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A73849
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A sermon vpon the eighth verse of the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles Preached to the Honourable Company of the Virginian Plantation, 13. Nouemb. 1622. By Iohn Donne Deane of Saint Pauls, London.; Sermon upon the viii. verse of the I. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles
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Donne, John, 1572-1631.
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1624
(1624)
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STC 7052; ESTC S109974
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15,806
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54
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the Modell of the whole frame and of the partitions wee proceede now to the furnishing of the particular roomes 1. Part. FIrst then this first word But excludes a temporall Kingdome the Apostles had fild themselues with an expectation with an ambition of it but that was not intended them It was no wonder that a woman could conceiue such an expectation and such an ambition as to haue her two sonnes sit at Christs right hand Mat. 20.20 and at his left in his Kingdome when the Apostles expected such a Kingdome as might affoord them honours and preferment vpon Earth More then once they were in the disputation in which Christ deprehended them Mat. 1.81 which of them should bee the greatest in his Kingdome Neither hath the Bishop of Rome any thing wherein he may so properly call himselfe Apost licall as this error of the Apostles this theire infirmitie that heis euermore too conuersant vpō the contemplation of temporall Kingdomes They did it all the way when Christ was with them and now at his last step Cum actu ascendisset when Christ was not Asending but in part ascended when one foot was vpon the Earth and the other in the cloud that tooke him vp they aske him now wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdome so women put their husbands and men their fathers and friends vpon their torture at their last gaspe and make their death bed a racke to make them strech and encrease ioyntures and portions and legacies and signe Scedules and Codicils with their hand when his hand that presents them is ready to close his eyes that should signe them And when they are vpon the wing for heauen men tye lead to their feet and when they are laying hand fast vpon Abrahams bosome they must pull their hand out of his bosome againe to obey importunities of men and signe their papers so vnderminable is the loue of this World which determines euery minute GOD as hee is three persons hath three Kingdomes There is Regnum potentiae The Kingdome of power and this wee attribute to the Father it is power and prouidence There is Regnum gloriae the Kingdome of glorie this we attribute to the Sonn and to his purchase for he is the King that shall say Mat. 25.34 Come ye blossed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World And then betweene these three is Regnum Gratiae The Kingdome of Grace and this weattribute to the Holy Ghost he takes them whom the king of power Almighty God hath rescued from the Gentiles and as the king of grace Hee giues them the knowledge of the misterie of the Kingdome of GOD Mat. 4.11 that is of future glory by sanctifying thē with his grace in his Church The two first kingdomes are in this world but yet neither of them are of this world because both they referre to the kingdome of glory The kingdome of the Father which is the prouidence of God does but preserue vs The kingdome of the Holy Ghost which is the grace of God does but prepare vs to the kingdome of the Sonne which is the glory of GOD and that 's in heauen And therfore though to good men this world be the way to that kingdome yet this kingdome is not of this world sayes Chist himselfe Though the Apostles themselues Iohn 18.36 as good a Schoole as they were bred in could neuer take out that lesson yet that lesson Christ giues and repeates to all you seeke a Temporall kingdome But sayes the Text stop there A kingdome you must not haue Beloued in him whose kingdome and Gospell you seeke to aduance in this Plantation our Lord and Sauiour Christ Iesus if you seeke to establish a temporall kingdome there you are not rectified if you seeke to bee kings in either acceptation of the word To be a King signifies Libertie and indepency and Supremacie to bee vnder no man and to be a King signifies Abundance and Omnisufficiencie to neede no man If those that gouerne there would establish such a gouernment as should not depend vpon this or if those that goe thither propose to themselues an exemption from Lawes to liue at their libertie this is to be Kings to deuest Allegeance to bee vnder no man and if those that aduenture thither propose to themselues present benefit and profit a sodaine way to bee rich and an aboundance of all desirable commodities from thence this is to be sufficient of themselues and to neede no man and to bee vnder no man and to neede no man are the two acceptations of being Kings Whom liberty drawes to goe or present profit drawes to aduenture are not yet in the right way O if you could once bring a Catechisme to bee as good ware amongst them as a Bugle as a knife as a hatchet O if you would bee as ready to hearken at the returne of a ship how many Indians were conuerted to Christ Iesus as what trees or druggs or Dyes that Ship had brought then you were in your right way and not till then Libertie and Abundance are Characters of kingdomes and a kingdome is excluded in the Text The Apostles were not to looke for it in their employment nor you in this your Plantation At least CHRIST expresses himselfe thus farre in this answer that if he would giue them a kingdome Non adhue hee would not giue it them yet They aske him Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdome and hee answers It is not for you to know the times whatsoeuer God will doe Man must not appoint him his time The Apostles thought of a kingdome presently after Christs departure the comming of the Holy Ghost who lead them into all truthes soone deliuered them of that error Other men in fauour of the Iewes interpreting all the prophesies which are of a Spirituall Kingdome the kingdome of the Gospell into which the Iewes shall be admitted in a literall sense haue thought that the Iewes shall haue not onely a temporall kingdome in the same place in Ierusalem againe but because they finde that kingdome which is promised that is the kingdome of the Gospell to bee expressed in large phrases and in an abundant manner applying all that largenesse to a temporall kingdome they thinke that the Iewes shall haue such a kingdome as shall swallow and annihilate all other kingdomes and bee the sole Empire and Monarchy of the world After this very great men in the Church vpon these words of One thousand yeares after the Resurrection haue immagin'd a Temporall Kingdome of the Saints of God heere vpon Earth Apo. 20. before they entred the ioyes of Heauen and Saint Augustine himselfe De Ciuit. Dei 20.7 had at first some declinations towards that opinion though he dispute powerfully against it after That there should bee Sabatismus in terris that as the world was to last Sixe thousand yeares in troubles there should be a Seuenth thousand
in such ioyes as this world could giue And some others who haue auoided both the Temporall kingdome imagin'd by the Apostles presently after the Ascention And the Emperiall kingdome of the Iewes before the Resurrection And the Carnall kingdome of the Chiliasts the Millenarians after the Resurrection though they speake of no kingdome but the true kingdome the kingdome of glory yet they erre as much in assigning a certaine time when that kingdome shall beginne when the ende of this world when the Resurrection when the Iudgement shall be Non est vestrum nosse tempora sayes Christ to his Apostles then and lest it might be thought that they might know these things when the Holy Ghost came vpon them Christ denies that he himselfe knew that as Man and as Man Christ knew more then euer the Apostles knew Whatsoeuer therefore Christ intended to his Apostles heere hee would not giue it presently non adhuc hee would not binde himselfe to a certaine time Non est vestrum nosse tempora It belongs not to vs to know Gods times Beloued vse godly means and giue God his leisure You cannot beget a Sonne and tell the Mother I will haue this Sonne born within fiue Moneths nor when he is borne say you will haue him past daunger of Wardship within fiue yeares You cannot sowe your Corne to day and say it shall bee aboue ground to morrow and in my Barne next weeke How soone the best Husbandman sow'd the best Seede in the best ground GOD cast the promise of a Messias as the seede of all in Paradise In Semine Mulieris The Seede of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head and yet this Plant was Foure thousand yeares after before it appeared this Messias Foure thousand yeares before he came GOD shew'd the ground where that should grow Two thousand yeares after the Promise in Abrahams Family In semine tuo In thy Seed all Nations shall be blessed God hedg'd in this Ground almost One thousand yeares after that In Micheas time Et tu Bethlem Thou Bethlem shalt bee the place and God watered that and weeded that refreshed that dry expectation with a Succession of Prophets and yet it was so long before this expectation of Nations this Messias came So GOD promised the Iewes a Kingdome in Iacobs Prophecie to Iuda Gen. 49. That the Scepter should not depart from his Tribe In Two hundred yeares more he saies no more of it Deut. 17.14 then he ordaines some institutions for their King when they should haue one And then it was Foure hundred yeares after that before they had a King GOD meant from the first houre to people the whole earth and God could haue made men of clay as fast as they made Brickes of Clay in Egypt but he began vpon two and when they had beene multiplying and replenishing the Earth One thousand sixe hundred yeares the Flood washed all that away and GOD was almost to begin againe vpon eight persons and they haue seru'd to people Earth and Heauen too Bee not you discouraged if the Promises which you haue made to your selues or to others be not so soone discharg'd though you see not your money though you see not your men though a Flood a Flood of Bloud haue broken in vpon them be not discouraged Great Creatures lye long in the Wombe Lyons are litterd perfit but Beare-whelpes lick'd vnto their shape actions which Kings vndertake are cast in a mould they haue their perfection quickly actions of priuate men and priuate Purses require more hammering and more filing to their perfection Onely let your principall end be the propagation of the glorious Gospell and though there bee an Exclusiue in the Text GOD does not promise you a Kingdome Ease and Abundance in all things and that which hee does intend to you he does not promise presently yet there is an Inclusiue too not that But but something equiuolent at least But yee shall receiue power after that the Holy Ghost is come vpon you and yee shall be witnesses vnto me both in Ierusalem and in all Iudaea and in Samaria and vnto the vttermost parts of the Earth 2. Part. NOw our Sauiour Christ does not say to these men since you are so importunate you shall haue no Kingdome now nor neuer t is not yet But Sed. hee does not say you shall haue no Kingdome nor any thing else t is not that But the importunitie of beggers sometimes drawes vs to such a froward answer For this importunitie I will neuer giue you any thing Our patterne was not so froward hee gaue them not that but as good as that Samuel was sent to super-induct a King vpon Saul 1. Sam. 16. to annoint a new King Hee thought his Commission had been determined in Eliab Surely this is the Lords Annointed But the Lord said not hee nor the next Aminadab nor the next Shammah nor none of the next seuen But but yet there is one in the field keeping sheepe annoint him Dauid is hee Saint Paul prayed earnestly and frequently to be discharged of that Stimulas Carnis God sayes no not that but Gratia mea sufficit Thou shalt haue grace to ouercome the tentation though the tentation remaine God sayes to you No Kingdome not Ease not Abundance nay nothing at all yet the Plantation shall not discharge the Charges not defray it selfe yet but yet alreadie now at first it shall conduce to great vses It shall redeeme many a wretch from the Lawes of death from the hands of the Executioner vpon whom perchance a small fault or perchance a first fault or perchance a fault heartily and sincerely repented perchance no fault but mallice had otherwise cast a present and ignominious death It shall sweepe your streetes and wash your doores from idle persons and the children of idle persons and imploy them and truely if the whole Countrey were but such a Bridewell to force idle persons to work it had a good vse But it is alreadie not onely a Spleene to drayne the ill humors of the body but a Liuer to breed good bloud alreadie the imployment breedes Marriners alreadie the place giues Essayes nay Fraights of Marchantable Commodities alreadie it is a marke for the Enuie and for the ambition of our Enemies I speake but of our Doctrinall not Nationall Enemies as they are Papists they are sorrie wee haue this Countrey and surely twentie Lectures in matter of Controuersie doe not so much vexe them as one Ship that goes and strengthens that Plantation Neyther can I recommend it to you by any better Rhetorique then their mallice They would gladly haue it and therefore let vs be glad to hold it Thus then this Text proceedes Spiritus Sanctus and gathers vpon you All that you would haue by this Plantation you shall not haue GOD bindes not himselfe to measures All that you shall haue you haue not yet GOD bindes not himselfe to times but something you shall haue nay you haue