Commentary Upon Colossians 1 and 2, Chapter 2 · Verse 20
VERSE. 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with CHRIST from the rudiments of the world; why, as though living in the world; are yee ſubject to ordinances?
HAving in two exhortations armed them againſt the condemning ſentences of arrogant falſe Teachers, he now doth turne himſelfe, and by way of communication or expoſtulation vehemently dehort from yeelding to bee burthened with the cuſtomary obſervation of theſe elements.
And two things are to bee marked to the end of the Chapter.
1 The dehortation.
2 The reaſons.
In the dehortation which is in the end of this verſe,
We muſt marke the Manner.
We muſt marke the Matter.
For the manner, it is layd downe by way of interrogation, which denyeth moſt ſtrongly. Why, as if yee lived in the World, are yee ſubject to ordinances? that is, you are at no hand to live, that is, cuſtomarily to obſerve any carnall or Iewiſh rites.
The matter is ſet down indefinitely, why are ye injoyned rites] More diſtinctly,foreign. the kind of them is opened in the 21 verſe: Touch not, taſt not, handle not,] and this for the dehortation.
The reaſons are two fold.
Such as are dead to worldly elements, ſuch muſt not live in them.
But ye are dead to theſe things verſe 20. in the beginning.
The ſecond kind of reaſon is taken from the nature of the things themſelves.
1 Things that periſh and come to nothing are not to be obſerved.
2 Such things as are after mens commandements and doctrines, are not to be followed of you.
Theſe two reaſons are expreſſed in the two and twentieth verſe.
Such things finally as have only an empty ſhow of godlineſſe, but not the ſubſtance of it, they are not to be uſed: Such are theſe, verſe twenty three.
This is the Apoſtles diſcourſe, in the laſt verſes of this Chapter.
For our being dead with Chriſt, you heard above, verſe twelve, buryed with Him in baptiſme] but marke from what we are dead in CHRIST, from the rudiments of the world.] Obſerve: That Chriſt by His death hath freed us from the ceremonies of the Law of Moſes. Doct. To underſtand it, wee muſt know that the ceremonies of the Iewes were not onelyonly taken away, as they were types foreſhewing things to come; but as they were a worldly or carnall elementary kind of inſtruction, or as they were ſenſible traynings of them, to which GOD did condeſcend, becauſe it was the baby age of the Church, wherein men were carnall, that is in great meaſure carnall, but in little meaſure ſpirituall. True it is Gods worſhip is for the ſubſtance of it ſpirituall, and was alwayes: but for the manner of it, it was carnall, that is, ſtanding of ſenſible and fleſhly obſervations which GOD did preſcribe, not as ſimply delighted in them, but as accommodating himſelfe to the childiſh condition of the Church in thoſe times, wherein the more plentifull preſence of ſpirituall guifts was not obteyned, Chriſt not being as yet manifeſted, and glorified. We muſt ſo conceive, that our whole old man, with his ſinfull life, his vayne life in traditions of men, which were ſuperſtitious, and his naturall life in Moſaicall rites ordeyned of GOD, and injoyned him, not ſimply, but ſo farre forth, as he was carnall, living more in his ſenſes, then in ſpirituall contemplation, this whole life is ſo crucified, that after CHRIST, it is to take no place de jure, in thoſe that are His: the Apoſtle doth not ſay without cauſe,2 Cor. 5.17. old things are gone, in Christ all things are new.
This is to be marked; Vſe for it doth ſtrike through all the Popiſh rites, in which they teach every thing by ſome ſenſible ſignificant rite or other, as if this ſenſible trayning were not taken away; as if elements of this world, ſuch as follow in the next verſe were not remooved. All the rites of the Iewes did not ſignifie CHRIST to come, but were, by ſtirring up a motion in the mind, to admoniſh them of their ſpirituall duties, yet theſe are aboliſhed. Such therefore are to bee condemned, that would ſtill bring the Church to be in the A. B. C. and to uſe the Feſtkue, from which Chriſt by his death hath delivered it.
As if you lived in them, doe yee receive rites?] Obſerve ſecondly: Doct. from the argument it ſelfe; That true Chriſtians muſt not live in that which CHRIST dyed to take away. If yee be dead in Chriſt from theſe, why as if yee lived in the world: No, they cannot live in that which their head is dead to. How can we that are dead to ſinne live yet therein? and therefore he ſaith, as if you lived in the world; for hee knew it was impoſſible for true believers to live unto the faſhions of the world, either in regard of civill duties, or religious ordinances: the children of God being ſet into Chriſt, have preſently wrought in them a death of their ſinfull, and ſenſuall life: It is mortally wounded at the firſt, though it liveth in us long after; yea, though the Lords children doe not often perceave it: for many a man goeth awhile with his death, and yet diſcerneth not till ſometime after that he is deepely wounded: Even as we our ſelves feele nothing leſſe when we come into the world, then that we are dead in our Father Adam, and yet with our nativity entereth mortality, which never reſteth till we are utterly extinct by death.
The uſe is to reproove us who live in ſinne after the faſhion of the world; Vſe we have forgotten to what we dyed in Chriſt.
As if yee lived in the world] Obſerve hence: Doct. That Gods children live out of the world, while they are in it: this maketh CHRIST ſay, they are not of the world; for though they are in it for place, yet their affection and converſation is in heaven: and hence it is,Phil 3.2…. that the Church is called by the name of heaven, in ſome propheticall Scriptures, and this is here taught, while he ſaith, as if yee lived in the world] inſinuating that it could not be that they lived in the world, for they are called out of the world to a heavenly hope, and to bee of another body; even of that Corporation whereof CHRIST is the head: So that as a Townſman in the Vniverſity, if he be taken to be a Scholars ſervant, though he live in the towne, he is no longer of it, as who is gone from them, and belongeth to another body: So it is here.
Wherefore Conforme not your ſelves to the faſhions of the world; you are pilgrims, forreyners, Vſe ſojourners at the moſt, here is not the place of your aboad. And how farre they are from knowing CHRIST, and the power of His death, whoſe life is altogether carnall, whoſe converſation doth not ſo much as ſmell of Heaven, may hence be convinced to them.