History of Presbyteriant'sm

the Son of God, the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person, God-man- mediator, in whom it is said all fullness dwells, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all grace and glory.

The mind of man 15 prone to affect novelty even in the affairs of God, and as this usually forms a principal lure by which most churches are drawn away from that simplicity which is in Christ by the sophistry and guile of seducing spirits, the apostle as a powerful safeguard against everything of this kind simply directs the Colossians to Christ Himself, in whom is always to be found something really new, ever interesting and truly delightful, as well as at the same time actually transporting and supremely satisfactory to the soul. Hence he de— clares, in the verse immediately preceding that in which our text lies, that He thus spake of all those treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are laid up in Christ, that they might be fully established in Him, and not be easily carried away by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deecive. “And this I say,” says he, “lest any man should beguile vou with enticing words.”

The apostle having thus then testified his deep concern about these Colossians—lest, as the serpent had beguiled Eve through his subtlety, they should in like manner be deluded into similarly ensnaring and false notions derogatory to Christ and His glory, and ruinous to their own souls, proceeds

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