For He is first of the Church; and first of men after the flesh, like as of the Creation.742 And therefore he here uses the word “firstborn.” What is in this place the meaning of “the Firstborn”? Who was created first, or rose before all; as in the former place it means, Who was before all things. And here indeed he 272 uses the word “firstfruits,” saying, “Who is the743 Firstfruits, the Firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preëminence,” showing that the rest also are such as He; but in the former place it is not the “Firstfruits” of creation.744 And it is there, “The Image of the invisible God,” and then, “Firstborn.” Ver. 19, 20. “For it was the good pleasure of the Father, that in Him should all the fullness dwell. And having made peace through the Blood of His Cross, through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.” Whatsoever things are of the Father, these he saith are of the Son also, and that with more of intensity, because that He both became “dead”745 for, and united Himself to us. He said, “Firstfruits,” as of fruits. He said not “Resurrection,” but “Firstfruits,” showing that He hath sanctified us all, and offered us, as it were, a sacrifice. The term “fullness” some use of the Godhead, like as John said, “Of His fullness have all we received.” That is, whatever was the Son, the whole Son dwelt there, not a sort of energy, but a Substance. He hath no cause to assign but the will of God: for this is the import of, “it was the good pleasure…in Him. And…through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself.” Lest thou shouldest think that He undertook the office of a minister only, he saith, “unto Himself.”746 (2 Cor. v. 18.) And yet he elsewhere says, that He reconciled us to God, as in the Epistle he wrote to the Corinthians. And he well said, “Through Him to make an end of reconciling”;747 for they were already reconciled; but completely, he says, and in such sort, as no more to 742 Cat. “and first of men even as he that was first of Creation after the flesh,” then one Par. and Br. M. read, “For this cause both here and there the word ‘Firstborn’ is used. But what is ‘Firstborn of all creation’? It is for ‘First Created,’ as ‘Firstborn from the dead’ is for ‘Who rose again before all.’ And as there he puts ‘Who is before all,’ so here also he has put ‘Firstfruits.’” [A Paris ms. has the same reading, except that for “First Created” it has “First Creator.”—J.A.B.] 743 Rec. text ἀρχὴ, St. Chrys. has ἀπαρχὴ [and so six cursives. But this reading is clearly wrong, and vitiates the following statements of Chrys. For the meaning of “beginning” here, see Lightfoot.—J.A.B.] 744 The same mss. add, “but only the Firstborn, and not even this in the first place, but after saying, ‘Who is the Image,’” &c. 745 νεκρὸς γέγονε, alluding to the expression, πρωτότοκος ἐκ νεκρῶν. 746 [“The reconciliation is always represented as made to the Father. The reconciler is sometimes the Father Himself, sometimes the Son.”—Lightfoot.—J.A.B.] 747 ἀποκαταλλάξαι as ἀπολύτρωσις, above? [The compound verb may mean to reconcile completely or fi- nally.—J.A.B.] 479 Colossians 1:15-18