2. To know these two kingdoms we must consider the quality of either.
[1.] The gospel kingdom is a kingdom of light, life, and love.
Of light, because the drift of it is to give men a true knowledge of God : Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.' The devil's kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. The devils are said to be rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 12. And those that are called from one kingdom to another are called from darkness to light : Col. i. 13, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.'
It is a kingdom of life ; as men that were before dead in sins may be made alive unto God : John x. 10, ' I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.' For heathens, and all men in their natural estate, are 'alienated from the life of God,' Eph. iv. 18. But by faith in Christ we live in God and to God : Gal. ii. 20, ' I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me ; ' Gal. v. 6, ' In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love.' As it worketh by love, we are inclined to God, and do his will, and seek his glory, and our happiness in the everlasting fruition of him.
And of love. It is a kingdom of love, as it possesseth us with a fervent charity to God and men : 1 John iv. 8, ' He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love;' Acts xxiv. 16, 'Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men.'
Now opposite to light is ignorance and error ; to life, a religion that consists of shows and dead ceremonies; to love, uncharitableness.
32 SERMON UPON JOSHUA VI. 26.
malice, and hatred of the power of godliness, and persecution ; and wherever these eminently prevail, there is an opposite kingdom set up to the kingdom of Christ ; which may be done by two sorts of persons or people —
(1.) Those that continue in the old apostasy and defection from God, as eminently was done by the gentiles and idolatrous heathen world ; who live in ignorance of the true God, and are dead in trespasses and sins ; and where envy, pride, malice, and ambition reigneth, instead of that spirit of love and goodness which the gospel would produce.
(2.) It may be done by a second falling away, which is foretold 2 Thes. ii. 3, ' For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.' Now, this falling off from Christ's kingdom is there, where, in opposition to light, error is taught, and ignorance is counted the mother of devotion, and people are restrained from the means of know- ledge, as if it were a dangerous thing ; as if the height of christian faith and devotion did consist in a blind obedience, and a believing what men could impose upon them by their bare authority ; and instead of life, men place their whole religion in some superstitious rites and ceremonies, and trifling acts of devotion, or exterior mortifications ; and instead of love to God and souls, all things are sacrificed to private ambition, and consciences are forced by the highest penalties and persecutions to submit to their corruptions of the christian faith and worship. Where this obtaineth, there is a manifest perversion of the interests of Christ's kingdom.
Both these apostasies, the general apostasy from God, and the special apostasy from Christ, may be upheld by the authority, power, and interest of several nations ; and though the name of God and of Christ be retained in either for a cloak, yet clearly we may see they are revolted from the kingdom of God and of Christ.
[2.] The devil's kingdom. Surely he hath a great hand in all the corruptions of mankind, especially in antichrist's kingdom. As the apostle telleth us, his ' coming shall be ' by or ' after the working of Satan,' 2 Thes. ii. 9. He is the raiser and support of that estate, as will appear by what is ascribed to the devil in the scriptures.
(1.) Ignorance, and error, and seduction. For it is said, John viii. 44, that ' he abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him : when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.' And therefore in that society of professed christians where ignorance not only reigneth, but is countenanced, and means of grace suppressed, and most errors and corruptions in doctrine have been introduced, there Satan hath great influence : 2 Cor. iv. 4, * In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.'