unto our Saviour himself when he was in one of the Villages of Samaria Luke the ninth where the text notes that though he were in Samaria yet his face was set towards Hierusalem so beloved though these words be spoken to a Samaritane to an infidel to Pilate yet their face is toward Hierusalem they are a lesson directed to the subjects of his Spiritual Kingdom of that Hierusalem which is from above and is the Mother of us all In them we may consider two General parts First a Denuntiation and message unto us and Secondly a signe to confirme the truth of it For it is the manner and method as it were which God doth use when he dispatches a message to annex a signe unto it by which it may be known When he sent Moses to the Israelites in Egypt and Moses required a signe he gave him a signe in his hand in his Rod when he sent Gideon against Madian he gave him a signe in the Fleece of Wool which was upon the Floor when he sent the Prophet to Hieroboam to prophesie against the Altar in Bethel he gave him a signe that the Altar should rend and the ashes fall out when he sent Esay with a message to King Ahaz he gave him a signe Behold a Virgin shall conceive So Beloved in these words There is a Message There is a Signe The first words are the Message My Kingdom is not of this world c. The next words For if it were then would my servants fight c. These are Moses rod and Gideons Fleece they are the signe which confirm the Message The first part is a general proposition or Maxime the second is an example and particular instance of it For in the first our Saviour distinguishes his Kingdome from the kingdomes of the world and from all the fashions of them In the second amongst many other he chuses one instance Wherein particularly he notes that his Kingdome is unlike to earthly kingdomes For the kingdoms of the world are purchased and maintain'd by violence and blood but so is not his The reason why our Saviour fastens upon this reason of dissimilitude and unlikeness is because in gaining and upholding temporal Kingdomes nothing so usual as the sword and war No Kingdome of the world but by the sword is either gotten or held or both The sword in a secular common wealth is like the rod in a School remove that away and men will take their liberty It is the plea which the Tarquins used to King Porsenna in Livie Satis libertatem ipsam habere dulcedinis nisi quantâ vi civitates eam expetant tantâ regna reges defendant aequare summa infimis adesse finem regnis rei inter Deos hominesque pulcherrimae The taste of liberty is so sweet that except Kings maintain their authority with as great violence as the people affect their liberty all things will run to confusion and Kingdomes which are the goodliest things in the world will quickly go to wrack when God gave a temporal Kingdome unto his own people he sent Moses and Joshua before them to purchase it with the sword when they were possest of this Kingdome he sends then Gideon and Sampson and David and many worthies more to maintain it by the sword But now being to open unto the world another kinde of Kingdome of rule and government then hitherto it had been acquainted with he tells us that he is a King of a Kingdome which is erected and maintained not by Joshua and David but by Peter and Paul not by the sword but by the spirit not by violence but by love not by striving but by yielding not by fighting but by dying Pilate had heard that he was a King It was the accusation which was fram'd against him that he bare himself as King of the Jews But because he saw no pomp no train no guard about him he took it but as an idle report To put him therefore out of doubt our Saviour assures him that he is a King but of such a Kingdome as he could not skill of My Kingdome is not of this world c. For the better unfolding of which words first we will consider what the meaning of this word Kingdome is for there lies an ambiguity in it Secondly we will consider what lessons for our instruction the next words will yield Not of this world first of this word Kingdome Our Saviour is a King three manner of wayes and so correlatively hath three distinct several Kingdomes He is first a King in the largest extent and meaning which can possibly be imagined and that is as he is Creator and absolute Lord of all creatures Of this Kingdome Heaven Earth and Hell are three large provinces Angels Men and Devils his very enemies every creature visible and invisible are subjects of this Kingdome The glory and strength of this Kingdome consists least of all in men and man is the weakest part of it For there is scarcely a creature in the world by whom he hath not been conquer'd When Alexander the great had travelled through India and over-run many large provinces and conquer'd many popular Cities when tidings came that his Soldiers in Greece had taken some small towns there he scorn'd the news and in contempt me thinks said he I hear of the battel of Frogs and mice Beloved if we look upon these huge armies of creatures and consider of what wonderful strength they are when the Lord summons them to battel all the armies of men and famous battels of which we have so large histories in the comparison of these what are they but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Homers tale a battel of Frogs and Mice Infinite legions of Angels attend him in Heaven and every Angel is an Armie one Angel in the Book of Kings is sent out against the army of the Assyrians and in one night foure-score thousand persons die for it Base and contemptible creatures when God calls for them are of strength to conquer whole Countreys He over-runs AEgypt with his armies of Frogs and Flies and Lice and before his own people with an armie of Hornets chases the Canaanites out of the Land Nay the dull and senseless elements are up in arms when God summons them He shoots his Hail-shot with his Hail-stones from Heaven he destroyes more of the Canaanites then the Israelites can with their swords As for his armies of fire and water what power is able to withstand them every creature when God calls is a soldier How great then is the glory of this Kingdome of which the meanest parts are invincible Secondly again our Saviour is a King in a more restrain'd and confin'd sense as he is in Heaven attended on by Angels and Arch-angels powers principalities and all the heavenly hosts For though he be omnipresent and fills every place both in Heaven and Earth yet Heaven is the Palace and Throne of this Kingdome there is he better seen and known there with
fits the persoa to whom I will apply it and because it is Theophylacts in his Comments on St. Lukes Gospel I will not be ashamed to make use of it Swine saith he have their eyes so fram'd that they cannot look up to Heaven their keepers therefore when they finde themselves troubled with their crying are wont to cast them upon their backs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so make them cease their crying for that beast being amazed to see the frame and beauty of Heaven which before he had never seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being stricken with admiration forgets his crying the eyes of many men seem to be framed like those of Swine they are not able to cast them up to Heaven for would they but cast themselves upon their backs turn their face from earth and view the beauty of things above it could not be but all this claim or rather clamour after earthly things should utterly cease Again yet the more to quicken one to the neglect of these things below among many other fallacies by which they delude us I have made choice of one more they present themselves unto us sometimes as necessaries sometimes as Ornaments unto us in our course of vertue and happiness whereas they are but meer impertinences neither is it any way material whether we have them yea or no virtus censum non requirit nudo homine contenta est virtue and happiness require nothing else but a man Thus say the Ethnickes And Christianity much more For it were a strange thing that we should think that Christ came to make virtue more chargable In regard of virtue and piety all estates all conditions high and low are alike It is noted by Petronius for the vanity of rich men Qui solas divitias extruere curant nihil volunt inter homines melius credit qua quod ipsi tenent those men whose minds are set upon wealth and riches would have all men believe that it is best so to do But riches and poverty make no difference for we believe him that hath told us there is no difference Jew and Gentile high and low rich and poor all are one in Christ Jesus Non naturae paupertas sed opinionis est saith S. Ambrose Poverty as men call it is but a phansie there is no such thing indeed it is but a Figment an Idol men first framed it and set it up and afterward feared it oculi nostri tota haec lunuria est as some Naturalists tell us that the Rain bow is oculi opus a thing framed onely by the eye so this difference betwixt rich and poor is but the creature of the eye Smindyrides the Sybarite was grown so extremely dainty that he would grow weary with the sight of another mans labour and therefore when sometime he saw a poor man digging and painfully labouring he began to faint and pant and requires to be removed Beloved when we are thus offended to see another man meanly clad meanly housed meanly traded all this is but out of a Sybaritish ridiculous daintiness for all this is but to grow weary at the sight of another mans labour would we follow our Saviours precept and put out this eye of ours the greatest part of all this vanity were quite extinguisht for what were all outward state and pompe imaginable were no eye to see or regard it Now beloved yet to see this more plainly what is the main end of our life what is it at which with so much pain and labour we strive to arrive It is or should be nothing else but virtue and happiness Now these are alike purchasable in all estates Poverty disease distress contumely contempt these are as well the object of virtue as wealth liberty honor reputation and the rest of that forespoken rank Happiness therefore may as well dwell with the poor miserable and distressed persons as with persons of better fortune since it is confest by all that happiness is nothing else but Actio secundum virturem a leading of our life according to virtue As great art may be exprest in the cutting of a flint as in the cutting of a diamond and so the workman do well express his skill no man will blame him for the baseness of the matter or think the worse of his work Beloved some man hath a diamond a fair and glittering fortune some man hath a flint a hard harsh and despicable fortune let him bestow the same skill and care in polishing and cutting of the latter as he would or could have done on the former and be confident it will be as highly valued if not more highly rewarded by God who is no accepter of persons but accepteth every man according to that he hath and not according to that he hath not To him let us commit our selves To him be all honour and praise now and for ever Amen FINIS Numbers 35. verse 33. And the Land cannot be cleansed of blood that is shed in it but by the blood of him that shed it THese words are like unto a Scorpion for as in that so in these the self same thing is both Poyson and remedy Blood is the poyson Blood is the Remedy he that is stricken with the Scorpion must take the oyle of the Scorpion to cure him He that hath poyson'd a Land with the sin of blood must yield his own blood for Antidote to cure it It might seem strange that I should amongst Christians thus come and deliver a speech of Blood For when I read the notes and characters or a Christian in holy Scriptures me thinks it should be almost a sin for such a one to name it Possess your souls in patience by this shall men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another peace I leave with you The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace in the Holy Ghost Lee your softness be known to all men the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy It is reported by Avenzoar a great Physician that he was so tender hearted that he could not endure to see a man let blood he that should read these passages of Scripture might think that Christians were like Avenzoar that the sight of blood should be enough to affright them But is the Common Christian so soft So tender hearted is he so peaceable so tame and tractable a creature You shall not finde two things of more different countenance and complexion then that Christianity which is commended unto us in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and that which is current in use and practice of the times He that shall behold the true face of a Christian as it is deciphered and painted out unto us in the books of the New Testament and unpartially compare it with that copie or counterfeit of it which is exprest in the life and demeanor of common Christians would think them no more like then those shields of
barren soils into the fattest places of the land from solitary desarts into the most frequented cities they turned their poor cottages into stately pallace their true fasting into formalizing and partial abstinence So that instead of going forth they took the next course to come into the world they left not the world for Christ but under pretence of Christ they gain'd the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzâ—â—ne speaks One of their own Saint Jerome by name long ago complain'd of it Nonnulli sunt ditiores Monachi quam fuerant seculares clerici qui possideant opes sub paupere Christo quas sub fallaci locuplete diabolo non habuerant ut suspiret eos ecclesia divites quos tenuit mundos ante mendicos But I forbear and come to commend unto you another kinde of going forth necessary for all persons and for all times There is a going forth in act and execution requisite only at sometimes and upon some occasions there is a going forth in will and affection this let the persons be of what calling soever and let the times be never so favourable God requires at the hands of every one of us We usually indeed distinguish the times of the Church into times of peace and times of persecution the truth is to a true Christian man the times are always the same Habetetiam pax suos martyres saith one there is a martyrdome even in time of peace for the practise of a Christian man in the calmest times in readiness and resolution must nothing differ from times of rage and fire Josephus writing of the Military exercises practised amongst the Romans reports that for seriousness they diffred from a true battel only in this the battel was a bloody exercise their exercise a bloodless battel Like unto this must be the Christian exercise in times of peace neither must there be any difference betwixt those days of persecution and these of ours but only this those yeelded Martyrs with blood ours without Let therefore every man throughly examine his own heart whether upon supposal of times of tryal and persecution he can say with David My heart is ready whether he can say of his dearest pledges all these have I counted dung for Christs sake whether he finde in himself that he can if need be even lay down his life for his profession He that cannot do thus what differs his faith from a temporary faith or from hypocrisie Mark I beseech you what I say I will not affirm I will only leave it to your Christian discretion A temporary faith that is a faith resembled to the seed in the Gospel which being sown on the stony ground withered as soon as the sun arose a faith that fails as soon as it feels the heat of persecution can save no man May we not with some reason think that the faith of many a one who in time of peace seems to us yea and to himself too peradventure to dy possest of it is yet notwithstanding no better then a temporary faith and therefore comes not so far as to save him that hath it Rufus a certain Philosopher whensoever any Scholars were brought unto him to receive education under him was wont to use all possible force of argument to diswade them from it if nothing could prevail with them but needs they will be his hearers this their pertinacy he took for a sure token of a mind throughly setled led as it were by instinct to their studies If God should use this method to try who are his and bring on us those Temptations which would make the man of temporary faith to shrink think we that all those who in these times of peace have born the name of Christ unto their graves would have born unto the rack unto the sword unto the fire Indeed to man who knows not the thoughts of his friend some trials sometimes are very necessary But he that knew and foretold David what the resolution of the men of Keilah would be if Saul came to them knows likewise what the resolution of every one of us would be if a fiery trial should appear Who knows therefore whether God hath numbred out the Crowns of life according to the number of their souls who he foreknew would in the midst of all Temptations and trialls continue unto the end for what difference is there betwixt the faith that fails upon occasion or that would fail if occasion were offred for the actual failing of faith is not that that makes it temporary it is only that which detects it which bewrays it unto us to be so The faith therefore of that man which would have sunk as fast as Peter did if tempests had arisen notwithstanding that through the peace of the Church he dies possest of is no better then a temporary and cometh short of a saving faith Durus sermo it as a hard speech some man may say but let him that thinks thus recount with himself that Dura via it is is a hard way that leads to life Beloved deceive not your selves heaven never was nor will be gotten without Martyrdom In a word my Brethren try therefore your selves whether you have in you true resolution summon up your thoughts surveigh every path in which your affections are wont to tread see whether you are prepared to leave all for Christ. If you find in your selves but one affection looking back to Sodom to the things of this life remember Lots wife her case is yours you are not yet sufficiently provided for the day of battel FINIS Christian Omnipotency Philip. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that enableth or that strengtheneth me FRom henceforth let all complaint concerning the frailty and weakness of mans Nature for ever cease For behold our weakness swallow'd up of strength and man is become Omnipotent I can do all things saith my Apostle The strongest reason which the subtilest above all the beasts of the field could invent to draw our first Parents from their allegeance was this Ye shall be like Gods Our Saviour who is infinitely wiser to recal us then our adversary was to seduce us takes the same way to restore as he did to destroy and uses that for Physick which the Devil gave for poyson Is this it saith he unto us that hath drawn ye from me that ye would be like unto Gods why then return again and ye shall be like Gods by a kinde of Communicatio idiomatûm by imparting unto you such excellencies as are proper unto myself As I my self do all things so shall you likewise be enabled to do all things through me Falso queritur de Naturâ suâ Genus humanum quod imbecillis sit It was the observation of the Heathen Historian that it is an error in men thus to complain of the infirmities and weakness of their Nature For man indeed is a creature of great strength and if at any time he finde himself weak it is through his
Clericorum and it is a set form of prayer which Clergy-men ought to use when they set out in a journey and are upon their way why she calls it Itinerarium Clericorum and impropriates it unto the Clergy I know not she might for ought I see have called it Itinerarium Laicorum The Itinerary of the Laity since it is a duty belonging unto them as well as to the Minister Yet thus much the example of that Church teaches that no place no occasion excludes Prayer We read in our books that one of the Ethnick Emperors was much taken when he saw a woman going in the streets with her vessel of water on her head her childe at her girdle her spindle in her hand twisting her threed as she went He thought it a wonderful portion of diligence thus to employ all places and times indifferently Beloved if it be thus with bodily labor how much more should it be so with the labor of the soul which is far more easie and needs not the help of any bodily instrument to act it And how welcome a spectacle will it be think you unto the great King of Heaven and Earth when he shall see that no time no occasion is able to interrupt the labour of our devotion Is it the time of Feasting and Jollity which seems to prescribe against prayer Indeed prayer is a grave and sober action and seems not to stand with sport and merriment yet notwithstanding it is of so pliable a nature that it will accommodate and fit it self even to feasts and sportings we read in the book of Daniel that when Belshazzer made his great and last feast to his Princes and Lords that they were merry and drank wine in bowls and praysed the Gods of Gold and Silver of Brass and of Iron of Wood and of Stone Beloved shall Ethnick feasts finde room for their Idolatrous worship and praise of their Golden Brazen Wooden Gods and shall not our Christian Feasts yield some place for the praise of the true God of Heaven and Earth Last of all is it time of sleep that seems to give a vacation and otium to prayer Beloved sleep is no part of our life we are not accountable for things done or not done then Tertullian tells us that an unclean dream shall no more condemn us then a dream of Martyrdom shall crown us and the Casuists do teach that loose dreams in the night shall never bee laid to our charge if they be not occasioned by lewd thoughts in the day for they are Cogitationes injectae non enatae they are not thoughts springing out but cast into our hearts by the Devil upon his score shall they go and we shall not reckon for them So then though sleep partake not of our devotion yet this hinders not the continualness of it Aristotle tells us that men who sleep perceive not any part of time to have passed because they tie the last moment of their watching with the first moment of their awaking as having no sense of what past betwixt and so account of it as one continued time Beloved if we do with our devotion as we do with our time if we shut up the last instant of our watching with a prayer and resume that prayer at the first instant of our waking we have made it one continued prayer without interruption Thirdly and last of all the greatest reason why many businesses of the world cannot be acted perpetually is because they must give room to others Unicum arbustum non alit duos Erithacos The actions of the world are many times like unto quarrelsome birds two of them cannot peaceably dwell in one bush But prayer hath that property which Aristotle gives unto substance nulli esse contrarium it is at peace and holds good terms with all our cares of the world No business so great or that so much takes up the time and minde of a man as that it needs exclude prayer It is of a soft and sociable nature and it can incorporate and sink into our business like water into Ashes and never increase the bulk of them It can mix and interweave it self with all our cares without any hinderance unto them Nay it is a great strength and improvement unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For saith S. Chrysostome as they that build houses of clay must every where place studs and pieces of timber and wood so to strengthen the building 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so all our cares of this life which are no better then buildings of dirt and clay we must strengthen and compact together with frequent and often prayer as with bonds and props of tymber Let no man therefore think it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is too much to require at the hands of men at one and the self same instant both to attend their vocation and their prayer For the minde of a man is a very agile and nimble substance and it is a wonderful thing to see how many things it will at one moment apply it self unto without any confusion or let Look but upon the Musician while he is in his practice he tunes his voice fingers his Instrument reads his dity marks the note observes the the time all these things simul semel at one and the same instant without any distraction or impediment Thus should men do in case of devotion in the common acts of our vocation let prayer beare a part For prayer added unto diligent labor is like a sweet voyce to a well tuned Instrument and makes a pleasing harmony in the ears of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The good Huswife saith St. Chrysostome as she sits at her distaffe and reaches out her hand to the flax may even then lift up if not her eyes yet her minde unto Heaven and consecrate and hallow her work with earnest prayer unto God Arator stivam tenens Hallelujah secantat sudans messor Psalmis sese evocat curvâ attondens falce vites vinitor aliquid Davidicum canit The Husbandman saith St. Hierome at the Plough-tail may sing an Hallelujah the sweating Harvest-man may refresh himself with a Psalm the Gardiner whilest he prunes his Vines and Arbors may record some one of Davids sonnets The reason of this pliable nature of prayer is because it is a thing of another condition then the acts of the world are It requires no outward labour of the body no outward fashion and manner of doing but is internally acted in the soul it self and leaves the outward members of our bodies free to perform those offices which require their help Our legal business in the world must be done in certain forms of breves and writs and I know not what variety of outward ceremony or else it is not warrantable But prayer beloved is not like an obligation or indenture it requires no outward
solemnity of words and ceremony Quaint witty and set forms of prayer proceed many times from ostentation more then devotion for any thing I know it requires not so much as the moving of the lips or tongue Nay one thing I know more that the most forcible prayer transcends and far exceeds all power of words For St. Paul speaking unto us concerning the most effectual kinde of prayer calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sighs and groans that cannot be expressed Nothing does crie so loud in the ears of God as the sighing of a contrite and earnest heart we read in the 14. of Exodus that God speaks unto Moses why cryest thou unto me command the children of Israel that they go forward yet there appears not in the text any prayer that Moses made or word that he spake It was the earnestness of Moses heart that was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that did so sound in the ears of the Lord. Wherefore true prayer hath no commerce with the outward members of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it requires not the voice but the minde not the stretching of the hands but the intension of the soul not any outward shape or carriage of body but the inward behaviour of the understandingâ—â— how then can it slacken your worldly business and occasions to mix with them sighs and groans which are the most effectual kindes of prayer And let this suffice concerning the first meaning of the words I will briefly speak concerning the second meaning which I told you was the sense intended by the Holy Ghost when he wrote and it is an exhortation to a religious importunity in our prayers not to let our suits fall because they are not presently granted but never to leave solliciting till we have prevailed and so take the blessings of God by violence Gratissima vis This force this violence is a thing most welcome unto God for if the importunity of Esau's false feigned and malicious tears drew a blessing from his Father Isaac who yet had no greater store of blessings as it seems how much more shall the true religious importunity of zealous prayer pull a blessing out of the hands of God who is rich in blessings above the sands of the Sea in multitude It is the Courtiers rule that over modest suitors seldome speed Beloved we must follow the same rule in the Court of Heaven intempestive bashfulness gets nothing there Qui timide rogat docet negare Faint asking does invite a denial will you know the true name of the behaviour which prevails with God St. Luke in his 11. Chapter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Chrysostome speaking of the behaviour of the Canaanitish woman in the 25. of St. Matthew tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 improbity importunity impudency these be the names of that person behaviour which you must put on if you mean to prevail in your suits with God And indeed if we consider that habit and manner that God is wont to put on when his children do become suitors unto him how he puts on a rigid rough and untractable carriage even towards his dearest children even then when he means them most good we shall plainly see we must use such kinde of behaviour if we will prevail with him for the more effectually to express this demeanor of God toward his children and to assure us it is so and to teach us importunity our Saviour Christ that great Master of requests may seem to have done himself some wrong first by drawing in a manner odious comparisons and likening the behaviour of God in these cases to a slothful friend that is loath to leave his warm bed to do his friend a pleasure and here in my text to an unjust Judge that fears neither God nor man and secondly by his own behaviour toward the Canaanitish woman It is strange to observe how though he were the meekest person that ever was upon earth yet here he strives as it were to unnaturalize himself and lay by his natural sweetness of disposition almost to forget common humanity and puts on a kinde of sullen and surly person of purpose to deter her you shall not finde our Saviour in all the New Testament in such a mood so bent to contemn and vilifie a poor suitor St. Austine comparing together St. Matthew and Mark who both of them record the same story and gathering together the circumstances out of them both tells us that first she follows our Saviour in the street and that our Saviour takes house as it were to shelter himself from her but she comes after and throws her self at his feet and he as offended with her importunity again quits the house to be rid of her and all this while deigns her not a word If any behaviour could have dasht a suit and broken the heart of a poor suiter this had been enough but here 's not all we have a civil precept that if we be not disposed to pleasure a suiter yet to give him good words and shape him a gentle answer it is hard if we cannot afford a suiter a gentle woâ—â— We read of Tiberius the Emperour as I remember that he would never suffer any man to go sad and discontented from him yet our Saviour seems to have forgot this part of civility being importun'd to answer her gives her an answer worse then silence and speaks words like the piercing of a sword as Solomon speaks I may not take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs And yet after all this strange copie of countenance he fully subscribes to her request Beloved God hath not only exprest thus much in parables and practised these strange delays upon Canaanitish women but he hath acted it indeed and that upon his dearest Saints David one of the worthiest of his Saints yet how passionately doth he cry out How long Lord wilt thou forget me How long shall I seek counsel in my soul and be so vexed in my heart Not only the Saints on earth but even those in heaven do seem to partake in this demeanor of God we read in the book of the Revelation that when the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar cried out how long Lord just and holy dost thou not avenge our blood from off the earth they received this answer have patience yet a little while It is storyed of Diogenes that he was wont to supplicate to the statues and to hold out his hands and beg of them that so he might learn to brook and devour denial and tediousness of suit Beloved let us but meditate upon these examples which I have related and we shall not need to practice any of the Cynics art For if the Saints and blessed Martyrs have their suites so long depending in the Courts of Heaven then good reason that we should learn to brook delays and arm our selves with patience
more state and honour served and therefore more properly is his Kingdome said to be there And this is called his Kingdome of glory The rules and laws and admirable orders of which Kingdome could we come to see and discover it would be with us as it was with the Queen of Saba when she came to visit Solomon of whom the Scripture notes that when she heard his wisdome and had seen the order of his servants the attendance that was given him and the manner of his table There was no more Spirit left in her Beloved Dum Spiritus hos regit artus Whilest this Spirit is in us we cannot possibly come to discern the laws and orders of this Kingdome and therefore I am constrained to be silent Thirdly our Saviour is a King in a sense yet more impropriated For as he took our nature upon him as he came into the world to redeem mankinde and to conquer Hell and death so is there a Kingdome annext unto him A Kingdome the purchase whereof cost him much sweat and blood of which neither Angels nor any other creature are a part only that remnant of mankinde that Ereptus titio That number of blessed Souls which like a brand out of the fire by his death and passion he hath recovered out of the power of sin and all these alone are the subjects of that Kingdome And this is that which is called his Kingdome of Grace and which himself in Scripture every where calls his Church his Spouse his Body his Flock and this is that Kingdome which in this place is spoken of and of which our Saviour tells Pilate That it is not of this world My Kingdome is not of this world Which words at the first reading may seem to savour of a little imperfection for they are nothing else but a Negation or denial Now our Books teach us that a Negative makes nothing known for we know things by discovering not what they are not but what they are yet when we have well examin'd them we shall finde that there could not have been a speech delivered more effectual for the opening the nature of the Church and the discovery of mens errors in that respect For I know no error so common so frequent so hardly to be rooted out so much hindering the knowledg of the true nature of the Church as this that men do take the Church to be like unto the world Tully tells us of a Musician that being asked what the Soul was answered that it was Harmonie et is saith he à principiis artis suae non recescit He knew not how to leave the principles of his own art Again Plato's Schollers had been altogether bred up in Arithmetick and the knowledge of numbers and hence it came that when afterward they diverted their studies to the knowledge of Nature or Moral Philosophy wheresoever they walked they still feined to themselves some what like unto Numbers the world they supposed was fram'd out of numbers Cities and Kingdomes and Common-wealths they thought stood by numbers Number with them was sole principle and creator of every thing Beloved when we come to learn the quality and state of Christs Kingdome it fares much with us as it does with Tullies Musician or Plato's Schollers difficulter à principiis artis nostrae recedimus Hardly can we forsake those principles in which we have been brought up In the world we are born in it we are bred the world is the greatest part of our studie to the true knowledge of God and of Christ still we fancy unto us something of the world It may seem but a light thing that I shall say yet because it seems fitly to open my meaning I will not refrain to speak it Lucian when Priams young son was taken up into heaven brings him in calling for milk and cheese and such countrey cates as he was wont to eat on earth Beloved when we first come to the Table of God to heavenly Manna and Angels food it is much with us as it was with Priams young son when he came first into Heaven we cannot forget the milk and cheese and the gross diet of the world Our Saviour and his blessed Apostles had great and often experience of this error in men when our Saviour preach't to Nicodemus the doctrine of regeneration and new birth how doth he still harp upon a gross conceit of a re-entry to be made into his mothers womb When he preacht unto the Samaritane women concerning the water of life how hardly is she driven from thinking of a material Elementary water such as was in Jacobs well When Simon Magus in the Acts saw that by laying on of hands the Apostles gave the Holy Ghost he offers them money to purchase himself the like power He had been trafficking and merchandizing in the world and saw what authority what a Kingdome money had amongst men he therefore presently conceited coelum venale Deumque that God and Heaven and all would be had for money To teach therefore the young Courtier in the Court of Heaven that he commit no such Solecisms that hereafter he speak the true Language and dialect of God our Saviour sets down this as a principal rule in our Spiritual Grammar That his Court is not of this world Nay beloved not only the young Courtier but many of the old servants in the Court of Christ are stain'd with this error It is storied of Leonides which was School-master to Alexander the great that he infected his non-age with some vices quae robustum quoque jam maximum regem ab illa institutione puerili sunt prosecuta which followed him then when he was at mans estate Beloved the world hath been a long time a School-master unto us and hath stain'd our nonage with some of these spots which appear in us even then when we are strong men in Christ. When our Saviour in the Acts after his Resurrection was discoursing to his Disciples concerning the kingdom of God they presently brake forth into this question Wilt thou now restore the kingdom unto Israel Certainly this question betrays their ignorance their thoughts still ran upon a kingdom like unto the kingdoms of the world notwithstanding they had so long and so often heard our Saviour to the contrary Our Saviour therefore shortly takes them up Non est vestrum your question is nothing to the purpose the kingdom that I have spoken of is another manner of kingdom then you conceive Sixteen hundred years Et quod Excurrit hath the Gospel been preached unto the world is this stain spunged out yet I doubt it whence arise those novel late disputes de notis Ecclesiae of the notes visibility of the Church Is it not from hence that they of Rome take the world the Church to be like Mercury and Sosia in Plautus his comaedies so like one another that one of them must wear a toy in his cap that so the spectators may distinguish them
whence comes it that they stand so much upon State and Ceremony in the Church Is it not from hence that they think the Church must come in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Luke speaks with a great deal of pompe and train and shew and vanity and that the service of God doth necessarily require this noise and tumult of outward State and Ceremony Whence comes it that We are at our wits ends when we see persecution and sword and fire to rage against the true professors of the Gospel Is it not because as these bring ruine and desolation upon the kingdoms of the world so we suppose they work no other effect in the kingdom of Christ all these conceits and many more of the like nature spring out of no other fountain then that old inveterate error which is so hardly wiped out of our hearts that the State of the Church and Kingdom of Christ doth hold some proportion Some likeness with the state and managing of temporal kingdoms wherefore to pluck out of our hearts Opinionem tam insitam tam vetustam a conceit so ancient so deeply rooted in us our Saviour spake most excellently most pertinently and most fully when he tells us that his Church that his Kingdom is not of this world In which words of his there is contained the true art of discovering and knowing the true nature and essence of the Church For as they which make Statues cut and pare away all superfluities of the matter upon which they work so our Saviour to shew us the true proportion and feature of the Church prunes away the world and all superfluous excrescencies and sends her to be seen as he did our first Parents in Paradice stark naked As those Elders in the Apocryphal story of Susanna when they would see her beauty commanded to take of her mask so he that longs to see the beauty of the Church must pull of that mask of the world outward shew For as Juda in the book of Genesis when Thamar sate vail'd by the way side knew not his daughter from an whore so whilst the Church the daughter and spouse of Christ sits vail'd with the world and pompe and shew it will be an hard matter to discern her from an harlot But yet further to make the difference betwixt these kingdoms the more plainly to appear and the better to fix it in your memories I will briefly touch some of these heads in which they are most notoriously differenced The first head wherein the difference is seen are the persons and subjects of this kingdom For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world so the subjects of this Kingdom are men of another world and not of this Every one of us bears a double person and accordingly is the subject of a double Kingdom The holy Ghost by the Psalmist divides heaven and earth betwixt God and man and tells us as for God he is in heaven but the earth hath he given to the children of men So hath the same spirit by the Apostle Saint Paul divided every one of our persons into heaven and earth into an outward and earthly man and into an inward and heavenly man This earth that is this body of clay hath he given to the sons of men to the Princes under whose government we live but heaven that is the inward and spiritual man hath he reserved unto himself They can restrain the outward man and moderate our outward actions by edicts and laws they can tie our hands and our tongues Illa se jacâ—â—et in aula AEolus Thus far they can go and when they are gone thus far they can go no farther But to rule the inward man in our hearts souls to set up an Imperial throne in our understandings wills this part of our government belongs to God to Christ These are the subjects this the government of his Kingdom men may be Kings of Earth bodies But Christ alone is the King of Spirits and Souls Yet this inward government hath influence upon our outward actions For the Authority of Kings over our outward man is not so absolute but that it suffers a great restraint It must stretch no further then the Prince of our inward man pleases for if secular Princes stretch out the skirts of their Authority to command ought by which our souls are prejudiced the King of Souls hath in this case given us a greater command That we rather obey God then men The second head wherein the difference betwixt these Kingdoms is seen is in their laws For as the kingdoms the lawgivers so are their laws very different First in their Authors the laws by which the Common-wealth of Rome was anciently govern'd were the works of many hands some of them were Plebiscita the the acts of the people others were Senatus-consulta the decrees of the Senate others Edicta Praetorum the verdict of their Judges others Responsa Prudentum the opinions of Wisemen in cases of doubt Others Rescripta Imperatorum the Rescripts and answers of their Emperors when they were consulted with But in the kingdom of Christ there are no Plebiscita or Senatus-consulta no people no Senate nor wisemen nor Judges had any hand in the laws by which it is governed Only Rescripta Imperatoris the Rescripts and Writs of our King run here these alone are the Laws to which the Subjects of this Kingdom owe obedience Again the Laws of both these kingdoms differ in regard of their quality and nature For the laws of the Kingdom of Christ are Eternal Substantial Indispensable but Laws made by humane authority are but light superficial and temporary For all the humane authority in the world can never enact one eternal and fundamental Law Let all the Laws which men have made be laid together and you shall see that they were made but upon occasion and circumstance either of time or place or persons in matters of themselves indifferent and therefore either by discontinuance they either fell or ceased of themselves or by reason of alteration of occasion and circumstance were necessarily revoked Those main fundamental Laws upon which all the Kingdoms of the world do stand against theft against murther against adultery dishonouring of Parents or the like they were never brought forth by man neither were they the effects of any Parliamentary Sessions they were written in our souls from the beginning long before there was any authority Regal extant among men The intent of him who first enacted them was not to found a temporal but to bring men to an eternal Kingdom and so far forth as they are used for the maintaining of outward state they are usurp'd or at the best but borrowed So that in this work of setling even the Kingdoms of this world if we compare the Laws of God with the Laws of men we shall finde that God hath as it were founded the palaces and castles and strength
of them but men have like little children built houses of clay and dirt which every blast of wind overturns The third head by which they may be seen is in the notes and marks by which they may be known For the Kingdoms of the world are confin'd their place is known their subjects are discernable they have badges and tokens and Arms by which they are discovered But the Church hath no such notes and marks no Herauld hath as yet been sound that could blazon the arms of that Kingdom AEsculus the Poet in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 describing the captains that came either for the siege or defence of the City of Thebes in Beâ—â—tia brings them in in their order every one with his shield and upon his shield some device and over that device a Motto or word according to the usual fancies of men in that kinde but when he comes to Amphiraus he notes of him that he had no device in his shield no impress or word and he gives the reason of it because he affected not shew but to be that which others profest But to carry marks and notes and devices may well beseem the world which is led by fancy and shew but the Church is like Amphiarus she hath no device no word in her shield mark and essence with her are all one and she hath no other note but to be And but that learned men must have something to busie their wits withal these large discourses de notis Ecclesiae of the notes and marks by which we may know the Church might very well lie by as containing nothing else but doctas ineptias Laborious vanities and learned impertinences For the Church is not a thing that can be pointed out The Devil could shew our Saviour Christ all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them I hope the Church was none of these It is the glory of it not to be seen and the note of it to be invisible when we call any visible company of professors a Church it is but a word of courtesie Out of charity we hope men to be that which they do profess and therefore we so speak as if they were indeed that whose name they bear where and who they are that make up this kingdom is a question unfit for any man to move For the Lord only knoweth who are his It is but popish madness to send men up and down the world to finde the Church It is like unto the Children of the Prophets in the second of Kings that would needs seek Elias or like the nobles in Hierusalem that would needs go seek Jeremie the Prophet but could not finde him because the Lord had hid him For in regard of the profession The Church as our Saviour speaks is like a City set upon an hill you may quickly see and know what true Christianity is But in regard of the persons the Kingdom of Heaven is as our Saviour again tells us like a treasure hidden in a field Except the place of their abode and their persons were discernable who can tell we go thus to seek them whether we do not like false hounds hunt Counter as the hunters phrase is and so go from the game when Saul went to seek his Fathers Asses he found a Kingdom Let us take heed least the contrary befal us least while we seek our Fathers Kingdom thus we finde but Asses Will you know where to find the Kingdom of Christ our Saviour directs you in the Gospel The Kingdom of Heaven saith he cometh not by observation neither shall ye say Lo here or lo there but the Kingdom of Heaven is within you Let every man therefore retire into himself and see if he can finde this kingdom in his heart For if he finde it not there in vain shall he finde it in all the world besides The fourth head wherein the difference of these kingdoms is seen is outward state and ceremony for outward pompe and shew is one of the greatest stays of the Kingdom of this world Some thing there must be to amaze the people and strike them into wonderment or else Majesty would quickly be contemned The Scripture recounting unto us King Solomons Royalty tells us of his Magnificent buildings of his Royal throne of his servants and his attendants of his cup-bearers of his meats and these were the things which purchased unto him the reputation of Majesty above all the Kings of the earth Beloved the Kingdom of Christ is not like unto Solomon in his Royalty It is like unto David when he had put of all his Royalty and in a linnen Ephod danced before the Ark and this plain and natural simplicity of it is like unto the Lillies of the field more glorious then Solomon in all his Royalty The Idolatrous superstitions of Paganism stood in great need of such Pompous Solemnities Ut opinionem suspendio cognitionis aedificent atque ita tantam majestatem exhibere vide antur quantaÌ„ praestruxerunt cupiditatem as Tertullian tells us For being nothing of themselves they were to gain reputation of being something by concealment and by outward state make shew of something answerable to the expectation they had raised The case of the kingdoms of the world is the same For all this State and Magnificence used in the Managing of them is nothing else but Secular Idolatry used to gain veneration and reverence unto that which in comparison of the Kingdom we speak of is meer vanity But the scepter of the Kingdome of Christ is a right scepter and to adde unto it outward state and riches and pomp is nothing else but to make a Centaure marry and joyn the Kingdome of Christ with the Kingdome of the world which Christ expresly here in my text hath divorced and put a sunder A thing which I do the rather note because that the long continuance of some ceremonies in the Church have occasioned many especially of the Church of Rome to think that there is no religion no service without these ceremonies Our books tell us of a poor Spartan that travelling in another countrey and seeing the beams and posts of houses squared and carved askt if the trees grew so in those countreys Beloved many men that have been long acquainted with a form of worship squared and carved trick't and set out with shew and ceremony fall upon this Spartans conceit think the trees grow so and think that there is no natural shape and face of Gods service but that I confess the service of God hath evermore some ceremony attending it and to our Fathers before Christ may seem to have been necessary because God commanded it But let us not deceive our selves for neither is ceremony now neither was sacrifice then esteemed necessary neither was the command of God concerning it by those to whom it was given ever taken to be peremptory I will begin the warrant of what I have said out of St. Chysostome for in his comments upon the tenth