by yeilding 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 bear himself as King of the Iews 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 Kingdom as he could not skill of My Kingdom is not of this world c. For the better unfolding of which words first we will consider what the meaning of this word Kingdom is for there lies an ambiguity in it Secondly we will consider what Lessons for our instruction the next words will yeild Not of this world First of this word Kingdom Our Saviour is a King three manner of ways and so correlatively hath three distinct several Kingdoms He is first King in the largest extent and meaning which can possibly be imagined and that is as he is Creatour and absolute Lord of all creatures Of this Kingdom Heaven Earth and Hell are three large Provinces Angels Men and Devils his very enemies every creature visible and invisible are subjects of this Kingdom The glory and strength of this Kingdom 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 travell'd through India and over-ran many large Provinces and conquer'd many popular Cities when tidings came that his Soldiers in Grece 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 Homer's tale a Battel of Frogs and Mice Infinite Legions of Angels attend him in Heaven and every Angel is an Army One Angel in the Book of Kings is sent out against the Army of the Assyrians and in one night fourscore thousand persons die for it Base and contemptible creatures when God calls for them are of strength to conquer whole Countreys He over-runs Egypt with his Armies of Frogs and Flies and Lice and before his own people with an Army 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 destroys 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 Kingdom 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 Archangels Powers Principalities and all the heavenly Hosts For though he be Omni-present and fills every place both in Heaven and Earth yet Heaven is the Palace Throne of this Kingdom there is he better seen and known there with more state and honour served and therefore more properly is his Kingdom said to be there And this is called his Kingdom of glory The Rules and Laws and admirable Orders of which Kingdom 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 wisdom 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 whilst this Spirit is in us we cannot possibly come to discern the Laws and Orders of this Kingdom and therefore I am constrain'd 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 mankind and to conquer Hell and Death so is there a Kingdom annext unto him A Kingdom the purchase whereof cost him much sweat and Bloud of which neither Angels nor any other creature are a part onely that remnant of mankind 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 Kingdom And this is that which is called his Kingdom of Grace and which himself in Scripture every where calls his Church his Spouse his Body his Flock and this is that Kingdom which in this place is spoken of and of which our Saviour tells Pilate That it is not of this world My Kingdom 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 find that there could not have been a speech delivered more effectual for the opening the nature of the Church and the discovery of mens errours in that respect For I know no errour so common so frequent so hardly to be rooted out so much hindring the knowledge 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 ask'd what the Soul was answered that it was Harmony is saith he à principiis artis suae non recescit He knew not how to leave the principles of his own Art Again Plato's Scholars 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 feigned to themselves somewhat like unto Numbers the World they supposed was framed out of Numbers Cities and Kingdoms and Common-wealths they thought stood by Numbers Number with them was sole Principle and Creatour of every thing Beloved when we come to learn the quality and state of Christ's Kingdom it fares much with us as it does with Tullie's Musician or Plato's Scholars 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 study 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
the behaviour of God in these cases to a slothful freind that is loth to leave his warm bed to do his freind a pleasure and here in my Text to an unjust Iudge 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 kind of sullen and surly person of purpose to deterr her you shall not find our Saviour in all the New Testament in such a mood so bent to contemn and vilifie a poor suitour St. Austin comparing together St. Matthew and St. 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 behavour could have dash'd a suit and broken the heart of a poor suitour this had been enough but here 's not all we have a civil precept that if we be not disposed to pleasure a suitour yet to give him good words and shape him a gentle answer it is hard if we cannot afford a suitour a gentle word 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 peircing of a sword as Solomon speaks I may not take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs And yet after all this strange copy of countenance he fully subscribes to her request Beloved God hath not onely express'd 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 onely the Saints on earth but even those in heaven do seem to partake in this demeanour 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 bloud from off the earth they received this answer Have patience yet a little while It is storied 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 practise any of the â—ynick's art For if the Saints and blessed Martyrs have their suits so long depending in the Courts of Heaven then good reason that we should learn to brook delays and arm our selves with patience and expectation when we find the ears of God not so open to our requests When Ioseph's 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 Ioseph's bowels that his heart melts towards us and at length he will open himself and entertain us lovingly And be it peradventure that we gain not what we look for yet our labour 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 leiu of a suit though nothing else yet patience and contentment which are the greatest blessings upon earth John xviij 36. Iesus answered My Kingdom is not of this world If my Kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Iews c. AS in the Kingdoms 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 policy there is an art of Spiritual Courtship which teaches every subject there how to demean and bear himself But as betwixt their Kingdoms 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 onely 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 Kingdoms of earthly Princes every subject is not fit to make a Courtier yea were all fit this were an honour to be communicated onely 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 another onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle calls them men of more then common wit and ability active choice pick'd out of a thousand such must they be that bear Honours attend on Princes persons and serve in their Courts The Scripture tells us that when King Solomon saw that Ieroboam was an active able and industrious young man he took him and made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Ioseph 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 taste what I eat or what I drink can I hear any more the voice 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 Ieroboam 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
every man therefore retire into himself and see if he can find this Kingdom in his heart for if he find it not there in vain shall he find it in all the world besides The fourth head wherein the difference of these Kingdoms is seen is outward state and ceremony for outward pomp 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 Solomon's 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 off all his Royalty and in a linen Ephod danced before the Ark and this plain and natural simplicity of it is like unto the Lilies of the field more glorious then Solomon in all his royalty The Idolatrous superstitions of Paganism stood in great need of such pompous Solemnities Vt opinionem suspendio cognitionis aedificent atque ita tantam majestatem exhibere videantur quantam 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 mere vanity But the Sceptre of the Kingdom of Christ is a right Sceptre and to add unto it outward state and riches and pomp is nothing else but to make a Centaure marry and joyn the Kingdom of Christ with the Kingdom of the world which Christ expresly here in my Text hath divorced and put asunder 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 ask'd 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'd and set out with shew and ceremony fall upon this Spartan's conceit think the Trees grow so and think that there is no natural shape and face of God's 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. Chrysostom for in his comments upon the x. to the Hebrews he denies that ever God from the beginning requir'd or that it was his will to ordain such an outward form of Worship and asking therefore of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how then seems he to have commanded it he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by condescending onely and submitting himself unto humane infirmity now this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this condescending of God wherein it consisted Oecumenius opens For because that men had a conceit that it was convenient to offer up some part of their substance unto God and so strongly were they possess'd with this conceit that if they offered it not up to him they would offer it up to Idols God saith he rather then they should offer unto Idols required them to offer unto him And thus was God understood by the holy men themselves who lived under the shadow of those Ceremonies for David when he had made his peace with God after that great sin of his opens this mystery For thou requirest not sacrifice saith he else would I have given it thee but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a troubled and a contrite heart O God dost thou not despise After the revolt of Ieroboam and the ten Tribes from the House of David there were many devout and religious persons in Israel and yet we find not that they used the outward form of Worship which was commanded Elias and Elizaeus two great Prophets in Israel did they ever go up to Hierusalem to worship Obadiah a great Courtier in King Ahab's Court and one that feared the Lord exceedingly the seven thousands which bowed not their knees to Baal when came they up to the Temple to offer a thing which doubtless they would have done if they had understood the commandment of God in that behalf to have been absolute indeed If we live in places where true religious persons do resort and assemble for the service of God it were a sin to neglect it But otherwise it is sufficient if we keep us from the pollutions of that place to which we are restrain'd Quid juvat hoc nostros templis admittere mores Why measure we God by our selves and because we are led with gay shews and goodly things think it is so with God Seneca reports that a Panto-mimus a Poppet-player and Dancer in Rome because he pleased the People well was wont to go up every day into the Capitol and practised his Art and dance before Iupiter and thought he did the god a great pleasure Beloved in many things we are like unto this Poppet-player and do much measure God by the People by the World A SERMON On 1 SAM xxiv 5. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt TEmptation is the greatest occasioner of a Christian's honour indeed like an Enemy it threatens and endeavours his ruine but in the conquest of it consist his Crown and Triumph Were it possible for us to be at league and truce with this Enemy or to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without danger of Gun-shot out of its reach like the Candle in the Gospel that is put under a bushel the brightest part of our glory were quite obscured As Maximus Tyrius spake of Hercules if you take from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the savage beasts that he slew and the Tyrants whom he supprest his journeys and labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you lop and cut off the manifest Arms and Limbs of Hercules's renown So take from a Christian his Temptations his Persecutions his Contentions remove him from the Devil from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and tied to the Individuating properties of Hic and Nunc our Writings are unlimited Necessity therefore requires a multitude of Speakers a multitude of Writers not so G. Agricola writing de Animantibus subterraneis reports of a certain kind of Spirits that converse in Minerals and much infest those that work in them and the manner of them when they come is To seem to busie themselves according to all the custom of workmen they will dig and cleanse and melt and sever Metalls yet when they are gone the workmen do not find that there is any thing done So fares it with a great part of the multitude who thrust themselves into the Controversies of the Times they write Books move Questions frame Distinctions give Solutions and seem sedulously to do whatsoever the nature of the business requires yet if any skilful workman in the Lords Mines shall come and examine their work he shall find them to be but Spirits in Minerals and that with all this labour and stir there is nothing done I acknowledge it to be very true which S. Austin spake in his first Book de Trinitate Vtile est plures libros a pluribus fieri diverso stilo sed non diversa fide etiam de quaestionibus iisdem ut ad plurimos res ipsa perveniat ad alios sic ad alios vero sic It is a thing very profitable that divers Tracts be written by divers men after divers fashions but according to the same Analogy of Faith even of the same questions that some might come into the hands of all to some on this manner to another after that For this may we think to have been the counsel of the holy Ghost himself who may seem even for this purpose to have registred the self-same things of Christ by three of the Evangelists with little difference Yet notwithstanding if this speech of S. Austin admit of being qualified then was there no time which more then this Age required should be moderated which I note because of a noxious conceit spread in our Universities to the great hindering of true proficiency in Study springing out from this Root For many of the Learned themselves are fallen upon this preposterous conceit That Learning consisteth rather in variety of turning and quoting of sundry Authours then in soundly discovering and laying down the truth of things Out of which arises a greater charge unto the poor Student who now goes by number rather then weight and the Books of the Learned themselves by ambitiously heaping up the conceits and authorities of other men increase much in the bulk but do as much imbase in true value Wherefore as Gedeon's Army of two and thirty thousand by prescript from God was brought unto three hundred so this huge Army of Disputes might without any hazard of the Lords Battles be well contracted into a smaller number Iustinian the Emperour when he found that the study of the Civil Law was surcharged and much confused by reason of the great heaps of unnecessary writings he calls an Assembly of Learned men caus'd them to search the Books to cut off what was superfluous to gather into order and method the sum and substance of the whole Law Were it possible that some Religious Iustinian might after the same manner employ the wits of some of the best Learned in Examining the Controversies and selecting out of the best Writers what is necessary defaulting unnecessary and partial Discourses and so digest into order and method and leave for the direction of Posterity as it were Theological Pandects infinite store of our Books might well lie by and peaceably be buried and after Ages reap greater profit with smaller cost and pains But that which was possible in the World united under Iustinian in this great division of Kingdoms is peradventure impossible Wherefore having contented my self to shew what a great and irremediable inconvenience this free and uncontroulable venturing upon Theological Disputes hath brought upon us I will leave this Project as a Speculation and pass from this general Doctrine unto some particulars For this generality and heap of sick persons I must divide into their kinds and give every one his proper Recipe The first in this order of weak persons so to be received and cherish'd by us is one of whom question may be made whether he may be called weak or no he may seem to be rather dead for no pulse of infused grace beats in him I mean such a one who hath but small or peradventure no knowledge at all in the mystery of Christ yet is otherwise a man of upright life and conversation such a one as we usually name A moral man Account you of such a one as dead or how you please yet me-thinks I find a Recipe for him in my Text. For this man is even to be woed by us as sometimes one Heathen man wish'd of another Talis cum sis utinam noster esses This man may speak unto a Christian as Ruth does unto Boaz Spread the skirt of thy garment over me for thou art a near kinsman Two parts there are that do compleatly make up a Christian man A true Faith and an honest Conversation The first though it seem the worthier and therefore gives unto us the name of Christians yet the second in the end will prove the surer For true profession without honest conversation not onely saves not but increases our weight of punishment but a good life without true profession though it brings us not to Heaven yet it lessens the measure of our judgment so that A moral man so called is a Christian by the surer side As our Saviour saith of one in the Gospel that had wisely and discreetly answered him Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven so may we say of these men Suppose that as yet they be not of yet certainly far from the Kingdom of heaven they cannot be Yea this sincerity of life though sever'd from true profession did seem such a jewel in the eyes of some of the Ancient Fathers that their opinion was and so have they in their Writings erroneously doubtless testified it That God hath in store for such men not onely this mitigating mercy of which but now I spake but even saving grace so far forth as to make them possessors of his Kingdom Let it not trouble you that I intitle them to some part of our Christian Faith and therefore without scruple to be received as weak and not to be cast forth as dead Salvianus disputing what Faith is Quid est igitur credulitas vel sides saith he opinor fideliter hominum Christo credere id est fidelem Deo esse hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare What might this faith be saith he I suppose it is nothing else but faithfully to believe Christ and this is to be faithful unto God which is nothing else but faithfully to keep the commandments of God Not therefore onely a bare belief but the
gone thus far they can go no farther But to rule the inward man in our hearts and souls to set up an Imperial throne in our understandings and wills this part of our government belongs to God and to Christ These are the subjects this the government of his Kingdom men may be Kings of Earth and 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 farther 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 and the Law-givers so are their Laws very different First in their Authours 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 acts of the people others were Senatus consulta the Decrees of the Senate others Edicta Praetorum the Verdict of their Iudges others Responsa Prudentum the opinions of Wise-men in cases of doubt others Rescripta Imperatorum the Rescripts and Answers of their Emperours when they were consulted with But in the Kingdom of Christ there are no Plebiscita or Senatus-consulta no People no Senate nor Wise-men nor Judges had any hand in the Laws by which it is governed Onely 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 Indispensible 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 find 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 over-turns 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 Herald hath as yet been found that could blazon the Arms of that Kingdom AEsculus the Poet in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 describing the Captains that came either for the seige or defence of the City of Thebes in Beotia brings them in in their order every one with their sheild and upon his sheild some device and over that device a Motto or word according to the usual fancies of men in that kind but when he comes to Amphiarus he notes of him that he had no device in his sheild 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 sheild 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 withall 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 professours 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 onely knoweth who are his It is but Popish madness to send men up and down the world to find 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 Ieremie the Prophet but could not find 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 feild 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 father's Asses he found a Kingdom let us take heed lest the contrary befall us lest while we seek our Father's Kingdom thus we find 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
think is onely for certain private ends and purposes which the world doth not much hearken after He that shall provide for another world he that shall forget his body and care onely for the state of his soul such a man at the last shall find the profit of godliness But the man that thinks it meet to divide himself betwixt God and the world that thinks it not fit his Virgin should pass its time as the Apostle speaks but bethinks himself of matching into the world to such an one the studies of piety may rather seem a rub and hinderance then a profit and commodity For what carnal man is there that can perswade himself that piety will either improve his Wealth or increase his Honours or make him thrive in his Trade or any way better his Estate Is it not rather thought to be an hinderance to all these by curbing our ambition by moderating our over having desires by bounding us within certain limits of contentment of conscience of moderation and the like which cut the very nerves and sinews of all endeavour to grow extraordinarily great Nay doth not piety rather come unto us as the Angel of the Lord did unto Balaam forbidding us to do many things which if we did they would be highly for our honour and preferment yea if riches do offer themselves and by God's providence without our care come on abundantly doth it not teach us to lay them out for Christ's sake and not to lay them up for our own So that if a man would define and tell what Godliness is we might define it To be an Art teaching men not to be Rich not to be Great not to thrive in proportion to the rest of the world Yet notwithstanding all this it is most true that godliness is truly profitable many ways I will breifly acquiant you with some of them First of all in that gross and ordinary sense in which the world takes profit and commodity for it blesses our store it gives good success to our preferments it prospers all things that we take in hand For what is more usual in the Old Testament then promises unto the keeper of the Law of length of days of possession of the land of victory against their enemies of all those things which by the world it self are so much desired Neither were these promises made onely for fashions sake to draw them on but they were plainly and evidently made good unto the people to whom they were made For God promises his blessings in that style in which old Isaac speaks to Esau concerning Iacob I have blessed him yea and be shall be blessed For what is there of which the world doth make such store in which God's own people had not their greatest share Was there any people so victorious a gainst their enemies so long as they kept themselves unto their God Was there ever any Nation which had such store of all things made for the use of man It is almost an incredible thing to think that so little a span of Land as they inhabited should so abundantly bring forth all things requisite for the use of so mighty and populous a Nation For matchless strength of body and fears of Arms whom can the world oppose to Sampson to David and to his Worthies For wisdom and learning did not Moses and Solomon out-goe all the wisdom of the East yea all the wise men of the world besides Their Kingdom indeed was but little and herein onely that is in largeness of Dominion the Great Monarch of the World may seem to have gone beyond them But the reason of this we shall examine by and by when we shall come to consider what causes there are why many times the children of this world outgoe the children of the Kingdom in abundance of earthly good notwithstanding piety onely hath the promise of them and impiety nothing else but a curse Neither is this harvest of profit onely in the Old Testament as if the New were waxen barren The New Testament indeed is not so frequent in mentioning of earthly blessings and good reason why For many things in the New Testament are not so fully taught because they are supposed to be learn'd and known as being sufficiently stood upon in the Old In the Old Testament scarce any page is there which does not entitle good men to the possession of some temporal good and for this reason may seem the holy Ghost spares to be over-frequent and abundant in mentioning them in the New So then howsoever in our discourses unto you we many times commend unto you simplicity and lowliness and preach unto you poverty and patience and continual persecution for the Truth 's sake yet piety doth not require at our hands that we should be either short-witted or beggerly but hath its part in all the blessings of this world whether it be of soul or body or of goods That therefore which anciently the son of Syrach spake of these excellent men who liv'd before his time the same hath been true in Christian Common-wealths and our own eyes in part have seen it The noble famous men reigned in their Kingdoms they bare excellent rule in their wisdom wise sentences were found in their instructions They were rich also and could comfort they lived quietly at home Be it therefore Power Riches or Wisdom or Peace or any other of these Apples of Paradise which seem to the world so goodly and so much to be desired God hath not so rained them down upon the cities of men as that he left his own dry and unfurnished with them I will not dispute unto whom of right these blessings do belong whether unto the Reprobate or unto the Iust This is a question which none but God can determine yet hath the world been acquainted with some who taking upon them to examine the Title have given sentence for the Godly and pronounced that the right unto the world belongs unto the Iust which to do in my conceit is to do nothing else but as the old Romans did who when two Cities contending for a piece of ground had taken them for their Iudges wisely gave sentence on their own behalf and taking it from both the other Cities adjudged it unto themselves Let the Title to these things rest where it will thus much we may safely presume of That God in whom originally all the Right to these things is doth so bestow them as that they that are his cannot doubt of that portion of them which shall be sufficient for their use Onely my Brethren let us not mistake our selves in the means by which godliness becomes thus exceeding profitable unto us for it is not with us in regard of these things as it is with other men It is not our great care for them our early rising or late sitting up that brings them to us The best and surest way to provide our selves of these things is not to care for them not to
that by reason of their calling they debar themselves of many the thriving Arts of the world it must needs be that if riches do come upon them that God himself doth extraordinarily pour them on Wherefore good men must not consider how much or how little it is they have but the means by which it comes unto them All the Prophets and Apostles which were hungry had not that offer which St. Peter had all kind of flesh let down from heaven and free choice to eat of what they listed When Daniel was in Babylon in the Lions Den God sends his Angel into Iewry takes a Prophet by the hair of the head carries him into Babylon and all to carry but a mess of pottage for Daniel's dinner Daniel's fare is meaner then St. Peter's but the miracle is as great and the care of God is the same The righteous man that hath much is as St. Peter he that hath least is as Daniel the word and promise of God is alike made good unto them both And thus much of these two Errours of which the due avoiding shall keep us from mistaking of those promises and charging God foolishly Now because much of that which we have formerly spoken was spent in proving that God doth force the world many times even in a very eminent sort to serve the necessities and purposes of those that are his yet since ordinarily the case of good men in the things of this world is meaner then that of the world's children their riches are many times small if they be any at all and promotion looks little after them That we may a little the better content our selves and know in what case we stand give me leave to shew you how it comes about that the wicked though they have no promise yet have a larger portion in the world's blessings then the godly Where it shall appear that it cannot otherwise be except it should please God to alter the ordinary course of the world The first cause therefore that the sons of this world thus usually climb aloft above the sons of God and nest themselves in the tallest Cedars is their infinite and importunate Ambition From this root hath sprung forth both that infinite mass of wealth which private men and that boundless compass of Government which great princes have attain'd unto Nothing was ever more unjust then the raising of these great Kingdoms and if the Laws of equity and moderation might have taken place they had never been St. Austin saw no difference between the Roman Empire and Spartacus his conspiracy onely the one lasted a little longer and this makes no difference in the thing it self And hence it is that God gave limits and bounds unto the Kingdom which his people had and having poured out the vials of his wrath upon the usurping people that held the Land of promise from them to whom it was due he permitted not the Iews to grate too much upon the bordering Nations And this is the reason why the Iews that in all other respects went side by side or rather before the rest of the world onely in latitude of Kingdom yeilded to the Monarchs of the earth For the one made the will of God the other their own ambition the measure of their desires The most moderate and wisest kind of men are many times slowest in giving entertainment to these great thoughts of heart In Iotham's parable in the Book of Iudges where the Trees go forth to chuse a King the Olive would not leave his fatness nor the Vine his fruit nor the Fig-tree his sweetness no not for a Kingdom Onely the Brier the basest of all shrubs no sooner had the Trees made the motion to him but he is very apprehensive of it and thinks himself a goodly creature fit to make a King of Sober men who best understand the nature of business know well how great a charge extraordinary wealth◠and places of Authority bring with them There is none so poor but hath his time to make an account of were there nothing but this what a sum would this amount unto Add unto these our Words unto Words Actions unto all these Wealth and Ability and last of all Honour and Authority how do each of these successively like places in Arithmetick infinitely increase the sum of our accounts No marvel then if wise and considerate men are slow in tasking themselves so heavily and rather content themselves quietly at home Let the world go well or ill so it be not long of them The second thing that makes them come on in the world is their spacious wide and unlimited conscience which can enlarge it self to the swallowing of any means that bring gain and preferment with them he that once hath cauterized and seared his conscience and put on a resolution to gain by all occasions must needs quickly grow rich But good men are evermore shie and scrupulous what they do though there be no apparent occasion Evil is of a slie insinuating nature it will creep in at every little passage all the care and wariness we can possibly use to prevent it is too little When David had cut off the lap of Saul's garment the Scripture tells us that his heart smote him because he had done this thing I have often wondred with my self what it was that in an action so innocent and harmless done with so hohourable intent onely to bring a testimony of his innocency and righteousness might thus importunately trouble his conscience He intended no wrong unto Saul not so much as in his thought yet had he but a little advised himself through scruple and tenderness of conscience he would not have used so harmless a witness of his innocency Common reason told St. Paul that the labourer is worthy of his hire and by instinct of the holy Ghost himself learn'd and taught that it was but justice and equity that men that labour in the Gospel should live by the Gospel Who feeds a flock eats not the milk and clothes not himself with the wooll of it yet notwithstanding that he might take away all occasion of evil that lazie and idle drones who suck the sweet of other men's labours might not take example by him to live at other mens cost that he might make the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free without any charge that men that have no silver might come and buy and eat might come I say and buy the wine and milk of the Word without money that the Gospel might not be slandered as a means of gain he would not use that liberty that God and men gave him neither would he eat the milk or wear the wooll of his own flock but with his own hands and labours purchas'd himself his necessary maintenance What hope of these mens extraordinary thriving who are so nice and scrupulous of what they finger What then must we think of those that abuse godliness unto gain that refuse to do deeds of charity except
good what think we shall be the loss of those builders whose very foundation is hay and stubble as is theirs who have laid the things of this life as their prime and corner-stone First seek ye the Kingdom of God First is a word of order and order is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theon in his Comments upon Ptolomy it is a Divine thing a thing of wonderful force and efficacy For cost may be laid out matter may be provided labour may be bestowed and all to no purpose if there be not a set course an order observed in the business The experience of the meanest Tradesman amongst you is able to tell you thus much For whosoever he be amongst you that goes to practise his Trade he cannot begin where he list something there is that must be done in the first place without which he cannot go unto the second something in the second place which will not be done except something be done afore it Some order there is which prescribes a law and manner to his action which being not observed nothing can be done As in all other business so in this great business of Christianity we may not think that we may hand over head huddle up matters as we list but we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must keep a method and order a set course in our proceedings Not First these things and then the kingdom of God and the righteousness of him but First the kingdom of God and Then these things We have amongst our Books an Authour who commending unto us the great use of Method and Order in our studies tells us that if a man could assure himself thirty years of study it would be far more profitable for him to spend twenty of them in finding out some course and order of Study and the other ten in studying according to this order then to spend the whole though it be in very diligent study if it be with misorder and confusion Howsoever it be with Method and Order in these Academical studies certainly in our studies which concern the practise of Christianity it cannot chuse but be with great loss of labour and industry if we do not observe that Method and Order which here our Saviour prescribes Simplicius in his Comments upon Aristotle makes a question Whether Youths in their reading of Aristotle's books should begin with his Logicks where he teaches them to dispute and reason or with his Moral books where he teaches them to live civilly and honestly If saith he they begin from his Logick without Morals they were in danger to prove wrangling Sophisters if from his Morals without Logick they would prove confused Thus indeed it fares in the knowledge of Nature where all things are uncertain thus it is with Students in the Vniversity who have Aristole for their God Scarcely will all their Logick do them so much service as to shew them where they would begin or where end But in the studies of Christianity it is nothing so Christ is our Aristotle he hath written us a Spiritual Logick he hath shewed us a Method and Order what first to do what next and how to range every thing in its proper place He that shall follow this may be secure of his end it is impossible he should lose his pains But if we follow our own conceits if we like best of our own courses God deals with us no otherwise then parents do with their children For so long as children follow the direction and advice of their parents so long it is fit that their parents should provide for them but if once children like best of their own courses then it is but meet they should take the event and fortune of them Yea so much the more dangerous is our errour of not observing the order and method that Christ hath given us because it cannot afterward be remedied we have for ever lost the claim to God's promises in this kind As Cato said of errours committed in Battel In aliis rebus si quid erratum est potest postmodum corrigi praeliorum delicta emendationem non recipiunt quia poena statim sequitur errorem Errours in other things may be again amended but the errour of a Battel cannot possibly be remedied because the inconvenience immediately follows upon the mistake For if we have not observed this Method of our Saviour if any thing have possess'd our thoughts before or above the thought study and care of Godliness we have mist of our Method we have broken out condition and therefore now for ever can we claim no promise of God in this kind Here therefore is a most certain touch by which we may come to examine our claim unto these promises for if at any time we shall perceive our selves overtaken with passion and discontent upon consideration that we be disgraced and impoverished When as men who as we suppose have nothing so much care of God and the things that are his do flourish in grace and favour with the world Let us presently examine our selves whether or no we have kept the conditions viz. sought first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of him or have given somewhat else the first room in our thoughts Thus if we do our own conscience will presently tell us what part we have in these promises For which of us can say that with Samuel we have been dedicated to God from our first and tender infancy What do I say from our first nay how many of us are there who can scarcely spare the latter end of our days for God When the world hath crop'd the prime of our age of our labour of our industry when it hath sifted and bolted out the flower when our health and youth is spent in the world's service with much ado can we be content to bestow our old decrepit sickly and unprofitable part of our age upon God and the study of Godliness How then can we claim this promise at God's hands that have thus grosly neglected our conditions To conclude When God in the Book of Kings made a covenant with Solomon he tells him plainly what he and his people must trust to 1 Kings ix 4. If thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked in integrity of heart and uprightness to do according to all that I have commanded thee and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments 5 Then will I establish the Throne of thy Kingdom upon Israel for ever as I promised to David thy father saying There shall not fail thee a man upon the Throne of Israel 6 But if you shall at all turn from following me you or your children and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them 7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them and this house which I have hallowed for my Name will I cast out of my sight and Israel shall
be a Proverb and a By-word among all people Here are threats as well as promises and those promises are conditional It is but just that they who claim the promises look well and truly to the conditions IACOB's VOW A SERMON On Gen. xxviij 20. And Jacob vowed a vow saying If God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on c. ANd Iacob vowed a vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreters of Homer observe unto us that he gives unto God one kind of Dialect to Men another When he brings in God speaking he makes him use fair smooth and clear running words but the speeches and discourse of men he fits with words of harder and harsher sound and composition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but two names of one and the same River the one a word of pleasing sound taken up by the gods the other a word of unpleasing and rougher accent used by men Moses the great Interpreter of the Greatest God of Heaven and Earth in those first words of my Text seems to have borrow'd a peice of the same Art For that which here in the language of the holy Ghost he calls a Vow And Iacob vowed a vow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak according to the manner and phrase of men is nothing else but a contract or bargain Vow and Bargain in this place are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vow is a Religious and Sacred word and therefore best fits to express our carriages and demeanour with God Bargain is a degenerous and sordid word and therefore best suits with Merchandizing and Trafficking betwixt man and man All things pass by way of Contract and Bargain Do ut des facio ut facias service requires hire and one good turn demands another It was the divil that ask'd the question Doth Iob serve God for nought But the Saints of God may above all other most truly answer That indeed they do not For God may go forth at all hours in the day and find enough standing idle in the market-place yet shall he get none to work in his Vineyard except he bring his Peny with him When Iacob in the xxx of Genesis returned out of the feild Leah meets him and tells him Thou must come in to me for surely I have hired thee with my sons Mandrakes Iacob that great Saint of God deals no otherwise with God himself then he did with Leah if God will have Iacob he must purchase him with his Mandrakes he must buy him with food and raiment If God will be with me and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on then shall the Lord be my God In which words the first thing very remarkable is a singular disproportion which seems to be contained in them Demetrius Phalereus a grave and judicious Writer much blames an ancient Authour who describing a small Flie that lives amongst the grass and nests it self amongst the trees extremely over-worded and over-spake himself in his expression of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if saith he he had spoken of the Nemean Lion or the Caledonian Bore or some such great and terrible beast He that shall observe the Apparatus the great preparation that is here made might well conceive that there were some great matter intended For first here is a Vow Secondly here is the Person who conceives the Vow Iacob Thirdly here is the Person to whom the Vow is made Fourthly here is the End for which it is made He that shall rightly sum up the first three parts and truly consider the greatness of them might justly think that the last wherein as it were the Vpshot and total of the rest is comprized did certainly contain some extra ordinary matter First here is a Vow This may not be in any light of trivial thing Wise men are seldom serious much less will they make a Religion in small matters Secondly here is the Person Iacob a person of great note and worth For who greater in the House of God then Iacob one of those famous Triumviri Abraham Isaac Iacob from whom God was pleased to denominate and style himself Could such an Eagle strike at a Flie Could a person of such note make a Vow or commence a Suit for a trifle So great a Courtier in the Court of Heaven had learn'd his Courtship a little better then to spend favour in small matters Quaedam beneficia accipiente minora sunt Benefits and favours such may be as that they may be unworthy and too mean for him to whom they are tendred When Caligula the Emperour had sent to Demetrius a famous Philosopher a round sum of money to tempt him and try what was in him he rejected it with scorn and replied Si tentare me voluerat toto illi experiendus eram imperio If the Emperour saith he had a purpose to try me he should have cast his whole Empire at my feet and tried me with that And how can it be that Iacob a person so far above Demetrius could think of asking or receiving a small and common benefit As it is fabled of Thomas Aquinas that being ask'd of Christ in a Vision what reward he would have reply'd Nullum Domine praeter teipsum None Lord but thy self So Beloved had God made proffer unto Iacob of all the benefits he had to give I do not see what better choice he could have made then that of Aquinas Nullum Domine praeter teipsum None Lord save thy self For the whole kingdom of Heaven it self might it be without God would not be worth the taking The circumstance therefore of the party suing must needs put us in expectation of some great matter But we have not yet done For to raise our expectation yet a little higher a third circumstance offers it self The circumstance of the Person to whom the Vow or Suit is made and that is God the Great King of Heaven and Earth So great a Donor especially at the request of so great a Suitor cannot bestow but some great benefit Quaedam beneficia minora sunt quam ut exire à magnis viris debeant Benefits and favours must carry some proportion with the greatness and worthiness of the Donor When a freind of Alexander the Great had ask'd him ten talents he tendred to his fifty and when reply was made that ten were sufficient True said he Ten are sufficient for you to take but not for me to give Beloved had Iacob been but some ordinary suitor and contented himself with some small suit yet is it not likely that so Royal a Donor as God is would see his Honour and Magnificence to suffer by parting with some ordinary or contemptible favour Hitherto all things speak and promise nothing but Greatness But see here the great disproportion I noted unto you For what is the end of all this serious