Which should teach us with what minds to converse in the hearing and reading of these things with heavenly aflections. And it shews likewise why worldlings and base people are no more affected with the things of the gospel, because it is * the kingdom of heaven.' If it were of the world, we should have it sought with eagerness enough, though it were a less matter than a kingdom ; but it is a ' kingdom of heaven' remote from flesh and blood. There must be a new Spirit to work a new sight and a new taste, to work a change in the heart of man, and then he shall know the things of ' the kingdom of heaven.' He must come out of the world that will see this kingdom, as in Rev. xviii. 4, ' Come out of Babylon.' A man must come out of antichrist's kingdom to see the baseness of it. He cannot see it in the midst of it. So we must come out of the world if we would see the glorious kingdom of Christ. It is a heavenly kingdom. Therefore the greatest potentates of the world must abase themselves. There is no great- ness in the world can help them to this heavenly kingdom.
Quest. But why should the gospel and the state of the church in the New Testament be called the kingdom of heaven, and receive the date now ? was it not the kingdom of heaven before ?
Ans. I answer. It is the manner of the Scripture to give titles to things from the glorious manifestation of them. Things are said to be when they * That is, ' conscientious.' — G.
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are gloriously manifested. The mystery of Christ is said to be revealed now in the time of the gospel. It was known before to Adam and Abraham and the rest. But now there was a more apparent glorious manifestation of it. Therefore now the manifestation of Christ, and the good things by him, they are called ' a kingdom.' Before it was kept enclosed in the pale of the Jewish church, it was veiled under types, it was hid in promises that were dark and obscure. But when Christ came, all was taken off and Christ was unveiled. It is said in the gospel, ' The Holy Ghost was not given yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified,' John vii. 39. The Holy Ghost was given before, but not so fully and plentifully. So there was a state of heaven before men were saved, before the coming of Christ ; but it was not called ' the kingdom of heaven.' It was not a state of liberty and freedom from the bondage of ceremonies, &c.
And there is reason that there should be violence offered to this state, and means, and grace wrought by it. It is a kingdom. It is no great wonder that a kingdom should suffer violence, especially such a kingdom as ' the kingdom of heaven.' What is in a kingdom ?
There is, first of all, freedom from slavery and danr/er. A kingdom is au independent state. There is none above it. He that is a king is free, independent, and supreme.
Then again, a kingdom is a full state. There is abundance and plenty of people and good things in a kingdom.
Again, In a kingdom there is glory and excellency — where is it to be had else ? — all the glory, and sufficiency, and contentment that earth can afford.
Now in that the state of the church by reason of the glorious gospel is called a kingdom.
First, It is a free state, as indeed the 'word doth make us free' from former bondage. In particular, the gospel of Christ it frees us from Jewish bondage, and from all kind of bondage spiritual. * If the Son make you free, ye are free indeed,' John viii. 3G. A Christian is above all. He is over sin, and Satan, and the law. He is free, and supreme, and indepen- dent. All are under him. A Christian, as a Christian, he is under none but Christ, under no creature. ' The spiritual man judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man,' 1 Cor. ii. 15. I speak not of civil differences ; but as a Christian is a member of Christ, and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, he hath a kind of independent state. His conscience is only subject to God and Christ. But all earthly things he commands, they are under him.
And second, The state of a Christian is a ftdl state. God is his, Christ is his, ' all things are his,' 1 Cor iii. 21, so much as shall serve to bring him to heaven. That which is truly good is directl}'^ his, and indirectly all other things are made his by Christ, who hath the authority, and power, and strength of a king to command all things to work together for his good, Rom. viii. 28. Death, and sin, and all that befalls him, are thus his. And then he hath a spirit of contentment in the want of good, and of patience in the suffering of ill, that he ' can do all things,' as St Paul saith, ' through Christ that strengthcneth him,' Phil. iv. 13. What he wants in outward things he can fetch supply from the promises of the gospel, he can fetch supply from Christ, and from the state to come ; and what he wants in other things he hath in grace, which is better.