is lifted up is to morrow trodden down who is now accounted cloquent is presently esteem'd a babe rude or barbarous and all from their ficklenesse the Word and Ministers are the same but the people are changed like sick peoples palate who long for that meat one day which they nauseate the next day or as children who delight in those toyes one day which the next they throw out of the doores The second part of Christs discourse concerning Iohn is A high commendation of Iohn and of his Ministery from three notable arguments First That Iohn was the Prophet that was foretold long before by two emminent Prophets Isaiah Malachi both of them shewing that the Lord would send his messenger before his face and saith Christ if you 'l beleeve it this is he The second is taken from the eminencie of Iohns worke hee did immediatly goe before Jesus Christ as a Noble man that should lead the Prince by the hand and shew him to every one This is he he did not as the other Prophets hold him out in types and shadows and spake of a Messiah that was to come a long time after but as another Christopher did carry Christ upon his shoulders and held him out in his armes that every one that came neer Iohn might see him pointed out to the Lambe of God that took away the sinnes of the world and the clearer any Ministery is in the discovery of Christ the more excellent it is but yet that Christ might set the true bounds to the honour of Iohns Ministery he adds that though of all the Prophets that ever were before him there was none like him yet the least Minister after Christ should have done his worke the meanest Minister of the Gospel had a more excellent Ministery then Iohn the Baptist because the excellencie of a Ministery is in the light that it carries Now Iohns light did farre goe beyond all that went before him but the least Minister of the Kingdome of Heaven after Christs work was done on earth should be able so cleerly to shew forth the life death passion resurrection ascension intercession of Christ sending of the holy Ghost and all those glorious mysteries that children might bee able to understand them and this goes far beyond the Ministery of Iohn the Baptist This is the second Argument whereby Christ magnifies the Ministery of Iohn the third is that that I have chosen for my Text That from the dayes of Iohn the Baptist the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force the summe whereof is that from Iohns time there was raised up in all who truely embrac'd the Gospel a servent spirit to pursue and advance the Kingdome of Heaven with all eagernesse no Souldiers are more violent in assaulting and taking astrong hold then Iohns Disciples were in prosecuting the Kingdome of Heaven with all their might when once it was discover'd to them Now all these arguments whereby Christ doth extoll the Ministery of Iohn are intended not onely as so many testimonies of honour to Iohn but are also so many Arguments to prove Jesus Christ to be the true Messiah for whatever proves Iohn to be the Elias that should make his way ready for him the same proves Jesus Christ to be the Saviour that should come unto Gods people and this of my Text as strong and cleare as any other because it was foretold of him that the people should be willing in the day of his power should come in as plentifully as the dew out of the wombe of the morning should flie after him as the Doves to their windowes This is the commendation of Iohn if you would know the fruit of all this what this high encomium of Iohn did work upon the hearers you may read in the 7. of Luke where Vers 29. 30. this same story is recorded and the effect of it is there added which our Evangelist doth omit viz. that when Christ had said these things of Iohn the Publicans and the rest of the people who had before been baptized by Iohn Baptist glorified God were awaken'd and brought to sorrow for their neglect of Iohn and so encouraged to imbrace Jesus Christ whom Iohn pointed out but the Scribes and Pharisees the learned Doctors and others that had despised the Ministery of Iohn did no whit regard the honour that Christ did give to Iohns Ministery and so neither accepted Iohn the forerunner nor Christ the Saviour but rejected the counsell of God against themselves This is the sum of the whole context Our generall observation from this commendation which our Saviour gives to Iohn is that the Lord Iesus is most ready to honour them who abase themselves for his sake Iohn had exceedingly abased himself declaring himself to be but the voyce of a cryer unworthy to unloose the latchet of Christs shooe making himself a footstoole to exalt Christ willing to decrease that Christ might increase and now Christ heaps honour upon Iohn abundantly so that wee may see that such as honour Christ shall be honoured of him and that although honour flie from them who vainely seek it yet it followes them who flie from it But I come to my Text which as you have heard is one branch of that honorable testimony which our Saviour gave to Iohn the Baptist which I shall desire you with me to look upon under a twofold consideration First As they are intended to bee a Crown and an honour to Iohn the Baptist From the dayes of Iohn the Baptist untill now the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence Secondly and principally Wee will consider these words as they doe containe a description of men who are rightly affected with the kingdome of heaven The Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Of the first of these very briefly the meaning I take to bee this This eagernesse and fervency of Spirit in the people is to bee looked upon partly as a fruit of that cleere light which Iohn Baptists Ministery did hold out never any discovered the kingdome of heaven so cleerly as Iohn did and therefore never was there such zeal to presse into the Kingdome of heaven as was in Iohns time Secondly and partly as a conformity to Iohns Spirit Iohn came in the power and Spirit of Elias a man of mettle and zeal that did the work of the Lord with all his might and therefore the people whom his Ministery wrought upon were moulded into Iohns Spirit they were made like unto their Teacher and both these are by our Lord intended as a Crowne to Iohn From the dayes of Iohn the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence A word or two of each of these Take the zeal and eagernesse of the people after heaven as a fruit of that clear discovery of the Kingdome of heaven by Iohns Ministery and it affords us this excellent lesson That the clearer light any people doe receive
apprehend and be sensible what our estate is you heare that all who are rightly affected to Heaven doe offer violence to it in all the wayes I have open'd Brethren doe you so say every one for your owne soules doth your conscience witnesse that you offer violence to the Kingdome of Heaven Compare a little what violence you use for other things and what you use to obtaine a part in the Kingdom of Heaven Can you not watch and work and toyle and spend and be spent for some earthly thing or other For your wealth or your pleasure or your honour Doe you not drive like Iehu furiously as if you would break your Chariot wheeles into peeces doe you not thus for the world And doe you thus also for your immortast soules Are you not like David in his old age when no cloths could make him warm are you not like the Egyptians when their Chariet wheeles were taken off when they drove slowly and heavily are you not like Snailes in the pursuit of the things of Gods Kingdom my heart could bleed in the serious thoughts of these things O wretched creatures that wee are that we should thus deceive our selves There is a notable story of a poore wretched woman whose house was on a fire and shee seeing her house would bee burn'd down bestir'd herselfe to the utmost to save what shee could gets out her linnen gets out her pewter and what ever else shee was able and all this while this poore creature had a Babe lying in a Cradle which shee never thought of indeed some others did see it and carry it out but when all was consumed it came into the womans mind O Lord saith shee I have forgot my child I have saved my brasse and my pewter and my child is burnt and fell mad immediately at the apprehension of her desperate neglect of her Babe O beloved we are the Lord knowes no lesse mad here is a poore Tabernacle of ours it is of a light fire here is a World on a fire and a Kingdom on a fire and we have somewhat that wee would all save and one man saith I must have this Money and the other I must save so much Land and another I must save such an Office and saith another I must get such a preferment and in the mean time there is a poore immortall Soule like a Babe in a Cradle and a Kingdome of Heaven that is onely a suitable portion to it this we wholly neglect we doe nothing for it it may be come to Church and hear Sermons and joyne in Prayer and attend upon Duties but with such dull spirits that if a man would aske his soul the question his Conscience would say this is not to strive as for masterie this is not to run in a race this is not to strive as if a man would obtain Miserable that we are the Kingdomes of the Earth suffer violence our Farmes suffer violence our Trade suffers violence but Heaven suffers no violence the Lord forgive us and help us to lay these things to our hearts and to be humbled for them this day and Thirdly yet one thing more What great cause have wee to be humbled when wee look upon that other branch of it the little vigor ánd fervency of Spirit that men have to advance the Kingdome of Heaven in reference to the good of others in other things every good Common-wealths-man is diligent some would advance Trade to the utmost and others would advance Liberty to the utmost indeed all other things men seek to improve them to the utmost but O the little care is found among men to advance the Kingdome of the Lord Iesus Christ to the utmost Many opposing it as a dangerous thing they say of it as Haman of the Jewes It is not for the Kings profit to suffer it and others as Herod seek to strangle it in the Cradle others who will not appeare enemies to it yet O how little will they now doe for it Is it nothing to them that passe by the way to see godliness trod under foot to see Ministers trod down to see Heresies and Blasphemies spread to see all goe backward in the things of Heaven it takes not the hearts of a great many God grant that many of your selves who are our Reformers have not great cause to put your mouths in the dust for these things this day when you are before the Lord our God you know how zealous you have been in your own work if you have had the like affections in advancing the Kingdome of Christ lift up your heads and take the comfort of it this day but if you like that cold Worshipper of Baal Gideons Father who had an Altar for Baal yet when one had it broken down and hee perswaded to punish him that had done that deed answered Let Baal plead for himselfe let him revenge his own quarrell so if you deal for the Kingdom of Christ let it shift for it self If any of you have such a cold heart for Religion and let it goe at six and sevens bee permitted to lie in the dust and be deeply humbled if not I must tel you from the Lord that lie will not onely not delight to use you but hee will spew you out of his mouth for hee had as willingly have a dead Asse offer'd in a Sacrifice to him as a dull Spirit to set upon his work for these things let our soules be humbled this day and that is the first use the second is a use of exhortation in two branches Is the Kingdome of Heaven a businesse of that nature that all who are rightly informed about it will seek it violently eagerly with all their strength O that the Lord would leave that impression upon every one of our soules this day I desire that for the time to come we might make it our onely worke for our selves to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Would I knew what to say to inflame your hearts about it would the Lord did please to open your eyes and shew you how little the World is worth and how little good is to be found in it and how far below your soules and how much your immorall soules are worth and how excellent a thing the Kingdome of Heaven is that you might be contented with Paul for time to come to make it your work to pursue after it to account all losse to win Iesus Christ doe any thing or be any thing so it bee in the pursuit of the Kingdome of Heaven Much I might say to stir you up but I am afraid I should be burthensome to you and would not be straightned in the last branch of all and therefore I come to An exhortation to this honorable Assembly by whom I am called to be helpefull to this day that in that part of their work which concernes the Kingdome of Heaven they would doe it with all their might labouring to advance
to build up the Kingdome of Heaven is the same work that God and the Lord Iesus Christ work and can there be a greater glory communicated unto any creature then to bee tooke into association with God in a service that is for his highest glory Secondly as they are associated with God so They make the people to whom they are instrumentall beholding to them for the greatest benefits that people are capable of receiving Seneca saith Nihil in rebus humanis praeclarius quam de republica bene mereri There is nothing in all the affaires of mankinde more honorable then to deserve well of the Common-wealth to be instrumentall of good to others it is the glory of man in all humane societies and you shall find that Tubal-Cain and others that did invent instruments of Brasse and Musick are numbred among those that have done good to the world and Hezekiah hath a Crowne of praise that hee did build a poole and brought water to the Citie of Ierusalem But for a man to be instrumentall to helpe forward the Kingdome of Heaven to advance it to draw people out of the snares of Satan unto God to help them with the pardon of sin and right to everlasting life these are mercies with a witnesse no wonder though the Galatians could have pull'd out their eyes and have given them to Paul when he had been a means to help them to the knowledge of Christ and so to Heaven so that whether you regard the glory of being associated with God or the good that they convey unto others there can be no such honour as to be instrumentall in helping forward the Kingdome of Heaven This Lesson is of excellent use especially to two sorts of men that are or may be publikely instrumentall in it I mean Magistrates and Ministers I am called at the present to speak onely to the first therefore I 'le say nothing of the latter but for you Honourable and beloved that are the Patriots of the Kingdome is it not in your heart to do all the good that is possible to poor England I dare say you are deeply affected with the distresses of it and would not count your lives deare so you might but promote the good of it shall I tell you what that thing is which above all things in the world will be advantagious to England and glorious to your selves lay the cause of the Kingdome of Heaven to your hearts more then ever you have done endeavour to be instrumentall to make Religion thrive and prosper that the Kingdome of Heaven may suffer violence under your service so shall your names bee ingraven with the name of God and numbred among the Saviours of this Land Let me speak freely to you you have contended long and vehemently for rescuing the Kingdome of England from the bondage and pressures that it lay under and that England might be a free people herein you have wrought in the fire and because the cure hath been hard costly woe and alas I must speak it the Patients are weary of it and could rather wish to bee under their old Soares then under such Physitians and are ready to say with the murmuring Israelites Let us make us a Captain and return againe unto Egypt would be againe at their flesh pots and onyons though under bondage your selves doe know how much ingratitude is shewed and all because there is not that event and successe that hath been hoped for but would the Lord make you instrumentall to advance the Kingdome of Heaven really there should never bee found one among those that should partake the benefit of it that would be weary of you but would for ever blesse the Lord for you If the generations to come and future Chronicles may but be able to say From the dayes of such a Parliament the hearts of the people of England were turned to God from the dayes of such a Parliament the Ministery was reformed setled encouraged with countenance with maintenance Vniversities were reformed heresies blasphemies every thing contrary to Christs truth was discountenanced suppressed beaten down and the glory of the Lord Christ was laid to heart might but this bee said of you after all your toyle and blood and after all your being cast down and laden with reproach and scorne your names should revive your glory should be eternall this and the everlasting world would number you among the repairers of the breaches of Gods people and you shall bee called Saviours of the Kingdome of England if the Lord doe but direct you to doe this worke but in the meane time should the Lord leave you that it should bee otherwise that the affaires of Christ should prove retroomnia that the Kingdome being overspread with blasphemies and heresies and the poysoning of the soules of people c. should bee concurrent with your worke and you not endevour to administer the best helping hand you can to it it would bee said of you as Ecclesiasticall writers do of one age since Christ that was overspread with heresies and destitute of worthy men to oppose them it was called Infoelix seculum an unhappy age so would you be accounted Infoelix Parliamentum an unhappy Parliament if this should happen under you and you not indevour to the utmost to redresse it I pray the Lord and it is my prayer when ever I can pray that God would give that glory to you and set that crowne upon your heads that with Ioshua and Zerubbabel and and the rest of those whom God hath counted fit to bee numbred among his Worthies you might make this the great designe that from the dayes of this Parliament the Kingdome Heaven might bee set up and flourish in England and so I have done with the words in the first consideration of them as they are a crowne set upon the head of Iohn the Baptist From the dayes of Iohn the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence I now proceed to the words as they containe a description of a people really converted and brought home to Christ The Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force take but the Rhetorick off from these words they signifie no more then that which is said in the 1 of Luke 16. Many of the children of Israel he shall turne to the Lord their God many shall bee converted by him but the holy Ghost expresses it in these Metaphoricall termes because they doe fully set out the true Genius of every soule who is aright instructed of the Kingdome of Heaven In the words there are two things First what the frame of spirit is which possessed the people under Iohns Ministery in these words the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence Secondly The successe of this frame of spirit the violent take it by force For the first the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence wherein there are two things to bee interpreted First What is meant by the Kingdome of Heaven Secondly
What by the Kingdome of Heavens suffering violence By the Kingdome of Heaven in one word both here and at least in 100. other places of the New Testament is meant the administration of the Covenant of grace after Jesus Christ was exhibited in the flesh the last best administration of the covenant of Grace The Kingdome of Heaven is come to you The Kingdome of Heaven is like a Merchant man The Kingdome of Heaven shall be taken from you c. all these expressions are nothing but the administration of the Covenant of Grace under Messiah and this is called the Kingdome of Heaven not onely in opposition to the kingdomes of the world other politique Commonwealths but principally I thinke in opposition to the spirituall kingdome of the Devill which is the kingdome of darknesse and leads people to destruction and this administration is called the Kingdome of Heaven partly because the Prince and Soveraigne Lord of it is the Lord from Heaven and hath his throne in Heaven and partly because all the subjects of it are made Heavenly in their conversations partly because all the good things communicated to them doe come from Heaven and principally because the Kingdome of glory that is to be injoyed in Heaven and the administration of the Covenant of Grace here upon earth are all but one and the same thing onely that is the upper Region this the inferior there is the Metropoliticall Citie and these are as it were the Suburbs and the Countrey Villages but all is one Kingdome there is nothing there but what is enjoy'd here only with these two differences that here the Kingdome of Heaven is mix'd and imperfect mix'd with corruption mix'd with affliction and the graces of it not perfectly communicated and there it is simple and pure and entire without any defect or mixture and here it is administred in ordinances and received by faith there it is administred immediatly and enjoyed by sight but otherwise I know no difference Heaven there and Heaven here to the Saints is all but one Kingdome therefore it is called the Kingdome of Heaven Secondly and what is meant by the Kingdome of heaven suffering violence I confesse some Interpreters say that Heaven suffers violence that is suffers persecution adversaries doe rush upon it but so it cannot be said that the violent take it for these violent men doe not take but lose the Kingdome of Heaven who persecute it but my Text speakes of such violent men as take and enjoy it The Arminans say that by the suffering violence is meant the persecuting of it to the taking of it away not the taking of it to themselves but the taking of it away from others and will not let people lay hold upon it nor enter into it but our Lord himself interprets the meaning in the 16. of Luke 16. where that of this story is related There Christ saith and from the dayes of Iohn the Kingdome of God is preached and every one presseth into it So that the suffering of violence here is that the Kingdome of Heaven is assaulted by violence of those that will have it what ever it cost them all who are rightly informed and instructed in the Kingdome of Heaven doe with contention and earnestnesse of spirit break through all difficulties use all diligence that they may enjoy the Kingdome of Heaven as their portion what ever it cost them In a word what Paul saith of his own practice Philip 3. is a cleere interpretation of this Text I do count all drosse and dung that I might gaine Christ I make shipwrack of all I looke at nothing that I have already got but I still looke for that which is before me I presse forward if by any meanes I may attaine to the resurrection of the dead Now you have the meaning since Iohn hath cleerly discover'd the Kingdome of Heaven the spirits of men are so fired that there is no taking of them off but with all the violence possible they all labour and endeavour to advance it and to get into it and from this there are two excellent lessons to be handled I 'le onely name one of them and handle the other The first is That the administration of the Covenant of grace in the Gospel of Christ is no other thing then the very Kingdome of Heaven nothing lesse then the very Kingdome of Heaven let the men of the world slight it esteeme it a bondage a drudgery yet it 's no lesse then a Kingdome yea a Kingdome of Heaven which doth transcend all the Kingdomes of this world as far as Heaven is above the earth that is one I dare say nothing of that lest I bee prevented the other is That all who are rightly affected to the Kingdome of Heaven offer violence to it Violence it is a motion above the meane beyond mediocrity it is a motion with greatest intention and indeavour this is the lesson I would Preach to you that whoever are rightly affected to the Kingdome of Heaven doe use their utmost endeavour and offer violence to it let mee first make it cleer to you that it is so and then I 'le hasten to the Application That it is so if you please but to weigh these three or foure things it will bee beyond all question That every where in the Booke of God where the endeavours of men are described who look after Heaven these endeavours I say are expressed by all the indefatigable paines that are laid out about any thing in the world the most laborious trade of a Husbandman of a Traveller of a Warfaring man of a Merchant are usually brought to expresse the labours of men that look after heaven yea such exercises which are too violent for any to make a trade or ordinary practise of are used to set out the violence of their labour who strive for the Kingdome of heaven as running a race striving for masteries or victories in the Olympick games 1 Cor. 9. 24. c. Know yee not that they who run in a race ran all but one receiveth the Garland so run that yee may obtain c. The affections with which they are carried to it are ordinarily so expressed that all the love they beare to any thing else is hatred if compar'd with the love they beare to this Christ saith in the 14. of Luke If any man will bee my disciple and hate not father and mother and wife and children and life and all that he hath and himselfe also hee cannot be my Disciple Now certainly the Lord doth not meane positively the Gospel doth not teach any man to hate his father or his mother or his wife or children it is against nature and against the Gospel but the Lord meanes comparatively that take all the love that they bear to their own lives or to what ever is deare to them as Iacobs love to Leah was hatred when compar'd with his affection to Rachel so all