Thomas Manton · 18 of 60

Thy kingdom come. · Part 2

2. As you should be more holy, wary, watchful, that you do not break the laws of Christ, for you have consented to him; so live as kings, exercising all acts of regality within your own souls, ruling your own spirits, exercising judgment over your own hearts, and over every affection that will not be bridled. It is a disgrace to the regal estate of the gospel for you to be over-mastered by a lust, to lie under the power of any sin; yet thus it is, God’s children are conflicting with one sin or other more than the rest. So far you have not experience of that truth: John viii. 32, ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ A man that liveth in bondage to his lusts, how can he choose but doubt of those glorious privileges? Have you found the state of the gospel to be a kingdom? do you walk worthy of the gospel?

3. It teacheth us contempt of the world and earthly things: Phil, iii. 14, ‘I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.’ It is not for princes to embrace a dunghill, nor for eagles to catch flies. Remember, thou wilt one day be a king with God in glory, and therefore shouldst not be as low and base as the men of the world are, but walk worthy of God, who hath called you to a royal state.

4. A generous confidence in the midst of the troubles and abasements of the world. What though you be accounted as the scurf and offscouring of all things? Though your outward condition be low and mean, know the worth of your high calling in Christ. How poor and despicable soever you are in this world, yet you are heirs of a crown and kingdom. Therefore remember you are princes, that walk up and down in disguise in a foreign country. If you are kept in a mean condition, it is but a disguise God hath put upon you. We are the sons of God, though for the present it doth not appear what we shall be. God’s heirs make little show in the world. But there is a high dignity, a mighty privilege put upon you; you are called to be heirs of this kingdom, and this blessed and royal estate, which God hath provided for them that love him.

Use 3. Are we translated into this kingdom? Col. i. 13, ‘He hath delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.’ Every man naturally is under other lords, the devil hath dominion over him, and he is under the government of his own lusts; but now are we translated into the kingdom of Christ.

The second point is:—

Doct. 2. All those that are affected with God’s glory should desire the coming of this kingdom, and seriously deal with God about it.

None else can rescue and pluck them out of the power of darkness, and deliver them, from the thraldom of those other lords that hold them, and none else can defend and preserve them.

I shall handle the point:—

1. In a private respect.

2. In a public respect.

First, In a private respect. Every man should desire that the kingdom of God should come down and be set up in his own heart. Here I must repeat and apply the distinctions of Christ’s kingdom. He is to desire the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory may come to himself and others.

1. The kingdom of grace, that it may be begun, continued, and increased.

First, That this kingdom may be begun, and a throne erected for Christ in our hearts. The great necessity of this request will be evidenced in these considerations:—

[1.] That every man by nature is under another king, under the kingdom of sin and Satan. Satan is the monarch, and sin is the sceptre. Christ and the devil divide the world; either we belong to the one or the other. Now the devil, by reason of the fall of Adam, he hath the start of Christ, and the Lord Jesus coming to possess the heart, doth not seize upon it as a waste which belongeth to the next occupier, but he seizeth upon it as already possessed by Satan. The devil quietly ruleth in the hearts of the unregenerate; he keeps house, and all the goods are in peace, Luke xi. 21; and therefore wicked spirits are called, ‘The rulers of the darkness of this world,’ Eph. vi. 12. All the ignorant and carnal part of the world falls to his share, and he doth not easily quit possession. Christ indeed employeth men to wrestle with principalities and powers. The work of the ministry is to shake and batter the empire of the devil. You must be turned, you must be rescued. You must be turned: Acts xxvi. 18, ‘To turn them from the power of Satan unto God.’ You must be rescued and plucked out of this captivity by the strong hand: Col. i. 13, ‘Who hath delivered us from the power of Satan;’ who hath taken us out of darkness by a powerful rescue. Even as the Israelites were brought out of Egypt ‘by a strong hand and stretched-out arm,’ so are we brought out of the power of darkness. By such an irresistible power of grace must God recover you, otherwise men yield themselves up to his sceptre. Look, as the Spirit of God works holy motions and gracious desires in the hearts of God’s children, so the devil is ‘at work in the children of disobedience,’ Eph. ii. 2, framing wicked devices, carnal desires, evil thoughts against God. Man is such a perfect slave to the devil that he can do nothing but sin.

[2.] This kingdom which Satan exerciseth is an invisible kingdom. The devil doth not sensibly appear to his vassals and slaves. When Christ’s kingdom and regiment was more external, so was the devil’s also. As when God was served by sacrifices, and delivered his mind by oracles, so men did then more professedly own the devil by observing his prescribed rites of worship, and by being deluded by lying oracles, and answers to their prayers and questions. But now, since the kingdom of Christ is more spiritual, and managed by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of his saints, so is Satan’s kingdom invisible. So that men may be Christ’s subjects by external profession, and the devil’s by internal obedience and constitution of mind, though they worship not by pagan rites, as he ruleth in their hearts, ‘and takes them off from obeying the gospel they profess. ‘The god of this world hath blinded their eyes:’ 2 Cor. iv. 4. All carnal men, however they defy Satan, and abominate the thought of serving him, yet while they remain in their sin and ignorance, they still hold the crown upon the devil’s head. Look, as God’s subjects may own him in verbal pretence, yet their hearts may be far from him: Mat. xv. 8. So that wicked men may defy the devil in pretence and words, and cannot endure to hear of him; but they are under the god of this world, he hath blinded their hearts. So that this kingdom is to be fought for in the heart. Christ made a great inroad upon the devil, beat him out of his quarters; yet, as the sea gets in one place what it loseth in another, so though the devil hath lost ground in the Christian world as to external profession, whilst people renounce the superstitions of the Gentiles, yet still he gets ground in the hearts of wicked men by their carnal dispositions; his empire is upheld still, though professedly they are subjects of Christ.

[3.] Until Satan be cast out of the throne, Christ can have no entertainment in the heart. The ark and Dagon cannot sink and stand together; either the ark must be removed, or Dagon will down upon his face: so 2 Cor. vi. 14, ‘What communion hath Christ with Belial, and light with darkness?’ It is impossible both kingdoms can stand together, or both kings be set up in the same heart. The marriage-bed will admit no partner nor rival. A man must be under Christ or Satan. Until he be cast out, Christ hath no room to be entertained: Mat. vi. 24, ‘No man can serve two masters; ye cannot serve God and Mammon.’ Look upon the devil under that notion, as he is Mammon, as he doth entice to worldliness: it is impossible to serve him and Christ. Both masters have work enough for their servants, and their commands are contrary. If two masters consent to employ one man in the self-same business, though they are two men, yet they are but one master. But now to execute the wills of men which differ in their design, and which have a several and full interest in our labours and actions, it is as impossible as to move two contrary ways at once. Well, then, Mammon and Christ. Belial and Christ, divide the world. It is impossible to be under Belial and Christ; both have full work for us to do, and their designs are contrary. So that either it must appear we have changed masters, or we are under the power of the devil still. We must come out of the power of darkness, else we cannot be brought into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, that we may obtain remission of sins.

[4.] Satan may be cast out in part, and yet still retain a supreme interest in the heart. I prove it out of that parable, Mat. xii. 43-45: ‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, but findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house, from whence I came out,’ &c. Out of that parable we may plainly conclude there may be a shaking of Satan’s empire, Satan may be cast out of a man in some sort, yet the man not plainly renewed. Well, how may he be cast out, and yet his empire remain unbroken? He may be cast out partly by conviction and illumination; yet as long as any lust remaineth there unmortified and unsubdued, he still keeps his sovereignty in the heart. Many begin to be troubled, and to be thoughtful about eternity, that see better, yet they do that which is worse in the issue. When there is a conflict between corruption and conviction, corruption carrieth it away. As iron often heated and often quenched is so much the harder; so, when they had some wamblings of conscience, and the heart begins to boggle, and after this sin breaks out the more. This is the scope of that place: they were convinced of a better estate, and had some thoughts of the Messiah, but did not give him entertainment. Again, the devil may be cast out in regard of some external reformation. A man may a little wash his polluted life and abstain from gross sins, yet Satan have full possession of the inner man. A man may abjure his former ill life, and for a while carry it fair, but afterwards retain his former filthiness, and keep a secret league with his lusts, and so he is en tangled again, and then ‘his latter end is worse than his beginning;’ and as it is in 2 Pet. ii. 22, ‘The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.’ A prisoner which hath made some escape, if ever the gaoler get him into his clutches, is sure to be laden with irons; so one that hath had some partial reformation, oh, when the devil gets such a man into his power again, he is ten times worse than he was before.

[5.] The difficulty of casting off the sovereignty of Satan, lieth partly in ourselves and partly in the devil.

Partly in ourselves. As in the Israelites going out of Egypt, the difficulty lay, not only in gaining the consent of Pharaoh, for he pursues after them when they were gone, but also in persuading the people to give their consent—it was long ere Israel desired to be gone—so in our natural condition, the mind of man is so depraved that he thinks his bondage to be his freedom, and that there is no such merry life as to wallow in carnal satisfactions; and our affections are so far engaged to this sinful estate, that we dote upon our shackles, and are unwilling to hear of a change. The first step of coming out of this kingdom of darkness is when we find it to be a heavy burthen, and grow weary of the devil’s government, though it be but out of a principle of self-love, Isa. xxvi. 13: ‘O Lord, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.’ Yea, but as soon as we begin to have any serious thoughts of that miserable state in which we are, Satan interposeth, dealing with us as Pharaoh did with the Israelites. The Israelites complain their bondage was very sore; what doth Pharaoh? He doubles the burthen: Exod. v. 17, ‘You are idle,’ &c.;—so that out of bondage of soul they would not hearken to Moses. Just so Satan deals with us. When souls begin to be serious, and to leave off fleshly and worldly lusts, and to give up themselves to God that they may be directed in the way of holiness and obtain eternal life, then he doubles our burthens. Corruptions are never more stirring than after some conviction: Rom. vii. 9, ‘When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;’ not only as to a deeper sense of the guilt of it, but as to its struggling for life. The bullock at the first yoking is most unruly; so we which are unaccustomed to the yoke, when we begin once to take it upon us, there is a mighty backwardness. Fire at first kindling makes abundance of smoke; so when conviction is stirring, corruption is more exasperated. The devil is very jealous of the first beam of light which breaks into the heart, and of every ordinance which conveys it; therefore sets corruptions at work, that it may appear to be a vain hope of ever escaping his clutches: so men are tired and give over, and think it is to no purpose. But if light increases to more trouble, the devil seeks to elude the importunity of it by delay; as Pharaoh put off Moses and Aaron still by delay: or else by compromising and compounding the business; as Pharaoh, when he saw the people would go, God would have them go, then they shall not go far: Exod. viii. 28. So if men will be thinking of Christ’s service, and coming under his government, they shall go, but not far; they shall come and pray, and come and hear now and then, and make a general profession, but not too far in Christ’s quarters; he is afraid of that. Just as Pharaoh stood hucking still; they must go a good way into the wilderness, otherwise it should be an abomination to the Egyptians, yet their little ones must stay. If people will not only hear and pray, but begin to reform, and cleanse their lives, yet he must have a pledge, some lust, as a nest-egg, left in the heart, some darling sin that must keep up the devil’s empire. Then they must leave their herds, then leave their flocks; no, not a hoof. Ah! how long is it, when we are under this power of darkness, ere we are free, and get rid of the government of Satan!

[6.] We can never be sure that Satan is wholly cast out until Christ be seriously received and entertained as Lord and King, until he dwell and rule in the heart by faith. Alas! there may be some brabble now and then between us and our sins, and some partial dislikes; but until you heartily consent to take another king, that you will be governed and ordered by, you are not his subjects, but remain in the same state: John i. 12, ‘As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.’ We are children of the devil before, under his standard and government; but when we receive him, then we are under another king, another power: when we receive what God offered, receive Christ as Lord and King, when the whole soul opens the door to Christ, that the King of glory may come in, and dwell with us, and reign over us, then is his kingdom set up. The first offer of the gospel is Christ as Prince and Saviour: Acts v. 31. And the main thing the business sticks at is Christ’s regal power: Luke xix. 14, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ Now, when we receive him with all our hearts, and though before we had but mean thoughts of him, now he begins to be welcome to us, and with the dearest embraces of our souls we entertain him; and with a willing resignation we give up ourselves, not only by a consent of dependence, to rest upon him for reconciliation with God, but by a willing subjection to obey him, and give up the keys of the heart, and lay them at Christ’s feet: as Paul, Acts ix. 16, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’ When you desire nothing more but that his kingdom might come, the King of glory himself, than that he might bring righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; until then you are not entered into his kingdom.

[7.] Christ is not received and entertained as Lord and King, but where his laws are obeyed: Col. ii. 6, ‘As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.’ If you receive him as Lord and King, so also obey him. And Heb. xii. 28, ‘We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.’ In this prayer, first, we say, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ and then presently we add, ‘Thy will be done.’ We do but prattle over the Lord’s Prayer, and say it with our lips only, until we are resolved to do what God would have us to do—love and hate, fear and rejoice, as God directs. Until we are brought to this frame, we do not in good earnest say, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ An earthly king will ‘do according to his will:’ Dan. xi. 3. So Christ stands upon his will in his law. If you have taken God for your God, and Jesus Christ for your King, then say, with David, Ps. cxliii. 10, ‘Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. J It is a universal maxim, ‘His servants you are whom you do obey.’ Where is your obedience? If subjects of grace, ‘Every thought is brought in subjection:’ 2 Cor. x. 5. You will watch not only against your irregular actions, but every thought which lifts up itself against the obedience of Christ. There will be a greater tenderness upon us not to break any of the holy laws which belong to Christ’s government. Hereby you may know whether you come under another king, Do you fear a commandment? That is the description of a good man: Prov. xiii. 13. It is not he that feareth a punishment, but he that feareth a commandment, when the heart is brought under an awe of Christ’s laws; so that when a man is tempted to sin, Oh, I dare not; the Lord hath commanded me the contrary. This is more than if a flaming sword stood in his way. When we have such workings of heart when we are tempted to this and that sin, so when we are doing any duty, though irksome to flesh and blood, yet it is the will of my Lord, to whom I have entirely given up myself in a way of subjection; this is a sign you are brought under his government.

[8.] None can obey his laws but by the virtue and power of his Spirit. The new covenant, it is not only a law, but ‘the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ.’ So it is called by the apostle, Rom. viii. 2. It is not a bare literal command that shall urge us to duty; but it giveth strength and efficacy to the heart. Other kings, they give laws, that men may keep them by their own strength; but now Christ, he would be owned as a king, not only in a way of subjection, but establish a constant dependence. He is a king, not only to require, but to give repentance, Acts v. 31; not only to make a law, but to write and work a sense of this new covenant-gift upon the heart, Heb. viii. 10. He doth not only set up his ordinances, laws, constitutions, but there is power goeth along with the dispensation of this kingdom, and thereby we are fitted and enabled to love, serve, and please God; and then are we under the kingdom of God, when we are under the spiritual power of it. It is not only necessary to obey his laws, but that we do it by virtue of his power and Spirit: ‘The kingdom of God stands not in word, but in power,’ 1 Cor. iv. 20. That we may both acknowledge his authority and wait for his strength. This is a true submission, when we look for all from him, and serve him in the strength of his own grace.

[9.] All those that act through the virtue and power of his Spirit, they do unfeignedly seek his glory, and make Christ to be not only their principle, but their end; for having a new principle, they have a new tendency; acting in the power of the Spirit, their hearts are carried out to seek Christ’s interest and Christ’s glory. When they can say with the apostle, Phil. i. 21, ‘To me to live is Christ,’ when their whole business is to set up Christ. We set up ourselves in the room of Christ, if he be not at the end of all: 2 Thes. i. 11, 12, ‘That God might fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power, and that Christ may be glorified in you.’ If you have the power of Christ’s kingdom, this will be the immediate result and issue of it, that Christ may be honoured and set up, not only as a lawgiver and fountain of grace, but as the last end. If to us to live is Christ, then is the kingdom of God come into our heart. For this we pray, that the Lord would so break the yoke and government of Satan, that we may receive the Lord Jesus into our heart, that we may come under the awe of his laws, and in the power of his grace may seek his kingdom and glory.

To conclude: All this grace is offered to you; if you refuse the offer, your condition is worse than if it had never been tendered to you. The Lord hath sent his Son to help you out of the power of the devil, and bring you in heart and life again to himself; if you refuse this, then ‘This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light:’ John iii. 19. The Lord Jesus, when he comes in flaming fire to render vengeance, it shall be upon them that do not obey his government, 2 Thes. i. 8, that did not acknowledge God to be their sovereign. There will be a sore vengeance on them which had the gospel tendered, and this wonderful provision brought home to them, and left to their choice, and yet have turned their backs upon it.

Secondly, We beg the continuance of it, that he would maintain this kingdom in our heart, and preserve us in this state; for those which can call God Father, are still to say, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ It is not enough to go to Christ to begin it, but to carry it on, and to keep and ‘preserve us unto his heavenly kingdom,’ 2 Tim. iv. 18; that we may not revolt to the devil’s side after we have chosen God for our God, and so our latter end be worse than our beginning.

Thirdly, We pray for the increase of it, that it may get ground more and more. There are some relics of the kingdom of darkness yet left, and there is something wanting to the kingdom of grace; we are troubled and molested still. Though sin doth not get the throne, though the regency of it is cast down, yet it is not cast out in regard of inherence. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you;’ that is all we can hope for: Rom. vi. 14. We cannot hope for an extinction of sin, but only that it shall not have dominion. As the beasts in Dan. vii. 12, though their dominion was taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. The reign, power, and dominion of sin is taken down, yet it continues for our exercise and molestation. Now, we desire he might rule in us by his grace, and that of the increase of his government there may be no end.

II. For the kingdom of glory, which, in this private consideration (as it concerns each person), is to begin at death. And when we desire the coming of the kingdom of glory, we do two things: we express our readiness for it, or our desire after it.

1. Our readiness for it; at least, the kingdom of God is ready for us if we were ready for it; as the apostle saith, 1 Pet. iv. 5. God is ready to judge, but we are not ready to be judged. And therefore we read of the kingdom of heaven prepared for us, and of men prepared for the kingdom of heaven. It is prepared for the saints: Mat. xxv. 34, ‘A kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ And the saints prepared for it: Rom. ix. 23, ‘Vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,’ And this is that which the apostle gives thanks for unto the Father: ‘Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,’ Col. i. 12. Before we come to heaven, there is a right to heaven; we are made meet, more mortified and weaned from present things, often in communion with God here, and so for ever with the Lord hereafter. We are still to have our eyes to our rest and happy state, that we may be made ready for it. We express our readiness, or we beg it.

2. That we may express our desires after the enjoyment of it. A Christian is to desire the company of Christ: Phil. i. 23, ‘I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ;’ and he is to hasten the coming of the day of God: 2 Pet. iii. 12.

Now because this cannot be but by our death, therefore here we may examine a case or two.

Case 1. First, about longing for death. Is it lawful to desire death? The law doth not only forbid acts, but thoughts and desires; therefore is it lawful to long for death?

Ans. Yes; but yet we are not anxiously to long after it till the time come; not to grow weary of life out of desperation and tiresomeness of the cross, as Jonah did, chap. iv. 3; but in order to God s glory and accomplishment of our happiness. See more at large, Ps. cxix. verse 17.

Case 2. Secondly, Do all that have an interest in Christ desire to die? Is not death terrible? Certainly death, is terrible, both as a natural and a penal evil; as in itself it is the curse of the covenant; and as it depriveth us of life, the chiefest blessing. Yet we should train up ourselves in an expectation of death; we should look and long for it, that, when the time is come, we might be willing to give up ourselves into the hands of God. It is required of a Christian that he should not only be passive in his own death, to die in peace, but active. How? to hasten his death? No; but to resign up himself willingly into the hands of God, that his soul might not be taken away, but given up and commended to God. We should be willing to be in the arms of Christ, to be there where he is, to behold his glory. If Christ had such a goodwill to men as that he longed to be with us, solacing his heart with the thought of it before all worlds, Prov. viii. 31—he was thinking of us, how he should come down, and converse with men surely we should not be so backward to go to Christ. And, therefore, as Jacob’s spirit revived when he saw the chariots Joseph sent to carry him into Egypt, so our hearts should be more cheerful and comfortable when death approacheth: especially since death is ours, it is changed; therefore we should be framing ourselves to such a temper of heart by degrees that we might be ready.