AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE OF SAINT PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS. BY THE REV. JEAN DAILLÉ, MINISTER OF THE FRENCH REFORMED CHURCH AT CHARENTON, A. D. 1639. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY F. S. REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE REV. JAMES SHERMAN, MINISTER OF SURREY CHAPEL. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCXLIII. THE EPISTLES DEDICATORY. BY THE TRANSLATOR TO THE HONOURABLE SIR WILLIAM COURTENAY, SIR, OF POUDERHAM CASTLE, IN THE COUNTY OF DEVON, BARONET. THE Divine Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians was not to rest in their hands, but, by his express order, to be communicated to the neighbouring Laodiceans, as we read in the Epistle itself towards the end. It therefore seems a little congruous that these Sermons which expound it should undergo a like disposal, and not be confined to the French, to whom they were originally preached, but be imparted to the neighbouring English. The author of them was he whom his auditors at Charenton frequently called, for the beauty and richness of his discourses, the silver-tongue Daillé. Readers here have applauded him, and still highly esteem him, for his Apology, and his exquisite treatise of the Use of the Fathers; both of which have for some years spoken our language. The learned every where abroad know and value him for divers other excellent labours. He signalized himself both at the press and in the pulpit, and God was pleased to crown him in his service with the glory of a vigorous and venerable old age. I confess I was not the fittest person to translate and publish this work of his, nor did I design it at the first. But a private exercise receiving some encouragement, it grew up and became at length a publication. Neither am I without hope but that the known civility of the English for strangers will be showed to Mr. Daillé, though his interpreter be no more than he is. Yea, while that reverend man interprets here a great apostle, and presses, as he does, solid religion towards God, loyal subjection to princes and superiors, peace, and love, and every virtue among men, I would promise him Christian attention and consideration, a calm and generous enduring of little discrepancies, if any occur, and all the respect that befits a minister of Christ. Now, sir, I deem it not improper to put into your hand a performance which had its origin in France, when I reflect upon the illustriousness of your ancestry formerly there. I cannot but remember, in particular, how the family was ingrafted into the royal house itself; Peter, a son of Louis le Gros, espousing the inheretrix, a name, and the arms of Courtenay; so becoming the stock from which those noble afterbranches issued, which spread forth on this and on that side of the sea. But the dominion and empire of God is equally over all the kindreds and kingdoms of the world, and unto him every one bears the greatest and nearest relation. I tender, therefore, the present volume chiefly as having for its object the illustration and enforcement of his holy mind and will, and beseech you to accept the gratitude with which it is tendered. That every Divine blessing may descend and rest upon your person and affairs, your virtuous honourable lady, and all those sweet branches about your table, is the earnest and incessant prayer of, Sir, Your obliged and affectionately devoted Servant, F. S. SIR, COUNSELLOR AND SECRETARY OF THE KING, HOUSE, AND CROWN OF FRANCE. I PRESENT you these sermons, conscious that I owe this acknowledgment to the friendship with which you honour me, and still more to the edification and good offices which the church where I preached them has for a long time received from your piety. For besides the noble example which your life gives us, a life full of virtue and honour, always steady and equal in the profession and holy exercises of the truth of the gospel; there has been presented no occasion of doing service to the people of God, either in past or present times, but you have embraced with zeal, and managed with prudence. So likewise we see that the good and merciful Lord you serve has crowned your obedience with the benedictions of his grace. For in the vicissitudes of the times, and the variety of affairs, he has still rendered you acceptable, both to those within, and even to them without. And, which is the principal thing, he has preserved his covenant in your house, that neither the vanity of the world, nor the scandal of the time, has been able to make any of the breaches there which we see with grief in other families. To establish this precious heritage of piety in your race, his providence has added to it, by alliance, persons excellent in knowledge and in merit, in whose lineage you daily see your own life renew and flourish. It is true, sir, you have also had your trials, as no true believers are exempted from them; but those which God has dispensed to you have been so tempered with his goodness, as I believe you may truly say, that in this, more than in any other event of your life, he has exhibited the wonders of his grace towards you. Such was, some years ago, the bitter, untimely, but blessed and happy, death of your eldest son, who was removed in the flower and vigour of his age. This was, doubtless, a very grievous stroke, which cut down in a moment the sweetest of your hopes, plucking from your embraces a son as worthy of love as he was beloved, and whose merit had already advanced him to the dignity of a senator in the chief of the parliaments of this kingdom. But however painful his death was to you, it was, notwithstanding, accompanied with grace of God, so visible and ravishing, that I fear not to refresh your memory with it, well knowing that it is no less dear and precious to you for the piety and the noble and truly Christian constancy which he showed in those last and happy moments of his life, than troublesome and bitter for the mourning and sadness which it left on your whole house. As soon as his disease appeared to be what indeed it was, he looked on death without perturbation; he prepared himself for it with great courage; and his deportment, his visage, and his discourses were full of resolution and contentment. He comforted us all; and, amid the tenderness and pangs of such a separation, maintained his mental vigour to the last. And though he left on earth some of the dearest and sweetest he could here possess or desire, yet he quitted it, not only without regret, but even with joy; so firm was the hope, or, to speak more correctly, so clear and assured the sight, which the Lord Jesus gave him of the bliss and delights to which he called him. He remained in this gracious and holy frame even to his last breath, with an unclouded spirit and a calm soul, speaking to us of his approaching happiness, and of the present grace of his Lord, with such efficacy, that it checked your tears, and repressed the ex pressions of your grief, that how just soever they were, you had, nevertheless, a secret shame to allow them to appear in the presence and on the account of so virtuous a person, as if lamentations would have offended his piety, and dishonoured the victory of his faith. The same God that loosed him so supernaturally from earth, to raise him up to heaven, granted you to bear the affliction of his departure with a patience worthy your vocation. After so severe a stroke, he has yet sustained you, and conducted you to an honourable old age, which few persons attain. And now, I doubt not, amidst the agitations of the present world, and the infirmities of age, your chief consolation is the assured hope you possess of arriving also one day at the port of that blessed immortality, into which, contrary to the ordinary course of nature, you have seen this dear son enter before you. If in the holy exercises of piety, by which you daily prepare yourself for that state, the reading of these sermons may find a place, and afford you consolation, I shall therein have extreme satisfaction; at least I can well assure you, that it is one of my most ardent desires, who pray God to preserve you with all your family, in perfect prosperity; and remain, inviolably, Sir, Your most humble and most obedient Servant, Paris, April 1, 1648. DAILLÉ. |