and by the services you rendered to our flock in the office of an elder, which you executed among us with much edification and honour. Persuading myself, therefore, sir, may it please you, that you will receive this small present with your usual benevolence and readiness, there remains nothing but that I pray God to preserve you, with your worthy and noble family, in health and prosperity, and daily to augment his most precious blessings, both spiritual and temporal, to you and them. I beseech you to continue me the honour of your friendship, and to do me the favour to believe that I am, devotedly,

Sir,

Paris, April 1, 1648.

Your most humble and most obedient Servant,

DAILLÉ.

EXPOSITION

OF THE

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS.

VERSE 1-5.

SERMON I.

CHAPTER I.

It awakened the curiosity of some, and inflamed the love of others, and filled all that great city with the name and odour of Jesus Christ. Nor was it of use to the Romans only. It imparted its celestial fruit to the remotest regions and generations. For it was in this very confinement that this holy man wrote several of his divine Epistles, which we read with so much edification to this day: as those to Philemon, to Timothy, to the Ephesians; and that directed to the Philippians, the exposition of which we last finished; and the following Epistle to the Colossians, which we have now chosen to explain to you, if God permit. Paul's prison was a common reservoir, whence have issued those living springs which water and gladden the city of God, and will furnish it even to the end of the world with the streams it needs for its refreshment.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. THE assertion of the apostle Paul respecting the afflictions of the faithful, that they "work together for good to them that love God," Rom. viii. 28, is verified by constant experience. Beside the excel- Having then already drawn from one of these sweet lent fruit which the afflicted themselves receive from springs that divine water with which we have enthem, sooner or later acknowledging with the psalmist, deavoured, according to the ministry committed to us that it was good for them to have been afflicted, of God, to irrigate the heavenly plants of your faith Psal. cxix. 71, they are also serviceable to the edifi- and love, we now turn, my brethren, to another, a no cation of others. For as roses, the fairest and sweet- less vital and plentiful one than the former. Bring est of flowers, grow on a rough and thorny stock; so ye to it, as the Lord requires, souls thirsting for his from the afflictions of the believer, rugged and piercing grace; and he will give you, as he has promised, to the flesh, spring examples of their virtue and in-living water, which shall quench your drought for stances of their piety, the sweetest and most salutary ever, and become in each of you a well springing of all productions. See what a rich store of benefits up to eternal life. the trials of Job and of David have yielded us! To them we owe that admirable book of the patience of the former, and a great part of the divine hymns of the latter. Had it not been for their afflictions, we should not now enjoy, after so many ages, those inestimable treasures of instruction and consolation. What shall I say of the sufferings of St. Paul, which spread the gospel all abroad, and converted the world to the knowledge of the true God! His imprisonment at Rome alone, under the government of Nero, has done the church more good than the peace and prosperity of all the rest of the faithful of that age. It gave reputation to the gospel, and made it gloriously enter into the stateliest court in the world. It inspired preachers of the truth with heroic courage.

The church of the Colossians, to whom this Epistle is addressed, having been happily planted by Epaphras, a faithful minister of Christ, the enemy failed not, by the hands of some seducers, immediately to sow his tares within it. These men would mingle Moses with our Saviour, and together with the gospel of the one retain and observe the ceremonies of the other. To make their error the more pleasing, they painted it over with the colours of philosophy, terms of science, curious speculations, and other similar artifices. Epaphras, seeing the danger to which this profane medley exposed the faith and salvation of his dear Colossians, informs St. Paul of it, then a prisoner at Rome. The apostle, to draw them from so per nicious an error, takes his pen and writes them thox

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sure,

and lawful testimony might be given of his resurrection. 2. They must have received their commission immediately from the Lord himself. And, 3. They must have the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary meawith the gifts of tongues and miracles. Whence it appears how illogical they are that attribute the glory of an apostleship to the bishop of Rome, who possesses none of these qualifications. It is also clear that this dignity is extraordinary, and was not instituted but for the first establishment of the church; the government of which, after its plantation, the apostles put in the hands of an inferior order of ministers, who are indifferently called in Scripture either bishops, that is, overseers and superintendents; or presbyters, that is, elders.

letter; in which he shows them that in Jesus Christ alone is all the fulness of our salvation, in such a manner that we should deeply injure him to seek any part of it out of him, since we possess abundant stores in his gospel wherewith to teach our faith and form our manners, without the addition of either the shadows of Moses or the vanities of philosophy. In the beginning he salutes and congratulates them for the communion which they had with God in his Son. Next he draws them a lively portrait of the Lord Jesus, in which shine forth the dignity of his person, and the inexhaustible abundance of his benefits. Upon that he encounters the seducers, and refutes the unprofitable additions with which they sophisticated the simplicity of the gospel. Afterwards, from dispute he passes to exhortation, conjuring these The history of the Acts informs us that to the faithful people to live well and holily, conforming twelve apostles before ordained our Lord added St. their deportment to a piety, honesty, and virtue wor- Paul; having miraculously appeared to him, and thy their vocation. He concludes with some particular sent him with the same power that they had to conaffairs, of which he speaks to them, and with recom- vert the Gentiles. He assumes therefore this glorimendations which he offers them, both on his own ous title at the entrance of this Epistle, and declares part and on the part of other faithful persons who moreover that he is an apostle "by the will of God;" were with him. But you will better understand the signifying that it was the express order and mandate whole by the exposition of each part of the Epistle, of the Lord which honoured him with this ministry, if the Lord grant us to complete it. For the present, and not the suffrage and authority of men; diswe propose to consider only the five verses which we tinguishing himself by this means from those false have read; the first two of which contain the in- teachers and troublers who had not been sent, but scription of the Epistle, and the other three the joy by the will of flesh and blood. The declaration of and thanksgivings of Paul to God for the faith and this his quality was here necessary for him, 1. To love of these Colossians. These shall be, God will-maintain his honour against the calumnies of seducers, ing, the two points on which we will treat in this who disparaged and slandered him as much as they discourse. could, under pretence that he had not lived, like the other apostles, in the company of Jesus Christ during the days of his flesh; and, 2. To establish the liberty which he took of writing to the Colossians, and of proving to them their duty, as well in faith as in practice, it being evident that the apostles had a right to use this authority over all and each of the Christian churches. To his own name he adds that of Timothy, whom he calls "brother," as having one and the same faith, and labouring in one and the same work; whether it were to authorize his doc

I. The inscription of the Epistle is contained in these words: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." At this day it is customary to inscribe letters with the name of those to whom they are written, and within them, after the body of the letter, the name of those who write them: formerly this was not the custom; for the writer wrote both the names within, at the head of the let-trine the more, by the consent of this holy man, ter, with a brief salutation in these words, Such a one to such a one, health; as we learn by numerous Greek and Latin epistles, which are left us in the ancient books of the most renowned personages of those two nations. The apostle, who lived in those ages, uses the same form in all his Epistles, as you know, except that instead of wishing health and prosperity to those whom he addresses, he ordinarily wishes them peace, and the grace of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ.

According to this form, the inscription of this Epistle contains, first, The names and qualities of those who write it, and of those to whom it is addressed; and, secondly, The good and happy wish with which they salute them.

The names of those who write it are Paul and Timothy, sufficiently known to all who are in the least degree versed in the New Testament. They are here described by certain qualities severally attributed to them. To Paul, that of "an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." To Timothy, simply that of "brother." The word "apostle" signifies, in the Greek language, one deputed, a person sent by some one. But in the Scripture of the new covenant it is taken particularly for those first and highest ministers of the Lord Jesus, whom he sent with a sovereign and independent authority to preach the gospel and establish his church in the world. The highest and noblest charge God ever gave to men and to exercise it it was necessary, 1. To have seen Jesus Christ alive after his death, that a good

every word being more firm in the mouth of two or three witnesses than in that of one; or to recommend him to these believers, that if he wrote to them, or ever visited them, they might receive him as a person worthy of the fellowship of the apostles, and whose name deserved to accompany that of Paul.

As for those to whom he directs this Epistle, he describes them next in these words: "To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse.” I pass by, as childish and impertinent, the opinion of those who say that he means the isle and city of Rhodes, and that he calls it Colosse because of that prodigious statue of the sun which the Rhodians had erected at the mouth of their haven, and which the Greeks called the Colossus. What need is there of these frigid and ridiculous notions, since the ancients show that there was formerly in Phrygia, a province of Asia the Less, a city called Colosse, not far from two others, Laodicea and Hierapolis, which the apostle also mentions in this Epistle, and recommends expressly to the Colossians the communicating this letter to the Laodiceans, after they themselves had read it? Afterwards, this city of Colosse changed its name, and was called Cone. Here one of the most eminent writers of the latter times of Greece, Nicetas Choniates, received his birth, taking his surname from that place: he boasts in one of his works that the apostle honoured the inhabitants of Cone, his native city, by addressing to them this very Epistle.*

*In Thesaur. 1. 4. ch. 22.