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| Chapter XIII. The answer concerning the direction of the heart towards and concerning the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil.
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Chapter XIII.
The answer concerning the direction of the heart towards
and concerning the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil.
Moses. To cling to God
continually, and as you say inseparably to hold fast to meditation on
Him, is impossible for a man while still in this weak flesh of ours.
But we ought to be aware on what we should have the purpose of our mind
fixed, and to what goal we should ever recall the gaze of our soul: and
when the mind can secure this it may rejoice; and grieve and sigh when
it is withdrawn from this, and as often as it discovers itself to have
fallen away from gazing on Him, it should admit that it has lapsed from
the highest good, considering that even a momentary departure from
gazing on Christ is fornication. And when our gaze has wandered ever so
little from Him, let us turn the eyes of the soul back to Him, and
recall our mental gaze as in a perfectly straight direction. For
everything depends on the inward frame of mind, and when the devil has
been expelled from this, and sins no longer reign in it, it follows
that the kingdom of God is founded in us, as the Evangelist says
“The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, nor shall men
say Lo here, or lo there: for verily I say unto you that the kingdom of
God is within you.”1100
But nothing else can
be “within you,” but knowledge or ignorance of truth, and
delight either in vice or in virtue, through which we prepare a kingdom
for the devil or for Christ in our heart: and of this kingdom the
Apostle describes the character, when he says “For the kingdom of
God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost.”1101
And so if the
kingdom of God is within us, and the actual kingdom of God is
righteousness and peace and joy, then the man who abides in these is
most certainly in the kingdom of God, and on the contrary those who
live in unrighteousness, and discord, and the sorrow that worketh
death, have their place in the kingdom of the devil, and in hell and
death. For by these tokens the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the
devil are distinguished: and in truth if lifting up our mental gaze on
high we would consider that state in which the heavenly powers live on
high, who are truly in the kingdom of God, what should we imagine it to
be except perpetual and lasting joy? For what is so specially peculiar
and appropriate to true blessedness as constant calm and eternal joy?
And that you may be quite sure that this, which we say, is really so,
not on my own authority but on that of the Lord, hear how very clearly
He describes the character and condition of that world:
“Behold,” says He, “I create new heavens and a new
earth: and the former things shall not be remembered nor come into
mind. But ye shall be glad and rejoice forever in that which I
create.”1102
And again
“joy and gladness shall be found therein: thanksgiving and the
voice of praise, and there shall be month after month, and Sabbath
after Sabbath.”1103
And again:
“they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall
flee away.”1104
And if you want to
know more definitely about that life and the city of the saints, hear
what the voice of the Lord proclaims to the heavenly Jerusalem herself:
“I will make,” says He, “thine officers peace and
thine overseers righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy
land, desolation nor destruction within thy borders. And salvation
shall take possession of thy walls, and praise of thy gates. The sun
shall be no more thy light by day, neither shall the brightness of the
moon give light to thee: but the Lord shall be
thine everlasting light, and thy God thy
glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself: but the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of
thy mourning shall be ended:”1105
and therefore
the holy Apostle does not say generally or without qualification that
every joy is the kingdom of God, but markedly and emphatically that joy
alone which is “in the Holy Ghost.”1106
For he was perfectly aware of another detestable joy, of which we hear
“the world shall rejoice,”1107
and “woe unto you that laugh, for ye shall mourn.”1108
In fact the kingdom of heaven must be
taken in a threefold sense, either that the heavens shall reign, i.e.,
the saints over other things subdued, according to this text, “Be
thou over five cities, and thou over ten;”1109
and this which is said to the disciples:
“Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel:”1110
or that the heavens
themselves shall begin to be reigned over by Christ, when “all
things are subdued unto Him,” and God begins to be “all in
all:”1111
or else that the
saints shall reign in heaven with the Lord.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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