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them up, Non eft veftrum; your question is nothing to the purpose; the kingdom that I have spoken of is another manner of kingdom than you conceive. Sixteen hundred years, & quod excurrit, hath the 'gospel been preached unto the world, and is this 'ftain fpunged out yet? I doubt it. Whence arise those novel and late difputes, de notis ecclefiæ, of the notes and visibility of the church? Is it not from hence, they of Rome take the world and the church to be like Mercury and Sofia in Plautus his comedies, fo like one another, that one of them must wear a toy in his cap, that fo the fpectators might diftinguish 'them. Whence comes it, that they ftand fo much upon state and ceremony in the church? Is it not from hence, that they think the church must come in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts, METO • woraus pavracías, as St. Luke fpeaks, with a great deal of pomp, and train, and fhew, and vanity? And that the fervice of God doth neceffarily require this noise ' and tumult of outward ftate and ceremony? Whence 'comes it, that we are at our wits end, when we fee perfecution, and fword, and fire, to rage against the true profeffors of the gofpel? Is it not because, as thefe bring ruin and defolation upon the kingdoms of the world, fo we fuppofe they work no other effect in the kingdom of Chrift? All these conceits, and many more of the like nature, fpring out of no • other fountain than that old inveterate error, which is fo hardly wiped out of our hearts, that the state of the church and kingdom of Chrift, doth hold fome proportion, fome likenefs, with the state and managing of temporal kingdoms. Wherefore to pluck out of our hearts, opinionem tam infitam, tam vetuftam, a conceit fo ancient, fo deeply rooted in ⚫ us, our Saviour spake most excellently, moft pertinently, and moft fully, when he tells us that his church, that his kingdom is not of this world.*

In which words of his, there is contained the true art of discovering and knowing the true nature and • effence of the church. For as they which make statues, cut and pare away all fuperfluities of the matter upon which they work; fo our Saviour, to fhew us the true proportion and features of the church, prunes away the world, and all fuperfluous excrescences, and fends her to be feen, as he did our first parents in paradife, ftark-naked: as thofe elders in the apocryphal ftory of Sufanna, when they would fee her beauty, commanded to take off her mafk; fo he that longs to fee the beauty of the church, must pull off that mafk of the world, and outward fhew. For as Juda, in the book of Genefis, when Thamar fat veiled by the way-fide, knew not his daughter < from an whore; fo whilft the church, the daughter and spouse of Chrift, fits veiled with the world, and pomp and fhew, it will be an hard matter to discern her from an harlot. But yet farther, to make the < difference betwixt these kingdoms the more plainly to appear, and fo better to fix in your memories, I will briefly touch fome of those heads, in which they are most notoriously differenced.

The first head wherein the difference is feen, are the perfons and fubjects of this kingdom: for as the kingdom of Chrift is not of this world, fo the fubjects of this kingdom are men of another world, and not of this. Every one of us bears a double perfon, and accordingly is the fubject of a double kingdom: the Holy Ghoft, by the Pfalmift, divides heaven and earth betwixt God and man, and tells C us, as for God, "He is in heaven; but the earth "has he given to the children of men:" fo hath the fame Spirit, by the apostle St. Paul, divided every one of our perfons into heaven and earth, into an outward and earthly man, and into an inward and heavenly man: this earth, that is, this body of clay, hath he given to the fons of men, to the princes under ⚫ whose government we live; but heaven, that is, the <inward and spiritual man, hath he reserved unto him

< felf:

felf: they can reftrain the outward man, and moderate our outward actions, by edicts and laws; they can tie our hands and our tongues; illa fe jacket in aula Eolus: thus far they can go; and when they are gone thus far, they can go no farther: but to rule the inward man in our hearts and fouls, to set up an impartial throne in our understandings and wills, this part of our government belongs to God and to Chrift: thefe are the fubjects, this the government, of his kingdom. Men may be kings of earth and bodies; but Chrift alone is the King of Spirits and fouls. Yet this inward government hath influence upon our outward actions: for the authority of kings over our outward man is not fo abfolute, but that it fuffers a great reftraint; it muft ftretch no farther than the Prince of our inward man pleases: for if fecular princes ftretch out the fkirts of their authority to command aught by which our fouls are prejudiced, the King of fouls hath in this cafe given us a greater command, "That we rather obey God than men.'

III. A third great cause of perfecution for religion is this, That men make too many things neceffary to be believed to falvation and communion.' Perfecution entered with creed-making: for it fo falls out, that those who diftinguish the tree in the bulk, cannot with the like ease difcern every branch or leaf that grows upon it: and to run out the neceffary articles of faith to every good or true thing that the wit of man may deduce from the text, and fo too, as that I ought to have a diftinct idea or apprehenfion of every one of them, and must run them over in my mind, as a child would con a leffon by heart, of which I must not miss a tittle upon my falvation; this I think to be a temptation upon men to fall into difpute and division: and then we are taught, by long experience, that he that has moft power will opprefs his opinion that is weaker; whence comes perfecution. This certainly puts unity and peace too much upon the hazard. Mary's choice therefore was not of many things, but

the one thing neceffary, as Chrift, the Lord of the true divinity, terms it, Luke x. 42. And pray what was this one needful thing, but Christ Jefus himself, and her faith, love and obedience in and to him? Here is no perplexed creed to subscribe, no fyftem of divinity to charge the head with: this one needful thing was Mary's choice and bleffing: may it be ours! and then I fhould hope a quick end to controverfies, and confequently to perfecutions.

IV. Another cause of perfecution, is The prejudice of education, and that bias tradition gives to those men, who have not made their religion the religion of their judgment:' for fuch will forbid all the inquiry which might question the weakness or falsehood of their religion, and had rather be deceived in an honourable descent, than be fo uncivil to the memory of their ancestors as to feek the truth; which found, must reprove the ignorance of their ages: of this, the vaineft of all honours! they are extremely careful; and at the very mention of any thing, to them new, though as old as truth, and older than this world, are eafily urged into a tempeft, and are not appeafed but by a facrifice. This ignorance, and want of inquiry, helps on perfecution.

V. Another reason, and that no fmall one, is ‹ selflove, and impatience of men under contradiction,' be it of ignorance, that they are angry with what they cannot refute, or out of private intereft, it matters not: their opinion must reign alone; they are tenacious of their own sense, and cannot endure to have it queftioned, be there never fo much reafon for it. Men of their paffions are yet to learn that they are ignorant of religion, by the want they have of mortification; fuch perfons can eafily let go their hold on charity, to lay violent hands upon their oppofers: if they have power, they rarely fail to use it fo; not remembering, that when they abfolved themselves from the tie of love, meekness, and patience, they abandoned true religion, and contended not for the faith

once

once delivered to the faints, which stood therein, but for mere words.

It is here that proud flesh, and a capricious head, difputes for religion, and not an humble heart and a divine frame of fpirit. Men that are angry for God, paffionate for Chrift, that can call names for religion, and fling Stones for faith, may tell us they are Chriftions if they will, but nobody would know them to be fuch by their fruits; to be fure they are no Chriftians of Chrift's making.

I would to God that the difputants of our time did but calmly weigh the irreligiousness of their own heats for religion, and fee if what they contend for will quit the coft, will countervail the charge of departing from charity, and making a facrifice of peace, to gain their point. Upon fo feasonable a reflection I am confident they would find that they rather fhew their love to opinion than truth, and seek victory more than concord.

Could men be contented, as he whom they call their Lord was, to declare their message, and not to strive for profelytes, nor vex for conqueft, they would recommend all to the confcience; and, if it must be fo, patiently endure contradiction too, and fo lay their religion, as he did his, not in violence, but fuffering: but I must freely profefs, and in duty and confcience I do it, that I cannot call that religion, which is introduced against the laws of love, meeknefs, and friendship: fuperftition, intereft, or faction, I may.

There is a zeal without knowledge; that is fuperftition: there is a zeal against knowledge; that is interest or faction, the true berefy: there is a zeal with knowledge; that is religion: therefore blind obedience may be fuperftition, it cannot be religion; and if you will view the countries of cruelty, you fhall find them fuperstitious rather than religious. Religion is gentle, it makes men better, more friendly, loving, and patient, than before. And the fuccefs which followed Chriftianity, whilst the ancient profeffors of it betook themfelves to no other defence, plainly proves both the

force