expressive of the Crucifixion of our Saviour then the lifting up of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness as he himself intimates in S t. Iobn As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so shall the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Bath That is very well observed of you Philopolis it is a very expressive Type indeed and it has been a great delight to me when I have considered with my self not onely on that one Symbol of the brazen Serpent but how the whole Camp of Israel with the Tabernacle among them was one entire holy Type of the itinerant Church of Christ travelling through the Wilderness of this World to the Land of Promise or the Kingdome of Heaven The Incarnation of Christ his Divinity and Apotheosis his Passion Ascension and Intercession all these are lively set out in those standing Figures among the Israelites Hyl. I pray you how Bathynous Bath The Incarnation of the Logos O Hylobares is plainly figured out in the Tabernacle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence God spake And you know the Apostle calls this mortal body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.13 as the ancient Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.14 And the Word in S t. Iohn is said to tabernacle amongst us the Apostle speaking there of his Incarnation God's Residence therefore in the Tabernacle the Children of Israel in the mean time encamping about him in their booths is an easie Representation of Christ's Incarnation of the Word his living in the flesh amongst us that live in the flesh Hyl. It is so Bathynous Bath And for Christ's Passion what more significant thereof as Philopolis has rightly observed then that of the brazen Serpent Christ as it being lifted up in his Crucifixion on a Pole of wood And as that Telesm was of the most accursed shape of Creatures so Christ was made sin and a curse for us crucified betwixt two Thieves as if himself had been such a Malefactour But himself having no sin the Contemplation thus of him on the Cross had a sovereign power to take away both the pain and poison of Sin and redeem us from eternall Death as the brazen Serpent being no Serpent but a Figure heal'd them that look'd up to it from the sting and poison of the fiery flying Serpents and so redeemed them from a temporal death Hyl. But how is his Ascension and Intercession figured out in these Israelitical Types Bath His Intercession Hylobares is signify'd by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mercy-seat For in that Christ has suffered in the flesh and is now set down at the right hand of God he is our Atonement with him in him God is made propitious to the world But his Ascension as also his Intercession is farther typify'd by the High-priest's entring alone into the most Holy Hyl. That is the very same that the Authour to the Hebrews takes notice of Hebr. 9. Bath And lastly Hylobares his Divinity is most magnificently embroidered on the Robes of Aaron the High-priest who undoubtedly was an illustrious Type of Christ. For according to Philo Iudaeus his own confession the Robes of Aaron were a Type of the visible Universe and who can be said to wear and bear out into shape and order and fill the whole frame of Nature with his Presence but he that made it and continues it in Being who but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Divine Logos None can be said to fill out these Robes but he And that Aaron's Robes were not onely a Type of the Universe but fitted according to the truest Systeme thereof is apparent forasmuch as the Ephod and Breast-plate which was placed about the region of the Heart which is the Sun of this lesser World had its contexture of Scarlet and Purple Exod. 28.6 with Gold and white Silk which plainly denote the vehement heat and refulgent light of the Sun the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as this Ephod and Breast-plate are placed in the midst of the body of Aaron The blew Robe also resembles so much of the Heaven as comprehends the space of the Planets which the pendulous Pomegranates represent and that farther-reaching Stole of eye-work the Coelum Stellatum the Stars resembling so many twinkling eyes but the Bells the Harmony of the Universe Hyl. I understand you very well for I have read in a late Authour a more full description to the same purpose The consideration of these Congruities of the Israelitical Types strikes my minde with a marvellous pleasure They are very admirable Bathynous and very delectable and solid pledges compared with the completion of them in the Christian Church of a perpetuall and peremptory Providence of God in carrying on thus the affairs of his own People and Kingdome Philop. But some XXIV Vocal Prophecies touching the Kingdome of Christ and its Success in the world Hylobares are convinced more by express vocal Prophecies then by silent Types the slowness of their wit suspecting such Interpretations of over-much Phancifulness Hyl. Wherefore Philopolis Philotheus will easily return again to that province upon your least intimation Philoth. That I shall Hylobares But I hope Philopolis does not expect I should range through all the Prophecies that concern the Iewish Church for it were a Task that would require a Volume Philop. I am so far from desiring that Philotheus that I am rather afraid of it and therefore debarr it as also the troubling your self much with setting out the success of the Iewish Affairs while their Polity held For these things are to be seen orderly in the Bible and are so numerous that we should lose our main design by entring into them That their Captivities were fore-threatned by reason of their sins at good distances and their Return predicted is ordinarily known For fear time fail us let us intreat you Philotheus to confine your discourse to such Prophecies and Observations onely as concern the Kingdome of God set on foot by the Son of God the Lord Christ. Philoth. Such as the Prophecie of Iacob which I last mentioned In which that long Captivity of the Ten Tribes seems to be involved For Iacob's Prophecie pitches upon that Tribe that was to continue till the coming of the Messias Philop. That 's a plain Indication that Iacob's Prophecies touching his sons were not uttered at randome Philoth. So it is Philopolis And as Iacob's Prophecie so plainly bounds the time within which the Messias would not fail to come so do also those of Haggai and Malachi Chap. 2.6 Chap. 3.1 they both declare plainly that it should be within the time of the second Temple Philop. I know they do Wherein Providence was very faithfull to the people of God in giving them so certain a sign of the Advent of their Saviour and that the Iews might understand upon the demolishing of their Temple that there was no
many as receive they become the sons of God as being born 2 Cor. 4.16 not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh but of God And this also is that inward man of which Paul professes that though the outward perish is yet in the true Saints of God renewed day by day Wherefore he that is arrived to this Substantiality of life will be fixt in all useful Divine Truths and the Reasons that grow on such a Root will be found solid and permanent by him that has the Root but where they are merely verbal and imaginarie and float onely in the Brain the Heart being animal and brutish they may easily prove very weak fugitive and vanishing Not that they are so in themselves but may appear so to those who have onely the Picture of the Flower in their Brain not the Root in their Heart in which is the Pavilion of Life and inmost Tabernacle of God in the Soul He that lives in this dispensation of life O Hylobares can never be dissettled in his thoughts touching the Existence of God and his Providence or the Immortality of the Soul For he cannot be prone to suspect the Soul's capacity of living separate from the Body whiles he perceives her to live at that distance and defiance with the Body already while she is in it nor at all doubt of the Existence of God whose power spirit impulse and energie he so distinctly perceives in his own Soul For such is the nature of the Divine Life that none that feels it but must confess it not to belong to any creature as such but to be the very Power and Spirit of God actuating the Soul How can he then doubt of Him whose power and presence he so sensibly feels Wherefore this Dispensation of Life Hylobares is all in all to him that desires to philosophize with steddiness and solidity Hyl. These are great and magnificent things which you declare O Philotheus but yet such as seem to me neither incredible nor unimitable And therefore God willing I shall endeavour as well as I can to steer my course according to the Rules you have intimated and make it my main scope to attain to that state which you call the Dispensation of Life For I see all is very vain and shadowy without it But in the mean time I must crave pardon of Philopolis that I have occasioned Philotheus to mis-spend so much of that time that he thought too little for his own design and for the present purpose in hand Philop. Philotheus speaks so favourly and edifyingly of every subject he is put upon that it is ever pitty to interrupt him But sith he has now desisted of himself if he please at length to enter upon the Subject I first of all propounded it will very much gratifie my desires Hyl. It is therefore now Philopolis very seasonable to propound your Quere's to him Philop. My First Quere V Philopolis his Quere's touching the Kingdome of God O Philotheus was What the Kingdome of God is the Second When it began and where it has been or is now to be found the Third What progress it has hitherto made in the world the Fourth and last What success it is likely to have to the end of all things These are the Quere's Philotheus which I at first propounded concerning which if you please to instruct us plainly and intelligibly though not so accurately and scholastically we shall think our selves eternally obliged to you for your pains Philoth. I shall doe my best I can to serve you herein Philopolis and that as briefly and perspicuously as I can with all plainness of speech and without any affectation of Scholastick Scrupulosities being desirous onely to be understood and to convince And the God of Heaven assist us in this our discourse of his heavenly Kingdome that we may so understand the Mysteries of it as that we may faithfully endeavour the promoting the Interest thereof both in our selves and in all men to the Glory of God and Salvation of the World Amen Philop. Amen I pray God Philoth. VI What the Kingdome of God is in the general Nation thereof with a defence of the truth of the Nation Your first Quere O Philopolis though it be very short yet is exceeding comprehensive and by reason of the multisarious signification of the terms involves much matter in it at once which yet I shall endeavour to comprise and take in as well as I can by this brief Definition of the Kingdome of God in general The Kingdome of God is the Power of God enjoyning exciting commissioning or permitting his creatures to act according to certain Laws which considering all circumstances or upon the compute of the whole are for the best Philop. I partly understand you Philotheus and conceive you intend such a Definition of the Kingdome of God as takes in the Kingdome of Nature also and respects those Laws whereby both the brute Animals are guided and the senseless Plants and dead Meteors and Elements according to the extent of your defence hitherto of Divine Providence running from the highest and most Intellectual Order of things even to those Material Beings which are framed and actuated by the Spirit of Nature or Seminal Soul of the World Sophr. Why that is no more then the Scripture it self will warrant him to doe Philopolis The Psalmist is very frequent in such expressions The Lord has prepared his throne in Heaven Psalm 103.19 21 22 and his Kingdome ruleth over all Bless ye the Lord all his Hosts ye Ministers of his that doe his pleasure Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion Bless the Lord O my Soul This in the 103. Psalm And in the 148. Psalm he makes all the several degrees of the Creation from Heaven to Earth from Angels to Brutes Plants and Meteors the Hosts of God and exhorts them all to praise the name of the Lord For he spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created he hath made them fast for ever and ever he hath given them a Law which shall not be broken And again in the 119. Psalm O Lord thy word endureth for ever in Heaven thy Truth also remaineth from one generation to another Thou hast laid the foundation of the Earth and it abideth they continue this day according to thy ordinance for all things serve thee Whence it is plain that the Dominion of God and his Kingdome reaches as far as the whole comprehension of the Creation Cuph. Why then in some places O Sophron the Kingdome of God will be coincident with the Kingdome of the Devil Bath Why Cuphophron what greater inconvenience is there in that then that the Kingdome of Nature and the Kingdome of God should be coincident which you seem not to gainsay Cuph. Methinks it sounds very odly and besides we may conceive a subordination betwixt the Kingdome of God and the Kingdome of Nature but the
That to infinite permanent and immutable Goodness of right belongs as well Omnisciency as Omnipotency the one as her Secretary the other as her Satellitium But the infinitely-good God is not onely of right but by nature both Omniscient and Omnipotent And from these three his infinite Goodness Wisedome and Power issue out all the Orders of the Creation in the whole Universe So that all the Creatures being his and his Goodness being so perfect immutable and permanent as never out of any humour as I may so speak vacillancy or supine indifferency to be carried otherwise then to what is the best and his Wisedome never at a loss to discern nor his Power to execute it we see the clearest foundation imaginable of the Right of that absolute Sovereignty we acknowledge in God For is there not all reason that he that is so immutably Good that it is repugnant that he should ever will any thing but what is absolutely for the best should have a full right of acting merely according to the suggestions and sentiments of his own minde it being impossible but that they should be for the best he having proportionable Wisedome also and Power adjoyned to this infinite Goodness to contrive and execute his holy just and benign designs Philop. In my apprehension Philotheus this is marvellously plain and such as I wanted no instruction in And therefore let me intreat you to draw nearer to the main point in hand which is the Kingdome of God properly so called For methinks we have done hitherto as if some having a design to observe more particularly some one Kingdome in the Map of the World suppose England France or Spain should forget their intended purpose and lose time in taking a vagary through all Europe at least if not all the four quarters of the World I desire Philotheus to understand what that Kingdome of God is that is amongst Men being less curious touching that part of his Dominion that he exercises over Angels whether lapsed or unlapsed or that Power he exserts upon the Kingdome of Nature whether Animals or Plants or other inferiour creatures Quae supranos nihil ad nos and there is in some sense the like reason concerning those things below us I desire my prospect may be enlarged onely towards those things that are on the same levell with my self which I press the more earnestly because of the streightness of the time I fear we shall be cast into Philoth. I commend your providence Philopolis and desire you to persist in this freedome of calling us back to those subjects you have the greatest mind to be satisfied in as often as we stray For this last Evening is wholly dedicated to your service But however for all the haste I affect to enter upon that Point you chiefly aim at VIII The Kingdome of God within us what it is namely What the Kingdome of God is signally so called I must first mention a Division before I fall upon that Definition For the Kingdome of God as it respects Men also is either Internall or Externall according as our Saviour has declared Neither shall they say Luk. 17.21 Lo here or Lo there for behold the Kingdome of God is within you Cuph. I suppose this Kingdome is much-what the same with the Philosophicall Kingdome of the Stoicks who make their wise man a King and Emperour and what not and count it their chief happiness to have a full dominion over their Passions especially the more grim and harsh ones that they may enjoy themselves in quiet Philoth. O no Cuphophron there is no sameness at all betwixt this Kingdome of the Stoicks and the Kingdome of God For this Kingdome of the Stoicks is the Kingdome of Selfishness and Self-love sways the Sceptre there and wears the Diademe But in the Kingdome of God God himself who is that pure free and perfectly unselfed Love has the full dominion of the Soul and the ordering and rule of all the Passions It is a wonderful thing to consider how multifarious the Impostures and false pretensions to this inward Kingdome are discovered to be by those that are really possessed thereof how one Passion as suppose Pride or Covetousness subdues all the rest unto it self and rules in stead of the Divine Love how all the Passions are brought into a demure subjection to the sense of some externall Interest especially if it bear the Title of Sacred or Holy and how men may be disciplin'd or educated thereto as Setting-dogs for the Game whenas the Soul in such a case has subdued all her affections onely to surrender her self a more absolute slave to the will of those men whose business it is to bring the World into blinde obedience by studied Impostures and Hypocrisies to such Laws as are made for their carnal Interest and in stead of propagating the Kingdome of God to plant the Kingdome of the Devil or Antichrist amongst men Let the Soul in such cases as these have never so great a command over her affections this is no Kingdome of God but a presumptuous and tyrannical Usurpation of some petty Masters against the Right of his Kingdome Unless this internall Kingdome be established in the Love and Peace and Patience of the Lord Iesus it is but the Reign of mere self-seeking Nature or the Kingdome of the Devil The Kingdome of God in the Soul is the Empire of the Divine Love which equally affects the good of all men Rom. 12.15 rejoyces with them that rejoyce and weeps with them that weep It is that state of the Soul whereby a man loves God with all his heart and all his soul Matt. 22.37 and his neighbour as himself Matt. 7.12 and deals with others as himself would be dealt with whereby a man earnestly desires the common good of all men and finds himself concern'd in repelling or preventing any publick evil To be brief It is the Rule of the Spirit of God in the Soul who takes the rains of all our Powers Faculties and Affections into his own hand and curbs them and excites them according to his own most holy will that is carried to no particular Self-interest but ever directs to that which is simply and absolutely the best This also is the Kingdome of Christ in the Inward man Hebr. 7.2 the mystical Melchizedek who is first King of Righteousness as the word signifies that is of impartial Rectitude and Uprightness without all Self-respects and then King of Salem that is Prince of Peace Finally it is that Kingdome which consists not in externall Superstitions but as the Apostle speaks Rom. 14.7 in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Philop. This Internall Kingdome of God IX The means of acquiring it O Philotheus is so lovely and desirable that I cannot but request you to intimate the means of acquiring it before you proceed to the Externall Philoth. O how I love you Philopolis for this motion forasmuch as