October 15

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.—Colossians 3:1, 2.

HAVING established the doctrine of the gospel, and vanquished the seducers, the apostle comes to the business of exhortation, that he might train to holiness of life those whom he had brought to hold the truth of faith. But this exhortation arises and is deduced from the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the preceding chapter, where these words occur, Buried with him in baptism, who hath also raised and quickened you: hence he now infers, If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. The first branch of the general exhortation is included in the first four verses; and has for its object to excite the Colossians to aim at and desire the true good,—what is spiritual and divine; and, moreover, to beget in them a contempt of apparent good things,—corporeal and earthly ones. And the apostle acts prudently in prescribing and defining, in the first place, the thirst for the true end: since inordinateness of the will as to the end, engenders inordinate and monstrous actions through the whole course of life; for as the form is the principal in natural things, so the end is in morals.

The duty to which we are excited by the apostle, is comprehended in three precepts: seek those things which are above; set your affection on, that is, think upon and love, the things above; seek not after, neither mind, earthly things.

The inducements to the performance of this duty, are several, and taken from our spiritual condition, from the exaltation of Christ, and our relation to, and interest in him.

1. Of the duties. And in this exercise only the first of these, —Seek those things which are above.

The word seek indicates labor and effort; and, to use the scholastic phrase, excludes sluggish willingness. By the things which are above we must understand, in the first place, the kingdom of heaven, or the beatific vision of God, and those pleasures to be hereafter enjoyed with Christ our Head, and the blessed angels, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. But secondly and consequently, we must

26* understand those gifts of grace which are the seeds of this desired glory, as faith, love, holiness, and all those means by which, as by an intermediate path, God would have us proceed to this mark of heavenly glory. For Augustine has properly remarked, that these things may also be called things which are above, because "as to the excellency of their worth, they far surpass earthly things;" as, furthermore, because all things of this kind are bestowed from above, and come down from the Father of lights. When, therefore, the apostle exhorts to seek those things which are above, he would have us to understand, that we ought not only to seek celestial pleasures, but so to live that we may at length attain them. For he who does not advance in faith, love, and holiness, he does not, by the whole course of his life, seek heaven, but hastens to hell.

Hence we infer,

1. That heaven is not given to the indolent, but to those who seek it with great labor: Seek ye the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, Matthew 6:33. And elsewhere, the violent take it, not those who slumber.

2. Celestial pleasures are not possessed in this life: we should, therefore, long after, and patiently expect those things, being certain to obtain them at last, if we seek them as we ought to do.

"Be this my one great business here— With serious industry and fear Eternal bliss t' insure; Thine utmost counsel to fulfill, And suffer all thy righteous will, And to the end endure."