For the personal reign of tlie Lord Jesus on earth, I |eave it to them with whose discoveries I am not, and curiosities I would not be, acquainted. Acts iii. 21.
But as for such who from hence do, or for sinister ends pretend to fancy to themselves a terrene kingly state unto each ^private par- ticular saint, — so making it a bottom " vivendi ut velis," for every one to do that which is good in his own eyes, to the disturbance of all order and authority, civil and spiritual, — as they expressly clash against innumerable promises, so they directly introduce such con- fusion and disorder as the soul of the Lord Jesus doth exceedingly abhor.
It is only the three things named, with their necessary depen- dencies, that I do assert.
' Isa. xi. 5-10, xix. 18, 19, xxx. IS, 1.9; Jlicah iv. 1.
= Isa. xlix. 18-22, liv. 1-3, &c., Iv. 11, 12, Ix. IG, 17; Ezek. xlvlii. 35; Amos ix, 11; Iloni. xi. 15, &c.; Isa. xlix. 22, 23, Ixvi. 21; Mai. iii. 3; Ezek. xliii. 9-11; Rev. xxi. 3; Isa. liv. 11-13, &c.; Zecli. xiv. 9-11.
2G0 THE SHAKING AND TRANSLATING
2. And lastly, of these it is said, — they must remain; that is, continue and l^e firmly established, as the Avord is often used, Rom. ix. 11.
The words of the text being unfolded, and the mind of the Holy Ghost in them discovered, I shall from them commend to your Chiistian consideration this following position : — •
Observation. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his mighty power, in these latter days, as antichristian tyranny draws to its period, will so far shake and translate the political heights, governments, and strength of the nations, as shall serve for the fidl bringing in of his own peaceable kingdom; — the nations so shaken becoming thereby a quiet habitation for the people of the Most High.
Though the doctrine be clear from the text, yet it shall receive farther scriptural confirmation, being of great weight and concern- ment. Dan. ii. 44, " And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set vip a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." That this is affirmed of the kingdom of Christ under the gospel, none ever doubted.
Three things are here remarkably intimated of it: — 1. The time wherein it shall most eminently be established ; and that is, " In the days of these kings," of which Daniel was speaking; 2. The efficacy of its being set up: " It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms;" 3. Its own stability : " It shall never be destroyed."
1. For the first, there is great debate about the principal season of the accomplishing of this prediction; — much hesitation who those kings are in whose days the kingdom of Christ is eminently to be established. In the days when the two legs of the Roman empire shall be divided into ten kingdoms, and those kingdoms have opposed themselves to the power of Christ, — that is, in the days wherein we live, — say some ; yea, most of the ancients took this for the Roman empire, and to these the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ is the establishment of it in these days. Others understand the Syrian and Egyptian branches of the Grecian monarchy, and the bringing in of Christ's kingdom to be in his birth, death, and preaching of the gospel ; wherein certainly the foundations of it were laid. I will not contend with any mortal hereabout; only I shall oppo.se one or two things to this latter interpretation. As, —
(1.) Tlie kingdom of Syria was totally destroyed and reduced into a Roman province sixty years before the nativity of Christ ; and tho Egyptian, thirty; — so that it is impossible that the kingdom of Christ by his l)irth .sliould be set up in their days.
(2.) It is ascribed to the efficacy of this kingdom, tliat, being estab-
OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 261
lislied, it shall break in pieces all tliose kingdoms: whicli how can it be, when, at the first setting of it up, they had neither place nor name, nor scarce remembrance ?
So that it must needs be the dechning, divided Roman empire, shared among simdry nations, that is here intimated: and so, conse- quently, the kingdom of Christ to be established, is that glorious administration thereof which in these days he will bring in.
2. Be it so or otherwise, this from hence cannot be denied, that the kingdom of Christ will assuredly shake and translate all opposing dominions, until itself be established in and over them all, — oVs^ sdu dii'^ai, — which is all I intend to prove from this place. The ten-partite empire of the west must give place to the stone cut out of the moun- tain without hands.
Dan. vii. 27, " The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Hitherto is the end of the matter. Either Antichrist is described in the close of this chapter, or one very like him, St John painting him in the Revelation with all this man's colours ; jjlainly intimating, that though, in the first place, that mad, raging tyi'ant, Aiitiochus the Illustrious, Avas pointed at, yet that another was to rise in his likeness, Avith his craft and cruelty, that, with the assistance of the ten horns, should plague the saints of the Christians no less than the others had done those of the Jews. Now, what shall be the issue thereof? His dominion with his adherents shall be taken away and consumed, verse 26. And then shall it be given to the people of the Most High, as before ; or, they shall enjoy the kingdom of Christ in a peaceable manner, their officers being made peace, and their exactors righteousness.