Use 4th. Terror to the enemies of the church. If God be king, he will set his ut- most strength against them Avho are the enemies of his kingdom, Ps. xcvii. 3., " A fire goes before him and burnetii up his ene- mies round about."
1. He will set himself against his ene- mies ; he will set his attributes against them, his power and justice ; and, " who knowcth the power of thine anger ?" Ps. xc. II.
2. God will set the creatures against them. Judges v. 20. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Tertulliaa observes that the Persians fighting against the Christians, a mighty wind arose, which did make the Persians' arrows to fly back in their own faces. Every creature hath a quarrel with a sinner : the stone out of the wall, Ilab. ii. 11., — the hail and the frost, Ps. Ixxviii. 47., " He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with Irost.
3. God will set men against themselves. (1.) He will set conscience against them. And how terrible is this rod when turned into a serpent? Mclancthon calls it E- njnnis cunscioilice, — a hellish fury ; it is called vermis cunscientice, — the worm of con- science, Mark ix. 44. What a worm did Spira feel in his conscience ? He was a terror to himself. The worst civil wars are between a man and his conscience. (2.) God will set the diseases of men's bo- dies against them, 2 Chron. xxi. 18., The Lord smote Jchoram " in Ids bowels with
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an incurable disease." God can raise an Acts i. 6., "Wilt tliou at this time rcstoie army against a man, out of his own bow- again the kingdom to Israel ?" But C hrist els ; he can set one humour of the body a- said, his kingdom was not of this world, gainst another; the heat to dry up the mois- : John xviii. 36. ; so that, when Christ taught
turc, and the moisture to drown the heat ; the Lord needs not go far for instruments to punish the sinner ; he can make the joints of the same body to smite one against another, as Dan. v. 6. (3.) God will set men's friends against them ; where they used to have honey, they shall have nothing but aloes and wormwood. " When a man's ways please the Lord, he shall make even his enemies to be at peace with him," Pro v. xvi. 7. ; but when he opposeth God, he makcth his friends to be his enemies. Com- modus the emperor, his own wife gave him poison in ])erfumed wine. Sennacherib's two sons were the death of him, 2 Kings xix. 37. (4.) God will set Satan against them, Ps. cix. 6., " Let Satan stand at his right hand." What dotli Satan at the sin- ner's elbows? 1. He helps him to contrive sin. 2. He tempts him to commit sin. 3. He terrifies him for sin. He that hath Sa- tan thus standing at his right hand, is sure to be set at God's left baud. Here is the misery of such as oppose God's royal scep- tre, he will set every thing in t\\e world a- gainst them; if there be either justice in heaven, or fire in hell, sinners shall not be unpunished.
Use last, If God be such an absolute mo- narch, and crowned with such glory and majesty, let us all engage in his service, and stand up for his truth and worship; dare to own God in the worst time ; he is King of kings, and is able to reward all his servants; we may be losers for him, — wc shall never be losers by him. We arc ready to say, as Amaziah, 2 Chron. xxv. 9., "What shall we do for the hundred talents ?" If I appear for God, I may lose my estate, my life. I say with the prophet, God is able to give you much more tliau this ; he can give you for the present inward j)eace, and for the future a crown of glory which fadeth not away.
Quest. What kingdom doth Christ mean here ?
Jjis. Ncgat. 1. He doth not mean a poli- tical or earthly kingdom. The apostles in- deed did desire, \st. Christ's temporal reign,