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
and expectation when we finde the ears of God not so open to our requests When Josephs brethren came down to buy corn he gave them but a course welcome he spake roughly unto them he laid them in prison yet the text tells us that his bowels melted upon them and at length he opened himself and gave them courteous entertainment Beloved when we come unto God as it were to buy corn to beg at his hands such blessings as we need though he speak roughly though he deal more roughly with us yet let us know he hath still Josephs bowels that his heart melts towards us and at length he will open himself and entertain us lovingly And be it pâ—â—dventure that we gain not what we look for yet our labor of prayer is not lost The blessed souls under the Altar of which I spake but now though their petition was not granted yet had they long white garments given them Even so beloved if the wisdom of God shall not think it fit to perform our requests yet he will give us the long white garment something which shall be in liev of a Suit though nothing else yet patience and contentment which are the greatest blessings upon earth FINIS John 18. 36. Jesus answered my Kingdome is not of this world If my Kingdome were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews c. AS in the Kingdomes of the world there is an art of Courtship a skill and mystery teaching to manage them so in the spiritual Kingdom of God and of Christ there is an holy policie there is an art of spiritual Courtship which teaches every subject there how to demean and bear himself But as betwixt their Kingdomes so betwixt their arts and Courtship betwixt the Courtier of the one and the Courtier of the other there is as Abraham tells the rich man in St. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great distance a great difference and not only one but many Sundry of them I shall have occasion to touch in the process of my discourse mean while I will single out one which I will use as a prologue and way unto my text In the Kingdomes of earthly Princes every subject is not fit to make a Courtier yea were all fit this were an honour to be communicated only unto some Sic opus est mundo There is a necessity of disproportion and inequality between men and men and were all persons equal the world could not consist Of men of ordinary fashion and parts some must to the Plough some to their Merchandize some to their Books some to one Trade some to anotheâ—â— only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle calls them men of more then common wit and ability active choice pickt out of a thousand such must they be that bear honors attend on Princes persons and serve in their Courts The Scripture tells us that when King Solomon saw that Jeroboam was an active able and industrious young man he took him and made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph Again when David invited old Barzillai to the Court the good old man excuses himself I am saith he fourscore years of Age and can thy servant tast what I eat or what I drink can I hear any more the voyce of singing men and singing women Lo here my son Chimham he shall go with my Lord the King and do with him as shall seem good in thine eyes Jeroboam and Chimham strong and able and active persons such are they that dwell in Kings houses of the rest some are too old some too young some too dull some too rude or by some means or other unfit for such an end Thus fares it with the honors of the world they seem to participate of envy or melancholy and are of a solitary disposition they are brightest when they are alone or but in few make them common and they loose their grace like lamps they may give light unto few or to some one room but no farther But the honors in the Court of the great King of Heaven ore of another nature they rejoyce in being communicated and their glory is in the multitude of those that do partake in them They are like unto the Sun that rises non homini sed humano generi noâ—â— to this or that man but to all the world In the Court of God no difference between Jeroboam and Barzillai none too old none too young no indisposition no imperfection makes you uncapable of honors there Be but of his Kingdom and you are necessarily of his Court Every man who is a subject there is a Courtier yea more then a Courtier he is a Peer he is a King and hath an army of Angels at his service to pitch their tents about him to deliver him a guard of Ministring Spirits sent out to attend him for his safety It shall not therefore be unseasonable for the meanest person that hears me this day to hear as it were a Lecture of Spiritual policy and Courtship For no Auditory can be unfit for such a lesson Aristotle was wont to divide his lectures and readings into Acroamatical and Exoterical some of them contained onely choice matter and they were read privately to a Select Auditory others contain'd but ordinary stuff and were promiscuously and in publick exposed to the hearing of all that would Beloved we read no Acroamatick Lectures The secrets of the Court of Heaven as far as it hath pleased the King of Heaven to reveal them lie open alike to all Every man is alike of his Court alike of his Councel and the meanest among Christians must not take it to be a thing without his Sphere above his reach but must make account of himself as a fit hearer of a lesson in Spiritual and saving policy since if he be a subject in the kingdom of Christ he can be no less then a Courtier Now the first and main lesson to be learned by a Courtier is how to discover and know the disposition nature of the Lord whom he is to serve and the quality of that Common-wealth in which he bears a place ad consilium de republica dandum caput est That therefore our heavenly Courtier may not mistake himself but be able to fit himself to the place he bears I have made choice of these few words which but now I read words spoken by the King of that Common-wealth of which I am to treat unto such as mean to be his Liege-men there words which sufficiently open unto the Christian politician the state and quality of that Court in which he is to serve My kingdom is not of this world for if at were then would my servants fight which words seem like the Parthian horsmen whose manner was to ride one way but to shoot another way they seem to go apace towards Pilate but they aim and shot at another mark or rather like unto the speaker of them
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
effectuall He took indeed to himselfe a liberty of judgeing not of others but for himselfe and if ever any man might be allowed in these matters to judge it was he who had so long so much so advantageously consider'd and which is more never had the least worldly designe in his determinations He was not onely most truly and strictly Just in his Secular transactions most exemplarily Meeke and Humble notwithstanding his perfections but beyond all example Charitable giving unto all preserving nothing but his Bookes to continue his learning and himselfe which when he had before digested he was forced at last to feed upon at the same time the happiest and most unfortunate helluo of Books the grand example of learning and of the envy and contempt which followeth it This testimony may be truly given of his Person and nothing in it liable to the least exception but this alone that it comes far short of him Which intimation I conceive more necessary for such as knew him not than all which hath been said In reference to the second part of my Design I confess while he lived none was ever more sollicited and urged to write and thereby truly to teach the world than he none ever so resolved pardon the expression so obstinate against it His facile and courteous nature learnt onely not to yield to that sollicitation And therefore the World must be content to suffer the losse of all his learning with the deprivation of himself and yet he cannot be accused for hiding of his talent being so communicative that his chamber was a Church and his chair a Pulpit Onely that there might be some taste continue of him here are some of his Remaines recollected such as he could not but write and such as when written were out of his power to destroy These consist of two parts of Sermons and of Letters and each of them proceeded from him upon respective obligations The Letters though written by himself yet were wholly in the power of that Honourable person to whom they were sent and by that meanes they were perserv'd The Sermons preached on several occasions were snatch't from him by his friends and in their hands the Copies were continued or by transcription dispersâ—â—d Of both which I need to say no more then this that you may be confident they are his The Editor hath sent these abroad to explore what well-come they shall find He hath some more of his Sermons Tractates in his hands desires if any Person have any other Writings of the same Author by him that he would be pleased to communicate them to the Printer of this work T. Garthwait upon promise and any other engagement that he will take care to see them Printed and set forth by themselves This Reader is all the trouble thought fit to be given theeâ—â— By JOHN PEARSON Mr. Garthwait I Am very glad you chose so Judicious an Overseer of those SERMONS of Mr. HALES as Mr. Gunning whom I alwayes have had in high esteem both for his Learning and Piety and I am of his Opinion that they may pass for extraordinary That Sermon of Wresting hard places of Scripture may well begin your Collection The other on Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive c. was preacht at Pauls Cross and I moved him to print it That of My Kingdom is not of this World I once saw and returned to Mr. Hales with foure more which I saw him put into Mr. Chillingworths hands I wish Dixi Custodiam were perfect I have often heard him speak of it with a kinde of Complacency That of He speak a Parable that men ought always to pray I believe is his by the passage of the Spunge and the Knife which I have heard from his mouth The Sermon which you had from D. Hammond upon Son remember c. was preacht at Eaton Colledge The other of Duels was either one or two and preacht at the Hague to Sr. D. Carlton and his company That you call a Letter on I can do all things is a Sermon The Sermon of Peter went out and wept c. is under his own hand One caution I should put in that you print nothing which is not written with his own hand or be very careful in comparing them for not long since one shewed me a Sermon which he said was his which I am confident could not be for I saw nothing in it which was not Vulgaris monetae of a vulgar stamp common and flat and low There be some Sermons that I much doubt of for there is little of his spirit and Genius in them and some that are imperfect that of Genesis 17. 1. Walk before me c. is most imperfect as appears by the Autographum which I saw at Eaton a fortnight since For his LETTERS he had much trouble in that kinde from several friends and I heard him speak of that friends Letter you mention pleasantly Mr. He sets up Tops and I must whip them for him But I am very glad to hear you have gained Those Letters into your hands written from the Synod of Dort you may please to take notice that in his younger days he was a Calvinist and even then when he was employed at that Synod and at the well pressing 3. S. John 16. by Episcopius there I bid John Calvin good night as he has often told me I believe they will be as acceptable or in your phrase as Saleable as his Sermons I would not have you to venture those papers out of your hands to me for they may miscarry and I fear it would be very difficult to finde another Copy peradventure I may shortly see you at the Term I hope I shall and then I shall advise you further the best I can about those other Sermons you have I see you will be troubled yet a while to put things in a right way I have drawn in my minde the Model of his Life but I am like Mr. HALES in this which was one of his defects not to pen any thing till I must needs God prosper you in your work and business you have in hand that neither the Church nor the Author suffer Septemb. Your assured friend to his power Anthony Farindon CHOICE SERMONS PREACHT ON SEVERAL EMINENT OCCASIONS By Mr. John Hales of Eton College LONDON Printed for Timothy Garthwait at the Little North-door of St. Pauls 2 Pet. 3. 16. Which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do the other Scriptures unto their own destruction THE love and favour which it pleased God to bear our Fathers before the law so far prevail'd with him as that without any books and writings by familiar and friendly conversing with them and communicating himself unto them he made them receive and understand his laws their inward conceits and intellectuals being after a wonderful manner as it were Figured and Character'd as St. Basil expresses it by his spirit so that they could not but see
of some other imperfections are either not so deeply skill'd in the mysteries of Christ and of Godliness or otherwise weak in manners and behaviour and these are the Plebs the Many of the Church whom our Apostle sometimes calls Brethren of low degree sometimes Babes in Christ and here in my text the weak and sick in faith Men by nature querulous and apt to take exception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Electra in the Tragedy A sick man is a pettish and wayward Creature hard to be pleased as therefore with the sick so are we now to deal with a Neighbour weak and sick of his spiritual constitution and much we are to bear with his frowardness where we cannot remedy it For as Varro sometimes spake of the Laws of Wedlock Vxoris vitium aut tollendum est aut ferendum either a man must amend or endure the faults of his wife he that amends them makes his wife the better but he that patiently endures them makes himself the better so is it much more true in dealing with our weak Brethren if we can by our behaviour remedy their imbecillities we make them the better if not by enduring them we shall make our selves the better for so shall we encrease the vertue of our patience and purchase to our selves at Gods hand a more aboundant reward A great part of the lustre of a Christian mans virtue were utterly obscure should it want this mean of shewing it self for were all men strong were all of sufficient discretion to see and judge of Conveniâ—â—ncy where were the glory of our forbearance As well therefore to increase the reward of the strong man in Christ as to stop the whining and murmuring of the weaker sort and to give content at all hands our Apostle like a good Tribune in this Text gives a rule of Christian popularity advising the man of worthier parts to avoid all sleighting behaviour to open the arms of tenderness and compassion and to demerit by all courtesie the men of meaner rank so to prevent all inconvenience that might arise out of disdainful and respectless carriage for God is not like unto mortal Princes jealous of the man whom the people love In the world nothing is more dangerous for great men then the extraordinary favour and applause of the people Many excellent men have miscarried by it For Princes stand much in fear when any of their subjects hath the heart of the people It is one of the commonest grounds upon which Treason is rais'd Absolom had the Art of it who by being plausible by commiserating the peoples wrongs and wishing the redress O that I were a Judge to do this people good by putting out his hand and imbracing and kissing every one that came nigh him so stole away the hearts of the people that he had well-nigh put his Father beside his Kingdom but what alters and undoes the Kingdoms of this world that strengthens and increases the Kingdom of God Absolom the popular Christian that hath the art of winning mens souls and making himself belov'd of the people is the best subject in the Kingdom of grace for this is that which our Apostle expresses in the phrase of Receiving the weak Now it falls out oftentimes that men offend through intempestive compassion and tenderness as much as by over much rigidness and severity as much by familiarity as by superciliousness and contempt Wherefore even our love and courtesie must be managed by discretion St. Paul saw this well and therefore he prescribes limits to our affections and having in the former part of my text counselled us as Christ did Peter to let loose our nets to make a draught to do as Joseph did in Egypt open our garners and store-houses that all may come to buy to admit of all to exclude none from our indulgence and courtesie in this second part But not to doubtful disputations he sets the bounds how far our love must reach As Moses in the 19. of Exodus set bounds about Mount Sinai forbidding the people that they go not up to the Hill or come within the borders of it so hath the Apostle appointed certain limits to our love and favour within which it shall not be lawful for the people to come Inlarge we the Phylacteries of our goodness as broad as we list give we all countenance unto the meaner sort admit we them into all inwardness and familiarity yet unto disputations and controversies concerning profounder points of Faith and religious mysteries the meaner sort may be by no means admitted For give me leave now to take this for the meaning of the words I know they are very capable of another sense as if the Apostles counsel had been unto us to entertain withal courtesie our weaker brethren and not overbusily to enquire into or censure their secret thoughts and doubtings but here to leave them to themselves and to God who is the Judge of thoughts For many there are otherwise right good men yet weak in judgement who have fallen upon sundry private conceits such as are unnecessary differencing of meats and drinks diâ—â—â—ction of days or to exemplifie my self in some conceit of our times some singular opinions concerning the State of Souls departed private interpretations of obscure Texts of Scripture and others of the same nature of these or the like thoughts which have taken root in the hearts of men of shallow capacity those who are more surely grounded may not presume themselves to bee judges many of these things of themselves are harmless and indifferent only to him that hath some prejudicate opinion of them they are not so and of these things they who are thus or thus conceited shall be accountable to God and not to man to him alone shall they stand or fall Wherefore bear saith the Apostle with these infirmities and take not on you to be Lords of their thoughts but gently tolerate these their unnecessary conceits and scrupulosities This though I take to be the more natural meaning of the words for indeed it is the main drift of our Apostles discourse in this chapter yet chuse I rather to follow the former interpretation First because of the Authority of sundry learned Interpreters and because it is very requisite that our age should have something said unto it concerning this over bold intrusion of all sorts of men into the discussing of doubtful Disputations For Disputation though it be an excellent help to bring the truth to light yet many times by to much troubling the waters it suffers it to slip away unseen especially with the meaner sort who cannot so easily espie when it is mixt with Sophistry and deceit Infirmum autem in side recipite but not to doubtful disputations This my text therefore is a Spiritual Regimen and diet for these who are of a weak and sickly constitution of minde and it contains a Recipe for a man of crazie and diseased faith In which by that which I have delivered you may
aequum feras he must go very near to teach for truth the contrary falshood To return then from this digression to our rich man Pelagius I grant was deceived when he shut all rich men out of the Kingdome of Heaven but suppose we that he had prevailed in this doctrine that he had wrought all the world to this bent that the Church had received it for Catholick doctrine shew me he that can what inconvenience would have attended this error If every rich man should suddenly become liberal and disburse his moneys where his charity directed him if every painted gallant did turn his Peacocks feathers into sackcloth if every glutton left his full dishes and betook himself to temperance and fasting yea and thought himself in conscience bound so to do out of fear least he might hear of Recepisti I perswade my self the state of Greece would never suffer the more for this but the state of Christianity would have thrived the more Well had it been for our rich man here if he had been a Pelagian for this point of Pelagianisme is the surest remedy that I know against a Recepisti whereas on the contrary side by reason of the truth many rich and covetous persons flatter themselves in their sin whereof they die well conceipted from which they had been freed had it been their good fortune to have been thus far deceived and been Pelagians Let men therefore either quite refuse riches if they offer themselves which is the advice I give or if they will give them acceptance let them believe that if they be rich they may be saved but let them so live as if they could not for the one shall keep them from error in their faith the other from sin in their Actions A second reason perswading us to the neglect of these so much admired things of the world is the consideration of certain abuses which they put upon us certain fallacies and false glosses by which they delude us for I know not how the world hath cried them up and hath given them goodly titles ut vel lactis gallinacei sperare possis haustum as Pliny speaks men call them blessings and favours and rewards and think those men most blest of God who injoy most of them these goodly titles serve for nothing but to set men on longing after them and so fill those that have them with false perswasions and those that have them not with despair and discontents were they indeed blessings were they rewards then were our case very evil and we ourselves in greater danger of a recepisti than before for as Abraham here tells the man of recepiste bona thou hast received tby goodthings so our Saviour tells more than once of some qui habent mercedem have their reward if then we shall beg and receive these things at the hands of God as a reward of our service we shall be no more able when we come to appear before our God to shelter our selves from an habetis mercedem you have your reward then the rich man here could defend himself from a recepisti They may indeed pass for rewards and blessings and that truly too but to a sad and disconsolate end for their is no man though never so wicked but that some way or other doth some good some cup of cold water hath been given some small service enterprized even by the worst of men now God who leaves no service unrewarded no good office unrespected therefore preserves these sublunary blessings of purpose ut paria faciat to clear accounts with men here who otherwise might seem to claim something at his hand at that great day It is the question Ahasuerus makes What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this God is more careful of his honour than Ahasuerus was none more careful than he to reward every service with some honour Nebuchadnezzar was no Saint I trow yet because of his long service in the subduing of Tyre God gives him AEgypt for his reward they are the Prophet Ezechiels words when therefore thou seest God willing to bring the world upon thee to inrich thee to raise thee to honours suspectam habe hanc Domini indulgentiam as Tertullian saith be jealous of this courtesie of God or rather cry out with St. Bernard Misericordiam hanc nolo Domine O Lord I will none of this kinde of mercy for how knowest thou whether he reward not thee as he did Nebuchadnezzar only to even accounts with thee and shew thee that he is not in thy debt that thou mayest hear at the last either a recepisti or an habes mercedem thou hast thy reward O quanta apud Deummerces si in praesenti praemium non sperarent saith St. Hierome O how great a reward might many men receive at the hand of God if they did not anticipate their reward and desire it in this life Why do we capitulate with him for our services Why not rather out of pious ambition desire to have God in our debt He that doth God the greatest service and receives here from him the least reward is the happiest man in the world there goes a story of Aquinas that praying once before the Crucifix the Crucifix miraculously speaks thus unto him Benede mescripsisti Thoma quam ergomercedem accipies Thou hast written well of me Thomas what reward dost thou desire To whom Aquinas is made to answer Nullam Domine praeter Teipsum no reward Lord but thyself 't is great pity this tale is not true it doth so excellently teach what to ask of God for our reward in his service Let God but assure thee of this reward caetera omnia vota Deo remittas thou mayest very well pardon him all the rest let us therefore amend our language and leave off these solecismes and misapplied denominations of blessings and favours and rewards names too high for any thing under the moon and at our leisure finde out other names to express them as for this great esteem which we make of the things below it comes but from this that we know not the value of things above did we believe our selves to be the heirs and the sons of God and knew the price of our inheritance in Heaven it could not be that we should harbour so high and honourable conceits of earthly things it is a famous speech of MARTIN LUTHER Homo perfecte credens se esse haeredem et filium Dei non diu superstes maneret sed statim immodico gaudeo absorberetur Did a man indeed believe that he is a son and heir unto God it could not be that such a man should long live but forthwith he would be swallowed up and die of immoder ate joy And certainly either our not believing or not rightly valuing the things of God or howsoever not knowing them is the cause of this our languishing and impatient longing after earthly things It is but a plain comparison which I shall use yet because it
that he was no fit person to do it and he gives the reason of it Quia vir bellorum sanguinum es tu For thou art a man hast shed much blood and fought many battels Beloved the battels which David fought were called the Lords battels and therefore whatsoever he did in that kinde he had doubtless very good warrant to do and yet you see that it is an imputation to him that he shed blood though lawfully ut fundi sanguis ne juste quidem sine aliquâ injustitiâ possit so that it seems blood cannot be so justly shed but that it brings with it some stain and spot of injustice All this have I said to raise up in you as much as possibly I can a right conceit of the height and hainousness of this sin and further yet to effect this in you as in the beginning and entrance into my discourse I briefly toucht at two reasons shewing the greatness of this sin occasion'd therunto by the words of my text so will I as briefly touch at the two more tending to the same purpose one drawn from respect of the wrong which by this sin is done unto God another from the wrong done to our selves And first what wrong is done unto God God himself shews us in the 9. of Genesis where giving this for an everlasting law He that sheddeth mans blood by man let his blood be shed he presently addes the reason of it For in the image of God made he man we shall the better understand the force of this reason if we a little look into civil actions It is the usual manner of subjects when they rebel against the Prince to think they cannot more effectually express their hate then by disgracing breaking throwing down the statues and images erected to his honor The citizens of Antioch in a sedition against Theodosius the Emperor in one night disgracefully threw down all his statues which fact of theirs caus'd S. Chrysostom at that time preacher to that city to make those famous Sermons which from that action to this day are called his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his statues This by so much the more is counted a great offence because next unto wronging and disgracing the very person of the Prince a greater insolence cannot be offered For it expresseth with what welcome they would entertain him if they had him in their power Beloved man is the image of his maker erected by him as a Statue of his honour He then that shall despitefully handle batter and deface it how can he be counted otherwise then guilty of highest Treason against his Maker Rebellion saith Samuel to Saul is like the sin of superstition and Idolatry The sin of blood therefore equals the sin Idolatry since there cannot be a greater sin of Rebellion against God then to deface his image Idolatry through ignorance sets up a false image of God but this sin through malice defaces pulls down the true Amongst the heathen sometimes the statues of the Emperours were had in such respect that they were accounted sanctuaries and such as for offence fled unto them it was not lawful to touch Beloved such honour ought we to give unto a man that if he have offended us yet the image of God which shines in him ought to be as a sanctuary unto him to save him from our violence an admonitioner unto us that we ought not to touch him A second reason yet further shewing the hainousness of this sin is drawn from the wrong which is done to our selves All other wrongs whatsoever they be admit of some recompence Honors wealth preferments if they be taken from us they may return as they did unto Job in far greater measure and the party wronged may receive full and ample satisfaction but what recompence may be made to a man for his life When that is gone all the Kingdomes which our Saviour saw in the Mount and the glory of them are nothing worth neither is all the world all the power of men and Angels able to give the least breath to him that hath lost it Nothing under God is able to make satisfaction for such a wrong the revenge that is taken afterward upon the party that hath done the wrong cannot be counted a recompence That is done In terrorem viventium non in subsidium mortuorum It serves to deter the living from committing the like outrage but it can no way help him that is dead David at the same time committed two sins great sins Murther and Adultery the reward of either of which by Gods law is nothing else but death Yet for his Adultery he seems to make some satisfaction to the party wronged for the text notes that David took her to his wife made her his Queen and that he went in unto her comforted her all which may well be counted at least a part of recompence But for dead Vrias what means could David make to recompence to comfort him For this cause I verily suppose it is that in his penitential Psalm wherein he bewails his sin he makes no particular confession no mention of his Adultery but of the other of blood he is very sensible and expresly prayes against it Deliver me from blood guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation as if Adultery in comparison of murder were no crime at all I am sorry I should have any just occasion amongst Christian men so long to insist upon a thing so plain and shew that the sin of blood is a great and hainous sin But he that shall look into the necessities of these times shall quickly see that there is a great cause why this doctrine should be very effectually prest For many things are even publickly done which in part argue that men esteem of this sin much more sleightly then they ought Aristotle observed it of Phaleas one that took upon him to prescribe laws by which a common wealth might as he thought well be governed that he had taken order for the preventing of smaller faults but he left way enough open to greater crimes Beloved the error of our laws is not so great as that of Phaleas was yet we offend too though on the contrary and the less dangerous side for great and grievous sins are by them providently curbed but many inferiour crimes finde many times too free passage Murther though all be abominable yet there are degrees in it some is more hainous then other Gross malicious premeditated and wilful murther are by our laws so far as humane wisdome can provide sufficiently prevented but murders done in haste or besides the intent of him that did it or in point of honour and reputation these finde a little too much favour or laws in this respect are somewhat defective both in preventing that it be not done and punishing it when it is done men have thought themselves wiser then God presumed to moderate the unnecessary severity as they seem to think of his laws And hence it comes