Matthew Poole and continuators on Colossians 2:9

9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily .

The causal particle induceth this as an argument to enforce the caution immediately foregoing against those who did seek to draw from Christ by Philosophy, as well as urging the ceremonial law, else the Apostle's reasoning were not cogent unless against both.

'[illegible: 1 letter]is evident that the Lord Jesus Christ, himself whom he had described and but just now named is the subject, the Person of whom he speaks, and in whom is seated and unto whom he attributes what followeth, c. 1.19. Ioh. 1.14, 1 Tim. 4.16. he doth not say in his doctrine whatever Socinians cavill, as if they would render the Apostle absurd and not to agree with himself in what he asserts of Christ's Person before (as hath been shewed) and after in the context. 'Tis plain this relative him, respects not onely, v. 8. but the 11th. &c. in whom the believing Colossians are said to be compleat as their head, both in the former Chapter, and soon after in this: would it not be absurd to say, Christ's Doctrine is the head of Angels? we are crucified in the doctrine of Christ? buried and quicned together with his doctrine? the hand writing of ordinances was nailed to the Cross of doctrine? Is a doctrine the head of principalities and powers? can a doctrine be buried in Baptism, &c. To silence all the Earth, that they should not restrain it to Christ's doctrine onely, what he asserts of his person, Paul after Christ had been several years in Heaven, put it in the present tense.

Dwelleth, not dwelt (as, 2 Tim. 1.5.) in regard of the person eternally the same, Heb. 13.8. for his argument had not been cogent, to contain Christians in the faith of Christ, and their duty to him, to have alledged in the doctrine of Christ now in Heaven hath dwelt all the fulness of the God-head bodily (could propriety of speech have allowed it) but from the other respect because in their very flesh (the body of Christ now an inhabitant of the Heavens) the very Godhead in the whole fulness thereof personally from the moment of his incarnation doth yet dwell; what will no[illegible: 1 letter] the faithfull perform and work out with their utmost faith that they may never suffer themselves to be rent from spiritual and mystical union with him, in whom they understand that even they themselves shall be also divinely filled, v. 10. i. e. in their measure be made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. dwelleth imports more than a transient stay for a few minutes, or a little while, even abiding in him constantly and for ever (as dwelling most usually notes, 2 Cor. 6.16.)

That which doth thus perpetually abide in his person as denominated after the humane nature is all the fulness of the God-head, viz. That rich and incomprehensible abundance of perfections whereof the supream and adorable nature is full; so that indeed there is not at all any perfection, or excellency in the divine nature but is found abiding in him. And after no common, or ordinary way, but by an Hypostatical or personal union, of the God-head, with the manhood in Christ: which is not by way of mixture, confusion, conversion or any other mutation; but.

Bodily to exclude that inhabitation which is onely by extrinsecal denomination. It being an adverb doth denote the manner as well as the subject, wherefore when he speaks of the temple of his body, Ioh. 2.21. that doth not fully reach the Apostle's meaning here: but it must be expounded personally, sith in the Greek that which signifies with us a body, and so our English word body is put for a person, Rom. 12.1. 2 Cor. 5.10. Rev. 18.13. some body or no body; i. e. some person or no person. There is a presence of the God-head general by essence and power; particular in the Prophets and Apostles working miracles; gracious in all sanctified ones; glorious in Heaven; in light which no Man can approach unto, 1 Tim. 6.16. relative in the Church visible and ordinances: typically under the law, and Symbolically in the Sacraments: but all these dwellings or being present in the creature fall short of that in the Text, viz. bodily connoting the personal habitation of the deity in, and union of it with the humanity of Christ. So close and streight, and intimate, that the God-head inhabiting, and the manhood inhabited, make but one and the same person, even as the reasonable Soul and Body in Man, make but one man. The way of the presence of the deity with the humanity of Christ is above all those manners of the presence of God with Angels and Men. The God-head dwells in him personally, in them in regard of assistance and energy: God-head notes the truth of it, Christ was not onely partaker of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. but the very God-head dwells in him: 'tis not onely the Divinity (as the Socinians, following the vulgar Latin in this, would have it) but the Deity, the very nature and essence of God. Now 'tis observable though in God himself Divinity and Deity being indeed the same, Rom. 1.20. and may differ onely from the manner of our conception and contemplation. Yet here when the enemies to Christ's Deity, might by their cavilling make more use of the word Divinity (as when the Soul of Man is said to be a divine thing) to insinuate as if it here noted onely the divine will exclusive to the other attributes (which exclusion the term all doth signantly prevent) the Apostle puts in Deity or God-h[illegible: 1 letter]ad. Then left Christ might (as by the Arians) be deemed a secondary God or (as some since) a made-God, inferiour to the Father, he saith the fulness of the God-head which speaks him perfect God coequal with the Father: further connoting a numerical sameness of essence betwixt the God-head of the Father and the Son, all the fulness of the God-head dwelleth in him. There is not one fulness of the Father and another of the Son, but one and the same singular God-head in both, Ioh. 10.30. the fulness of the manhood in Adam and Eve were not numerically the same, but the God-head of the Father and the Son is: yet is not the manhood of Christ co-extended and commensurate with the God-head (as some Lutherans conceit) but where the manhood is, or Christ as man is, or hath his existence there the fulness of the God-head dwells bodily: so that this fulness is extended as the manhood onely in which it is, and not as far as the Deity in which this derivative fulness is not as in its seat, though it be all originally from it, but inherently or subjectively in Christ.