A SERMON Preach'd before Their MAJESTIES In Their CHAPPEL at St. JAMES's The 25th. Sunday after Pentecost, November 17th. 1686.
By J. D. of the Society of Jesus.
Published by His Majesties Command.
✚
LONDON, Printed by Nat. Thompson at the Entrance into Old Spring Garden near Charing Cross, MDCLXXXVII.
A SERMON Preach'd before Their MAJESTIES The 25th. Sunday after Pentecost.
Simile est Regnum Coelorum Grano Sinapis.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Mustard-seed.
ONe of the greatest, and one of the least of things, Sacred MAJESTY, this morning Arrest my Thoughts; The Kingdom [Page 2]of Heaven, and a Mustard-seed. Had any but the Divine Author, devised this Parable, as the World now goes, the Proposer, with your Pious, not over-wise, would have pass'd for a disparager of Heaven, for a Profaner of the Pulpit, and with your Worldlings, not over-charg'd with Piety, that might have prov'd the Subject of Railery, which coming from Christ, is a Sacred Mystery, and ground of Reverence.
Hence we may learn, not to close with first, and therefore often false appearances; an over-sight incident to Spirituals, not too profound, and to pretenders to Wit, not too Spiritual. Great things have a proportion with little, and little with great; a bit of Leven, a Mustard-seed, with the Kingdom of Heaven, witness the present Gospel. Nothing so minute, nothing so remote, nothing so familiar, which [Page 3]to a well disposed mind, may not prompt Devout, and Pious Cogitations.
Simile est Regnum Coelorum grano Sinapis; The Kingdom of Heaven (what more considerable?) is like unto a Mustard-seed; what more despicable? But if the one so great, the other so little, between so great and little, what similitude can there be? I crave your patience, whilst in requital, I endeavour to work it out.
God alone is truly great, and by a reference to God, all other things are great, and little. He's truly great, because as the Royal Psalmist pronounceth, Psal. 144. ver. 3. Magnitudinis ejus non est finis; His greatness has no End: For greatness where it ends, ceases to be great, so that a property of greatness is, either to have no end, or to increase.
The Mustard-seed is one of the least of Grains, True; yet consigned to the Earth, when it seems buried, it revives; it rises above the rest of Herbs, becomes a Tree, small in its self, great in its increase; The Kingdom of Heaven is like to its increase, the Kingdom of Heaven ever improves.
For, take the Kingdom of Heaven for the Seat of Eternal Felicity, take it for Christ, take it for the present State of the Church, take it for Faith, take it for Charity, take it for the Gospel. This Kingdom, now great, was little; great in being, little in beginning. Heaven, dis-peopled by the fall of the rebellious Spirits, grew small. Christ in Bethlehem had his Crib. The Church was once an Infant; Faith, Charity, and the Gospel, were confined to a few followers of Christ: Behold the smallness of the Mustardseed. [Page 5]Since the coming of Christ, Heaven is grown Populous, and Christ Glorious. His Church, Faith, Charity, and the Gospel, though now and then kept down by opposition, are evermore vigorously branching forth, a mari usque ad mare, from Sea to Sea, Psal. 21. v. 8. Behold the increase, to the verifying Christ's words, Simile est Regnum Coelorum grano Sinapis; The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Mustard-seed.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of God; And the Kingdom of God, as our Saviour tells us, Luke 17. ver. 21. is within our selves; Regnum Dei intra vos. est. It is not the Place or Region, it is the Subjects, which make the Kingdom. We are the Kingdom of Heaven, but like the Mustardseed we must increase; And this increase, grounded on the true measure of great and little, shall be the Subject of my Discourse; having first [Page 6]implored the Divine Assistance, by the Intercession of the Glorious Virgin, who little in her own Eye, grew to be so great, as to be Mother of God, and Queen of Heaven. Ave Maria.
Simile est Regnum Coelorum grano Sinapis, The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Mustard-seed.
THE Kingdom of Heaven is within our selves; like the Mustard-seed we must increase; and to increase, we are to frame a true measure of great and little. To pass from equal to equal, is no increase; to pass from great to little, is to decrease; to Increase, is to rise from less to more, from little to great, from great to greater.
Now in order to this, my first reflection is, That Christ says, The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Mustard-seed; [Page 7]he says not it is equal. Between little and great, similitude there may be, Equality there can be none. Though our Saviour then likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a Mustard-seed; it follows not that Men may equal the Mustard-seed of Earthly things to the Kingdom of Heaven. No, it only ensues, That like the Mustard-seed they must increase.
My second Reflection is, That one of the disorders which reign in this sinful World, and which obstructs our increase in Virtue, Piety, and Religion, the Head and Source, from which all our calamities flow, is a false measure of great and little; This occasions a wrongful estimate of things, so that what to the partial Eye of depraved sense and humour, appears great, though little, and little though great, to our abused Reason, is apt to appear the [Page 8]same; and Men, becoming unjust prizers, in place of increasing by passing from little to great, decrease by falling from great to little, to the diminishing the Kingdom of Heaven, and augmenting the Kingdom of Darkness.
Hence it is, that Virtue is forced to retreat, and yield to Vice; True Glory to a Shadow. Hence it is, that a never-failing Bliss gives way to momentary content, Heaven to Earth, Eternity to Time. Hence it is, that the Soul goes at so low a rate, for little, obscure, or nothing. Hence it is that the Body is proclaim'd the subject of courtship, admiration, and Worship, as enormous a folly, as to prefer the husk before the Seed, or the course and rough Shell to the rich and noble Pearl which lodges in it. The Soul, the Soul, though seemingly little is great, [Page 9]and the first step to its increase, is to know its own greatness.
Dim Antiquity sitting in the Shade of its Native Ignorance, without the light of Faith, could see no further, than what was gross and material, and therefore, thought it said enough to enhance the dignity of Man, by entituling him Microcosmus, the little World. A Title bearing something of glorious, and flattering many a fancy; yet taking it into due consideration, barely as it lies, without other construction, I cannot but recede from the common Vogue; For if we take Man for the Body alone; Man, I cannot deny, may pass for a little World, keeping a proportion with the greater, which environs it: The Head and Breast may be resembled to the Heavens; the Heart and Brain, to the so much influencing Planets, Sun and Moon; his Eyes to the [Page 10]Stars, his waking to the Day, his Sleep to the Night; the Circulation of his Blood, to the constant returns of Rivers to the Sea from whence they sprung; the rest of the Body to the Earth. All well. But can the Body alone, that debasing part of Man, with Truth and Justice be termed Man? You'l tell me, no; And if not, though the Body may be stil'd a little World, Man cannot. It is below his worth and greatness. Man, if a World, he is a great one; and this World which encompasses his Body, confronted with Man, is but little. It is not vainly to boast, it is not to Hyperbolize, it is to raise a just conceit of a Soul so much depress'd in our esteem. I say all this, and I say no more than what reason upholds. Will you have the proof? I draw it from what is undeniable: For if we speak even of greatness in extent, [Page 11]in which this World seems to exceed: That is greater, which containeth; that which is contained, is less: on this account the Body is called a little World, because enclosed; the enclosing World, the greater. Is it not so? can any deny it? None. I take then for granted what none deny, and upon this bottom carry on my Discourse.
Doth not the mind of Man outreach the narrow limits of the Earth? Doth it not upon the wings of speculation, soar above the Heavens? Doth it not survey, measure, and gather the World in a Thought? This large, this vast, this immense Universe, doth it not bind it within a few lines? doth it not imprison it in a paper? doth it not cast it in a Map? The revolutions of the Spheres, and motions of Stars? doth it not confine them, and lay them before your Eyes in a Globe? In this [Page 12]like unto its Divine Maker, of whom become a new born Infant, to redeem us, the Church sings: Mundum pugillo continens, in his little fist he bears a World. And have not I just cause to say, the Soul of Man is greater than the World? I say nothing of the power of his memory, making things past to be present; I mention not the force of his Intellect, transcending the grossness of Bodies, and working upon Spiritual Beings, and Abstracts, walking in the spaces of Gods Immensity, and questioning possibilities. I let alone the natural Appetite of the Will, ever bending and aspiring to Eternity, all evidences of its refined, spiritual, and immortal existency. I contain my self within the bounds of a palpable way of Reasoning, and am confounded; when I consider the mean value we frame of a Soul, the high esteem we [Page 13]nourish of this World, as if our whole rise, and increase, depended on the progress we make in it. Alas! Alas! its Men that enoble the World, the World cannot enoble Men: If the Kingdom of Heaven be like unto a Mustard-seed as to increase, this World is like to a Mustard-seed without increase; For compared with Heaven, this World is smaller than a Mustard-seed; I wish it had the virtue to quicken our Reason, that it has to open our Brain. Give me leave once more to reason it thus:
Have you never address'd your self to a Sun-Dyal, to ask the hour of the day; You have, and that often. Know then, that very shadow, which counts each minute, in every moment gives light, to this important Truth. Your ador'd Earth, what is it think you, O Idolaters of Terrene greatness, [Page 14]compared to Heaven? Take notice I beseech you, of what the Dyal makes out. This Earth, in comparison of Heaven, even in bulk and extent, is less than a Mustard-seed; Let not the proposition I so boldly advance, surprise you; I impose not upon you, I vent nothing but real Verity. Consult the Learned, they'l inform you, it is no more than the point of a Needle, than the Centre of a Circle; they'l farther instruct you, that on this supposal, the whole Art of Dyaling relies. The Art, as experience makes out, when rightly practis'd, never faileth, never deceiveth; nor can the ground, on which it depends, be fallacious.
Ah Mortals! Mortals! it is not this lower World, it's your deluded Ambition is great. This Earth on which your Glory builds, this Sea on which your Avarice Sayls, is but an [Page 15]Attom, is but a Point in paragon of Heaven. Punctum est (says the moral Philosopher) in quo bella geritis, it is but a point on which you War, O Romans, it is but a point on which your Martial Forces draw up, March, and Randezvous; it is but a point on which your War-like Instruments resound: It is but a point over which your Victorious Eagles fly. Subdue Countries, Fetter the Liberty of Nations, Colour your Purples in the blood of Dying Monarchies; Let Europe, Asia, and Africa, draw your Triumphal Chariots: Let America, (when known) bring up your Glorious Train, you'l then be Great, you'l be Masters, you'l be Lords of a World, terrarum Domini. You'l have gain'd your point; And what is it? what is it? a point, a point; for no more is the World to Heaven then a point; punctum est, make [Page 16]much of little, since you know not to make much of what is Great, Heaven, your Soul, God.
But so many Empires are past, the point remains no more theirs: Ecce gentes quasi stilla situlae, exclaims the Prophet Isa. chap. 40. ver. 12. Behold the Nations like a drop of a Bucket. A drop, a drop; behold the increase of the Adorers of the World, the drop is often puff'd into a bubble, a pleasant sight to the Eye, but soon breaks, and vanishes; ecce Gentes, behold your Nations, your Gentiles, your Heathens, your livers without the fear of God, forgotten of Heaven, aspiring to nothing but Earthly Promotion; they rise with the inconstant Bucket of Fortune, to drop and plunge into a deluge of Misery.
Punctum est; and if the main, if the whole, be but a point, what must it's [Page 17]Divisions and Sub-divisions, Sections and Sub-Sections, prove to be? Your Cottages, your Rights of Common, your Copy-holds, Free holds, Tenements, Mannors, &c. what are they, but the Fractions of a point, in one removal from nothing? And yet, and yet, How many! how many! injurious to Themselves, unmindful of Heaven, ungrateful to God, spend their desires, consume their loves, and cast away their thoughts on transitory Trifles, and Joys? As if enslaving themselves to Flesh and World, so far beneath the noble Nature of a Soul, could add to their greatness. What Suits? what Animosities? what Feuds? what a living like Canibals, even amongst Christians? what endeavours to depress and devour each other; and all for the small part of a point? Punctum est, and that not durable.
I have contained my Discourse within the bounds of Natural Reason; But if you'l have the true value of a Soul, open the Eyes of a lively Faith, see your Creator become a Redeemer, see your God dying upon a Cross, and remember that Blood, that Death, of Infinite worth, are the Price and Ransome of your Soul. A little respit, and I come in my second part to solve an Objection of a Worldling.
Simile est Regnum Coelorum Grano Sinapis, The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Mustard-seed.
IN my first part I have made it my endeavour, to set forth the disparity that runs between this World, and a Soul; and by consequence, That Man cannot aspire to an increase, by levelling his thoughts at any thing this [Page 19]World affords, a world so little, so vain, so unconstant.
But I fear a Melancholly dumpish Fit has seiz'd you, so are you out of humour with the World; Methinks I hear one of those say, who affect Wit, by a nauseous drolling at Piety; I apprehend, you Preachers, heat your selves to little Purpose. We are of a cooler temper, we have not so much of the Mustard-seed, as to take snuff at the World for every Impression, threat of Hell, or name of Heaven. Heaven and Hell are things remote.
We live in the World, to rise, and increase: And to this end, we study to foot sure; Faith and Religion, we know, have a fair stroke for the other World, but have forfeited many a Loyal Life, Estate, and Fortune in this; we have a Family to provide for, our selves; We must live according to [Page 20]our Birth and Quality. In a word, make Piety and Religion, our increase and Interest upon Earth, and we will soon be Saints for Heaven.
You have spoke like what you are, with much Prophanity, little Wit, and no Reason; By all which, the coolness of your temper discovers it self. Heaven and Hell, you tell me, are things afar off; and I would have you know, that Heaven is no farther off, than you'l make it, and Hell perhaps, is nearer than you think it. You say you live in the World, great news! I thought you had liv'd out of it; For those that live in the World like Men, and govern themselves with Faith and Reason, are sensible they are placed here to serve God, and work their Salvation. You'l foot sure; and can there be sure footing in the slippery way of Vice? You are to provide for a Posterity, [Page 21]and are you therefore to neglect an Eternity? But you must live according to your Birth and Quality: And at the holy Font of Baptism, were you not regenerated to be the Heirs of Heaven, and qualified to be the Children of God; You bid me make Piety and Religion your Interest upon Earth; and is it not the greatest of Interests, that by the pious Exercises of True Religion, you may purchase the unvaluable Treasure of Heavenly Bliss? But your meaning is, make Piety and Religion your way to Riches, Honour, and Greatness upon Earth, and then you'l be Saints for Heaven. I understand you. In place of your buying Heaven, youl'd have Heaven buy you. But let me tell you, Heaven admits of no such Saints, who will not venture the few and vain satisfactions of this World, to secure their Soul, the possession [Page 22]of God, and a happy Eternity.
Quid prodest homini? It's our Saviour expostulates the case, with too rash Followers of a Sinful World, si totum mundum lucretur, animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur; What is a man profited, if he gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? Mat. 16. ver. 26. A pressing Instance: quid prodest, where is the profit? where the Income? where the pretended increase, suppose one gain the World, and lose his Soul? Answer if you can. The proposal is clear and urging. Where the loss is so much exceeding, you'l tell me, as that of the Soul is, there can be no profit, in the gain even of a World.
You speak well; it is the current and obvious Exposition, abundantly confirming the present Truth. Yet spending several reflexions upon these words. Something, methinks, I discover in them more, then at the first sight [Page 23]appears. For as the case is stated, the same Man is the gainer, the same the loser, a gainer of the whole World, and a loser of his Soul.
Should you question me: quid prodest, where is the profit? I should incline to answer, in not being a loser, of both World and Soul; because, as the case stands, though loser of his Soul, he's gainer of the World. A fallacy, a fallacy, supported only by the ignorance of what the loss of a Soul is; And Christs words furnishes me with this retortion: By the loss of his Soul he loses himself; now the gainer being the same as the loser, both are lost; and themselves being lost, they are at a total loss. At the loss of a World, loss of Soul, loss of God, O what losses! Let World then be forfeited, so it be with the saving of our Soul, and the [Page 24]gain of Gods favour. It is but just, no loss, but an increase.
Mis-interpret me not, as if I were for the neglect of Employments and Concerns; I know the good government of the World, requires Application to Worldly Affairs. I am not ignorant, that pretensions to increase of Fortune, by way of Virtue and Merit, are Duties justly challenged by Gods Vicars at your hands. But then be pleased to remember, your first obligation is to God, your chief imployment to regulate your proceedings, by his Laws; from Him you had your Being, from Him you must have your increase. Religion is not to be sway'd by Interst, but Interest by Religion; Passion is not to govern Reason, nor Reason to question Gods Commands; Justice must neither be daunted, nor [Page 25]brib'd, by what this World may propose. In a word, for a point, and less than a point, be it Earthly Honor, be it Wealth, be it Pleasure, we are not to lose our Soul; to our everlasting loss, decrease and perdition. Otherwise you will repent when it is too late, and when your Tears will only water, and not wash away the Guilt of a Sinful Life.
Too late, too late, the Unrighteous cry out, in the Book of Wisdom; Chap. 6. ver. 7. Lassati sumus in via iniquitatis & perditionis, We are tired out in the way of Iniquity and Perdition; Ambulavimus vias difficiles, We have walked rough ways; Viam Dei ignoravimus, We knew not the way of the Lord: Too long deferr'd a Repentance, forced by Anguish and Torment, but no Remedy. Lassati sumus, We are tired. And why? If Sin and Iniquity tired you, why were [Page 26]you not tired with Iniquity and Sinning? Vias difficiles Ambulavimus, You have trod hard ways; And why did you not foot the easier paths of Righteousness, to the peace of your Conscience, and quiet of your Souls? Vias Domini ignoravimus, We were ignorant of the ways of the Lord: And how so? Was not the way of the Lord revealed, and open to you, as well as to others? Fond Complaints! Fruitless Excuses! Affected Ignorance! You would not know, what you would not perform; you hated Truth, to embrace Vanity: Interest was your Religion, Ambition your Guide, and not Piety; Prophanity your Rule, and not Devotion; you enslav'd Faith to Sense, Reason to Passion, Soul to Body, and by a false Perspective representing unto your selves, great for little, and little for great, you aspired to settle your Greatness [Page 27]and Happiness in a Contemptible World, by relinquishing God; And whereas, like the Mustard-seed, raising your self from little to great, to God, to Eternal Bliss, by your own increase, you should have increased the Kingdom of Heaven: Falling from great to little, you have made an accession to the Princedom of Torment. And now quid prodest, quid prodest? what doth it avail you? what doth it avail you, to have master'd a World? The World is where it was, and you in Hell.
Crucior in hac flamma, exclaims the Rich Man, we commonly call Dives. I am tormented in this Fire: Where our Saviour, bringing in Abraham and Dives discoursing together, emboldens me to put in a Word to my purpose, and so end. Good News, O Dives! from the other World. And what, says he, are the Tydings of the other [Page 28]World to me, who am in pain, but painful? Your Children are jocund. And I, sighing: They peaceable enjoy the Riches, the Titles, the Honours, with so much Toil thou entailest upon them. And my Inheritance are gnashing of Teeth, a never-dying Worm, Reproach and Ignominy. That Pallace of which, Wealth laid the first Stone, by Magnificency the Architect is now compleated. And I, unhappy dwell in a Dungeon of Horror and Darkness: The Gardens you design'd are curiously divided, the Walks laid out, the Flowers breath a constant Spring and Paradise: And here in stench I am chain'd, only permitted to walk with my dismal Fancy from torment to torment. Comfort, O Davies, those little Cypresses, all thrive and are grown up, to defiance of the scorching Sun. And I burn; Your Fountains run and [Page 29]sport, your Waterworks Play to admiration within your shady Groves; and neither Shade, or a drop of Water have I to temper my excessive Flames. That Wilderness you planted with such exquisit art, is grown up into a Labyrinth, where pleasure has lost its self, to be found by all that enter; And I am lost, says he, in the inextricable Labyrinth of Fire, of Torment, of a woful Eternity. I burn, I burn, and burn I must for ever. Cruciar in hac flamma; Such, beloved Brethren, is the apparent increase, and real decrease of those, who value Interest above Religion, their own Humours, above Gods Precepts; Body above Soul, Vice above Virtue, and Earth above Heaven; and so it ends, without ever finding an end of misery. By an opposite way of living, let us change the decrease into an increase, by a right estimate of what is Truth, and [Page 30]what Imposture, what Temporal, what Eternal.
The Mustard-seed begins early; no sooner committed to the Earth, but it works its increase; its perseverant, of a hot nature, that is, as it were resolute. The like are we to be, we must begin, we must persevere, we must be resolute, Regnum Coelorum vim patitur & violenti rapiunt illud: The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. We are to be resolute in a True Faith, of undaunted Hope, and fervent Charity, that so by raising our thoughts to a true esteem of our Soul, to God, to Life Eternal, we may increase the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Heaven, like the Mustard-seed, may increase by us; which God of his Infinite Mercy grant us, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.