Peter, into a priesthood of kings. And whereas, PART III. for a peculiar people, they put a precious jewel,

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dom of God is

or treasure, a man might as well call the special That the kingregiment, or company of a general, the general's properly his precious jewel, or his treasure.

civil sovereignty over a pecu

pact.

In short, the kingdom of God is a civil kingdom; liar people by which consisted, first, in the obligation of the people of Israel to those laws, which Moses should bring unto them from Mount Sinai; and which afterwards the high-priest for the time being, should deliver to them from before the cherubims in the sanctum sanctorum; and which kingdom having been cast off in the election of Saul, the prophets foretold, should be restored by Christ; and the restoration whereof we daily pray for, when we say in the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come; and the right whereof we acknowledge, when we add, For thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory, for ever and ever, Amen; and the proclaiming whereof, was the preaching of the apostles; and to which men are prepared, by the teachers of the Gospel; to embrace which Gospel, that is to say, to promise obedience to God's government, is to be in the kingdom of grace, because God hath gratis given to such the power to be the subjects, that is children, of God hereafter, when Christ shall come in majesty to judge the world, and actually to govern his own people, which is called the kingdom of glory. If the kingdom of God, called also the kingdom of heaven, from the gloriousness and admirable height of that throne, were not a kingdom which God by his lieutenants, or vicars, who deliver his commandments to the people, did exercise on earth; there would not have been so much con

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PART III. tention, and war, about who it is, by whom God speaketh to us; neither would many priests have troubled themselves with spiritual jurisdiction, nor any king have denied it them.

Holy, what.

Out of this literal interpretation of the kingdom of God, ariseth also the true interpretation of the word HOLY. For it is a word, which in God's kingdom answereth to that, which men in their kingdoms use to call public, or the king's.

The king of any country is the public person, or representative of all his own subjects. And God the king of Israel was the Holy One of Israel. The nation which is subject to one earthly sovereign, is the nation of that sovereign, that is, of the public person. So the Jews, who were God's nation, were called (Exod. xix. 6) a holy nation. For by holy, is always understood either God himself, or that which is God's in propriety; as by public is always meant, either the person of the commonwealth itself, or something that is so the commonwealth's, as no private person can claim any propriety therein.

Therefore the Sabbath, God's day, is a holy day; the temple, God's house, a holy house; sacrifices, tithes, and offerings, God's tribute, holy duties; priests, prophets, and anointed kings, under Christ, God's ministers, holy men; the celestial ministering spirits, God's messengers, holy angels; and the like and wheresoever the word holy is taken properly, there is still something signified of propriety, gotten by consent. In saying, Hallowed be thy name, we do but pray to God for grace to keep the first commandment, of having no other Gods but him. Mankind is God's nation in propriety: but

SIGNIFICATION OF HOLY, SACRED, ETC. 405

the Jews only were a holy nation. Why, but be- PART III. cause they became his propriety by covenant?

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And the word profane, is usually taken in the Scripture for the same with common; and consequently their contraries, holy and proper, in the kingdom of God, must be the same also. But figuratively, those men also are called holy, that led such godly lives, as if they had forsaken all worldly designs, and wholly devoted and given themselves to God. In the proper sense, that which is made holy by God's appropriating or separating it to his own use, is said to be sanctified by God, as the seventh day in the fourth commandment; and as the elect in the New Testament were said to be sanctified, when they were endued with the spirit of godliness. And that which is made holy by the dedication of men, and given to God, so as to be used only in his public service, is called also SACRED, and said to be consecrated, as temples, Sacred, what. and other houses of public prayer, and their utensils, priests, and ministers, victims, offerings, and the external matter of sacraments.

sanctity.

Of holiness there be degrees: for of those things Degrees of that are set apart for the service of God, there may be some set apart again, for a nearer and more especial service. The whole nation of the Israelites were a people holy to God; yet the tribe of Levi was amongst the Israelites a holy tribe; and amongst the Levites, the priests were yet more holy; and amongst the priests, the high-priest was the most holy. So the land of Judea was the Holy Land; but the holy city wherein God was to be worshipped, was more holy; and again the Temple more holy than the city, and the sanctum sanctorum more holy than the rest of the Temple,

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PART III. A SACRAMENT, is a separation of some visible thing from common use; and a consecration of it Sacrament: to God's service, for a sign either of our admission

into the kingdom of God, to be of the number of his peculiar people, or for a commemoration of the same. In the Old Testament, the sign of admission was circumcision; in the New Testament, baptism. The commemoration of it in the Old Testament, was the eating, at a certain time which was anniversary, of the Paschal Lamb; by which they were put in mind of the night wherein they were delivered out of their bondage in Egypt; and in the New Testament, the celebrating of the Lord's Supper; by which, we are put in mind of our deliverance from the bondage of sin, by our blessed Saviour's death upon the cross. The sacraments of admission, are but once to be used, because there needs but one admission; but because we have need of being often put in mind of our deliverance, and of our allegiance, the sacraments of commemoration have need to be reiterated. And these are the principal sacraments, and as it were the solemn oaths we make of our allegiance. There be also other consecrations, that may be called sacraments, as the word implieth only consecration to God's service; but as it implies an oath, or promise of allegiance to God, there were no other in the Old Testament, but circumcision, and the passover; nor are there any other in the New Testament, but baptism and the Lord's Supper.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OF THE WOrd of god, AND OF PROPHETS.

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Word, what.

WHEN there is mention of the word of God, or PART III. of man, it doth not signify a part of speech, such as grammarians call a noun, or a verb, or any simple voice, without a contexture with other words to make it significative; but a perfect speech or discourse, whereby the speaker affirmeth, denieth, commandeth, promiseth, threateneth, wisheth, or interrogateth. In which sense it is not vocabulum, that signifies a word; but sermo, (in Greek Móyos) that is, some speech, discourse, or saying.

spoken by God,

God, both are

ture.

Again, if we say the word of God, or of man, The words it may be understood sometimes of the speaker: as and concerning the words that God hath spoken, or that a man called God's hath spoken; in which sense, when we say, the word in ScripGospel of St. Matthew, we understand St. Matthew to be the writer of it: and sometimes of the subject; in which sense, when we read in the Bible, the words of the days of the kings of Israel, or Judah, it is meant, that the acts that were done in those days, were the subject of those words; and in the Greek, which, in the Scripture, retaineth many Hebraisms, by the word of God is oftentimes meant, not that which is spoken by God, but concerning God, and his government; that is to say, the doctrine of religion: insomuch, as it is all one, to say Ayos εou, and theologia; which is, that doctrine which we usually call divinity, as is ma