Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
Read Chapter 17
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Neither shall they say. They shall not say, In Jerusalem is the royal throne of Christ, He reigns there in magnificence like another Solomon; because Christ does not reign on a bodily throne, but in a spiritual soul, which by His grace He rules and directs into all good, and so guides it to the kingdom of heaven. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, Romans 14:17. I would understand all these sayings of the same thing: that Isaiah , of the first Advent of Christ in which He reigns in the souls of the faithful as a king through His grace; for thus do His sayings, as a whole, best agree together and cohere. Some, however, understand the kingdom of glory, because He will adorn even the bodies of the just with His own brightness, and other gifts, as all may see.
Secondly, This kingdom of God is within us: that Isaiah , it is in our own power if we embrace the faith and grace of Christ, and work with Him, for, as Titus says, ...
But they assert that not only is there in favour of their doctrine, testimony to be drawn from the mysteries of the Assyrians, but also from those of the Phrygians concerning the happy nature-concealed, and yet at the same time disclosed-of things that have been, and are coming into existence, and moreover will be,-(a happy nature) which, (the Naassene) says, is the kingdom of heaven to be sought for within a man.
This, says he, is the kingdom of heaven that reposes within us as a treasure, as leaven hid in the three measures of meal.
